Friends Hope Arrest Breaks Thompson Case

SANTA ANA —  The case files were so thick they could reach the ceiling of the police office, encompassing more than 1,100 leads that ultimately led nowhere, detectives said.

Pleas for help went out on TV’s “Unsolved Mysteries.” Psychics even rushed forth to offer visions of the people who gunned down millionaire car-racing pioneer Mickey Thompson and his wife in front of their 13-car garage in the San Gabriel Valley in 1988.

But still, no arrests. Now, however, associates of Thompson are heartened by what they think could prove one of the biggest breaks in the case yet: the arrest this week of Thompson’s estranged business partner in Santa Ana on bankruptcy fraud charges.

Michael F. Goodwin, who lived in Laguna Beach before he reportedly fled to the Caribbean in a 57-foot yacht just two weeks after the 1988 murders, was taken into custody Wednesday by federal authorities on charges that he concealed and transferred bankruptcy assets, among other allegations.

Goodwin, 48, being held in federal custody without bail, is scheduled to appear in U.S. District Court in Santa Ana at 11 a.m. today for a hearing in the case.

Goodwin’s declaration of bankruptcy was spurred in part by a 1986 judgment ordering him to pay Thompson $768,733.40 as a result of a business dispute that grew out of their joint promotion of motor sport races.

Thompson was the first American to break the 400-m.p.h. land-speed record, and the company that still bears his name continues to hold off-road racing events at stadiums around the country.

Los Angeles County sheriff’s officials, heading the Thompson murder investigation, said in Los Angeles that while Goodwin’s arrest had no connection to their case, he has “never been eliminated” as a suspect in the Thompson murders.

“I don’t wish to elaborate one iota further at this time,” Sgt. John Yarbrough, a sheriff’s homicide investigator, said Thursday.

Thompson’s associates, however, were hopeful.

“It’s been five long years with a lot of dead ends, but the family has never lost faith that this would come to a successful resolution,” said Bob Russo, a friend of Thompson’s who is acting as a spokesman for the family.

“We think this is a step in the right direction, and the family’s pretty pleased about it. There’s always been some question as to why (Goodwin) suddenly disappeared right after the murders and a number of other things that cast suspicion,” he said.

“There’s reason for hope,” said real-estate agent Lance Johnson, a friend and neighbor of the Thompsons in Bradbury who donated his commission from the sale of their home in late 1988 to the family’s $250,000 reward fund.

“We have no insight into what the situation is, but (Goodwin) is the name that seems to come up in the case, so I’m just listening to see what happens and what comes of this,” he said.

Goodwin, in fact, is virtually the only person publicly named by authorities as a suspect in the March 16, 1988, slayings.

Thompson and his wife and business partner, Trudy, were leaving for work that morning when police say two young men lurking outside their home shot them to death and fled on 10-speed bicycles. The assailants didn’t take any of the $70,000 in jewelry that Trudy Thompson was wearing or the $4,000 in cash the couple was carrying, leading investigators to conclude that the Thompsons were executed by professional killers.

In the days after the murders, sheriff’s investigators spoke several times to Goodwin--who repeatedly denied any involvement in what appeared to be contract “hits”--and they alleged in court affidavits that Goodwin may have threatened his old business partner.

But no charges were brought, and two weeks after the murders, Goodwin reportedly left the area for the Caribbean to live in self-imposed exile on a yacht called Believe.

Goodwin showed up in U.S. District Court in Santa Ana for a hearing in a dispute over a bankruptcy judge’s administration of a $3-million pension fund that Goodwin says he holds from one of his past companies. He maintains that the court has used the pension fund to pay exorbitant attorneys’ fees that have arisen in the bankruptcy case, said Santa Ana attorney Donald S. Honig, who has been representing Goodwin in the pension issue.

It was after the hearing that federal agents arrested Goodwin, executing a warrant issued on the strength of a sealed indictment handed down in Los Angeles in May, officials said.

The arrest came as a surprise, Honig said, adding that “we had no knowledge of that (indictment) until he was arrested.” Honig said Goodwin was innocent of any bankruptcy fraud charges, but would not comment on speculation that the arrest could provide a break in the murder investigation.

Despite recent press reports that placed Goodwin in the Caribbean, Honig said Goodwin has “certainly been around (this area) for a while,” but he would not say where.

Sgt. Ron Spear, a spokesman for the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department, also maintained in an interview that investigators have known Goodwin’s whereabouts for some time, although he would not say where that had been. As a result, he said, Goodwin’s arrest should not make it any easier for investigators to crack the Thompson murders.

“We knew where he was and we could talk to him any time we wanted to, as far as I know,” he said.