Celebs Who Ruined Innocent Lives

May 2024 ยท 2 minute read

When it comes to talk shows, secret admirer segments are usually pretty straightforward. But in a 1995 taping of The Jenny Jones Show that would never make it to air, one big reveal went tragically wrong. A Michigan man named Jonathan Schmitz was invited onto the show to meet his secret admirer, who turned out to be his friend, Scott Amedure. Days after the episode was filmed, Schmitz shot and killed Amedure in his Lake Orion home. He called 911 himself, telling authorities that he had turned a shotgun on Amedure "because he was embarrassed on national television," the Detroit Free Press reported.

Schmitz was "sentenced to 25 to 50 years in prison for second-degree murder," but he wasn't the only one in the firing line. Many believed that The Jenny Jones Show played a big part in the tragedy, including Amedure's family, who sued it for negligence. "This is a renegade business," family attorney Geoffrey Fieger said, taking aim at tabloid talk shows in general (via Inside Edition). "These are irresponsible people. These are people beholden, answerable to no one."

The Jenny Jones Show was initially ordered to pay the victim's family $25 million, but that ruling was reversed on appeal. Schmitz was released from prison in 2017, a decision that was questioned by Scott Amedure's family. "I'd like to know that he learned something, that he's a changed man, is no longer homophobic and has gotten psychological care," Amedure's brother Frank told the Detroit Free Press.

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