The Nation - News from Dec. 17, 1986

The son of actor Ryan O’Neal hysterically blamed the son of film director Francis Ford Coppola for a Maryland boating accident that killed young Coppola, a witness testified. O’Neal’s lawyer already has said his client lied to investigators when he said that Gian Carlo Coppola, 23, was driving the boat at the time of the accident. Dwight Atkinson said during the second day of the manslaughter trial of Griffin O’Neal, 22, that he sped his boat to O’Neal’s rented speedboat May 26 when he heard “frantic screaming for help.”