Does Goodwin Know Where to ‘Find People to Kill People?’

Mike Goodwin is a tough guy. You can see it in his eyes and hear it in his voice. He’s also a funny guy, an appealing guy and a persuasive talker.

Not to get theatrical about it, but that’s a personality package that could make for quite a murder trial.

It looks like it might finally happen.

Goodwin was arrested Thursday afternoon and now is spending his days in the Orange County Jail. In an odd way, he got his wish when deputies broke his door down and led him away: Goodwin had told me three months ago that he’d rather go to trial than have suspicion hang over him.

For years, Goodwin has been the informal leading suspect in the 1988 double-murder of former business partner Mickey Thompson and his wife, Trudy. In fact, Goodwin’s name surfaced early in the investigation, but authorities couldn’t put a case together.

As far back as September 1989--18 months after the murders--an L.A. County Sheriff’s investigator said of the case: “It’s just not there.”

The homicides had a celebrity angle--Thompson was an auto racing legend and famed promoter. When he and his wife were gunned down outside their San Gabriel Valley home in March 1988, they ran a promotion business in Anaheim.

Until a falling-out in the mid-1980s, Goodwin and Mickey Thompson had been partners. Investigators believed the enmity from that, plus an alleged financial motive, were the reasons Goodwin hired at least two men to kill the Thompsons.

When I met with Goodwin in September, he sounded eager to take on the allegations. He wasn’t shy about acknowledging that he’d been under suspicion almost from the time the murders occurred.

Far from having a financial motive for killing Thompson, Goodwin told me, Goodwin instead reached a deal with Thompson in which Goodwin would make more than $1 million--a deal contingent on Thompson being alive.

“I lost it all when he got killed,” Goodwin said. “Only if he were alive would it occur.”

Goodwin and his attorney made it clear in September that if the case ever went to trial, one prong of their defense would be that Thompson had multiple enemies. Goodwin has amassed reams of evidence, he said, to buttress that belief.

Although investigators zeroed in on Goodwin, he thinks loan sharks killed his former partner. “Mickey Thompson died broke,” Goodwin told me. “We know that from probate records. He was murdered because he borrowed lots of money from nefarious sources and told them to [expletive] off.”

The case heated up earlier this year when Goodwin was arrested and put in a police lineup. An alleged witness from the day of the murders identified him as a man seen sitting in a car, watching the slayings from a distance. Goodwin and his attorney have scoffed at the reliability of that identification made so long after the fact.

Neither of the two gunmen has been identified. Jeffrey Benice, Goodwin’s attorney, said prosecutors don’t have a case and that he welcomes an early date for Goodwin’s preliminary hearing. That could come as soon as 10 days after Goodwin is arraigned on Monday, Benice said.

I doubt anyone relishes his own murder trial, but Goodwin would make an interesting witness, should he testify.

“We have some fabulous evidence, some of which we’re not ready to give away yet,” Goodwin told me in September. “It’ll show that not only could it not be me, but it points heavily at other people that have never surfaced.”

With Dist. Atty. Tony Rackauckas facing a reelection challenge in March, logic dictates his office wouldn’t have filed charges unless it felt comfortable it would win the case. Losing a high-profile murder case, assuming the Goodwin trial would begin and end quickly enough, is not the chosen path to reelection.

So, intrigue abounds.

It appears that all sides are ready. I remember asking Goodwin three months ago if he were capable of ordering a hit on someone.

“That is so foreign to me that it’s the only thing that’s laughable, that they could even suppose I could stomach that,” he said. “Apparently, this was a fairly nearly perfect murder. Do you think a first-time killer could plan something like that? Where do you find people to kill people?”

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Dana Parsons’ column appears Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays. Readers may reach Parsons by calling (714) 966-7821 or by writing to him at The Times’ Orange County Edition, 1375 Sunflower Ave., Costa Mesa, CA 92626, or by e-mail to dana.parsons@latimes.com.