The Region - News from March 29, 1985

The insurance company that had written a homeowner’s policy for a Vietnam veteran, who later went berserk and killed his live-in girlfriend, two of her children and himself, will pay as much as $12 million to the woman’s teen-age son who, though shot in the head, survived the incident in the ex-Marine’s Paramount home. An attorney for Timothy Swanson, 14, said the boy, who has recovered physically, will be paid $12 million in cash and annuities over the course of his lifetime by Prudential Insurance Co., carrier of the policy. A lawyer representing Prudential said the payment structure puts the total closer to $6 million. The incident occurred Oct. 12, 1981, in the home of Ronald Phillips, 32, a truck driver. Phillips, police said at the time, had been drinking all day and apparently went berserk.