November 21, 1978, Los Angeles Times, "A Celebrity Around Here'; Georgia Town Stunned by News of Harris Death, by Jeff Prugh,
[..]
But Monday was a somber day here in the small southeastern Georgia hometown of Harris, 42, the Los Angeles-based NBC news correspondent who was shot to death in ambush with four others in Guyana.
The shock was numbing. It had not worn off since a Baptist preacher first announced the news of the tragedy Sunday morning from the pulpit where Harris went to church as a boy.
November 21, 1978, Los Angeles Herald Examiner, Reporter Talked NBC Into Fatal Assignment,
Don Harris, the NBC network correspondent who was killed Saturday in the Jonestown ambush had to talk his superiors into letting him take on the assignment, associates said.______________________________________________________________________________
"We all knew it was fraught with danger, and he knew better than any of us," said Edwin Croft, assistant bureau manager at NBC news in Burbank
"We all discussed the dangers for two weeks, and Harris and his boss even made a trip to New York to discuss it at the highest levels. It was finally decided that he'd go. Even then, there were some second thoughts.
December 11, 2012, COPA-Coalition on Political Assassinations, Memories of WFAA's old 'News 8 Etc.' morning show are bittersweet, by admin,
Don Harris was the only major news reporter to interview Grace Walden Stevens in Memphis, crediting her story that the man in the rooming house who ran out with a rifle after the shooting of Dr. King was not James Earl Ray.
Gene Thomas, Suzie Humphreys and Don Harris were the dynamic trio behind "News 8 Etc.," a morning show that debuted on WFAA-TV in 1970.
November 20, 1978, Los Angeles Times, Two Dead NBC Men Were Survivors of Asian Battles,
Two veteran National Broadcasting Co. staff members---both survivors of Southeast Asia battlefields--covered their last assignment at a jungle airstrip in Guyana.__________________________________________________________________________
Correspondent Don Harris and cameraman Robert Brown were killed Saturday along with Rep. Leo J. Ryan
(D-Calif.) in a storm of gunfire as they were about to depart from a fact-finding mission on Peoples Temple and the Rev. Jim Jones.
Gregory Robinson, a San Francisco Examiner photographer, also was killed by the bullets.
State Department spokesman said a fifth person, Patricia Parks, identified as a cult member trying to leave with Ryan, also was slain. No age or hometown was available, a spokesman said.
Harris, 42, began his broadcasting career as a radio announcer at WVOP in Vidalia, Ga. Funeral services have been scheduled in the small community where Harris grew up.
He shifted to television as a weatherman, then moved to stations in Texas and Washington D.C., as a news reporter. He won several state awards while in Texas and a local Emmy in Washington. He once dumped film into the Potomac after it had been subpoenaed by U.S. Atty. Gen. Ramsey Clark.
He came to KNBC in 1973 as a reporter and weekend anchorman. In 1976 he became NBC network correspondent in Los Angeles. Harris leaves his wife and three children in Woodland Hills. Most of his family lives in Georgia.
Brown, 36, joined NBC news in April after a career as a free-lance cameraman for American Broadcasting Co. and Columbia Broadcasting System. He worked at KNBC for several months in 1977.
His wife and one child live in Los Angeles.
"These men were among NBC News' finest, and their families' loss is our loss," said Les Crystal, news president. "I am shocked at the senseless and tragic deaths. My sense of loss is overwhelming. I shall not forget them, not shall their colleagues.
Robinson 27, had been with the Examiner for three years. He had won several awards and currently has a one-man show on display in San Francisco.
Two other NBC crew members were at the Guyana airstrip. Soundman Stephen Sung, 34, was wounded slightly in the right arm.
Field producer Robert Flick, 47, was first reported missing but later was found by Guyanese military officials, according to a network spokesman.
"Flick just hightailed it in to the jungle when the shooting started," an NBC spokesman said. "Soldiers found him later and he is safe in Georgetown."
The State Department reported 10 persons were wounded, but could identify only six : Sung, Jacqueline Speier, Ryan's legislative aide; Richard Dwyer, deputy chief of mission in Guyana, and three persons who had relatives in the settlement, Anthony Katsaris, Beverly Oliver and Carolyn Boyd.
Another nine persons were said to be missing. This figure did not include Charles Garry and Mark Lane, believed to be Peoples Temple lawyers, who were reported in Jonestown, according to the State Department.
Those caught in the airport shooting numbered 27, the State Department said: five killed, 10 wounded, nine missing, one located unharmed (Flick) and two in Jonestown.
December 11, 2012, COPA-Coalition on Political Assassinations, Memories of WFAA's old 'News 8 Etc.' morning show are bittersweet, by admin,
The Dallas Morning News fondly remembers Don Harris a local WFAA TV broadcaster but leaves out the most important parts of the story. Don Harris was the only major news reporter to interview Grace Walden Stevens in Memphis, crediting her story that the man in the rooming house who ran out with a rifle after the shooting of Dr. King was not James Earl Ray. His coverage of the urban riots that followed won him an Emmy award._______________________________________________________________________
Harris was one of the victims of the Port Kaituma airport attack by programmed assassins who were part of the Jonestown intelligence operation. They shot particular people and made sure to finish the job, walking up to wounded, examining their faces and putting rounds into their heads. Others, they left alive. Jackie Speiers was one, who was an aide to Congressman Leo Ryan, who was also killed at the scene.
