Dan Allingham

In his first public courtroom explanation of the 1982 "Twilight Zone" filming tragedy, director John Landis acknowledged to a jury Wednesday that he had illegally hired the two child actors who, along with actor Vic Morrow, were struck and killed by a crippled helicopter. But Landis added that he never realized that the spectacular scene, in which the aircraft accidently plummeted out of control after being hit by the fireball of a special-effects explosion, would prove dangerous.

A woman who worked as an errand girl on the "Twilight Zone" movie set testified Wednesday that shortly after special effects explosions rocked a helicopter, director John Landis jokingly boasted "you ain't seen nothing yet." Three hours later, another series of special effects explosions set off during filming of a spectacular Vietnam War scene caused the helicopter to crash onto actor Vic Morrow and two child actors, killing them.

The prosecutor in the long-running "Twilight Zone" involuntary manslaughter trial began her final argument Tuesday by branding the actions of the five film-making defendants "barbaric" and comparing their use of actors in a dangerous movie scene to the ancient Roman practice of sacrificing gladiators for entertainment. "Fortunately, we don't live in those days," Deputy Dist. Atty. Lea Purwin D'Agostino told an attentive jury. "We consider human life very precious.

The prosecutor in the "Twilight Zone" manslaughter trial Wednesday accused the federal government of obstructing justice by prohibiting a federal investigator from rendering an opinion in court on the probable cause of the 1982 film set helicopter accident that killed actor Vic Morrow and two children. "The bottom line here is this is a complete mockery of our judicial system and a travesty of justice and something is wrong, very wrong, in Washington," Deputy Dist. Atty.

Almost five years after actor Vic Morrow and two child actors were killed in a gruesome film set accident, a Los Angeles Superior Court jury finally began deliberations Monday in the long-running "Twilight Zone" involuntary manslaughter trial.

Director John Landis and four associates ignored common sense and warnings of danger in filming a Vietnam battle scene that left three actors dead during the making of "Twilight Zone: The Movie," Deputy Dist. Atty. Lea Purwin D'Agostino asserted Wednesday. "These were not deaths in which someone can get up and wipe the bloody looking ketchup off their faces. . . . They were very, very real deaths," the prosecutor said as the manslaughter trial finally got under way.

Former child star Jackie Cooper, now a film director who heads a Hollywood safety committee, testified Monday that the "Twilight Zone" movie scene in which actor Vic Morrow and two children were killed was too dangerous to film. "I am qualified to say that the actors--Morrow and the two children--were in a dangerous position all through that scene," Cooper, the last scheduled prosecution witness in the 5-month-old trial, testified in Los Angeles Superior Court.

An exhaustive investigation failed to find "any evidence whatsoever" that producer Steven Spielberg or two associates were involved in a conspiracy to illegally hire two children who were killed in a 1982 accident on the "Twilight Zone" movie set, a prosecutor said Friday. Deputy Dist. Atty. Gary P. Kesselman branded as "reckless" and "outrageous" a suggestion by defense lawyer Harland W.

The former prosecutor in the "Twilight Zone" manslaughter trial alleged in a memo released Wednesday that he was threatened and pressured by the current prosecutor to testify in support of a key witness. Release of the memo from Gary Kesselman came at the same time that Deputy Dist. Atty.

The makers of "Twilight Zone: The Movie" were portrayed by a prosecutor Wednesday as careless men who placed children in harm's way and caused their violent deaths. But a defense attorney said an explosives expert, who will testify for the prosecution, is to blame for the tragedy.