Scarlet and the Skier The arrest and trial of Claudine Longet, accused of shooting her lover, skier Spider Sabitch,becomes one of the first big media-driven celebrity events.
Shivas Regal Thank you so much!!!! So much appreciated. This is my favourite true crime show of all time. And it is so difficult to find online. Thank you for ALL your uploads. I appreciate and am a fan of them all. Please continue to do what you are doing. XO R.I.P Dominique and Dominick Dunne
He told her he was leaving her, she went ballistic and killed him, this was no accident. Of course, being Aspen, she pretty much got away with it, spending a few weekends in jail with the best food from the best restaurants being brought in and Andy Williams rushing to her defense. It was a joke, rather than justice.
A very bad joke. It's a shame the People can't appeal and seek to show the trial was totally fixed. What a vile woman. I hope that poor man's family found some peace.
Somehow Ron Austin has survived living with Longet for over 35 years. They still live in Aspen part of the year. Sadly, Spider Sabich's brother and sister both died of cancer, the sister back in the 1980s, and his brother, who I believe helped him build his house, died a few years ago. Thank you for uploading this episode. This was one of my most favorite episodes in the series. I hope it doesn't get taken down. I would also like to see the episode, I believe titled "Family Secrets," about the Franklin Bradshaw murder in Salt Lake City back in 1978. His daughter Frances was something else, let me tell you.
The national outrage at the time over this daylight gang-rape of Lady Justice was brilliantly satirised by one of SNL's most darkly cathartic, and hysterically funny comedy sketches: "The Claudine Longet Invitational Ski Jump Competition". The sketch consisted of a rapid-fire (pun fully intended) film clip compilation of increasingly harsh ski-jumper fails, which in and of themselves are always spectacular-- limbs flailing about, mid-air and ground-crashing cartwheels, snow, skis, goggles and poles flying all over the place, etc. The inimitable Dan Ayckroyd was the breathless machine-gun (yup) delivery sportscaster voice-over, quickly setting up each ski-jumper's run-- and then with flawless timing, the sound-effect of a rifle shot was dubbed in just as the skier started to wipe out-- *and they just hammered it to death,* fail after increasingly spectacular fail. The studio audience, and undoubtedly most of the American TV audience simply went up in smoke. *CLASSIC.*
I had all but forgotten this topic....but now seeing this video it is coming back to me. Of course I knew who Spider Sabitch was...but not so much about the woman (although my Mom was a fan of Andy Williams and his music was in our household...and he looked an awful lot like my father). I never did hear much about the trial or the outcome. I was in college at the time, and seem to only catch headlines or snippets of news broadcasts then. Thanks for these uploads....I have never seen this series before...and I like the detail they present...and the articulate people that tend to be interviewed.
I am confused as to why she had no where else to go being that she was the Andy Williams' ex and mother of his kids. Its sickening how if you are wealthy with the right connections you can get away with anything, including murder. Smh, they love to mention how beautiful these women were, only a very small portion even pass just attractive. Most are average but have the capacity to manipulate men.
That is, without doubt, one of the worst miscarriages of justice I have ever seen. The evidence proved she shot him in the back from six feet away and she lies through her teeth and gets 30 days? What a skank! I hope she rots. Her and her defence lawyer hubby.
yes, she was obviously guilty but the aspen police botched legal protocol by contaminating the weapon. and not processing diary properly--when the prosecution could not use that evidence she got off. complete miscarriage of justice--aspen must have groaned at the verdict.
everyone's upset with claudine for getting off lightly - and she should've had a harsher punishment - or upset with the judge for not imposing a tougher sentence - which he should've - but the max was still only 2 years and even if he had given her that, people still would be angry that it wasn't long enough. they should really be upset with the police who mishandled all of their most important evidence, leading to an uninformed jury only being able to agree on a lesser charge. that was the biggest insult to spider and aid to claudine. hopefully the officers faced major repercussions but it doesn't sound like they did. I wouldn't trust any case they've handled. damn shame
+John Martin the first things I said she were she should've served more time and the judge should've given her the max, but keep digging through my comment to find things to be offended by. there's only so much a court can do when the police who initially handle the case burn it down before it gets to them, why don't you want them to be held responsible?
