Stirring music - 'PBS NewsHour' type.
Announcer: The following is an FBS News Editorial.
Cut to Presenter at desk in usual grey suit and floral tie.
Presenter: Good evening. Tonight we present an editorial on abuse. Child abuse. Sexual child abuse right in our own backyard. Just last week a reign of childhood trauma was put to an end when James Avery McDover and his son, Samson (photo of same), after one of the most extraordinary trials in American legal history, were sentenced to life imprisonment for accounts of sexual assault. Tonight FBS News examines the rise to power of McDover and Son, the methods they used to subjugate rivals and their subsequent tracking down and capture by the amazing Officer Duke Montague of the Florida State Force. James Avery McDover, a scrap-metal dealer and TV quizmaster, was well known to the police, and a devout Catholic. In January 1958 he had married Tanya Hayworth, (old wedding photo) an up-and-coming boxer. Samson was born in February 1959, on probation, (photo of grotty house) in this small house in Holyoake, Mass. Their next door neighbour was Mrs. April Simmel.
Exterior in street; interviewer and Mrs. Simmel.
Mrs. Simmel: Holyoake was a typical sort of New England town, people were in and out of each other's houses with each other's property all day. They were a cheery lot.
Interviewer: Was it a terribly violent area?
Mrs. Simmel: (laughs deprecatingly) Oh ho......yes. Cheerful and violent. I remember Samson was very keen on boxing, until he learned to walk, then he took up knife-jogging. Oh he was very interested in that. His mother had such trouble getting him to come in for mealtime. He'd be out there flailing those knives, you know, bless him. You know kids were very different then. They didn't have their heads filled with all this Cartesian dualism.
Cut to Anthony Viney and interviewer with stick mike.
Interviewer: Anthony Viney. You were Samson's personal tutor. What do you remember most about him?
He fails to point stick mike at Viney who answers. However, when the interviewer poses the next question he points the stick mike to Viney as he does so. This continues, with the mike always pointing to the one who is not talking while Viney relates a fascinating tale of Samson and how he become obsessed with circumcision, complete with large riveting gestures.
Interviewer: ...Anthoney Viney.
Cut to presenter.
Presenter: When Samson turned 18, he was called up but was found by an Army Board to be too unstable even for National Service. Denied the opportunity to use his skills in the service of his country, he and his father began to operate what they called 'Operation #1'. They would select a victim and then threaten to beat him up if he failed to pay the so-called protection money. Four months later they started another operation which they called 'Operation #2'. In this racket they selected another victim and threatened to stab him if he didn't pay them. One month later they hit upon 'Operation #3'. In this the victim was threatened that if he didn't pay them, they would circumcise him. This for McDover and Son was the turning point.
Cut to Officer Montague.
SUBTITLE: 'DUKE MONTAGUE'
Montague: McDover and Son now formed a gang, which used traumatization to take over schools, birthday parties, and essentially anywhere children could be found in abundance. When they tried to take over a Pizza Time Theatre, however, they were for the only time in their lives, beat up a treat. We in the State Forces were also keeping tabs on their every move by reading the color supplements.
Presenter: As their empire spread, McDover and Son also built a network of accomplices. One such accomplice was Kenneth Newton-Joseph from Australia.
Cut to Kenneth in camper van.
Kenneth: Well one day I was sitting at home threatening the kids, and I looked out of the hole in the wall and see this van drive up and one of Samson's boys gets out and he comes up, all nice and friendly like, and says Samson wants to have a talk with me . So he takes me to the van (photo of same, which resembles a BBC detector van.) and takes me for a scrape round to Samson's. And he's there in the conversation pit with his Dad and Charles Paisley, the baby crusher, and a couple of film producers and a man they called 'Kierkegaard', who just sat there biting the heads of whippets and Samson asks whether or not I like circumcisions. I tell him about Aboriginal subincision.
Interviewer: (off-screen) Subincision, how does that go?
Kenneth: It's basically the same as circumcision, except afterward, a long cut is made along the median raphe, and the wound is held over an open fire as it heals. Samson is so inspired that he makes me an accomplice.
Interviewer: And what was he like?
Kenneth: He was perfectly normal in every way, except is as much as he was convinced that he was being watched by a giant aardvark whom he referred to as Snouted Herman.
Interviewer: How big was Herman supposed to be?
Kenneth: Normally he was believed to be about twelve feet from nose to tail, but when Samson was very depressed Herman could be anything up to eight hundred yards long. When Herman was about, Samson would go very quiet and his nose would swell up and his teeth would start moving about and he'd become very violent and claim that he'd laid Stanley Baldwin. That set aside, Samson was a smashing bloke. He used to give his mother flowers and that. He was like a brother to me.
