Murder, Mystery & Makeup - Murder planned on Live TV?! The Bizarre & Deadly Jenny Jones Talk Show Scandal

Episode Date: May 3, 2022

Hi Friends! Today I wanted to talk about Scoot Amedure and what happened to him after appearing on the Jenny Jones Show. This case is sad and their defense is/was awful.  Thank you for hanging out with me today and I appreciate you guys so much for sending recommendations my way and always coming by, it really means more than you know.  Have a wonderful rest of your day and hope to be seeing you very soon. ♡ XO Bailey Sarian P.S. Make sure to check out my YouTube @BaileySarian!

Hi my beautiful friends, how are you today? I hope you are having a wonderful day so far. My name is Bailey Sarian and today is Monday, which means it's murder, mystery and makeup Monday. Sha na sha, sha na sha, sha na sha, sha na sha. Hi, so if you are new here, every Monday I sit down, I talk about a true crime story that's been heavy on my noggin

and I get ready for my day at the same time. If you're interested in true crime and you like makeup, I would highly suggest you hit that subscribe button because I'm here for you every Monday. That's right, baby. Today's story. Well, it was requested to me a handful of times and I remember reading about it here and there.

I never really dug that deep into it until the other day. And I was like, dude, this story is nuts. Okay, let's get into it, really, just shut up. So today's story is about Scott Amador. He was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and his father, Frank, he was a local tractor trailer driver, and his mother, Patricia, a stay-at-home,

like a housewife. In 1968, the family moved to Michigan, and two years later, Scott's parents, they decided to get a divorce to separate, it just wasn't working out, so they went their separate ways. And when Scott's parents decided to get a divorce, Scott ended up living with his father. With his father lived his two brothers and a sister as well.

At the age of 17, Scott ended up dropping out of high school and he enlisted into the army and that's where he was able to get his GED, which if you're not familiar with the GED, it's like a high school diploma, just outside of high school. Yeah, while he was in the army, he trained in satellite communications.

And then after three years of serving in the army, he received an honorable discharge with the rank of a specialist. After that, Scott was working several years in technical communications and telephone type jobs. He became a bartender because he like really enjoyed working at night. I don't know, he just liked the nightlife, I guess, from my understanding.

So that was just like a little bit that I could find about Scott, and he's part of the story. Sometimes I just don't know how to set these things up, but anyways, so this story takes place in the mid 90s. Daytime talk shows were everything. There were so many daytime talk shows and it was so good. Oh, it was so bad too, because a lot of these daytime talk shows they

fed into the more like shocking stories that would make the audience just be blown away. Like shock value right? Before clickbait was a thing there was like clickbait with daytime talk shows. It was just out of control. It was great. I loved it. So the Jenny Jones show was on throughout the 90s and the ratings were, I mean they were pretty high. They were good, they were good, okay. Her episodes covered everything from teens being too hot, my goth kid needs a makeover, teen by day, vampire by night. These were actual episode topics.

I personally just lived for the makeover ones. Oh, I love the makeover ones. Like my teen is a goth and I want her to have a preppy makeover. Oh yeah. Or the other ones were like really bad teenagers would come in and be like, I like to fight. And then they would send the teenagers off to bootcamp.

Golden. Now Jenny Jones was going to be filming an episode about secret crushes. The plan was to surprise your crush on national TV. So this is where Scott comes in. I'm not quite sure how Scott found out about this show, but he did, and he wrote in wanting to be on this episode. His story was accepted and he got the opportunity to be flown out and appear on the Jenny Jones Show.

So another man by the name of Jonathan Schmitz, he was 24 years old at the time. He agreed to appear on the show with his friend, Donna, who was actually in on the secret. So on March 6th, 1995, the taping of the show had taken place. So Scott is on stage and John is in the back. He doesn't know that Scott's the one with the crush on him.

Okay, Scott's on the stage talking to Jenny Jones, just going over how he has this crush on this guy named John. He explains how he met John. He says that he went over to see his friend Donna at her apartment and John was working like under her car or on her car or something. And Scott tells the audience that he immediately noticed John's hot body.

Scott then like goes on to say that he just kept thinking about John and having all these crazy fantasies about him, like sharing a bottle of champagne, hanging out together on a hammock, just little things. But Scott said that he wasn't actually sure if John was gay or not. Now at this time, John had absolutely 100% no idea who the secret admirer was.