Miranda Jackson I completely agree with you. The police made a mess of the crime scene, chain of evidence ignored, etc etc. She was obviously guilty but they were so inept they helped her to get a very light sentence. What I find shocking is the attitude of the (then) detective: he won't admit any responsibility for the abysmal mistakes he made during the investigation, even now after all these years. Really infuriating to see a guilty person go free because of such an incompetent bunch of cretins.
"Everyone looked up to Spider. Everyone wanted to BE Spider." Maybe within a 50 foot radius! I was around back then and these statements are not only absolutely fanciful but *inane ridiculous BULLSHIT!* 99.99999% of the world had never even heard "Spiders" *NAME!*
Together with the bumbling incompetence of the police, and a cowering lack of ability on the part of the prosecution, this case illustrates how to take the piss out of "justice" and "punishment" -- pay the "judge" handsomely to suppress all key accusatory evidence!
"There are two kinds of justice in the world....One for the rich and one for the rest of us." Truer words have never been spoken. This trial is proof. The evidence puts the smoking gun in her hand. She was getting ready to be dumped, she was pissed (because 1) No one dumps her 2) She was losing a means of income more the latter) and she shot him in cold blood. Only with best defense money can buy she still gets away with it....smh but cause I love this show and Dominick Dunne I keep coming back.
the fault lies with the crooked police in aspen who refused to collect evidence properly, on purpose and indeed make Aspen a refuge for the crazy rich no matter how they behave
Hold it...! The .22 Stoger "Luger" is a single action, semi-automatic pistol. Pulling the trigger can not make the hammer strike multiple times. The weapon's bolt *_must_* cycle to cock the hammer, but cycling the bolt, or firing the weapon, ejects the cartridge. Therefore, it's impossible to have multiple firing marks on the cartridge, or having a "cartridge found in the pistol". Something is very "off" here.
Certainly this yummy ski bachelor was not up for a ready made family. Her smothering, clingy and jealous older ways must have driven him nutts. She got away with murder.
Rhondaj, I agree with most of your comments, except when you say "jealous older ways" you're being ageist in a snarky way. No call for that! I, with my 'older ways' during the Paleolithic Age (late '80's) had a thankfully brief fling with a former newspaper publisher. He was 27, I was 34. His fiance was 24. That little bitch was CRAZY jealous! Really, calling my house round the clock and doing other annoyingly weird things. I ended things (that triad stuff is ALWAYS painful eventually) and also passed on a good job opportunity to run the Classified Dept., but it was to the good cause it turns out dude was a user and a player, Like most 'yummy bachelors' are cause they CAN be! He was using me to take that job from a girl who'd worked as his Receptionist for 4 YEARS and cause he was getting 'runaway groom' fever. His fiancee was his ATM, the Receptionist was his doormat. I'm SURE there were others. Many others. The point of this great story is Spider and Claudine were conjoined cause just like every other rich famous that's the way HE wanted it! He WANTED to settle down to a family lifestyle, whether you believe it or not, SOME younger dudes PREFER slightly older women with kids. Mostly to test drive the lifestyle. She was a wanna be starlet who married the fame that eluded her, Andy Williams was a sucker of a nice guy who deserved better. She left Andy for Spider, killed Spider, went back to Andy, maybe shagged the judge then married her lawyer. Busy lady! Spider was NO saint, booze and coke made EVERYTHING worse. They BOTH liked psycho drama that's for sure. A woman of ANY age can have a fatal attraction. and rich famous jocks LOVE high drama is the gist of my post, some guys, KNOWING their woman is insanely jealous, get some weird kick out of pushing those boundaries. These two are reminiscent of some former Bel Air neighbors: William 'Smokey' Robinson and his 'crazy jealous' ex wife Claudette. Seriously, JUST like this. Thank God Bill saved himself! Didn't know them but also Phil and Brynn Hartmann. All are sad, sad stories.
if you see her in episodes of it takes a thief, or hogans heroes, mchales navy she looks pretty hot. she was quite pretty by any standards. granted those were all early to mid '60s, how she looked later on i have no idea. not every woman can age like christie brinkley or raquel welch.
well where were her kids when she was out partying all night ? they looked very unhappy in that first picture I saw of them ,I'm glad she didn't kill her first husband he needed to have the kids ! I hope they are strong adults now !
