Death, Mystery Fuel Rocket-Belt Saga

Nearly a decade ago, three Texans collaborated to produce a rocket belt--a backpack-like device fueled by hydrogen peroxide that would propel its wearer into the air, like James Bond or Buck Rogers.

But the business venture by Thomas Laurence Stanley, Bradley Barker and Joe Wright soon hit turbulence. Wright was found bludgeoned to death in 1998, and on Tuesday Stanley was in Van Nuys Superior Court for a preliminary hearing, accused of kidnapping Barker.

“It’s like something out of a cheap mystery novel,” Michael Von Blon, a Houston lawyer who won a $10.2-million judgment for Stanley last year in a civil suit against Barker, said in a telephone interview. “It’s just amazing. There ought to be a movie in it.”

Stanley now faces criminal charges accusing him of kidnapping for ransom, false imprisonment by violence, and extortion. The 55-year-old resident of Sugarland, a suburb of Houston, allegedly kept Barker against his will for eight days at a North Hollywood house, sometimes in a box, before Barker managed to break out of a handcuff and escape through a window.

Stanley’s defense lawyer, Leslie Abramson, suggested Tuesday that Barker cannot be trusted to tell the truth, and that he wasn’t kidnapped but instead taken by “bounty hunters” over another matter in a different state.

At the eye of their storm is the rocket belt, or RB 2000, which seemed to have disappeared after its public debut in 1995.

In his testimony Tuesday before Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Paul I. Metzler, Barker suggested his captors wanted the rocket belt--saying they repeatedly questioned him about its whereabouts.

When questioned by Deputy Dist. Atty. Peter Korn, Barker said he was enticed to fly from Texas to Los Angeles over an offer of a temporary job by a man named Christopher Wentzel, who, he said, then kidnapped him.

Baker Allegedly Placed in Large Box

From Nov. 26 to Dec. 3, according to testimony and the felony complaint against Stanley, Barker was duct-taped, handcuffed and sometimes placed in a large box.

Barker said holes were drilled into the side of the box, and he overheard Wentzel saying, “The more holes, the faster it will sink.”

Barker said he was so afraid of drowning that he asked Wentzel to just shoot him. He added that Wentzel also threatened to harm his son and asked if he was afraid of rats or snakes.

Barker testified that toward the end of his ordeal, “Larry Stanley walked into the room” with a gun, and said if he didn’t cooperate, “things could get worse.”

Wentzel, 52, has also been charged with kidnapping for ransom, false imprisonment by violence and extortion. His preliminary hearing was held March 6.

The rocket belt at the heart of this case was supposed to be an improved version of the 1953 invention by Bell Aerosystems for the U.S. military as a personal propulsion device. Rocket belts, it was envisioned, would enable combat soldiers to easily fly or leap over difficult terrain such as rivers or ravines.

But the device, which weighed about 125 pounds, never proved useful because it wouldn’t fly much longer than 20 seconds. The military abandoned the project after years of funding, according to the Space History Division of the National Air and Space Museum in Washington.

Although it was a failure by military standards, the rocket belt showed promise in the entertainment industry and as a publicity stunt. It captured the public’s imagination when featured in the 1965 James Bond movie “Thunderball,” and again in 1984 during the opening ceremony of the Summer Olympics in Los Angeles.

After three or four years of tinkering and building in facilities provided by Wright, Stanley and Barker created a rocket belt that could propel the wearer about 50% longer than older models of the device.

They called it RB 2000, and its moment of glory came during the Houston Rockets’ 1995 NBA championship celebration, when a man strapped to it flew above a cheering crowd for less than 30 seconds.

That was the day RB 2000 was last publicly seen, those close to the case say.

But troubles between the partners were brewing well before the launch. In 1994, Stanley suspected that Barker had been collaborating with Wright to cheat him out of money, according to Abramson.

Stanley confronted Barker, and Barker beat him with a rubber mallet, according to prosecutors and Von Blon, who said both men were initially charged with assault but the charges against Stanley were dropped.

Barker was convicted and given two years’ probation, according to the Harris County district attorney’s office in Texas.

Suspecting Barker and Wright had the rocket belt, Stanley sued both men for its return. Wright, however, was found bludgeoned to death in 1998 just days after he was expected to cooperate with Stanley’s side.

According to the Harris County Sheriff’s Department, the slaying remains unsolved.

“At this point, we don’t have the evidence to file on anyone,” Harris County Sheriff’s Sgt. James Parker said.

Rocket Belt Said to Be Still Missing

Last year Stanley won a judgment forcing Barker to return the rocket belt to him. Von Blon said the rocket belt is still missing and added that a $10,000 reward is being offered for its return in operational condition.

Under questioning by Abramson Tuesday, Barker said Wright had the rocket belt after the partnership dissolved but gave it to him in 1996.

During his kidnapping, Barker said he told his captors that a friend to whom he owed money was “holding” the rocket belt for him.

Barker was mum Tuesday on where the rocket belt is now.