A producer made a grim joke to Piers Morgan as the controversial TV presenter feared for his life whilst interviewing a notorious murderer.
Morgan was writing in the New York Post about his new show, called The Killer Interview with Piers Morgan which premieres on Fox Nation this Tuesday in the US.
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During that eight-part series, Morgan interviews a number of serial killers, trying to get into their mindset and understand what made them commit the horrendous crimes that they did.
Now, Piers Morgan isn’t exactly the most popular person in the world for a variety of reasons, but even he must be more popular than some of the creatures he’s interviewing in this show and has interviewed in past shows.
One of those nasty pieces of work is Lorenzo Gilyard, also known as the Kansas City Strangler. No prizes for guessing how he came by that moniker.
Well, he strangled at least 13 women to death during a 17-year reign of terror.
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Not exactly a person you’d want to be in a room with at any point, let alone if the prison guard that was supposed to keep you safe had wandered off.
In his article, Morgan noted how much he feared for his safety when in the room with Gilyard.
The guard had walked away a bit, leaving him sitting across a table with the strangler and well within strangling distance.
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Morgan remarked: “During an increasingly confrontational interview with a man dubbed the Kansas City Strangler, Lorenzo Gilyard — who fatally throttled at least 13 women during a 17-year killing spree — I suddenly realized the lone guard had wandered off to the far end of the larger room, and I nervously pondered what would happen if Gilyard jumped up and tried to strangle me, which he looked like he wanted to do.”
Thankfully for Morgan he didn’t do that, but the journalist did later ask a question about it to his show’s producer afterwards.
Instead of reassuring him, the producer decided to make a grim joke.
Morgan continued: “'How long would you have kept the cameras rolling before pulling him off me?' I asked my producer afterward.
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“’One second before asphyxiation,’ he chuckled ruefully. 'Though if I got the timing wrong, it would be great for ratings'.”
OK, it’s funny, but it’s probably not what he wanted to hear at the time.
“For me as a journalist, there is nothing more compelling than sitting face-to-face with some of the most dangerous killers in the world to hold them directly to account for their crimes." Piers said about the upcoming series.
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“This series is a fascinating collection of very varied and explosive interviews that I'm sure will leave viewers debating with family and friends as to the subject's guilt or otherwise and give a gripping insight into the murderers' mindset and motivation for doing what they did."
If you want to see how these interviews went down, you can catch The Killer Interview with Piers Morgan on Fox Nation from September 12, although it’s not clear where you’ll be able to watch it in the UK.
Topics: True Crime, US News, Crime, Piers Morgan, TV and Film
Tom Wood