Interviewer: And you don't bear him any grudge?
Kenneth: A grudge! Old Slammin' Sam? He was a real darling. A cruel man, but fair.
Cut to vandalized statue.
Statue: He was the only friend I ever had.
Cut to beach with a man upside down with his head buried in the sand.
Voice: I wouldn't head a word against him.
Cut to a gravestone, which says: 'R.I.P. and Good Luck, Samson'.
Voice: Lovely fella.
Cut to presenter.
Presenter: Clearly Samson inspired tremendous loyalty and terror amongst his associates, but what about his father? One man who met him was Louis DeLonghi.
Cut to tatty office with desk and phone. DeLonghi at desk.
DeLonghi: Well, I had been running a successful escort agency - high class, no really, high class girls - we didn't have any of that. That was right out. And I decided. (phone rings on desk) Excuse me (he answers it) Hello......no, not now......shtoom...shtoom....right......yes, we'll have the watch ready for you at midnight.......the watch.....the Chinese watch....yes, right-oh, bye-bye mother (he replaces reciever) Anyway I decided then to open a high-class night club for the gentry at Biggleswade with International cuisine, cooking, top-line acts, and not a cheap clip joint for picking up tarts, that was right out, I deny that completely, and one night Samson walked in with a couple of big lads, one of whom was carrying what looked like a CD-size plastibell. They said I'd bought one of their fruit machines and I would pay for it.
Interviewer: How much did they want?
DeLonghi: Three quarters of a million dollars. Then they went out.
Interviewer: Why didn't you call the police?
DeLonghi: Well I had noticed that the lad with the plastibell was the Chief Officer for the area. Anyway a week later they came back, said that the check had bounced and that I had to see James.
Interviewer: James?
DeLonghi: James (takes a drink) I was terrified of him. Everyone was terrified of James. I've seen grown men pull their own genitals out rather than see James. Even Samson was frightened of James.
Interviewer: What did he do?
DeLonghi: He was a teaser. He knew all the tricks, strip, censor, foreplay, everything.
Cut to map.
Presenter: (voice over) By a combination of tease and traumatization, McDover and Son by February 1996 controlled the whole of New England. In February, though, Samson made a big mistake.
Cut back to Kenneth.
Kenneth: Latterly Samson had become increasingly worried about Snouted Herman. He had come to the conclusion that Herman slept in an airplane hangar in Montreal.
Presenter: And so on February 22nd 1996, along the Quebec-Vermont border... (stock film of H-Bomb exploding) both Canadian and American forces began to sit up and take notice.
Cut to Montague.
Montague: McDover and Son realized they had gone too far and that the hunt was on. They went into hiding and I decided on a subtle approach, via some form of disguise, as the old hat, badge and blue shirt were a bit of a giveaway. Luckily my years as a Groundling stood me in good stead, as I assumed a bewildering variety of disguises. I tracked them to Plattsburg, posing as the Reverend Smiler Egret. Hearing they'd gone downstate to Brooklyn, I assumed the identity of a pork butcher, Brian Stoats. (photo of Montague disguised as a butcher) On my arrival, I discovered they had reached Florida, I followed as Gloucester from 'King Lear'. (photo of Montague as Gloucester) Acting on a hunch I spent several months in Buenos Aires as Blind Pew, returning through the Panama Canal as Ratty, in 'The Wind in the Willows'. (photo of Ratty) Back in Brooklyn, I relived my triumph as Sancho Panza (photo) in 'Man of la Mancha' which the 'New Saturday Evening Post' described as 'a glittering performance of rare perception', although the 'San Francisco Chronicle' was less than enthusiastic. In fact it gave me a right panning. I quote...
Cut to press cutting, which reads:
Voice Over: 'As for the performance of Officer Duke Montague as Sancho Panza, the audience was bemused by his high-pitched Floridian accent and intimidated by his abusive ad-libs.'
Cut to letterhead of newspaper - 'The Western Daily News'.
Montague: (off screen) 'The 'Western Daily News' said......
Voice Over: 'Sancho Panza (Mr. Montague) spoilt an otherwise impeccably choreographed rape scene by his unscheduled appearance and persistent cries of "Freeze!"'
Pan out to reveal Samson McDover reading said newspaper at a stand.
Samson: Policemen as actors, who would have thought?
James: Nevermind, let's get in the van and keep hunting.
They walk off along pavement with Montague in fursuit following. He passes a police car with a cop inside.
Montague: (whispering) Shhhhhhhh. It's McDover and Son.
Policeman: (alarmed) Calling all cars: McDover and Son have escaped!
Cut to suburban street: it completely clears very fast. Freeze frame on empty street. An enormous aardvark higher than the houses comes into shot saying 'Samson?'
END
