Variety, September 20, 1993

Son of Sam sparks tag-team tab tiff
By J. MAX ROBINS

Anyone who doubts that the tabloid magazine shows are spinning out of control should talk to David Berkowitz.

But Berkowitz, the infamous serial killer who called himself Son of Sam, isn't talking to just anybody -- and that's what started the latest tabloid donnybrook.

The battle is over who would air the first televised interview with Berkowitz, who in 1978 pleaded guilty to killing six people and wounding seven in New York. The winner is syndication giant King World, which paid "a six-figure sum" for rights to several hours of videotaped interviews with Berkowitz, according to industry sources.

But the players in the nefarious drama include an ex-con, a best-selling author and top executives at the granddaddy of the tabmag shows, "A Current Affair."

With 10 mag shows on the Big Three in primetime, three in daily syndication and several more projects in the planning stages, producers are tripping over each other for the sensational story. The shows are getting desperate, and serious money is changing hands.

King World is expected to air the Son of Sam material on its hit syndie mag, "Inside Edition," in a multipart series slated for the November sweeps. According to King World sources, there are also plans for a primetime syndicated special.

The Berkowitz interview was obtained by Maury Terry and Wayne Darwen, who visited the killer at a prison in Sullivan County, N.Y. Terry is the author of the bestselling "The Ultimate Evil," an investigation into the Son of Sam murders that contends Berkowitz did not act alone but was part of a cult responsible for other crimes.

Darwen is a veteran tabmag producer who worked on a Son of Sam series with Terry for Geraldo Rivera's "Now It Can Be Told." The Berkowitz series was the highest-rated program on that now-defunct tabmag. Terry had also done freelance work in the past on Son of Sam and several other investigative reports for "A Current Affair."

Berkowitz interview in the can, Terry and Darwen produced a short presentation tape and shopped the material around. As usual, prospective buyers had to sign a non-disclosure agreement prohibiting them from reporting or otherwise capitalizing on what they saw on the presentation tape unless they obtained rights.

According to Terry, before cutting his deal with King World he met with top Fox execs, including Fox News chairman Les Hinton, "A Current Affair" exec producer Ian Rae and consultant Peter Faiman. Terry, who had done freelance work in the past for "Affair," wanted to sell the material to Fox for a special. The Fox honchos balked, says Terry, because they felt the material was too tabloid for the web. But they were interested in obtaining it for "Affair."

"Rae wanted it so bad, he was talking about preempting 'Inside Edition' where it follows 'Affair' in New York two nights in a row to do hour specials during sweeps," says Terry. "But they couldn't come close to our price." A Fox source says the asking price was $ 300,000.

Then King World stepped up to the plate. When word filtered back to "Current Affair" star correspondent Steve Dunleavy that his competition had scored the Berkowitz material, "he went ballistic," according to a Fox source.

Dunleavy had established his reputation by his no-holds-barred coverage of the Son of Sam murders for Rupert Murdoch's New York Post. The paper once ran a cover photo of Berkowitz in his cell, shortly after being apprehended, with the headline "Sam Sleeps." Now a tab TV star, Dunleavy didn't want to get beat on this story -- especially by his prime competitor.

So according to Terry, Dunleavy hatched a plan to get his own Son of Sam interview with the help of John Lester, an ex-con who told Dunleavy he could get to Berkowitz in prison. According to Fox sources, Dunleavy had enlisted Lester's help before, including in trying to obtain a jailhouse interview with so-called Preppie Murderer Robert Chambers.

Says Terry: "I got a call from Berkowitz who told me he was visited by a guy named John Lester who said he was from 'A Current Affair' and that they would pay a lot of money, which would go to charity, if he consented to an on-camera interview. Berkowitz got upset and told the guards he didn't want to talk to Lester. You have to ask how Lester, a convicted felon, got in there in the first place."

Terry says that he and Darwen contacted Hinton and Rae to complain about activity that they thought was in violation of the non-disclosure agreement. According to Terry, Rae was apologetic and claimed to have no knowledge of what Dunleavy was up to. Rae could not be reached for comment.

Dunleavy claims no knowledge that Terry or Darwen registered any complaint with his boss. He says he had a celebratory drink with Darwen after Darwen and Terry cut their deal with King World.

"Darwen told me he'd notified the prison officials to keep their eyes on the sky, because I tried to parachute in," says Dunleavy. Terry, however, tells another story. He says Dunleavy and Darwen had their drink before the duo knew the show was trying to end-run them.