Michael Goodwin, for the past 18 years the top (and only) suspect 
in the gangland-style execution deaths of racing legend Mickey Thompson and his wife, Trudy, at their Los Angeles-area home, finally got his day in court. And as everyone who knew Thompson and Goodwin expected, and knew from the day of the murders themselves, Goodwin was guilty and was found so by this brave jury, which deliberated for a day or so before the New Year's break, and for four days afterwards. Using the powerful circumstantial evidence presented to them by the prosecutor and police detectives, and considering the fact that the two men who actually carried-out the murders were never found, Goodwin wound up taking the rap for the crime himself. (Photo above: Mickey and Trudy Thompson).
It won’t bring anyone back, but here’s how the Associated Press story ran on the wires about 3pm Thursday, 1-4-07:
Goodwin Found Guilty in Murders of Racer Mickey Thompson, Wife |
PASADENA, CA (AP) -- Michael Goodwin, a once high-living motorsports promoter, was convicted of two counts of murder in the 1988 killings of Mickey Thompson and the racing legend's wife. The jury also found that special circumstance allegations of lying in wait and multiple murder were true. The prosecution has said it will not seek the death penalty. Goodwin was a former business partner of Thompson, a racer who pursued land-speed records on the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah and drove everything from dragsters and funny cars to midgets, and was a major figure in popularizing off-road contests. |
I knew both Thompson and Goodwin and actually worked for Mickey for over a year in the very house where the murders were committed. Only through the tenacity of Mickey’s sister, Colleen Campbell and her husband Gary, and the bravery of witnesses such as Alison Triarsi, the only person who actually saw the murders committed (and who, coincidentally, was my producer at KCBS/TV2 in Los Angeles), was this case finally able to come to trial. And now, EIGHTEEN YEARS after the murders, this jury has absolutely, without doubt, positively, brought back the RIGHT VERDICT. (Photo: Michael Goodwin).
The only possible positive to come out of this whole thing is that Mickey's sister Colleen Campbell (who served as the mayor of San Juan Capistrano, CA for a time) created the movement for "Victim's Rights" in the United States, and her work for her murdered brother and other crime victims served as an example to people worldwide, who founded their own groups in their respective nations. This crime was also profiled more than any other on the John Walsh TV show, "America's Most Wanted".
Comments