SAN FRANCISCO -- Controversial TV talk show host Morton Downey Jr. claimed three skinheads attacked him in an airport restroom - chopping his hair and smearing him with swastikas -- but authorities disputed the report.
'Our preliminary investigation shows that this was self-inflicted for whatever reason we don't know,' Ron Wilson, spokesman at San Francisco International Airport, said Tuesday. 'We can only assume it was for publicity.'
The loudmouth star of the syndicated 'The Morton Downey Jr. Show' told airport police three skinheads roughed him up, cut off a clump of his hair and painted swastikas on his face, shirt and pants Monday night.
Airport authorities found a pair of scissors and a felt-tip marker pen in a toilet bowl. But officers said an unidentified witness told them the claim was phony.
'His (Downey's) 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.'
Downey, who declined to file a police complaint, flew back to New York Tuesday morning but insisted the attack was real and he was punched by the assailants, one of whom he kicked.
'He sounded really shaken up,' said Jim Gabbert, owner and manager of San Francisco independent television station KOFY, who said Downey telephoned him from aboard his plane. Gabbert said he 'grilled' Downey about the incident.
KOFY began airing Downey's show Monday night shortly after a press party for the abrasive, chain-smoking talk show host aboard Gabbert's boat in Sausalito.
KOFY's broadcast of the show was blacked out for about half an hour shortly after its start by two telephoned bomb threats by anonymous female callers to the station's switchboard. No explosives were found by a police bomb squad.
Gabbert said he told both Downey and his manager that 'If it is a hoax (the airport attack), his show is off the air. But I'm willing to give him the benefit of the doubt.
'It's inconceivable that he would (fake the attack),' Gabbert said. 'It looks to me like it'd be pretty perilous.'
Downey told the San Francisco Examiner Monday night at his hotel room that one of the attackers 'put his arm around my throat and his other hand across my eyes and dragged me to a stall. They sat me on the toilet. One guy sat on me and another one started cutting my hair.
'They told me, 'Don't get mad, get even' and now I was one of them,' Downey said. The phrase is one frequently used by Downey.
Downey said he hurt one of the attackers. 'I kicked him real good,' he said.
The purported incident occurred at 11:30 p.m. in a North Terminal men's restroom near American Airlines at the airport in South San Francisco.
Downey's show was previously carried on another San Francisco station last summer but canceled after only 16 weeks because of protests by homosexual groups because of his hostile remarks against gays.
Downey announced in a letter to TV stations across the country several weeks ago that he was toning down the confrontational nature of his show, which featured harsh, sometimes obscene, berating of his guests to the cheers of his fans. A number of scuffles have broken out on the show.
In taping an appearance last week on another San Francisco TV talk show for airing this week, Downey apologized to gay groups and vowed to be 'more considerate of people with alternative lifestyles.'
He said he began undergoing counseling seven months ago and blamed his past attitude towards homosexuals on a 'attack' by a gay doctor when he was 12 years old.
Airport police, fire department and medical personnel rushed to the North Terminal restroom in response to a report of an injury phoned in by a caller identifying himself only as 'Terry.'
They questioned Downey alongside his parked limousine outside American Airlines. He refused medical treatment or to lodge a complaint.
'He claimed he had been threatened in the past by neo-Nazis and said these persons, whom he couldn't describe, were apparently trying to get him back,' Wilson said.
'He did not want a report filed. He didn't file any kind of report. Our officers did, of course, and are further investigating.'
Wilson said whether Downey could be charged with making false statements to police would be up to the city attorney's office.
Besides the witness, there were apparently only two other persons in the restroom at the time, Wilson said.
Downey said he was at the airport to change his flight schedule.
