Deputies Ask Public’s Aid in Thompson Killings

Sheriff’s deputies have taken to the streets for public help in their investigation of the slaying of millionaire race promoter Mickey Thompson and his wife, Trudy, who were gunned down Wednesday in the driveway of their Bradbury home.

A roadblock was set up Friday near the Thompsons’ house in the San Gabriel foothills, as investigators asked morning commuters if they had seen a blond man in his late 30s riding a gray Columbia-brand 12-speed bicycle in nearby Irwindale, shortly after 7 a.m. Wednesday.

Deputies also printed flyers bearing a description of that man. They plan to hand them out to motorists at another Bradbury-area traffic blockade to be set up sometime in the next few days, said Sheriff’s Deputy Eric Smith.

Trying to Get Ride

The blond-haired man being sought was seen “desperately” trying to flag down drivers on Wednesday morning, apparently seeking a ride, deputies said. The bicycle was recovered later that day. Witnesses had reported seeing two black men pedaling bicycles away from the Bradbury area after the 6 a.m. shootings, but deputies want to question the blond man as well.

Sheriff’s spokesmen refused to reveal whether Friday’s roadblock gave investigators any fresh information in the killings, which were characterized as “an assassination.”

Deputy Roxanna Schuchman said investigators were hoping that Friday’s roadblock--established during the same time frame as the murders--would turn up “someone who saw something, or maybe even gave one of the suspects a ride away from the scene.”

Meanwhile, the reward for information leading to the conviction of the Thompsons’ killers has grown to more than $40,000.

In addition to the $30,000 posted Thursday by the Whittier-based Special Equipment Market Assn., (SEMA) a trade group representing makers of performance car equipment, an additional $10,000 was posted anonymously by a Thompson friend, as well as smaller individual contributions, according to association spokesman Vaughn King.

Thompson, the “Speed King” of the 1950s, told relatives and friends that he had received numerous death threats.

Friends said that in recent years Thompson had been assembling a movie of his life and racing achievements.

Wanting something more than a documentary-style story, he reworked it repeatedly, even previewing it in Las Vegas during a SEMA trade show, where “it just didn’t get the reception he hoped for,” said friend Alex Xydias. Xydias said he did not know what had become of the film, which featured vivid footage of off-road races, and which Thompson had apparently worked on in a video-equipped studio he had set up in his home.