30 days in jail for taking a life. American Justice. If the victim was my family, this bitch would have her vacation six feet under. How on earth the Sabich family wouldnt go after this murderer?
I live not that far from there and this is not the first murder there were the killer got off basically "scot-free." They are not used to violent crimes there so when it happens it catches the authorities off guard - not good for the family of the victims
interesting that Andy Williams role in paying for her defense and the personal connections he held with the Kennedy family was not discussed in this episode
I meant at more length as far as Williams paying for the defense....but there was nothing about how his connections with the Kennedy family might have affected the decision and jail term.
We never know if the mafia was involved since her ex was from that era. Maybe even graft was involved to get her a such a light sentence. Perhaps thats why she married her defence lawyer , whatever the case maybe, she is guilty as sin. Will she ever get properly punished? Only hell can tell
She was nothing to look at. Brigitte Bardot was stunning, as were many other French women. I've actually seen better looking women on the checkout at the supermarket. But I guess they don't use their looks to win fame and fortune.
I think you need to have your eyes checked. Longet was quite the beauty, especially when married to Andy Williams, but she was deliberately plain for the trial.
That detective, Bill Baldridge, is an idiot. "There were two people in the house, one of them is dead, so I arrested her right then and there." WTF? Arrested her before you did any real investigating? That is really scary to have cops like that around. And he says, "I was immediately suspicious" because he showed her how to shoot a gun in the house, why not take her outside? I mean, are you kidding me? I've been shown how to shoot a gun in the kitchen, you don't actually have to FIRE the gun, you can make sure it's not loaded and show somebody the procedure. He's just so stupid, he should not be a cop, I bet there are a lot of innocent people in prison in his neck of the woods. (Not saying she was not guilty. She may have murdered him, but he cannot have possibly had cause to arrest her that early in the investigation.)
When we heard on the news that she shot her boyfriend in the bathroom, and it was an accident, lots of black jokes went around. Did not surprise me that she was capable of shooting a man, her sickly sweet demeanour irked me no end, in her acting and singing. Spider Sabitch was shot in the back, justice was not served. Thank you for uploading this, Dominick Dunne's documentary was well done.
the judge sounds really fishy to me. not allowing the gun or the diary into the case were both his decisions, he could have chosen to allow them both, their was no legal precedent barring them. also, he knew of all this other incriminating evidence the jury had no access to yet still gave her the most lenient sentence possible. something is up with this judge, some kinda good ol boy bullshit. that is one soulless little French bitch.
Damn. What is up with all of the Claudine hate? Did she do it? Probably. Was justice NOT served. Yep. I can understand being upset by this, but honestly I do not think that she premeditated the murder. She may have expressed anger and a desire to control an "out of control" love affair in her diary, but it was never stated that she wrote that she was planning to kill him. The night that it happened she was distraught over the end of the relationship, and she did something awful that she should have never done. Hasn't anyone ever heard the phrase "a crime of passion"? I don't condone her actions, not at all, but some people are very passionate individuals and they do not handle that "passion" well. It gets the better of them and they lose their grip on the rational thing to do. Their lover is dumping them and they cannot see beyond their loss, so they react and react poorly.
***** Passion is an emotion to me. An emotion that can get out of control and drive you to do something that you may indeed regret later on. Greed is not an emotion to me. It is merely a drive sans emotion. Emotions can make you irrational. Greed just makes you a jerk (my opinion here. I know many many would disagree). Just because she may have pulled the trigger more than once does not prove premeditation. In the heat of the moment, when pain, anger and loss are all combined, it would only make sense that she probably would pull the trigger multiple times. If you're really upset you're going to let it out. Like punching a pillow when you get really mad. Rarely do we do it one time and walk away. There is no doubt that celebrity and money helped her to get away with something that the rest of us would be put away for a very long time for. And that is NOT fair or right in any way. But I still don't see premeditation here.
