Killers for Hire Read Free Page A

motorcyclist stopped and picked up the man.
    Police retrieved the bike from the bus stop and took it back to the crime scene to be dusted for fingerprints. A check of the serial number revealed that nine such bicycles were shipped to Montgomery Ward stores in California during June 1985.
    Meanwhile, several concerned friends and family members began showing up at the crime scene after hearing on the radio that a shooting had happened in Bradbury. This included Thompson’s son, Danny, from a first marriage, his sister, Collene Campbell, and Bill Marcel, vice president of operations at Thompson’s company.
    Danny Thompson, a successful race car driver in his own right, had been notified about the shootings by a friend who heard it on the news. At that time, it wasn’t clear if anyone had died. Danny had been at work in Huntington Beach, 40 miles away, and drove the agonizingly long car ride, listening to the news for updates and praying that everything would be OK.
    “I had a ray of hope that they weren’t dead,” Danny said. “He was invincible in my eyes. When you are invincible, you can’t die. You aren’t allowed.”
    Deputies waved him through a roadblock set up at the bottom of Mount Olive Drive, the public access street bordering the Thompson property.
    Danny wasn’t allowed on the premises but could clearly see two bodies on the driveway that weren’t yet covered in plastic.
    “I was in disbelief,” Danny said. “Even though I could see him lying there, it was unrealistic. This couldn’t be happening….my dad. He was immortal.”
    Those who knew Mickey best echoed a name that would become synonymous with his during the next 19 years: Michael Goodwin, Mickey’s former business partner. The duo bitterly parted ways over a financial dispute that resulted in several years of contentious litigation.
    Mickey had been telling anyone who would listen that Goodwin wanted him dead.
    “If anything ever happens to me, it’s Michael Goodwin,” Phyllis Triarsi parroted Mickey’s words to investigators.
    “Mickey told me that Michael Goodwin had put a contract out on him,” recounted neighbor Walt Dahlem, the best man at Mickey’s wedding to Trudy.
    “I immediately thought Goodwin had done this,” Danny said. “I told Sgt. Verdugo that I was certain of it. My dad called me a few weeks before he died to tell me I needed to watch my back because Goodwin was up to something and was going to kill him.”

    Escape route bordering home
photo by Gene Blevins
    Detectives and patrol deputies began the arduous task of going door-to-door, talking to neighbors about what they might have seen or heard. They identified eight people in and around Bradbury believed to have seen the shooters.
    They discovered that four days earlier, on a Sunday, Terrence and Roberta Moll were entering Bradbury through the main gate at Royal Oaks Drive when they spotted two black men inside riding bikes up Woodlyn Lane. Terrence Moll remarked to his wife that it was unusual to see blacks in that community. It was about 3 PM.
    Dahlem, who lived about a block away, outside the Bradbury perimeter, reported seeing a black man standing next to the Thompson property on Monday. It was between 5 and 6 AM, and the man was wearing dark athletic clothes and a knit cap. When the man noticed Dahlem looking at him, he bent over and appeared to be tying his tennis shoe.

    Wall where suspect spotted
photo by Gene Blevins
    Also on Monday, Richard Passmore was driving along Royal Oaks Drive near Mount Olive Avenue when he saw a new maroon Volvo station wagon parked on the wrong side of the street. Two black men in dark sweat suits were removing two shiny, new-looking 10-speeds from the back of the car.
    Detectives tried to narrow down the description of the suspects:
    One neighbor described them as black, about 6’2”, 220 pounds and around 30 years old. “The OJ Simpson type,” he said.
    Another offered a similar description, although he thought the