Gregory Robinson, a "fearless" journalist from the San Francisco Examiner, had photographed the same riots in Washington, D.C. When he was approached for copies of the films by Justice Department officials, he threw the negatives into the Potomac river.
These newsmen join the ranks of others killed for telling the truth about assassinations and political wrongdoing in America.
December 9, 2012, The Dallas Morning News, Steve Blow: Memories of WFAA’s old ‘News 8 Etc.’ morning show are bittersweet,
Gene Thomas, Suzie Humphreys and Don Harris were the dynamic trio behind "News 8 Etc.," a morning show that debuted on WFAA-TV in 1970.
Steve Blow
sblow@dallasnews.com
Published: December 9, 2012, 12:03 AM
Let's step into the wayback machine today for the saga of a local TV show that was both a big hit and marked by tragedy.
News 8 Etc., it was called — a fun and freewheeling morning show that debuted in 1970. Two of its three hosts would die tragically. The third just missed a similar fate.
I heard fond, bittersweet memories of the show when I visited recently with some of the old-time TV news anchors now appearing each morning on The Texas Daily on KTXD-TV (Channel 47).
Back in the day, NBC’s Today Show was so dominant in the ratings that ABC didn’t even bother to compete with a morning show. So local ABC affiliate WFAA-TV (Channel 8) decided to produce its own.
“Nothing quite like this had ever been done,” said John Sparks, a veteran local TV news executive. He began as a floor director on the show.
Oh, there had certainly been local interview shows, but they were stiff affairs with very proper hosts like Julie Benell and Bobbie Wygant.
WFAA wanted something to fit the hang-loose vibe of the era. It began by hiring an affable but serious newsman, Don Harris. A boyish young local reporter, Gene Thomas, was added. And then came the real wild card — a zany, song-and-dance gal named Suzie Humphreys.
She had zero journalism experience. She was a bank secretary who had worked by night in the long-running local comedy revue Bottoms Up.
“You cannot make chemistry happen. You either have it or you don’t. We had it,” Humphreys recalled the other day. “Everybody watched the show because they never knew what they were going to get when they tuned in.”
Thomas might be wrestling a tiger. Humphreys might be shooting guns with John Wayne or suddenly whipping off her skirt to model something new called hot pants. Harris presided over the show with relaxed bonhomie.
It probably helped that Harris’ favorite bar, just blocks from the station, sometimes sent over Bloody Marys in gallon jugs. "It was a different time," Sparks observed.
But the fun didn't last long. In October of 1971, working on a story for the show, Thomas rode in a jet-powered dragster at Dallas International Motor Speedway. It went out of control at 286 miles an hour and crashed, killing Thomas and two track workers.
"It was horrible," Humphreys said. "He was the most precious guy."
Don Harris moved on from News 8 Etc. to become the evening news anchor for WFAA. Then he went to California as a correspondent for NBC News. He was killed in 1978 while reporting on the Jonestown cult in Guyana.
"Everyone adored Don. He was a great journalist and just so fun to be around," Humphreys said.
Mike Shannon is a local TV and radio historian. He tells the News 8 Etc. story on his website, KNUS99.com. "After Don Harris left and Gene Thomas died, the show went on, but the magic just wasn't there," he said.
Humphreys stayed as new hosts came and went, but her heart wasn't in it. "I was there almost five years and they fired me," she said. "And I deserved to be fired."
That's when she landed a temporary gig as an airborne radio traffic reporter. That temp spot turned into a legendary 20 years with Ron Chapman on KVIL-FM.
But even she would have her close call with death. Not long into her time at KVIL, Humphreys was pregnant and having a terrible time dealing with morning sickness while trying to work from a bumpy helicopter.
"I would have to stop periodically and throw up on the tops of buildings," she said with a laugh.
One morning, she couldn't take it a moment longer. She asked the helicopter pilot to take her back to the heliport at the old NorthPark Inn.
"He put me down, and I really felt bad about leaving," she said. "He took off and went down within about three minutes."
Pilot Elliott Cohn was killed in the crash into the backyard of a home in University Park. "For a good while that morning, everyone assumed I had died in the helicopter, too," Humphreys said.
So there’s the tale of News 8 Etc., a show remembered in local TV lore for both success and sadness.
________________________________________________________________________
December 12, 2012, JFKCountercoup2, Breck Wall -- Jack Ruby's Gay Friend
This article about Dallas newsman Don Harris and Suzie Humphries mentions that Humphries got her start in show business in the comic farce sex play called “Bottoms Up,” a production by Breck Wall that began at Jack Ruby’s Carousel Club, then moved across the street to the Adolphis Hotel before moving on to very long run in Las Vegas and Atlantic City casinos.
