John Purvis

[wiseguy182]

In another case of "Oh crap, I missed it except for the last few minutes", On the Case with PAULA ZAHN aired a 1 hour episode on this case. I would be VERY interested in seeing this and hope they rerun it because I have never seen the full case on UM, only the update. I'm still confused as to how and when this show aired and figured it may have been filmed for the Final Appeal series.

But...in the few minutes I saw, there were some interesting nuggets of info I gleaned:

-John Purvis (probably with the help of his family) filed a lawsuit and was awarded a million dollars for wrongful conviction.

-In another example of "only a stupid Florida jury could come to that decision", a jury decided that Shane's murder was "an accident" and considered that while determining the sentences for Paul Hamwi and Paul Serio. Boo, hiss!

[Kane]

According to the ID schedule, it is scheduled to be rerun this Saturday (October 5) at 2:00 pm, Eastern Time. The episode is titled "A Call For Justice."

[crystaldawn]

I just watched the show. I had hoped they would show a recent interview with Purvis (I assume he's still alive) but they just showed a picture. It was so disappointing that the one who actually killed Susan never got any jail time since they had to have his testimony to convict Paul Hamwi. One thing they mentioned that UM never did was the killer for hire had said from the beginning he couldn't kill a child so Paul Hamwi was supposed to call a friend of Susan's to go check on them and thus find the baby alive. He never called anyone so apparently he wanted his daughter to die that horrible way.

[RobinW]

I was always under the impression that the full segment about the John Purvis case never aired. Since Purvis unexpectedly wound up being released in between the filming of the segment and the airing, UM just showed a truncated version of the story with the update. Since the case was solved, I'm not sure they ever bothered to air the full version.

[Kane]

Originally Posted by RobinW

I was always under the impression that the full segment about the John Purvis case never aired. Since Purvis unexpectedly wound up being released in between the filming of the segment and the airing, UM just showed a truncated version of the story with the update. Since the case was solved, I'm not sure they ever bothered to air the full version.

If the full segment had in fact been broadcast, it could have been shown on the short-lived spin-off Final Appeal: From The Files of Unsolved Mysteries.

[wiseguy182]

ah, thank you for that info Kane.

I recall mentioning about how Hamwi was supposed to have prevented Shane's death, but never did. I found that to be particularly cruel on his part to let his own daughter die in such a horrible fashion. I wish him the worst.

[wiseguy182]

The episode talked about John's life in prison. As you can imagine, for someone with schizophrenia, and being a non-criminal put in amongst a lot of hardened criminals, his life wasn't very pleasant for those years. Talked about how he got skin cancer because he would stay out for so long and his mother wasn't around to tell him to go inside, and how his teeth rotted because his mother wasn't around to tell him to brush his teeth. Also said how John would be at the end of a line of 30 people waiting to use the phone, and when he would make it to the front of the line, he was bullied back to the end of the line before getting to use the phone, a process that was repeated several times in one setting. But they did say that John always remained a positive person despite the cruel hand that had been dealt to him.

[wiseguy182]

The UM segment (or update) never delved into how Serio and Beckett (I think his name was) got in the house. I had always assumed they broke into the house, but the episode revealed that Serio and Beckett concoted a ruse in which they went to Susan's house pretending to have information that would help Susan Hamwi in her dealings with her ex-husband. Susan recognized them as acquaintances of her ex and let them in the house. She turned around to get them a glass of water when they beat, choked and stabbed her.

[WishfulDreamer]

Originally Posted by wiseguy182

The UM segment (or update) never delved into how Serio and Beckett (I think his name was) got in the house. I had always assumed they broke into the house, but the episode revealed that Serio and Beckett concoted a ruse in which they went to Susan's house pretending to have information that would help Susan Hamwi in her dealings with her ex-husband. Susan recognized them as acquaintances of her ex and let them in the house. She turned around to get them a glass of water when they beat, choked and stabbed her.

Wasn't she also sexually assaulted? This had to be one of the most despicable crimes on UM.

[DarkDante]

Originally Posted by wiseguy182

ah, thank you for that info Kane.

I recall mentioning about how Hamwi was supposed to have prevented Shane's death, but never did. I found that to be particularly cruel on his part to let his own daughter die in such a horrible fashion. I wish him the worst.

Here is a link I'm sure that you're familiar with as it's JS's list of the airdates for all the FA broadcasts:

http://www.unsolvedmysteriestelevision.com/

As you can see the case of John Purvis is not among them. I remember speaking with JS once and he pointed out that there were an inordinate amount of "Final Appeal" cases included on UM in the months after the "Final Appeal" spinoff was cancelled. His gauge on the situation and I believe he is right is that a ton of FA segments were ordered for the spinoff but ultimately were never aired because the spinoff ended so quickly. A lot of these migrated over to "Unsolved Mysteries" but in the case of John Purvis, his case just never made air. There is also obviously a question as to whether the case of Thomas Drake was ever aired anywhere prior to it's inclusion on the Farina broadcasts.

