Son of Activist Kantor, 3 Others Killed in Crash

The son of Westside lawyer and prominent Democratic activist Mickey Kantor was killed along with three friends in a fiery auto crash in Santa Monica Friday night.

The four teen-agers died when their car veered out of control, struck a large tree and exploded into flames, police said. The identity of the victims, three boys and a girl, was withheld by the coroner’s office, pending positive identification.

Burst Into Flames

The car, a 1985 Dodge Diplomat, was speeding west on San Vicente Boulevard near 11th Street, police said, when it veered over the center divider. Officials said the vehicle may have been going as much as 20 m.p.h. faster than the 45-m.p.h. speed limit. The rear of the car hit a tree, spun in a half-circle and burst into flames about 10:45 p.m.

Russell Kantor, whose death was disclosed by family friends, was a freshman at Brown University. His father is a partner in the law firm of Manatt, Phelps, Rothenberg and Phillips.

The elder Kantor headed presidential candidate Walter Mondale’s 1984 California effort and represents Occidental Petroleum in its bid to drill for oil in Pacific Palisades, as well as being involved in numerous other political campaigns. In 1978 the youth’s mother was killed in a Pacific Southwest Airlines jetliner crash over San Diego. His stepmother is NBC network news correspondent Heidi Schulman.