Debt-Ridden DeLorean Evicted From Estate

In the 1960s, John Z. DeLorean was the bad boy of Detroit, a flamboyant young executive seemingly destined to lead General Motors Corp., then the world’s biggest industrial company. Now, he has been evicted from his 434-acre estate in the rolling hills of Bedminster, N.J., his home for nearly 20 years. The three-story brick Georgian mansion was sold at a court-ordered bankruptcy auction this year for $15.25 million. On Thursday, the 75-year-old DeLorean watched as movers loaded furnishings into vans. The items are to be liquidated. DeLorean quit GM in 1973 as vice president in charge of its North American car and truck operations to launch his own car company in Northern Ireland. DeLorean produced nearly 9,000 of his self-named sports cars in three years, notable for their gull-wing doors. The company collapsed after he was arrested in 1982, accused in a sting of conspiring to sell $24 million of cocaine to salvage his venture. He used an entrapment defense to win acquittal but wrestled with 40 other legal cases in the ensuing years and his debts grew. He declared bankruptcy in September, asserting that the Chapter 11 reorganization would pay each creditor 100% by developing his land into golf courses and an equestrian center and give him money to build a “radical new car.” A federal judge in January approved the sale of the estate to a golf course developer, National Fairways Inc., of Fairfield, Conn., for $15.25 million, about half his total debt.