***** I did not and never would use it as an excuse for murder. Re-read my post. I never said that at all. I offered an "explanation" not an excuse. As for drugs, well I have talked with a lot of people who cannot even control garden variety depression with drugs, let alone a tendency to murder. I think that they help some people, but not others. They may have helped Claudine, but we will never know, and she may not have been aware that what she was experiencing was an emotional illness. She has also lived beyond this incident pretty successfully and stable, so it's hard to tell if she truly had mental issues. You can lose emotional control but not always be mentally ill. My only point was that I did not think it was premeditated to the point where we can attack her as an "evil whore" of some sort, like so many people here were doing. That's all. I don't think that she was in the right.
***** Completely understandable. And yeah there should be justice for the victim and their family. I definitely don't think it's right that her fame and money helped to get her off, when you or I would have paid the full price for such a terrible crime.
+Serenadesong "She may have expressed anger and a desire to control an "out of control" love affair in her diary, but it was never stated that she wrote that she was planning to kill him." seriously? nonsense. Her boyfriend was dumping her, she was a spoiled, talentless coke whore with coke and alcohol ravaging her system. She only knew how to use sex as a weapon until she found a gun. Any "explanation" or "excuse" is ridiculous. She murdered her boyfriend out of rage, jealousy and desperation. Call it whatever emotion you want. Murder shouldn't have a 30 jail sentence in local jail. You're nuts.
I do not know if Claudine is guilty or not of murder, but I have become very suspicious of most documentaries, since many have been exposed as being mostly fabrications, and not based in facts. This one makes me leery too. For one thing, why did both the jury and judge go so light on her if the admissible evidence and testimonies were so incriminating? Also, if the local community overwhelmingly hates Claudine so much, then why do her and her husband live there to this day? You can always find people to say what you desire when creating a documentary. So, in the end I am not convinced one way or another concerning her guilt. Where was a lie detector? All I may hope for is justice in the end.
I remember this case, I thought at the time the outcome was a sham. I still think it was a sham. Pretty and semi-famous with a famous supporter (her Ex-Husband) and she gets away with murder, or 2nd degree murder. She should have been tried, since they couldn't use the gun or diary in court, for manslaughter based on the corners report alone. SMH
I don't believe it was an accident. The judge and the jury were blind. For them the life of this young man wasn't worth shit. They let a killer get away with it and I bet you have all paid a huge price for your decision that day. She might have gotten away with it here but what will happen when you all have to face the greatest judge of all? No amount of money can save you on that day. May God have mercy on all your souls.
I don't understand how they can say she was beautiful, maybe not photogenic, but not pretty. That voice was fake. I feel like slapping her silly. She was insanely jealous. What young man wants to be saddled with a nutbar and 3 kids? He did enjoy the kids but he was still young. Andy had the airport shut down so he could fly in after hrs. What a wus he is. That idiot who looks like he needs his nose wiping.. Court clothes, drop dead body!!!! diminutive with a drop dead body, is she crazy too. I hope he life has not been easy the flipping whore.
Her life, as I have heard, was changed only in that she and her husband let to themselves. As for the looks, I agree with you, but my father (paradoxically in my eyes, as he is pretty well-travelled) maintains she was considered quite beautiful. To me she looks like a rather plain woman capitalising on an accent. I can only guess that America had a much more homogenised culture, and her wares were seen as 'exotic' and alluring. From my generation's POV, she seems more like a nutcase québécoise hooker with a gun.
Actually she was quite pretty, but the pictures of her around the time of the trial show her being deliberately plain, without much in the way of makeup.
