They were America’s TV triplets—Ron, Don, and John Sampson of Triple Harmony. Then the 1980s hit and John’s plane vanished over the Atlantic. Fame fractured. Ron drifted into a hair-metal sideshow. Don rebranded as a TV karate hothead with lawsuits to match. In 1988, Don dialed 911 in tears: “My brother’s been eaten by Mrs. Cupcake.” His fifteen-foot pet python. An accident, at first—until the autopsy didn’t fit. What followed was years of spectacle: a marathon trial, a 1992 guilty verdict for Ron’s death, and then Don’s prison-written memoir, My Troubled Triple Life, bragging about sabotaging John’s plane. Case reopened. Courthouse recess. Air-vent escape. Seven missing years. In 1999, a tip: someone’s ex-girlfriend might actually be Don Sampson.

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“What did the council decide on item 42?” — answered with the speaker and the moment.

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