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Jon Schmitz' Trial: Closing Arguments Reveal Motives

Father Confesses to Training a Hyper-Macho Offspring

Straight Expectations, Gunplay & "Taking it like a Man."

By Jeffrey Montgomery
The Triangle Foundation, Michigan

Jenny Jones with her two most famous guests: Jonathan Schmitz and Scott Amedure.

Pontiac, Michigan�August 24--Jon Schmitz' father has come the closest to answering the question of why his son, Jonathan, set about the planned and methodical killing of Scott Amedure.

As the defense rested its case in the latest murder trial of Jon Schmitz, it was Schmitz the father who provided the backdrop of heterosexual hope against which Jon had to function within the family.

Allyn Schmitz' latest testimony, combined with what he said in the first criminal trial of his son, describes raising a young man in a hyper-masculine world of straight expectations, gunplay, teasing, and a warped view of "taking it like a man."

Even up to the last moments of his testimony, Allyn Schmitz was promoting the compulsory heterosexuality that had Schmitz the younger agonizing over whether his grandparents might think the he was gay. Better he be a killer than a gay boy.

Jon's apparent willingness to accept the elder Schmitz' version of masculine reality led the erstwhile busboy to "light the fuse" that ended in the explosion of gunfire and blasting two shotgun shells through Scott's chest.

Since Jon Schmitz exercised his right not to testify in his own defense we will never know what was really in his mind. We won't know if, and how, he may have encouraged Scott's amorous interests, we lose the opportunity to learn how papa Schmitz' "man's world" affected Jon's view of his own place in that world.

What is known, and what the jury is left to consider, is that Jon and Scott socialized following their encounter on Jenny Jones' set. It is a fact that when Jon woke up on 9 March 1995 he went to the bank and withdrew the money with which he bought a brand new shotgun. He bought a box of shells. He returned to his apartment to contemplate that he'd never see it again.

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The fact is, he went to Scott's home, had a conversation with Scott, and left. He returned moments later, new gun in hand, and shot Scott twice at point blank range. Scott died, almost instantly.

The facts could not more clearly describe a planned, systematic instance of premeditated violence. As the prosecutor keenly put it, a "cold-blooded execution of a human life."

Triangle Foundation activists in Michigan see the criminal trials of Jonathan Schmitz as a cautionary tale for our time.