After their appearance on the Jerry Springer Show, the son of the woman who was killed by her ex-husband has revealed that it destroyed both his and his mother’s lives.
Jeffrey Campbell speaks out on Jerry Springer: Fights, Camera, Action on Netflix, which goes behind the scenes of the hyped up US talk show similar to ITV ‘ s The Jeremy Kyle Show.
Ralf Panitz appeared on the show with his wife Eleanor and ex-wife Nancy Campbell-Panitz, Jeffrey’s mother, in 2000. However, Panitz fatally beat 52-year-old Nancy in her Sarasota home in Florida shortly after it first aired on television.
Jeffrey said, “It surprised me when she mentioned joining the show. She didn’t like having her pictures taken much. She always had to hide her face or hide behind something, so to see her up there on the stage, just looking like a deer caught in the headlights, like what is going on here? I just wish I could go back and say ‘ don’t do it'”.
When Nancy was a widower raising two children online, Panitz and Nancy met. He immigrated to the US from Germany, and Nancy filed for divorce because of domestic abuse issues. Although Panitz had remarried before the Jerry Springer show appearance, the two appeared to be in touch once more.
Jeffrey said, “My mother thought Ralf had been deported to Germany, that the show was going to pay for his return to America, that they would reconcile, and that he would tell his new girlfriend that he wanted to be with my mother. But she was basically lied to, because that never happened”.
Instead, Panitz claimed on stage that he had slept with Nancy the night before but that he still loved her and was staying. The show was called Secret Mistresses Confronted. Eleanor called her a “redheaded bitch from hell” to make matters worse. Even after producers told her she wouldn’t receive a return flight ticket to Florida if she didn’t, a humiliated Nancy left the TV stage and refused to go back out.
Jeffrey claims his mum was “ambushed” by the show. After someone took her for granted at a bus station and offered her a seat at the airport in Chicago to Florida, she was eventually given a seat. Amazingly after the show recorded, Nancy and Panitz got together again, although the details are unclear.
Jeffrey explained: “Somehow they got back together, she put money down at home, and then he went back to his old ways, apparently, threatened her again, and she wasn’t going to take it”. A judge granted Nancy “sole ownership of the home and a restraining order against him” in a court case.
Panitz left the court quietly before moving on to a bar where their Jerry Springer episode was currently playing on TV. He returned to his home and killed Nancy after drinking and appearing to be getting more and more enraged about the show. In the documentary at the time, Sprinkling says, “I don’t mean to trivialize this. It was a very, very sad event, but it has nothing to do with the show”.
Tobias Yoshimura, a former producer, once said, “Are we accountable for months after they leave the show for everything that happens in their life?” We’re not. We’re not responsible for that”. Panitz, 42, was at the time guilty of second-degree murder and given a life sentence for the murder of his ex-wife on July 24, 2000. The May 2000 recording of the show was complete.
During sentencing, Judge Nancy Donnellan said: “Ralf Panitz, Eleanor Panitz and Nancy Campbell were brought to Chicago by the Jerry Springer Show, then manipulated by producers of that show. Do ratings matter more than the respect for a person’s dignity? Shame on you. Shame on you”.
Jeffrey said, “I feel like the middle of my life has been completely erased by this entire circumstance.” I’m currently hoping to have a successful career and be progressing. But here I am, 24 years later, still talking about it. You know, it’s had a pretty big impact and it’s hard to trust people. I don’t think they have ever been held accountable for anything. I’m sure there have been other people who have been affected, other guests we don’t know about, or people watching at home thinking ‘ this is normal’. It’s not”.
A former guest named Melanie recalls receiving free booze to help them wind up in another episode of the two-part series. She says: “They gave us so many drink tickets. They were like, go hog wild, have fun. And so we got wasted. And then we got to the hotel. We managed to keep the party going. We probably slept for an hour or so before going to bed until four in the morning. I probably got to the green room at like, six o’clock in the morning. The producers were present right away, just a little bit like teaching us how to act and what to say.
Two ex-producers on the show back up her versions of events, and say the coaching was known as being “Springered”. Springer died in 2023 after suffering from cancer. On his X profile, Springer had jokingly referred to himself as a “Talk show host, ringmaster of civilization’s end”. He is reportedly quoted as saying in an interview that, “I want to take this opportunity to apologise for everything I’ve ever done” in an old social media clip. I have ruined the culture”.
*Jerry Springer: Fights, Camera, Action is available on Netflix from January 7.
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