Burt Kearns and Jeff Abraham exhume Hollywood's most twisted tale of murder with "The Wife & Death of Spade Cooley"

Our friends Burt Kearns and Jeff Abraham have unleashed another riveting tale of the dark side of showbiz, and this one is more twisted, disturbing and timely than ever!

It’s the story of Spade Cooley, "Hollywood’s King of Western Swing” music in the 1940s and 50s.  And once again, Burt and Jeff don’t focus on the music, but the man himself-- a man who made OJ Simpson look like Mr Rogers.  Soade Cooley not only abused his lovey wife, he stomped her to death. After a sensational trial, he went -- well, we don't want to give up any more spoilers in The Wife & Death of Spade Cooley.  (Just make sure you read it to the end!)

Read it at Legs McNeil’s and Gillian McCain’s website, PleaseKillMe.com.  The site's tagline is “This is what’s cool” -- though one of the hashtags for the Cooley story is “Uncool People.”

You’ll see why!

Screengrab: Burt Kearns graphic in Kardashian special on Reelz

Burt Kearns is frozen and identified in the REELZ television news special, KARDASHIAN: THE MAN WHO SAVED OJ SIMPSON.  Along with recalling his exploits in breaking news and making history in the OJ Simpson case, Kearns was an executive producer of the high-rating, newsmaking television program.

Reelz special: Producer Kearns shows how he nailed Robert Kardashian's role in OJ Simpson coverup

Veteran television and film producer Burt Kearns of Good Story Productions reaches back more than twenty years in his latest television project, showing for the first time how he broke a major story -- and made history --  in the OJ Simpson murder case.  

Robert Kardashian: The Man who Saved OJ Simpson premieres tomorrow evening, Monday, on the Reelz network.  Its highlight is Kearns’ frame-by-frame dissection of videotaped evidence,  as he details his discovery that OJ Simpson's pal Robert Kardashian slipped away with Simpson's Louis Vuitton garment bag the morning after the murders of Simpson's ex-wife Nicole and her friend Ron Goldman.

The hourlong special is a production of P&L Media.  Kearns wrote and produced the special along with P&L honchos Peter Brennan and Lisa Lew, and makes a rare on-camera appearance, leading viewers through the incriminating footage, frame by frame.

July 1994: Kearns with editor Jack Foster as he "catches" Kardashian

Under Brennan's leadership, the trio worked together in 1994 on the short-lived but incredibly influential late night news show Premier Story, which was already leading the rest of the news media in coverage of the Simpson case when Kearns made the discovery of the incriminating American Airlines and Hertz Rentacar tags on video four weeks after the murder.

The Reelz special also includes much Premier Story footage that hasn't been seen in more than twenty years, including a focus on cameraman-producer "Hi-8 Joe" Guidry and action footage featuring  Premier Story's star and crusading journalist host, Alison Holloway.

Brennan, Lew and Kearns most recently worked together on P&L's controversial Reelz documentary special, El Chapo & Sean Penn: Bungle In The Jungle, and this latest offering promises to be just as newsmaking.

Kearns wrote about "The Bag" in his memoir/tabloid television history book, Tabloid Baby.

Here's an excerpt from Chapter 28 of Tabloid Baby, "Where's The Bag, Mr. Kardashian?":

             Premier Story had been on the air five weeks when the Simpson pretrial hearing ended on July eighth.  Along with all the evidence revealed in the televised proceedings, many of the faces we couldn’t put names to in the hours after the murders were identified and developed into important characters.

            None was more intriguing than Robert Kardashian, O.J. Simpson’s close friend and business partner.  Kardashian read Simpson’s supposed suicide note the day of the Bronco chase and later reactivated his law license to help in his friend’s defense.

            We had video from the morning after the murders showing Kardashian waiting at the mansion gate for Simpson to arrive home from Chicago.  When Simpson was led in by police, Kardashian remained planted inside.  A woman who’d accompanied Simpson from the airport walked over to Kardashian with a stuffed garment bag.  She and Kardashian embraced. She put her head on his shoulder.  It looked as if they were crying, but when I blew up the tape, it was obvious he was whispering something., His eyes scanned the scene.

