Arts & Entertainment
‘Jenny Jones’ murderer released on parole after killing gay friend who confessed crush
Jonathan Schmitz served 22 years of his sentence
A Michigan man who was convicted of the 1995 murder of his gay friend after he revealed he had a same-sex crush on him on a national TV show has been released from prison on parole.
32-year-old Scott Amedure and mutual friend Donna Riley brought then 24-year-old Jonathan Schmitz onto an episode of “The Jenny Jones Show” titled “Same Sex Crushes,” in which admirers confessed their affections to their secret crushes. Reportedly, Schmitz agreed to appear on the show thinking his admirer was female.
Jones prods Amedure to reveal his sexual thoughts about Schmitz and then replays Amedure’s spoken thoughts for Schmitz to hear. Schmitz appears embarrassed on the show and insists he’s not gay.
The episode never aired.
Three days after the show’s taping, Schmitz shot and killed Amedure at his mobile home. Schmitz confessed to authorities he murdered Amedure for embarrassing him on national TV. In 1996 Schmitz was sentenced to 25-50 years for second-degree murder.
Schmitz, now 47, served 22 years and was released on parole for good behavior from Parnall Correctional Facility in Jackson, Michigan.
Amedure’s older brother, Frank Amedure Jr., told PEOPLE the family isn’t happy about Schmitz’s release but some family members don’t place the blame entirely on him.
“I guess it’s like any other person who’s lost a family member to murder — they wouldn’t feel comfortable about the murderer being released,” Frank tells PEOPLE. “It might be easier if he [Schmitz] was old, an old gray-haired man. But he’s still pretty young at 47 — he’s still got a lot to go, and my brother doesn’t. But there’s a side of, at least me and maybe some of my family members, that we do feel he was victimized in all of this, and so we can empathize with all of that.”
The family has been vocal that they blame the producers of “The Jenny Jones Show” for manipulating Schmitz making them the catalyst in Scott’s murder. The family sued the show and was granted $25 million, but the Michigan Court of Appeals overturned the verdict.
Whitman-Walker Health held the 38th annual Walk and 5K to End HIV at Anacostia Park on Saturday, Dec. 7. Hundreds participated in the charity fundraiser, despite temperatures below freezing. According to organizers, nearly $450,000 was raised for HIV/AIDS treatment and research.
(Washington Blade photos by Michael Key)
The Gay Men’s Chorus of Washington performed “The Holiday Show” at Lincoln Theatre on Saturday. Future performances of the show are scheduled for Dec. 14-15. For tickets and showtimes, visit gmcw.org.
(Washington Blade photos by Michael Key)
Books
Mother wages fight for trans daughter in new book
‘Beautiful Woman’ seethes with resentment, rattles bars of injustice
‘One Day I’ll Grow Up and Be a Beautiful Woman’
By Abi Maxwell
c.2024, Knopf
$28/307 pages
“How many times have I told you that…?”
How many times have you heard that? Probably so often that, well, you stopped listening. From your mother, when you were very small. From your teachers in school. From your supervisor, significant other, or best friend. As in the new memoir “One Day I’ll Grow Up and Be a Beautiful Woman” by Abi Maxwell, it came from a daughter.
When she was pregnant, Abi Maxwell took long walks in the New Hampshire woods near her home, rubbing her belly and talking to her unborn baby. She was sure she was going to have a girl but when the sonogram technician said otherwise, that was OK. Maxwell and her husband would have a son.
But almost from birth, their child was angry, fierce, and unhappy. Just getting dressed each morning was a trial. Going outside was often impossible. Autism was a possible diagnosis but more importantly, Maxwell wasn’t listening, and she admits it with some shame.
Her child had been saying, in so many ways, that she was a girl.
Once Maxwell realized it and acted accordingly, her daughter changed almost overnight, from an angry child to a calm one – though she still, understandably, had outbursts from the bullying behavior of her peers and some adults at school. Nearly every day, Greta (her new name) said she was teased, called by her former name, and told that she was a boy.
Maxwell had fought for special education for Greta, once autism was confirmed. Now she fought for Greta’s rights at school, and sometimes within her own family. The ACLU got involved. State laws were broken. Maxwell reminded anyone who’d listen that the suicide rate for trans kids was frighteningly high. Few in her town seemed to care.
Throughout her life, Maxwell had been in many other states and lived in other cities. New Hampshire used to feel as comforting as a warm blanket but suddenly, she knew they had to get away from it. Her “town that would not protect us.”
When you hold “One Day I’ll Grow Up and Be a Beautiful Woman,” you’ve got more than a memoir in your hands. You’ve also got a white-hot story that seethes with anger and rightful resentment, that wails for a hurt child, and rattles the bars of injustice. And yet, it coos over love of place, but in a confused manner, as if these things don’t belong together.
Author Abi Maxwell is honest with readers, taking full responsibility for not listening to what her preschooler was saying-not-saying, and she lets you see her emotions and her worst points. In the midst of her community-wide fight, she reveals how the discrimination Greta endured affected Maxwell’s marriage and her health – all of which give a reader the sense that they’re not being sold a tall tale. Read this book, and outrage becomes familiar enough that it’s yours, too. Read “One Day I’ll Grow Up and Be a Beautiful Woman,” and share it. This is a book you’ll tell others about.
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