Susan Nunes She had what they call (court clothes) made up same with Deloren, remember that? You are right not much makeup. She was as guilty as hell. When money walks through the front door justice walks out the back door.
loaded pistols; loaded pistols should be in a safe where only the owner can access. loaded pistols laying around a home is ignorant . why would a snow skier living in Aspen need with a loaded pistol? sasquatch
+Mark Brown Gun safety an issue??? Not really. it was premeditated murder - read her diary that was suppressed by the judge. Plus the gun was fired multiple times but jammed. Yeah, an accident with 6 attempted shots. It was suppressed on a chain of custody motion. Then she has the nerve to play miss innocent. If she had gone to a range first and prepared better she would not have used that gun, but would have received a long sentence.
Andy 's my favorite singer but I don't think he acted responsibly/ethically here by supporting his guilty wife--well, she was mother of his children so there is somewhat of an excuse there--its a very diffcult to be in as ex spouse.
this is a tragedy but why the name calling so american..... no one was there except except claudine why are there so many experts in this case? again, this is a tragedy for claudine's family and the sabitch family. yes, you got that right.
did she do it(probably) is there a place awaiting murderers (yes) is that place of eternal judgment never ending torment (yes) will they burn alive without any let up for them (yes)we can escape mans justice but god knows all things
I believe the police and the judge were bought. As if the Police would make not one but two major mistakes and then why did the judge give her such a minimum sentence? Corruption.
It irks me, that celebrities get treated different. Like with lindsay lohen. If i made that many mistakes id have to do time. Anyone notice celebs spend one day in jail due to "overcrowding" thats bullshit. Lol
Wow. That women got away with murder. I have watched many of these shows and usually the suspect runs and eventually gets caught and spends 10 or so years in prison. However in this case none of that happened. I guess in those days it was easier to get away with murder because foresic science was so young. It would be quite hard to get away with something like that today. I am also astonished that she married the attorney. I would not marry someone that I knew killed a past lover. However she is paying a price by staying in Aspen. Socailly I am sure she is an outcast.
+Helen Lovell They are still happily married. He was orig. unhappy in his own marriage and was planning on leaving his own wife. He was an admirer fan of Ms. Longet. She may or may not have loved him but her priority as a mother was for her children and I am sure that by marrying this guy she was able to secure the future of her children which is what she wanted from the poor guy she had been living with. very tragic.
The kids had nothing to do with her marrying Austin. Andy Williams made way more money than that small-town lawyer could ever make. Williams and Longer remained close until he died. She married Austin for the same reason she married Williams and shacked up with Sabich: she was a golddigger.
LOL you just said Austin was not a rich man and he was not so how could she be a gold digger. She did love Sabich. The lawyer loved her from a far, was a fan of hers . She married for security and for her "children" as any older Woman would do, her children and their needs came first
Spoiled crazy bitch. Another talented person tries to escape being a bought and paid for trophy, ends up dead. Travis Alexander was the same and there have been so many others.
Travis Alexander WASN'T the same thing. Spider Sabich was not an abuser or a kiddie porn addict, both of which TA was. Spider Sabich was also highly successful, something TA was not as he was borrowing money from friends when he overextended himself. TA's entire persona was a lie. Sabich was the real deal and very well liked. Time to face the reality about the Arias case, which is it never should have gone to trial.
Susan Nunes Truth be told, it's so messed up. I mean, why is Travis idealized like he was a chaste saint? He was messing around against the tenants of his religion and NEVER should have used Jodi like he did.
It irks me, that celebrities get treated different. Like with lindsay lohen. If i made that many mistakes id have to do time. Anyone notice celebs spend one day in jail due to "overcrowding" thats bullshit. Lol
goldenrod s golden rule on a n y bitch #4 on moving them out of your house or apt help them right away to pack their shiiiit if they bitch call police 4 escourt now kids and all gone no guns 4 kunt to play with and make sure door slaps her in. her assssss
Wow this cow took someone's life and it's a misdemeanor!!?? And she is not beautiful she looks like a cross between alissa morrisette and mary Tylermore. That's voice is a joke she makes me sick.
oooooooooooooo killing sure ax killings better horror in real wanne see cutting humans head off yes i send you pics even vid me with ax hacking a head off an man
