The Jussie Smollett Scandal Recalls The Infamous (And Very Fake) Neo-Nazi Attack On Morton Downey Jr.

As the ongoing saga of Empire star Jussie Smollett continues to unfurl, it’s looking increasingly likely that what was originally portrayed as a legitimate hate crime against Smollett was, in fact, a hoax perpetrated by Smollett in an effort to promote his career. That’s what the Chicago Police Department alleges, at least, and during a press conference last week, Police Superintendent Eddie T. Jones offered up some specific details to back it up.

If these allegations are confirmed to be true, then Smollett’s actions will unquestionably go down in pop culture history as one of history’s all-time least successful attempts by a TV star to raise their profile. But the real question is this: Will it rank higher or lower than the Morton Downey, Jr. skinhead saga?

What’s that? You don’t know that story? Well, gather ’round, dear readers, because we’ve got quite the story to share with you…

First, a little stage-setting for those of you who really aren’t in the know: Morton Downey Jr. —no relation to Robert Downey Jr.— was a talk show host who came to fame in the late 1980s predominantly for his loud, abrasive, in-your-face manner when dealing with the various unsavory types who made their way onto his panels or into his audiences. The Morton Downey Jr. Show started on WWOR in 1987, and by 1988 it was a nationally-syndicated program, but it turned out to be more of a novelty than a long-term success, and when the ratings started to dip, Downey decided to do something drastic.

On April 24, 1989, while in California with his longtime friend Lloyd Schoonmaker, Downey claimed that he’d been attacked while he was in a restroom at the San Francisco International Airport, telling a tale of skinheads who’d thrown a drink at him, sliced off bits of his hair with scissors, and drawn swastikas on him. Airport authorities did find a pair of scissors and a felt-tip marker in one of the restroom’s toilet bowls, and given the sort of guests who’d frequented his show over the years, it sounded perfectly plausible…as long as you paid no attention to the fact that the swastikas were backwards, as if drawn by someone while they were looking in the mirror.

In the documentary Évocateur: The Morton Downey Jr. Movie, Peter Goldsmith, senior producer of Downey’s show, recalled how Downey phoned him up immediately after the incident. “Mort called me: ‘I just got jumped by a bunch of skinheads, I’m screwed, what you gotta do is, you gotta get a private jet to fly me back. I can’t fly commercial!”

In the immediate wake of the incident, Ron Wilson, spokesman at San Francisco International Airport, assured the Los Angeles Times that their preliminary investigation had left them highly skeptical of Downey’s claim. “‘His story does not at all prove out,’ Wilson said. ‘The witness said there was no scuffle. There were no skinheads in the area. As far as we have found, no such incident took place. Our preliminary investigation shows that this was self-inflicted for whatever reason we don’t know.”

He might not have known, but he did, however, have a guess: “We can only assume it was for publicity.”

If so, then he at least accomplished that much. Downey took his story to the media, talking to a number of journalists and fellow talk-show hosts, including Phil Donahue, on whose show Downey delivered a truly groan-worthy utterance: “I understand why a woman doesn’t report she’s raped anymore. I understand what you go through.”

Downey – who never filed a police report about the incident – never conceded that the “attack” was a hoax, but in the aforementioned documentary, Downey’s buddy Lloyd conceded that he and Mort had picked up the scissors and pen at a 7-Eleven, after which he revealed that he still had the shirt and pants that Downey had been wearing during the “attack.”

But here’s the kicker: the only reason Downey had faked an attack in the first place was because he’d hoped that it would help raise his ratings, but the end result was that The Morton Downey, Jr. Show was cancelled in September 1989.

Kids, if you ever get into the TV game, just remember: hoaxes don’t help, they only hurt.

Will Harris (@NonStopPop) has a longstanding history of doing long-form interviews with random pop culture figures for the A.V. Club, Vulture, and a variety of other outlets, including Variety. He’s currently working on a book with David Zucker, Jim Abrahams, and Jerry Zucker. (And don’t call him Shirley.)

Where to stream Evocateur: The Morton Downey Jr. Story