Express: The People vs. Larry Singleton
- Producing Organization
- KQED-TV (Television station : San Francisco, Calif.)
- Contributing Organization
- The Walter J. Brown Media Archives & Peabody Awards Collection at the University of Georgia (Athens, Georgia)
- AAPB ID
- cpb-aacip-526-ff3kw58m1q
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- Description
- Program Description
- "Amid massive publicity, Larry Singleton was convicted in 1979 of chopping off the arms of a young female hitchhiker, raping her and leaving her for dead along a lonely California road. Eight years later, when he was about to be paroled after serving his prison sentence, residents and official from numerous communities raised a huge and loud cry against his settling in their areas. [Faced] with an unprecedented uproar, Governor Deukmejian arranged for Singleton to live his one year on parole in a trailer on the grounds of San Quentin Prison. "As that year drew to a close, the protests again started to build; Singletown would soon be a free man, having served the punishment the courts had prescribed. The previous outcry had been so intense -- his life had been threatened, public officials encouraged mass meetings filled with venom -- that it was obvious that the restraints of the legal and penal system were in jeopardy. Mob action was a distinct possibility, and no one in authority had the courage to speak out against it. "KQED had done a program on Singleton's release from prison. At that time we wrote him a letter asking for an interview. Many months later we were contacted by him, asking if we were still interested. Explaining that should we prepare a program on his case, we would include the overwhelming evidence against him, we agreed to talk with him. Subsequently, we did exhaustive research on his case and spoke with him for at least a dozen hours, much of it on tape. No other media outlet was given any access to him. "The resulting half-hour documentary provided insights into his personality, his alcoholism, his battering of women, and his contention that he was innocent. Our purpose was to present an in-depth portrait of a man most Bay Area residents considered a monster. We were disturbed by the public hysteria and believed that a straight-forward unbiased, comprehensive program, including evidence used to convict him as well as his own state of mind, could help defuse a dangerous and ugly mood."--1988 Peabody Awards entry form.
- Broadcast Date
- 1988
- Asset type
- Program
- Media type
- Moving Image
- Duration
- 00:36:05.330
- Credits
-
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Producing Organization: KQED-TV (Television station : San Francisco, Calif.)
- AAPB Contributor Holdings
-
The Walter J. Brown Media Archives & Peabody Awards Collection at the
University of Georgia
Identifier: cpb-aacip-a798b678225 (Filename)
Format: U-matic
Duration: 0:31:00
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- Citations
- Chicago: “Express: The People vs. Larry Singleton,” 1988, The Walter J. Brown Media Archives & Peabody Awards Collection at the University of Georgia, American Archive of Public Broadcasting (GBH and the Library of Congress), Boston, MA and Washington, DC, accessed April 24, 2024, http://americanarchive.org/catalog/cpb-aacip-526-ff3kw58m1q.
- MLA: “Express: The People vs. Larry Singleton.” 1988. The Walter J. Brown Media Archives & Peabody Awards Collection at the University of Georgia, American Archive of Public Broadcasting (GBH and the Library of Congress), Boston, MA and Washington, DC. Web. April 24, 2024. <http://americanarchive.org/catalog/cpb-aacip-526-ff3kw58m1q>.
- APA: Express: The People vs. Larry Singleton. Boston, MA: The Walter J. Brown Media Archives & Peabody Awards Collection at the University of Georgia, American Archive of Public Broadcasting (GBH and the Library of Congress), Boston, MA and Washington, DC. Retrieved from http://americanarchive.org/catalog/cpb-aacip-526-ff3kw58m1q