@Goldwind2
Excerpt from the May 15, 2008 episode of
Larry King Live.
LARRY KING:
Tonight on
Larry King Live, in his first interview since returning to America, Eddie Fitzgerald tells his side of the story.
EDDIE FITZGERALD:
"I was doing storyboards on
Tiny Toons at Warner Bros before I got the call to join Trump Manhattan in New Rochelle. I was on the Ren and Stimpy staff for about two and a half years before I came back to Warners for the first season of
Animaniacs.
Then in early '96, I accepted an offer to come back to New Rochelle to help finish
The Ren and Stimpy Movie after John went into his drug coma. Probably the biggest mistake I ever made...if I hadn't made an even bigger mistake afterwards..."
KING:
"Driving the White Bronco?"
FITZGERALD:
"Yes. Earlier that morning, I was sitting at the New Rochelle Denny's, having breakfast with Vincent [Waller], Obie [Scott Wade] and Chris [Savino]. The four of us were pretty down in the dumps because the [Ren and Stimpy] movie had come out a couple weeks prior, and we felt pretty good about the final product, but it was being blown out at the box office by
Independence Day. And if that weren't enough, Disney was still kicking our ass with
The Hunchback of Notre Dame.
Vincent looks over his shoulder and sees John sitting down with a young girl who later turned out to be the missing girl that had been all over the news. None of us knew that yet though. John appeared to be telling the girl to keep her head down and stay silent as he excused himself to use the men's room. So I got up and followed him. Once I got inside, he sees me behind him at the mirror. Once he turned around, I casually said to him 'Hey John, I hope that's your niece or your daughter, because cops are still everywhere looking for that missing girl.' Of course, John snapped, pinned me against a wall, pulled a gun to my mouth, handed me the keys to his truck and simply said 'I'm getting the [expletive] outta here. You're driving.'
I assumed he wanted me to take him somewhere where he could cool off, but in the parking lot, he marched the girl to the Bronco with a gun to her head.
Once inside the Bronco, I repeatedly asked John where we were going, but he simply kept telling me to keep driving. With the fuel light on, I pulled into the Sunoco in Tarrytown to stop for gas. John told [Blair] not to move before he went into the food mart for snacks, but she slipped out anyway to sneak to the payphone. As I was filling up, I figured she was just calling her parents to tell them she was okay. But I found out later at the trial that she was actually calling 911 to report she was abducted. I started to panic when John grabbed her and dragged her back into the Bronco. All I can remember after that was John yelling at me to 'step on it.' And so I did.
Every time that police got close to us, John would threaten to kill both me and the girl if I didn't speed up. I ended up having to dial 911 myself and tried to tell the dispatcher to get the police to keep their distance because of John's threats. Back then, I had an early cell phone that was paid for by the Trump studio, but I wound up making the cops' job easier.
I tried to play some music on the radio to hopefully calm the girl down, but the music on every station was pre-empted by our chase. District Attorney [Michael] Cherkasky was on one station warning everybody that helping John escape justice would be charged as a felon. My heart sank because it felt more like he was addressing me personally.
John wanted me to take him all the way to Canada, but by the time we reached the Albany city limits, the freeway was blocked off, so I had to take city streets to see if I could get around the police checkpoints. We ended up having to stop next to the state capitol building. I got out and tried to explain my situation to the detectives but they cuffed me, stuffed me into the squad car and took me to police headquarters before I could see if the girl got out alive.
I ended up taking a plea deal in hopes of resuming my animation career once the whole thing blew over. But with no American studio at the time willing to take me in, I sought work wherever I was able to enter despite my arrest record. That's why I wound up in Brazil and stayed there up until a year ago.
It wasn't until after I came back from Brazil that I learned John escaped prison and was killed.
I also learned there was a film made of the whole affair called
American Crime Story. I looked at it fairly recently for the first time. In my opinion, Walt Flanagan's portrayal of me in that film was extremely unfair. They tried to make it seem like I was willfully helping John transport [Blair] across international lines, when in reality, I was a second hostage.
And I also learned Bob Camp bought the rights to
Ren and Stimpy and rehabilitated the show's image. For that, I am grateful.
But more importantly, I'm glad to hear [Blair] is still alive and enjoying life to the fullest.
And..."
KING:
"I'm sorry, Eddie. I'm gonna have to interrupt you there. I understand we're gonna go to a live picture in Boston..."