CRIME HUNTER: Fast times and brutal death of racing star Mickey Thompson

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Mickey Thompson lived his life in the fast lane – literally.

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The California auto-racing icon would go on to set more speed and endurance records than any racer in automotive history.

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Born in 1928 in the shadow of the San Gabriel Mountains in southern California, Thompson was obsessed with cars and racing from when he was a teenager.

By 1960, the pioneer was famous for being the first American to break the 400-mph barrier, driving his Challenger 1 to a one-way top speed of 406.60 mph at the Bonneville Salt Flats.

He competed in the Indy 500 and other fabled races.

Thompson was also an inventor and innovator and that made him a fortune – and a few enemies. Some vowed to sort him out.

By the late 1980s, Thompson and his wife, Trudy, were living the good life in a gated Bradbury mansion not far from where he grew up. He rarely raced and if he did, it was for fun.

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On the morning of March 16, 1988, Thompson and Trudy went about their usual routines before leaving for work for the day. Murder was likely the last thing on Mickey’s mind but it was hovering nearby like an angel of death.

Neither of the Thompsons likely saw their killers but when Mickey opened the garage door for his wife to drive away, the gunmen struck. Mickey was shot and wounded.

And to make sure of things, one killer shot Trudy to death in her car. The other stood over the gravely wounded formerly fastest man alive and delivered the coup de grace – a bullet in the head.

In a final absurdist touch, the two hooded killers fled on the bicycles they had arrived on.

Detectives from the L.A. County Sheriff’s noted the killers hadn’t lifted the wads of cash ($70,000) the couple was carrying or the expensive jewelry they were wearing. A good little score all on its own.

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Scratch robbery.

The murders of Mickey and Trudy Thompson? Mark this one personal.

After all, the previous July two men had been convicted of murdering the speed demon’s nephew, Scott Campbell. They killed the young man and then tossed his body out of an airplane into the Pacific Ocean near Santa Catalina Island.

But who? Cops liked one of Mickey’s former business partners, Michael Frank Goodwin.

The two men had a bitter falling out because Goodwin lost a court judgment and owed Mickey a whopping $768,000.

Goodwin wasn’t going to pay and a college football roster of people heard him, er, express his, er views.

“I’m going to kill that son of a bitch. I’m going to kill that motherf—er. I’m going to take out Mickey. I’m too smart to get caught. I’ll have him wasted. He’ll never see a nickel,” Goodwin raged.

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“I’ll kill him first. Mickey doesn’t know who he is f—ing with. He is f—ing dead.”

Still, in 1988 there wasn’t a lot of evidence to link hothead Goodwin to the crime. Bad feelings count for zip in court. Nothing pointed to who the two triggermen were either and for 35 years, they’ve kept it on the down low.

But two months before the shocking Thompson double murder, Goodwin and his wife bought $275,000 worth of gold coins and then wired $400,000 to banks on Grand Turk and Caicos in the Caribbean.

Five months after the murders, the Goodwins left the U.S. on their yacht. It would be two years before they returned.

For 13 years, the case gathered dust until 2001 when Goodwin was first charged in Orange County, then the case was moved to the jurisdiction where the crime occurred in Los Angeles County. In 2006, he was ordered to stand trial.

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At trial, prosecutors did not produce a smoking gun, but a mountain of circumstantial evidence put Goodwin in the murder plot’s driver’s seat. An appeal court called it “overwhelming.”

On Jan. 4, 2007, a Pasadena jury found Goodwin guilty of two counts of murder in the death of Mickey and Trudy Thompson. He was sentenced to two consecutive life-without-parole terms.

As for the gunmen, they’re in the wind.

Goodwin, now 78, and caged in the state jail system near San Diego, was last in the news in 2021. A state appeals court torpedoed his bid for resentencing.

He is doing life without parole.

Hours following Thompson’s slaying in 1988, one longtime friend tried to sum up his buddy for the Los Angeles Times, calling the racer a “legendary” figure.

“So much of the mythology of Mickey Thompson is mixed up with the reality, it’s almost impossible to separate the two. So I never tried,” his friend said.

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@HunterTOSun

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