PS: For those who might not be aware, one possible reason that Purvis' case was never aired is because he was released from prison before his case ever had a chance to make air. The UM spinoff "Final Appeal" aired in the autumn of 1992 and was cancelled before year's end. Purvis was released from prison in January of 1993 before a lot of the unaired FA segments were absorbed into UM broadcasts. So speculation is that UM chose to just air an update to the case, possibly out of respect to the Purvis family, if nothing else (the audience would not be familiar with his plight, his case having never been aired) detailing Purvis' release from prison.

[MegtheEgg86]

Originally Posted by wiseguy182

The episode talked about John's life in prison. As you can imagine, for someone with schizophrenia, and being a non-criminal put in amongst a lot of hardened criminals, his life wasn't very pleasant for those years. Talked about how he got skin cancer because he would stay out for so long and his mother wasn't around to tell him to go inside, and how his teeth rotted because his mother wasn't around to tell him to brush his teeth. Also said how John would be at the end of a line of 30 people waiting to use the phone, and when he would make it to the front of the line, he was bullied back to the end of the line before getting to use the phone, a process that was repeated several times in one setting. But they did say that John always remained a positive person despite the cruel hand that had been dealt to him.

I feel so terribly for that poor man. Even IF he did commit a crime (which he absolutely did not), general population in prison is absolutely no place for him.

[MegtheEgg86]

Originally Posted by DarkDante

before a lot of the unaired FA segments were absorbed into UM broadcasts.

So any segment that was shown under the category "Final Appeal" was actually originally in the chute for Final Appeal: From the Files of Unsolved Mysteries and didn't make it?

Are there examples of FA episodes that later were spliced into UM reruns? I know there was a UM segment on Jeffrey MacDonald, but it seems there was also a FA episode as well. Is the segment just the edited-down FA episode shown within a UM episode?

[DarkDante]

Originally Posted by MegtheEgg86

So any segment that was shown under the category "Final Appeal" was actually originally in the chute for Final Appeal: From the Files of Unsolved Mysteries and didn't make it?

Only within the parameters of the time frame of which we're speaking of, which would be around 1993. Most of the FA cases that aired on UM from that time frame I believe to have been originally produced for the "Final Appeal" spinoff. I don't have time at the moment to research exactly which cases these were but if you go on UM wiki, you'll find a listing of FA cases from this period. Michael Lloyd Self is one I can think of that was more than likely produced for the "Final Appeal" spinoff

Are there examples of FA episodes that later were spliced into UM reruns? I know there was a UM segment on Jeffrey MacDonald, but it seems there was also a FA episode as well. Is the segment just the edited-down FA episode shown within a UM episode?

If we are talking pre-Farina, then Jeffrey MacDonald was the only case that was aired on FA and later spliced into an UM syndication. You can easily tell by the fact that the lettering (for lack of a better word) that they use to identify whom they are interviewing is different on the MacDonald segment than on any of the UM segments. This however, only rings true if you are watching the "Lifetime" syndication of the segment as hosted by Robert Stack. Once the Farina episodes hit the air, all sorts of things as we know were changed.

To answer your second question, yes all of the FA segments whether it be the aforementioned MacDonald segment or any of the FA segments spliced into the Farina episodes have been edited from their original broadcast form. You have to remember that the "Final Appeal" spinoff was itself a one hour television program and featured only one appellant per week so that left room to include a great deal of information on the appellant they were profiling that particular week.

When these FA segments were later spliced/absorbed into UM they were edited somewhat in order to feature them within a sixty minute episode (give or take commercial breaks) of UM which almost always featured several segments per episode.

In that vein, it is also likely that the cases originally produced for the spinoff "Final Appeal", that were absorbed into the 1993 season of UM were also likely edited somewhat for the same reason I mentioned above. So when we are watching for instance the case of Michael Lloyd Self we are likely not watching the case as it was originally intended to be broadcast as part of the "Final Appeal" spinoff. The reason being is that when the decision was made to air that case on UM after "Final Appeal" was cancelled, there would've needed to have been some editing done to it, in order to absorb it into a sixty minute UM broadcast which would likely feature several other cases within that time slot.

[wiseguy182]

Well actually, Dr. Jeffrey McDonald was doubled up with Port Chicago Mutiny.

[MegtheEgg86]

Originally Posted by wiseguy182

Well actually, Dr. Jeffrey McDonald was doubled up with Port Chicago Mutiny.

Right. I know that one made it to UM as well because I used to have it in my collection. In the version I had, it was pretty clear that it was much older footage with very late '90s-2000s style lettering, and in the Stack voiceover update at the end it was clear his voice was weaker, indicating it was might have been redone for UM about that timeframe. At least I think that's what happened. Unless there's an earlier UM version floating out there.