Business Deal Blamed in Double Murder, Suicide

A long-simmering business dispute prompted a former physician who had operated a doctor’s office near a South-Central Los Angeles housing project to fatally shoot two men and commit suicide by turning the gun on himself, authorities said Saturday.

Morris P. Adkins, 66, had apparently invited a business associate to his Colonial-style View Park home Friday afternoon under the guise of selling furniture, according to one of the victim’s relatives.

Adkins shot Julius Joel Andes, 61, of Los Angeles three times in the upper body, and shot Saul Glickman, 66, of Woodland Hills twice before putting a .38-caliber revolver to his heart and firing a single shot, the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department reported.

Investigators released little information about the circumstances behind the bizarre shooting, but said evidence taken from the house--communications written by Adkins, legal papers and a firearm--led them to conclude that the shootings were a double murder and suicide.

“The evidence leads us to believe that he (Adkins) planned this,” said Sgt. Don Garcia of the sheriff’s homicide unit. “Basically he was unhappy with a business transaction that had been completed by Mr. Andes.”

Relatives and friends of Adkins said he had been despondent over financial troubles and had complained that he was a victim of unscrupulous business dealings by Andes.

Members of Andes’ family sharply denied the allegation of improper dealings. Two daughters who worked with their father’s business management and consulting firm said Andes was shot for no reason after pulling Adkins out of difficult financial times.

Members of both families said that Adkins and Andes had been entangled in at least one civil lawsuit over business deals, but that it had recently been settled. None of the family members said they were familiar with the terms of the settlement. Attorneys on both sides could not be reached Saturday.

The Medical Board of California revoked Adkins’ medical license July 4, 1990, for illegally selling triplicate prescriptions for $100, records released in January, 1991, showed.

Ellis Burke, Adkins’ nephew, said Saturday that his uncle’s license had recently been reissued. Adkins stopped practicing medicine about three years ago, sheriff’s officials said.

Burke, who lives in an apartment behind his uncle’s fashionable Olympiad Drive house, said Adkins had operated a successful family practice for about 20 years near the Pueblo del Rio housing project in South-Central Los Angeles.

Because he treated many poor people on Medi-Cal insurance, Burke said, Adkins found it difficult to collect reimbursement from the state. He made contact with Andes and the two entered into a business agreement to manage his medical practice and property holdings, Burke said.

In recent years, Burke said, Adkins charged that he was swindled and unknowingly signed over assets of about $5 million to Andes’ firm. Burke said Adkins left behind a five-page letter, seized by investigators, describing the nature of the business deals and the reason behind the shootings.

“He didn’t snap,” Burke said. “He just decided what he wanted to do.”

Andes’ two daughters, Tina McWatters, 30, and Faith Singer, 35, vehemently denied that their father had cheated Adkins. McWatters said Andes “had a business arrangement to get him out of trouble,” after Adkins’ run-in with authorities for illegally prescribing drugs.

“I don’t want my father to be thought of in any way less than the fine person that he was,” McWatters said.

On Thursday afternoon, Adkins telephoned Andes and invited him to his house because he wanted to sell some furniture, McWatters said. Glickman, who worked with Andes as a sales manager, decided to accompany his boss to the house and was not involved in the dispute, McWatters said.

Detectives have not yet investigated the conflicting allegations.

“We don’t know what’s true or not,” Garcia said. “But Mr. Adkins felt it was true and this is what caused the situation. . . . The way he felt was the motivating factor behind what he did. It appears he had been a very successful man. This is all a real tragedy in my opinion.”