Breck Hall, while in Houston Texas on the weekend of the assassination, received a phone call from Jack Ruby, which put him on the map and made him a person of interest in the subsequent investigation. Included below are the articles that mention him, Wall’s Warren Commission testimony, as questioned by Arlen Specter, and his obit.
-----Original Message-----
From: John Judge [mailto:judgeforyourself@gmail.com]
JUDGE: Don Harris was the only major news reporter to interview Grace Walden Stevens in Memphis, crediting her story that the man in the rooming house who ran out with a rifle was not James Earl Ray. He was one of the victims of the Port Kaituma airport attack by programmed assassins who were part of the Jonestown intelligence operation. They shot particular people and made sure to finish the job, walking up to wounded, examining their faces and putting rounds into their heads.
Others, they left alive. Jackie Speiers was one, who was an aide to Congressman Leo Ryan, also killed at the scene. Greg Robinson, an NBC reporter who came with the delegation was also killed. He had filmed the riots following Dr. King's assassination in Washington, DC and refused to hand over footage to the FBI and DC police, tossing it into the Potomac instead. These newsmen join the ranks of others killed for telling the truth about assassinations and political wrongdoing in America - JJ
By way of this technological simulacrum and wireless wonders you are hearing from John Judge. Sent from my iPad
WEBSITE: www.politicalassassinations.com
_____________________________________________________________________________
November 21, 1978, Los Angeles Herald Examiner, Reporter Talked NBC Into Fatal Assignment,
November 20, 1978, Los Angeles Times, Two Dead NBC Men Were Survivors of Asian Battles
November 20, 1978, The Oakland Tribune, Slain newsmen praised, [Greg Robinson]
November 20, 1978, San Antonio Express, Newsmen had earned many awards,
November 20, 1978, San Francisco Chronicle, Airport Shootings: The 3 Newsmen Who Died in Guyana,
November 20, 1978, San Francisco Examiner, The victims who were there to cover the story,
November 20, 1978, San Francisco Examiner, A pledge: We will not stop,
November 20, 1978, San Francisco Examiner, Greg Robinson: From the first it was 'magic', by Carol Pogash,
November 20, 1978, San Francisco Examiner, Exclusive: eyewitness account of massacre, by Tim Reiterman,
November 20, 1978, San Francisco Examiner, Works of a photographer [Greg Robinson]
November 21, 1978, Los Angeles Times, NBC Announces Services For 2 Slain Newsmen,
November 21, 1978, Los Angeles Times, Bodies of 3 Cult Victims Return Home; Rep. Ryan, 2 Newsmen Carried on Flight to San Francisco, L.A.
November 21, 1978, Los Angeles Times, "A Celebrity Around Here'; Georgia Town Stunned by News of Harris Death, by Jeff Prugh,
November 21, 1978, San Francisco Examiner, Robinson family's last reunion, by Don Martinez,
November 22, 1978, The Atlanta Constitution, Body of Don Harris Arrives in Vidalia,
November 22, 1978, Los Angeles Times, AP Photo, Father with Casket; Gale Robinson, father of Greg sits beside his son's casket,
November 22, 1978, Los Angeles Times, Return Home Cult Victims Bodies of 3,
November 22, 1978, The Oakland Tribune / AP, Services set for two NBC newsmen shot in Guyana,
November 22, 1978, San Francisco Examiner / AP, 500 say goodbye to slain newsman,
November 22, 1978, San Francisco Examiner, Slain photographer goes home for the last time, by Don Martinez,
November 20, 1978, Los Angeles Times, NBC Executive Calls Newsmen's Deaths a Tragedy for Profession
November 23, 1978, San Francisco Examiner / UPI, Services for Photographer, [Greg Robinson]
November 23, 1978, San Francisco Examiner, Greg Robinson: Living memorial to cameraman, [Greg Robinson]
November 24, 1978, San Francisco Examiner, NBC cameraman eulogized,
November 24, 1978, San Francisco Examiner, A last farewell to Robinson,
November 25, 1978, Los Angeles Times, Funeral Held for Slain NBC Cameraman Brown,
November 25, 1978, The Oakland Tribune / AP, Cameraman buried,
November 25, 1978, San Francisco Chronicle, Slain NBC Cameraman Called a Hero,
November 26, 1978, Los Angeles Herald Examiner, Kin, Friends Salute Slain Newsman,
November 25, 1978, San Francisco Examiner, Club to honor news heroes,
November 25, 1978, San Francisco Examiner, Friends saying goodbye to Greg,
November 25, 1978, San Francisco Examiner / AP, Newsman eulogized as a hero,
November 26, 1978, San Francisco Sunday Examiner and Chronicle, In remembrance of Greg Robinson,
November 26, 1978, San Francisco Sunday Examiner and Chronicle, Tributes to a photojournalist,
November 26, 1978, San Francisco Sunday Examiner and Chronicle, Opinion, Memories of two colleagues, by Reg Murphy,
November 26, 1978, San Francisco Sunday Examiner and Chronicle, Covering a horror story: The twisted Guyana tale,
November 26, 1978, San Francisco Sunday Examiner and Chronicle, Goodbye to Greg: They had seen his brilliance,
December 4 , 1978, People Weekly, Massacre in Guyana,
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