San Ysidro Upset by TV Show Plans : Leaders Hope Petitions Would Stop Series on Massacre

Saying that their emotional wounds have not yet healed, residents of this San Diego community expressed outrage and disgust Thursday over word that a television network next year will likely air a miniseries on the July, 1984, mass murder of 21 people at a local McDonald’s restaurant.

Community leaders said they are considering initiating a petition drive that would implore independent producer Larry H. Spivey of Sherman Oaks to refrain from following through on his plans to dramatize the actions of gunman James Huberty and his victims.

“We’ve barely had time to restore our lives and they’re coming back to make money on our pain and sorrow,” said Bertha Alicia Gonzales, publisher of the San Ysidro-based newspaper Ahora Now. “When the massacre occurred, they didn’t kill just those people, they killed all of us a little bit, and now they want a little more.”

Spivey announced Wednesday that he and fellow producer Harry Sherman were close to signing a contract with an unnamed major network for a four-hour, made-for-television movie that would air over two nights, perhaps as early as spring, 1986. Spivey said he believes that such a movie, which he hopes will be at least partly filmed in the San Diego area, would be done “tastefully.”

The miniseries is to be written by John Crowther, who also wrote “The Evil That Men Do,” a Charles Bronson feature movie in which Bronson plays a retired hit man out to revenge the murder of a close friend. Spivey and Sherman last year produced the critically acclaimed made-for-televison movie, “Victims for Victims” that dealt with the 1982 stabbing of actress Theresa Saldana in West Hollywood.

“This won’t be an exploitation piece, but a piece that will demonstrate the preventability of something like San Ysidro, and show how a community can properly respond to this kind of tragedy,” Spivey said. “We have an opportunity to help 40 or 50 million people. It will help people recognize and stop others in society who have the propensity to commit the same kind of violence as Huberty.”

Armed with an Uzi rifle, semi-automatic pistol and a shotgun, Huberty on July 18 rampaged through the McDonald’s restaurant for more than an hour before he was killed by a San Diego police sharpshooter.

When asked how his miniseries would depict the carnage that characterized the worst single-day mass murder in U.S. history, Spivey said, “That’s a good question. We would deal around it as much as possible.”

Spivey said that Huberty’s widow, Etna, will assist in production as a paid consultant. She will receive money “to help us get the facts straight and also to help her raise her family,” Spivey said. He declined to say how much money Huberty would receive, except to note that “it’s not all that much.”

Huberty, who lives with her two daughters in Chula Vista, said Thursday that she had no preference on which actress would play her in the miniseries. Asked which actor might be a good choice to play her late husband, she paused before answering.

“They really don’t look anything like my husband, but maybe Clint Eastwood or Charles Bronson,” she said. “I don’t think they would want to do it, though.”

“I want this movie to show a very hard-working man, a very kind man who got a very raw deal and became extremely frustrated, who would not admit for a long time that he was having difficulties, and that when he finally did, he didn’t receive any help,” she said. “If it shows that much, I’ll be happy.”

The film is expected to cost $4.5 million to $5 million. Spivey said he plans to donate all of his share of the proceeds to the San Diego-based Crime Victims Fund, which compensates victims of violent crime. The fund is separate from a San Ysidro-based fund established by Joan Kroc, the widow of McDonald’s founder Ray Kroc, to aid the families of the massacre victims.

San Ysidro residents, however, seemed little appeased by Spivey’s promises of treating the mass murder with sensitivity.

Ernestine Jones, president of the 580-member San Ysidro PTA Council, said council members met Thursday to discuss the planned miniseries and discussed the possibility of a petition drive. No action was taken, but the subject is expected to be discussed again at another meeting Thursday.

“This might be OK five or six years down the road, but so soon after is really bad,” Jones said.

Olga Wright, whose 18-year-old daughter, Jackie, was among those killed by Huberty, said said she would not watch a movie about the McDonald’s incident because “I’ve still got a pain in my heart.”

Sandy Lopez, a member of the San Ysidro Board of Education, condemned Spivey’s plans as “totally disgraceful. For Mrs. Huberty and the rest of the world, this may be history, but for the rest of us, were still living it; we’re still in mourning,” she said.

Pat Wilson, a surgical nurse at Paradise Valley Hospital, echoed Lopez’ sentiments.

“These people haven’t been dead but a little more than six months--it’s almost like robbing the grave,” said Wilson. “Not too many of us here trust the integrity of the entertainment industry. I know we can’t stop it, but I really wish that somewhere along the way, if they don’t show it with integrity, maybe they can show some taste.”

McDonald’s Corp. officials also expressed their concern about the planned miniseries.

“Sadly, this incident was a part of 1984 history, and it’s a shame that the victims and their families and the people of San Ysidro will be forced to relive the tragedy,” said Richard Starmann, a McDonald’s vice president in Oak Park, Ill.

Meanwhile, San Diego police Chief Bill Kolender said his department has accepted Spivey’s offer to participate as unpaid consultants in the production. Spivey also has offered San Diego police officials the opportunity to review the script before the miniseries is completed.

“None of us are excited about that (the film), or very happy with it. But they’re going to do it anyway,” Kolender said. He said the police will “work with them to see that it is projected in as positive a manner as can be.”

“If it’s done in a positive way, then maybe it will have a minimum impact on this community. . . . I think it behooves us to do what we can to it (to see) that it’s done in the best way possible.”

Kolender met with Spivey this week and was assured that “they’re not going to be concentrating on the murders . . . We talked about the story line . . . and how they could do this in such a way that would not glorify the violence that took place, so that they do not immortalize Huberty or anyone in his family.”

The police chief said he was told that the film will cover “the relationship between the administration of this Police Department and the officers and our concerns for their mental health. They’re going to follow up on two of the victims’ survivors to see what the effect was on them. And when it comes to Huberty, they’re going to be looking at him from the standpoint of the lack of mental health facilities that were available to help this person.”

Kolender said he believes the producers are sincere in their stated efforts to avoid exploitation of the murders. He cited their earlier film “Victims for Victims.”

“I saw that program. It was done in a positive way,” Kolender said. “It did not glorify the people who were wrong in it, and I’m hoping that this will be done the same way.”

Kolender said that no members of the San Diego police force will have on-screen roles in the movie about the McDonald’s murders, and that neither he, the Police Department nor the city will receive money for helping in the production.

“We’re not interested in making money,” he said. “We’re interested in seeing to it that the image of this city is portrayed in the best way possible.”

Times staff writer Scott Harris contributed to this story.