The Opperman Report'

FLY BY NIGHT is about the helicopter crash on the set of "Twilight Zone: The Movie" – the Warner Bros. film co-produced by Steven Spielberg and John Landis – that killed actor Vic Morrow, and two children who had been hired illegally.

Confidential sources in the studios and in the private worlds of Spielberg and Landis – and in the DA's office, the sheriff's office, Interpol and the FBI – and newly uncovered internal Warner Bros. documents – let the author show the cover-up that ensued, a $5-million-dollar scheme to keep Landis out of jail and Spielberg out of the headlines, resulting in an unbelievable acquittal by a jury that had fallen under the spell of Hollywood. From John Huston, Jackie Cooper, Ralph Bellamy and Don Ameche to Chevy Chase, George Lucas, Dan Aykroyd and Carrie Fisher, both old and new Hollywood found themselves party to this unprecedented event.

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Gianni Russo
With a singularly nebulous background, which, by his account, included stints as a Las Vegas nightclub emcee, radio personality and jewelry tycoon, and with comparatively little acting experience, Gianni Russo won the role of Carlo Rizzi in The Godfather (1972) on the basis of his screen test. Since then, Russo has remained busy as an actor, mostly playing assorted "wiseguys" and Mafia types. He appeared again with Marlon Brando in a small role in The Freshman (1990) where Brando parodied his Don Corleone role to good effect.

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George Christie Jr.
George Christie Jr. was born in 1947 in Ventura, California to a family of Greek immigrants and grew up an only child. From an early age, he was fascinated by motorcycles and outlaw culture, and by the time he started school his intelligence and rebellious attitude set him apart from his peers. As a teenager, he became an avid surfer.When one of his surfing buddies showed up at the beach one day on a Harley-Davidson, George knew what he had to do. In 1966, despite the objections of his father, he bought his first bike–a 1957 Panhead–for $200. He was soon hanging around with Ventura outlaw bike club The Question Marks and famous motorcycle customizers Von Dutch and Dick Woods.


As George puts it, “some people run away and join the circus. I ran away and joined the Hells Angels.” He became a full-patch Hells Angel in the Los Angeles charter in 1976 and, six months later, became its president, before founding the Ventura charter in 1978. As Ventura leader, George became one of the most powerful voices in the national Hells Angels organization, and spent three decades battling the law, rival gangs and members of his own club, while building the club’s business operations.


He famously carried the Olympic torch in the 1984 Los Angeles Games and spent a year in solitary confinement in prison on numerous charges in 2001. In 2011, Christie resigned his presidency of the Ventura charter and left the club. He was immediately excommunicated by his former brothers. George spent another 18 months in prison from 2013-2014 for conspiring to firebomb two Ventura tattoo shops.


George currently serves as a consultant on organized crime for CNN. He lives with his wife and son in Southern California and has three adult children.


He has no regrets.

His business, Felony Prison Consultants (www.felonyprisonconsultants.com), where his expertise is called upon by high-profile and every day people who are faced with incarceration.
His show, Outlaw Chronicles: Hells Angels (www.history.com/shows/outlaw-chronicles-hells-angels), which airs for the next 3 tuesdays on the History Channel at 10/9C.

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