Leg custody battle to hit reality TV

Pair go to Chicago to film episode of reality court program

Saturday, Oct. 13, 2007

By Marcie Young
Charlotte Observer Staff Writer

It was probably inevitable -- the custody battle over an amputated legis headed to reality TV.

Shannon Whisnant and John Wood were in Chicago on Friday, filming an episode for "Judge Mathis" -- a reality court program where cases are decided by a television judge, Greg Mathis.

This week, the show featured the legal battles of former best friends ripped apart by drugs and two other women in a bitter love triangle.

Producers at "Judge Mathis" confirmed that Whisnant and Wood were inChicago on Friday filming the episode, scheduled to air Nov. 1 onWYMT-TV (channel 55).

Whisnant found Wood's amputated leg -- the foot, five toes, ankle and most of the calf -- in a barbecue smoker he bought earlier this month at a Maiden auction, and the men have spent the last two weeks vyingfor ownership of the appendage.

Wood's leg was amputated after a plane crash three years ago. He had been keeping it at a Maiden storage unit with his other belongings, but after he failed to pay $550 in rental fees, the owner of the facility auctioned off his belongings.

Though Whisnant has said he was initially sickened by the leg, which he handed over to law enforcement because he "thought it might have been part of a missing person or someone's ex-wife," he started seeing things differently when newspapers and television networks from around the world started running the story.

He began charging a few bucks for people who wanted to see the smoker and was hoping to get the leg back and charge admission fees -- $10 for adults, $5 for seniors, $3 for kids and nothing for amputees -- to see it.

Whisnant wouldn't say how the case was settled but said he was "having a hell of a time in Chicago" and was looking forward to having a few cocktails at a fancy nightclub after leaving the television studio.

Wood could not be reached by phone Friday, and his brother-in-law, Tom Lytle, said that Wood no longer has a number where he can be reached. During an interview with the Observer last week, Wood said he didn't want Whisnant to "profit off finding my leg."

But even without the world knowing how Mathis ruled in court, Whisnant said he has plans to make some cash off his discovery.

When his Web site is ready, he said, he'll be selling black T-shirts with a picture of his face flanked by a leg on either side and the words, "I am friends with the foot man."

"They'll be $15.95 plus shipping," he said. "(But) they're beautiful shirts, they really are."


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