Suspect arrested in connection of Mickey Thompson & wife murders

[AAReagles]

Since Mickey Thompson was a part of Indy, and was the first ever to introduce wide,low-profile tires (slicks), I thought this would be of some interest. Hopefully they got the right SOB responsible for the murders.

Source: courtesy of the L.A. Times. I would have normally just placed the site on here, but the Times is a bit big-headed of itself, and charges for requests fulfilled for past articles.



Man Arrested in '88 Death of Racing Great
Crime: Michael Goodwin, a former business partner, is accused of killing driver Mickey Thompson and his wife. Goodwin has long said he is innocent.


By JOE MOZINGO and EVAN HALPER, TIMES STAFF WRITERS


Thirteen years after auto racing legend Mickey Thompson and his wife were shot to death in front of their San Gabriel Valley mansion, the man long considered a prime suspect in the murders was arrested Sunday night, authorities said.

Michael F. Goodwin, a former business partner of Thompson, was taken into custody at 7:25 p.m. while he was eating dinner with his father and brother at his home in Dana Point, according to his attorney.

"One of the deputies said that he was being taken for the murder of Mickey Thompson," said his attorney, Jeffrey Benice. The warrant "for the murder of Mike and Trudy Thompson" was issued by the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department, according to a homicide sergeant. Authorities said Goodwin, 56, was booked at the Inmate Detention Center in downtown Los Angeles. Earlier this year, Goodwin was subpoenaed by an Orange County grand jury and his home was searched.

Goodwin, who has long claimed his innocence in one of the region's most enduring whodunits, accused deputies of taking documents protected by attorney-client privilege.

At a hastily arranged press conference in Santa Ana, Benice said the arrest was a ruse to get Goodwin into a police lineup, something he has successfully fought in court to this point. Goodwin had filed an appeal to stop the grand jury probe altogether, and a hearing was scheduled for later this month.

"They don't have a right to terrorize him and take him off the street while he's eating dinner," Benice said. "In a rogue fashion, they are ignoring the court of appeals."

Benice said deputies did not read his client his rights Sunday night. The homicide lieutenant overseeing the case did not return a phone call seeking comment.

Thompson and his wife were killed in March 1988 in front of their 13-car garage in the tony hillside community of Bradbury as he was leaving for work. The murder shocked the racing world, where Thompson was famous for being the first American to break the 400-mph land speed mark at the Bonneville Salt Flats and, later, becoming a leading promoter in off-road racing.

In his 59 years, Thompson had raced speedboats and top-fuel dragsters. In 1960, he broke his back and was temporarily paralyzed in a high-speed accident. He later helped pioneer off-road racing in the desert of Baja California. He came up with the idea of off-road racing in stadiums, a sport that soon boomed at such places as the Coliseum, Rose Bowl and Anaheim Stadium.

Investigators believe the murders were carried out by two contract killers, who fled on 10-speed bicycles, ignoring $70,000 in jewelry in the house and $4,000 in cash on the victims.

Early on, they named Goodwin a suspect. He and Thompson had a bitter falling out three years before the slayings over business dealings gone awry. Goodwin lost a $531,000 legal battle after a judge ruled he had misappropriated Thompson's business investments.

Two weeks after the killings, Goodwin left his home in Laguna Beach to live on a yacht in the Caribbean.

Over more than a decade, investigators in Los Angeles and Orange counties chased more than 1,000 clues and leads, but apparently did not obtain enough evidence to arrest Goodwin.

Thompson's sister, Collene Campbell, a former mayor of San Juan Capistrano, put up a $1 million reward for information leading to the arrest of the killers.

Sunday night, she reacted with a "sigh of relief" to the arrest.

"We've been waiting more than 13 years for this," she said. "From the very beginning, I had no doubt Goodwin was who they should be investigating. Mickey called me just two days before his death and said 'Sis, I'm afraid Goodwin is going to do something to hurt Trudy' "

Campbell's son Scott was murdered in 1982, and she has been a leading advocate for crime victims' rights statewide.

"I want to have hope that this is really it. But I keep remembering the police saying that Goodwin had said that the only way they'd get him into a lineup was to arrest him. I hope that's not all this is."

Campbell said she and her husband Gary know that going through a trial with Goodwin will be agony.

"I'm not sure our family can stand the justice system one more time, but you can bet we'll be there to see it through."

Contributing to this story was Times staff writer Jerry Hicks.

[Ray Bell]

I certainly hope they have the right man... but one has to laugh at the getaway vehicles...

Ten-speed bicycles?

[AAReagles]

Ya, I know.... using 10-speeds doesn't sound like a good idea to me either. Unless they had silencers on the weapons, then I could see how the bicycles would contribute to the stealthness of their "job".

However, remember what little footage I saw, indicated to me, that the Thompsons lived up in the foothills of LA somewhere. That in mind, it would have been smarter to have parked a van somewhere remote and pull out two dirtbikes. That way, not only did they have faster transportation for leaving the crime scene, but if something went wrong, they would have a better chance of getting away with motorcycles as opposed to 'peddle-power'.

Then again, anyone that's plotting to bump someone off, isn't thinking wise to begin with.

[Ray Bell]

They may have been ideally suited to their planned getaway path... perhaps a downhill run down a footpath to a van with rear doors open and waiting?

[AAReagles]

That's a good possibility too. Just wipe the bikes down of fingerprints then dump them off inconspicously in the bad part of L.A. and leave them to be stolen, which wouldn't be hard to do, as there are so many bad parts of L.A. lol

[KC]

Unless you live if LA or an immediate suburb, you will be in the foothills. Bradbury is the community where he lived and it is the the northern hills of LA.

Bicycles would work best in these neighborhoods. Two stroke bikes are illegal for road use and would have raised the ire of the neighbors. Off road riding would have garnered immediate calls to the police in the area. However, bicycles would be roundly ignored.

Apparently the LA Sheriffs office had been trying to get Goodwin to come in for a police lineup since 1988 but did not have enough evidence to force him by arrest. This has changed I guess.