Producers of the show said it could be a man or a woman and that it would be revealed if he came on the show. So of course, when John hears this, he's feeling curious. Who could be my secret admirer? Like someone likes me and I get to be on TV? Okay. So he said yes. Now the actual show itself, it didn't air on TV

for reasons that we will get into. Some clips were released by the media and also used for court purposes. When Scott revealed that he had a crush on John, John was obviously surprised and shocked to hear that Scott had a crush on him. Everything seemed like it was fine, but I guess according to John,

when he found out that Scott had a crush on him, he played a cool professional, I'm on TV, no big deal, but deep down he was livid. Now it's said after the taping, they fly back home and when Scott gets home, Scott went out for a long night of drinking and then he didn't return home until like the early hours. And when he returned home,

he found a spicy note that was left for him by Scott. Now, when John finds this letter from Scott, it just set John over the edge. John would say that Scott's homosexuality frightened him, frightened him, frightened him. And he felt humiliated and he felt really angry. So with all of these feelings John's having, just anger, humiliation, frightened,

John immediately goes to the bank, pulls out cash, and then goes and buys a gun. So once John gets the weapon, he drives over to Scott's house. He goes to the door, knocks on the door, and he asks Scott, did you write me this note? You know, we're not 100% sure what this conversation looked like.

So this is when John allegedly went back to his car. He sat there for a while, contemplated like what his options were. John then grabs his gun. He gets out of the car, he goes back up to Scott's house, and then he shoots him twice in the chest. Shortly after John shoots Scott, he calls 911

and he confesses to what he does. He's crying on the phone and he says like, I just shot somebody. Yeah, so he calls and he tells him what he just did. Cut and dry, right? No, of course not, you fool. John's lawyer claims that John went out to drink with friends from work.

After coming home in the morning, he found a note that was left by Scott, which said, quote, "'If you really wanna get off, "'I'm the only one who has the right tool, end quote. The next morning, that's when apparently John confronted Scott and ended his life. The Jenny Jones producer later testified that John called the studio the day after filming the show

and told her that John and Scott had what producers referred to as a love connection. It was a match. They seemed to be really into one another from their perspective, I guess. For quite some time after Scott was killed, his family tried to like make some kind of sense as to what happened.

They really blamed the Jenny Jones show. So John's mother actually came out and claimed that Jenny Jones pushed into doing things he didn't wanna do to make it look good for the audience. And if he didn't do that, then Jenny Jones would be very mad. In John's defense, he claimed that the producers of the Jenny Jones show, quote, ambushed him.

And John goes on to say that he knew someone had a crush on him, but he assumed that it was probably like his ex-fiancee, who like he was engaged to for a couple of years. So he was thinking, oh, it's probably her. Yeah, I'll go to the show, no big deal. And producers of the show said that they told John that it was possible that his crush

could have been a man or a woman. And they said that they told him this and they stood by that. Oh, I forgot to mention, I am so sorry. John did get arrested. He got arrested and he was sitting in jail awaiting his trial. They were having a really hard time determining

if John was mentally stable when he went after Scott. Lawyers claimed that their client was manic depressive and that he'd been up all night drinking and smoking pot before he killed Scott. So he wasn't in the right mindset before he did it. John's lawyers attempted to put the Jenny Jones show on trial to deflect guilt from John, and they discussed his issues with alcoholism, depression,

and a chronic thyroid condition. They're just trying to deflect, okay? That's their job, that's what they're getting paid for. It's a shitty job. It's a shitty job. It's a shitty job. Could you imagine trying to stand up for the bad guys? I feel bad for those people. Cause I mean, how do you represent the bad guys?

I would be like, sorry, man, you're on your own, but whatever. Okay, anyways, now here's the thing that I learned. This is what blew my mind that this was a thing. Cause I had no idea this was a thing. The main defense they were claiming as to why John did this and this is what it's called, don't come after me. It's called the gay panic defense.

It's a thing, let me tell you. Gay panic defense, okay. What? Now this sounds like an absolute joke, but surprise, it's a real thing. So gay panic defenses are legal techniques commonly used in court battles regarding actions committed against members of the LGBTQ plus community.

In a gay panic defense, the defendant argues they lost control because of their victim's sexual orientation. You guys. And there are a lot of cases that have used this defense. Now, it helped John's defense attorneys sway the court and reduce his charges. Gay panic defense is permitted in every U.S. state except California, Illinois, and Rhode Island as of 2018.

So let me double check that. They were having a really hard time deciding what to do with John. To us, I feel like it, well, to me, I can only speak for myself, it seems very cut and dry. He killed a guy, he called 911, he confessed, that's it, right? No, they were having such a hard time.

Before being sentenced the first time, John stood in front of the court and he read a poem that he wrote. It was meant to be an apology to Scott's family. It didn't really seem like he was fully sorry for what he did. The judge told John that he still had to be, quote, "'accountable to society'," end quote,

and sentence him to a maximum of 50 years in prison. So this ended up leading to a bunch of appeals. And in 1996, John was found guilty again, but this time of second degree murder, and he was sentenced to 25 to 50 years in prison. And then three years after that, he was retried on an appeal and he was found guilty again. I don't know what kind of outcome this guy was hoping for.

When John was sent to prison, Scott's family went after Jenny Jones with vengeance. They believe that Jenny Jones and her producers were to blame for their son's death. At first, a civil jury agreed with them and the Michigan court awarded the family $25 million. Not that that fixes the problem or brings their son back. They just wanted the show to be held accountable

for what they felt like was their responsibility in their son's death. Now the Warner Brothers attorney, Warner Brothers owned Jenny Jones, the show. Now their attorney heavily disagreed with this. They were gonna fight it, okay? They called the initial ruling a profoundly disturbing verdict.