            When Simpson was led put to be driven to police headquarters for questioning, Kardashian took the garment bag and scooted away, unnoticed by anyone but another observant KCOP cameraman.

            We noticed the man.  We just didn't know who he was at the time.

            We promoted the story on the Kardashian tape to run the following Monday, four weeks after the murders.  It would be a look back at the mysterious doings outside the mansion and the people we didn't know then, but knew all too well now.  It made for a good promo.

            On Monday, July eleventh, editor Jack Foster and I squeezed into the tiny airless editing closet and began work on the piece.  I had him slow the tape, stop and start it, even zoom in on faces n the crowd as I tried to find a story angle to fit the promo.

            "Let it run in slow motion," I instructed him, sipping coffee as I watched little Kardashian, in his jeans and polo short, walk away with the suitcase.

            "Can you make it slower?"

            "Sure."

Slower.  The police officers were concerned with keeping the cameras away from the car holding Simpson. Attorney Howard Weitzman seemed to make eye contact with Kardashian before calling over to the lead detective and placing an arm over his shoulder. Kardashian and the woman were on the move, walking past cops and detectives. Detective Bert Luper almost bumped into him walking out of the driveway.

            The big Louis Vuitton garment bag-- we could tell by the markings-- was too heavy for the little man.  He switched hands, and as he did, I noticed something.  "Roll that back."

            "You got it."

            "Real slow."  I leaned toward the screen.  My eyes had to be fooling me.

            Kardashian moved slowly in reverse. The bag changed hands. Three tags flew up from the handle.

            "Freeze it!"

            Jack did. "Back a little. Thanks."

            Three tags: one said Hertz; the others were for American Airlines.

            "Fuck me."

            "What is it?"

            "Fuck me."

            Simpson, the Hertz spokesman, flew American Airlines to and from Chicago. It was O.J. Simpson's bag; the one he brought back from Chicago; the one police were searching for. They’d never found a murder weapon or bloody clothes --  or the Louis Vuitton garment bag.

            Robert Kardashian was getting away with O.J. Simpson’s garment bag --and who knows what else.

            Holy shit.

  Kardashian: The Man Who Saved OJ Simpson premieres Monday June 13, 9 pm ET/PT

Burt Kearns’ FX OJ Simpson billboard tweet leads to article, re-argument of the case and criticism of series

Burt Kearns is once again stirring up OJ Simpson debate.  The former "tabloid television titan” and author of Tabloid Baby, the definitive book on the era (with one hundred pages dedicated to the OJ trial era), has caused an uproar over the FX series, The People vs. OJ Simpson, that spread today from Facebook to the national newsmedia.

His observations about the ads for the show led to lots of argument -- and an item on AdWeek’s Fishbowl LA site:

FX Billboards Fly in the Face of OJ

by Richard Horgan on Feb 3, 2016

If the glove doesn’t fit, you must… take some creative license.

Our Facebook pal Burt Kearns, a longtime TV and film producer, showrunner and writer, covered the OJ trial for Premier Story and A Current Affair. Following Tuesday night’s premiere, he ruminated as follows:

So here’s my issue. I covered the case. And in court, the glove… did… not… fit. So why does it fit so well in the ads?

‪#‎PeopleVsOJSimpson ‪#‎MarkFuhrman ‪#‎TabloidBaby

Touche! Although at least one commenter responded to Kearns’ Facebook thoughts by suggesting that the glove did in fact fit and OJ’s struggle to put it on was an act. If you believe that, then Ryan Murphy and co. with these marketing materials are tipping how they ultimately feel about the trial outcome.

Kearns, in his 1999 book Tabloid Baby, touched on many aspects of the Simpson case. It will be interesting to see if and-or how the FX true crime series encompasses something else in that Kearns tome. Namely, that he spied Robert Kardashian making off with OJ’s Louis Vuitton bag the morning OJ returned from Chicago.