In the docuseries, Nancy Campbell-Panitz’s son, Jeffrey Campbell, discussed how his mother’s tumultuous relationship with her ex-husband ended in her death months after they appeared on The Jerry Springer Show.
Netflix’s Jerry Springer: Fights, Camera, Action docuseries is looking back on one of the show’s darkest moments.
In the second part of the doc, released Tuesday January 7, guest Nancy Campbell-Panitz’s brutal murder at the hands of ex-husband Ralf Panitz was discussed by Nancy’s son, Jeffrey Campbell.
Jeffrey discussed how his mother’s tumultuous relationship with Ralf ended in her death months after they participated as guests on The Jerry Springer Show.
“I don’t think they have ever been held accountable for anything. I am sure there have been other people that have been affected — other guests we don’t know about,” Jeffrey said of the show’s producers. “Or people just watching the show at home thinking, ‘Oh, this is normal.’ It isn’t.”
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Nancy and Ralf were married for 15 months before divorcing in 1999. They continued to live together off and on until Ralf secretly married wife Eleanor Panitz in 2000. The trio ultimately went on The Jerry Springer Show in May 2000, where they aired out their relationship issues.
The bitter back-and-forth resulted in Ralf and Elanor accusing Nancy of stalking them, despite Ralf admitting to sleeping with Nancy just two nights prior.
“Ralf loves me and he wants to be with me. And you redheaded bitch from hell, you need to leave us alone,” Elanor said during the episode. “You need to get a life. I hope you enjoyed yourself immensely the last two nights because it is the last time you are ever going to see him. He wants to be with me.”
Nancy walked off stage instead of engaging in a physical altercation — an unlikely route for the show which often ended in onstage blowups.
While The Jerry Springer Show, led by the late Jerry Springer, started as a talk show, over its two decades on air, it adopted a new format, tackling taboo topics like incest and adultery while encouraging profanity, nudity and physical fight — something Jeffrey said his mother wouldn’t have been a part of had she known.
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“It is pretty obvious that they were there to ambush her. The interesting thing is the title of the show. If she had known that that was the title, she probably would have thought twice [about appearing]. But she didn’t know that,” Jeffrey said. “The producers wanted them to get physical and make threats and she wasn’t about to do that.”
While she did briefly reconciled with Ralf, she was ultimately granted a restraining order against him in July 2000 — the same day as the court hearing and the airing of their Jerry Springer episode, and sadly, the same day Nany was found dead in her home.
Ralf received a life sentence two years later after he was found guilty of second degree-murder.
The show was referenced by Judge Nancy Donnellan during his sentencing. with Donnellan sharing her belief that Ralf and Nancy’s messy relationship dynamic was “manipulated” by producers on the show.
“Ralf Panitz, Eleanor Panitz and Nancy Campbell were brought to Chicago by the Jerry Springer Show, then manipulated by producers of that show,” Donnellan read in May 2002. “Are ratings more important than the dignity of human life? Shame on you.”
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At the time, Springer and producers associated with the show denied that their talk show contributed to Nancy’s death.
Nancy’s son, meanwhile, wishes he could turn back time and stop his mother from going on the show.
“It was shocking, to say the least, that she agreed to do it. It was so out of character. Growing up, I don’t even remember my mother ever dating. Maybe once or twice but nothing like a serious relationship because she was a widow,” Jeffrey, who shared that his father and Nancy’s ex, died when he was young, added. “To see her up on the show just looking like a deer caught in the headlights like, ‘What is going on here?’ I just wish I could go back and say to her, ‘Don’t do it.'”
Jerry Springer: Fights, Camera, Action is streaming now on Netflix.
