When Mickey Thompson and his wife Trudy were assassinated in
their driveway in the pre-dawn hours of March 16, 1988, the salacious
details of the crime and the years of legal wrangling that followed
made for hundreds of splashy headlines and sexy television soundbytes.
After all, the story had it all . . . unknown hooded gunmen
riding into a gated Southern California community on bicycles,
ambushing their victims and brutally ending their lives while
neighbors ate breakfast and read the morning paper.
Leaving behind more than $70,000 in jewelry, the killing was
an obvious ?hit,? and those close to Mickey and Trudy immediately
pointed to Mickey?s hot-headed former business partner Michael Goodwin
as the mastermind behind the tragedy. Nearly 20 years later, Goodwin
was found guilty by a Pasadena Superior Court jury in 2006 of two
counts of first-degree murder. The actual gunmen were never identified
or apprehended.
John Walsh and America?s Most Wanted did multiple episodes
leading up to the conviction. Robert Stack featured the murders on
Unsolved Mysteries. CBS? 48 Hours Mystery got in the act. Everyone
wanted a piece of the story.
A good story, however, has much more than a powerful ending.
Who was Mickey Thompson? What made him more than just another
victim of violent crime in America? This is what Mickey Thompson: The
Fast Life and Mysterious Death of a Racing Legend explores.
Mickey was one of the most influential figures in early
American motorsports. While he did have loyal and longtime friends,
Mickey always did things one way . . . his way. And he did it with
speed . . . he did everything with speed.
From his 1950s adventures in the Carrera
Panamericana, ending with five dead and dramatic pictures in Life
Magazine in 1953, through making a one-way run of 406.60 miles per
hour at the Bonneville Salt Flats in 1960 in his famed Challenger,
through multiple trend-setting entries in the famed Indianapolis 500
and into the creation of some of the most popular off-road racing
series and motor sportsstadium shows, Mickey?s life was full of
?firsts.?
And in a world that seems to be moving faster than even Mickey
Thompson could have imagined, the complete story of this true American
legend is one worth slowing down for.
Book Description
Drawing on some of the most extensive information on
motorsports racer and promotor Mickey Thompson?s infamous life and
death, and working with reporter and Thompson intimate, Erik Arneson
delves into one of the most sensational murder cases ever to rock the
world of racing. Arneson traces the tragedy to its beginnings in a
troubled partnership between the victim and supercross racing series
founder Mike Goodwin.
From the adrenaline-charged world of international racing to
the cold logic of California?s criminal courts, Mickey Thompson
pursues this tale to its sobering conclusion. This book also
chronicles Mickey's fascinating life from his 1950s adventures in the
Carrera Panamericana to his Challenger run at the Bonneville Salt
Flats, famed Indy 500 entries and creation of a popular off-road
racing series.