That was a quote. They fought and they were able to get the verdict overturned after an appeal. They did not want to pay, they just didn't want to pay the $25 million. Also just didn't want to take responsibility. So John was sentenced 25 to 50 years in prison. And he was sent to the Parnell Correctional Institution

in Mississippi. According to John's lawyers, he did his time quietly and he served 22 years in prison. And guess what baby? In 2017, at the age of 47, John was granted parole and he was released. So many people were upset about this case for a good reason. I mean, John got a gun, then he went to Scott's house.

He shot him because he's, John was homophobic. I'm sorry, I said it. But why else did he kill him? This is an opinion. I think he killed him because it. But why else did he kill him? This is an opinion. I think he killed him because it made him extremely uncomfortable. He was embarrassed. And I'm sure he didn't want people thinking he was gay.

I'm curious to know if on the Jenny Jones show, John goes and like the surprise crush person is a girl. And maybe like Scott wasn't attracted to this girl. When the show ended, would John still have gone and killed the ugly girl? Probably not, I have a feeling. I vaguely remember this happening, but I do remember, I do remember that it affected Jenny Jones,

like actual Jenny Jones, not just the show, but the real Jenny Jones. I remember her doing like an interview, I think it was with Barbara Walters, I could be wrong on that one, but she did an interview and she expressed how she felt like really guilty about the whole thing, and she seemed really depressed,

and how she just felt really awful about the whole situation. She really stood by the fact that she never pressured anybody to do anything that they didn't want to do, and that her producers for the show made sure to tell him, like, it could be a man or a woman who comes out and expresses that they have a crush on you. But she really stood by her team

because Scott's family was coming after them heavy. You know what? Maybe it is their fault. When a show's called the Jenny Jones Show, it's easy to blame Jenny Jones for her show. But realistically, like all these talk shows, a lot of the times the hosts and whatnot don't even have much say as far as who the guests are,

maybe the topics, it's mainly like the producers and stuff. So Jenny stood by the fact, I never made anyone do anything, it was just the host. But I guess she has to take some responsibility, right? So a lot of the times you guys, this is a side note. A lot of the times you guys ask me how I do these videos. Now, by the time you're watching this video, I edited it. I edit the video down to where you see

the clean polished version for the most part. Last week's episode was a good example of, you know, I'm not always perfect, but behind the scenes, I type up like a script and whatnot, the whole story pretty much. And then I reference it when I'm telling the story, if I ever forget. What I'm getting at is yesterday,

I was like writing up the script and I was like, yeah, Jenny Jones is not responsible whatsoever for this. This is what I was thinking. And now that I'm sitting here, I'm having a change of heart. I think actually she might be, she should be held a little responsible because I'm sitting here, I'm having a change of heart. I think actually she might be, she should be held a little responsible because I'm curious to know. Well, for starters, I think Scott would still be alive.

I mean, I hope. I mean, I'm curious to know if this John guy would have killed or harmed anyone regardless of the show or did the Jenny Jones show just, it's what led to everything. I don't know. So now I'm thinking actually she might be more responsible than I think.

They probably should have just told him, look, it's a man, are you okay with that? And just gotten that out of the way. I guess they weren't thinking that this would be the outcome obviously, or they wouldn't have done it. But they should be held responsible. So yeah, the producers did call, it's their job to technically call, interview,

and make sure that the guests are mentally stable enough to be put on stage, on TV. They need to make sure that this is even the right fit for the show. So their job is to make sure that this John guy is okay to bring on the show. But the Jenny Jones show continued on air until 2003. And I honestly think that this played a big role

with how talk shows handled themselves and the topics of the show itself, because the like shocking topics really calmed down a little bit. Besides Jerry Springer. Jerry Springer is just over there on that random channel, just doing his own thing. John is out now.

I don't know where his whereabouts are. And I honestly didn't want to even look it up because I'm, you know, he did a really awful thing. And I believe that he should be in prison for the rest of his life because he murdered somebody. So I don't know. And I would consider it, would you consider it a hate crime?

I guess it is tricky, I don't know. But I will say this, the gay panic defense means, I don't even know how that's still a thing. And I was so shocked to learn about that. There have been many cases who have used the gay panic defense where maybe they feel like they have been tricked by somebody when they found out they snapped

and they killed them. They'll use the gay panic defense. Just doesn't make sense. I just like, I can't believe that's seriously a thing. It's kept me up last night. That's just homophobia. Yeah, so rest in peace to poor Scott. And I really hope that his family's doing okay.

I would love to know your thoughts down below. I mean, I hope we can all agree that the gay panic defense should not be a thing. Thank you guys so much for hanging out with me today. I hope you have a wonderful day. You make good choices. Sorry if I'm whispering, it's kind of late at night. Not that it matters.

Please be safe out there. Please, please, please be safe out there. And I'll be seeing you guys later. Bye.