HEART TO HEART

In another pursuit of rights, actor-producer Henry Winkler has won the frantic competition for key dramatic rights to a bizarre murder tale involving a Lutheran minister and his alleged mistress in Emporia, Kan.

Winkler told Outtakes that he has acquired rights to the life stories of the Rev. Thomas Bird, convicted of murdering his wife, and Lorna Anderson, Bird’s church secretary, found guilty of plotting with Bird to murder her husband three years ago. No one has been charged with that murder; Bird and Anderson are serving prison sentences on the other charges. Winkler said he won’t appear in the drama, which is set for ABC.

Producer Zev Braun and Interscope Communications--with rights from a state trooper and two newspaper reporters involved in the case--are developing a project for CBS. Dick Clark Prod., with rights from the family of the murdered wife, has a miniseries deal with NBC. Three dozen producers, agents and others scrambled for various rights when The Times ran an account of the case in March.