Man Is Arrested in Brutal Slaying of His Wife, 73

A Point Loma man scheduled for a psychiatric hearing today because of letters he wrote allegedly threatening the life of President Reagan was arrested Monday after the brutal ax slaying of his wife.

Arrested on murder charges was Stanley F. Stress, 66, a retired real estate agent who lives in the 1900 block of Mendocino Boulevard, San Diego police reported. He is charged with killing his wife of 18 years, Phyllis, age 73.

According to police, Stress called them at 5:16 a.m. Monday and said he had struck his wife with an ax. When police arrived at the couple’s home, they found Phyllis Stress dead on a small couch upstairs, a three-foot ax sticking from her head. Stanley Stress was arrested at the scene and taken to County Jail.

Stress is known by several area politicians and government officials, as well as several reporters and editors at local newspapers, for his frequent letters attacking professional and major-college sports.

According to court records, Stress since 1972 has mailed thousands of letters and even published his own book, “Spoof on Sports--Unique Un-American Business.” He has criticized big-time college football for “enslaving” athletes and blasted owners of professional sports teams for perpetuating a “corrupt” system.

But his fury has been especially focused on what he perceives as a National Football League cover-up involving football players not fighting in the Vietnam War.

It was Stress’ obsession with corruption in sports that led to his indictment and arrest for allegedly threatening the life of President Reagan.

In December, 1983, he was arrested by Secret Service agents for a letter addressed to “Prostitute Ronald Reagan.” In the letter he said he wanted to “First, kill prostitute presidents. To be or not to be first killed? That is the question today. Secret Service asks me if I wish to kill you. I do, I do...Yes SS, I do want to kill the president(s)--professionally and or politically.”

On orders of the San Diego federal court, Stress was evaluated by Dr. Thomas A. Rodgers, a psychiatrist. In January, 1984, the doctor found that Stress “has demonstrated no evidence of serious, impulsive behavior or judgment” or exhibited any “evidence of a serious underlying disorder.”

The only time Stress acted “impulsively” was in 1963, when he cut his wrists in a “suicide gesture” while in the Navy, according to Rodgers’ report. The doctor concluded that Stress didn’t need formal psychiatric care.

However, 15 months later, in April of this year, Rodgers had changed his mind and said that Stress, who continued to write threatening letters, was mentally incompetent to stand trial.

On Monday, Rodgers, who said he was aware of the killing, declined to comment on his examination of Stress.

After his initial psychiatric examination in 1984, Stress and his attorney, Peter Hughes of San Diego, agreed with the U.S. attorney’s office to take part in what is called the Deferred Prosecution Program, a federal diversion program. In return for Stress’ promise not to write threatening letters for one year, the charges against him would be dropped.

But just two months after agreeing to the restrictions, Stress once again began writing threatening letters to Reagan and others.

“I thought he had a severe emotional problem, no doubt about it, but I didn’t feel at that time he would do anything like this,” said Hughes, one of at least five attorneys who represented Stress. “No one considered him a severe threat, he was never violent beyond the letters.”

With the agreement between Stress and the federal government broken, the U.S. attorney’s office pressed foward with criminal charges.

In April, after a second psychiatric exmamination by Rodgers and Dr. Philip Soloman, Stress was declared incompetent to understand or help in the preparation of his defense, though he wasn’t declared insane. The hearing scheduled for today was to evaluate whether his condition had changed.

“The professional opinion was that he didn’t appear to be a danger to anyone,” said Lynne R. Lasry, the assistant U.S. attorney who prosecuted the Stress case and who received a letter from him about once a week. “It’s very tragic. He obviously was driving toward something and this is the way he made his point. I’m sure this is devastating to his family.”

Lasry, like others familiar with the case, said that despite the virulence of Stress’ letters, he “never acted anything out . . . he was never violent.”

Homicide Lt. Paul Ybarrondo said he couldn’t comment about whether Phyllis Stress’ death was directly related to her husband’s sports corruption fixation. No letters about the killing were found at the home, Ybarrondo said.