The NewsBreaker by Larry Garrison

Author:Larry Garrison
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: ebook, book
Publisher: Thomas Nelson
Published: 2009-05-21T00:00:00+00:00

7

That’s Entertainment

What makes a news piece an “Oh, my God” story? Something you hear about and can’t help wanting more details. There are no black-and-white answers; it’s more of a feeling that it provokes in viewers. It might start out as idle curiosity and fester into a burning desire to know more. It has to be out of the ordinary and fairly shocking. Although it doesn’t have to be, it usually has to do with a crime or tragedy, and involves aspects that can be hard to believe and defy understanding.

“I should write a book!” has been said by many, and most of us have been acquainted with someone who has had an interesting life whose memoirs would make a good read. The problem is getting it published. The same applies to the film industry, whether it is for television or the big screen. Interesting is not enough—it has to be shocking and visceral. For every thousand good stories that are presented to the networks, studios, and publishers, one will make it to production or print.

Twenty-five years in the industry has provided me with my fair share of the “Oh, my God” stories. But, to illustrate the process of having a news piece evolve from being aired on the TV news shows to growing into a book and film, it is easy for me to pick one out. Just the words that offer a brief description of the subject matter grab your attention: arson, fraud, murder, millionaires, slavery. When you add the fact that a mother and son are being described, let’s just say it puts the “Oh!” in “Oh, my God!”

Wires were buzzing in July 1998, with a story about a mother-and-son con team that had been arrested in New York City. They had originally been picked up for bouncing a check at a used-car dealership in Utah, but within days, they became the tabloid headlines in the Big Apple and the news scoop of the nation. It is a complicated story.

When I was searching the wires about the story, I found that the two had been linked to the disappearance of a wealthy socialite by the name of Irene Silverman. Silverman was an eighty-two-year-old widow who owned a townhouse that sat on some of the most valuable real estate in the country. It was just a couple of blocks from Central Park in Manhattan’s Upper East Side. Irene Silverman was known as a little eccentric and colorful woman who had converted her townhouse into apartments for the rich and famous.

In the month prior to the arrest, a twenty-three-year-old man by the name of Manny Guerin showed up on her doorstep to rent one of her posh apartments with fake references and six thousand dollars cash in hand. Guerin’s assistant, a woman, had called Silverman earlier to announce his arrival. Normally Silverman would have checked out the references, but the lure of the wad of cash got the best of her, and she quickly had a new tenant. It would turn out to be the mistake that would cost her her life.

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