02x02 - Race Car k*ller

[bunniefuu]

[helicopter whirring]

[ambient traffic sounds]

[vehicle accelerating]

[man] I got a call
from somebody over at my dad's office.

They said, "There's something
going on up at Bradbury."

"But we don't know what it is."

And so I jumped in the car
and started going up to Bradbury.

And, um, a cop stopped me.

They said, "Who are you?
We're not letting anybody go through."

I said, "I'm Danny Thompson,
Mickey Thompson's son."

And the cop, I just saw it in his eyes,
you know, 'cause they knew.

And I went, "Ah, f*ck."

You didn't believe it.

That was my dad. You couldn't k*ll him.
He was untouchable.

Race car driver Mickey Thompson
and his wife were m*rder*d

in their driveway in a posh suburb of LA.

Mrs. Thompson and Mr. Thompson were shot
several times in the upper torso.

[reporter] The ambush murders
of Thompson and his wife Trudy

in the driveway
of the couple's Bradbury home...

Police are calling it one of
the most mysterious celebrity murders.

It's an extent of evil
that we hope we don't see.

Mickey Thompson was beloved by everyone.
He had no enemies, save one.

[suspenseful music playing]

[Tomlin] The LA County
Sheriff's Department

is the best of the best.

[Jackson] Some of the highest-profile
cases are tried in Los Angeles.

[woman] You have to be dedicated 110%.

[Lillienfeld] This is m*rder.
There's no more serious crime.

[man] It boils down to a passion
and a sense of duty.

Justice comes from finding the truth.

[suspenseful music trailing off]

[ambient traffic sounds]

[man 1] One of the things
about Los Angeles, it's huge.

And to get around, is there mass transit?

No! You have to drive.

[Jackson] People love cars in Los Angeles.

It's a huge area
for car lovers to display their wares.

Back in the '80s in Los Angeles,
street racing, it was its own culture,

from drag racing,
to motocross, to off-road.

And being into cars back then,

I knew that Mickey Thompson was a legend.

[rowdy rock music playing]

[reporter 1] Thompson was always
known as an innovator,

a maverick car builder,
and a driver that had to win.

[reporter 2] The fastest man on wheels...
Mickey Thompson.

[emcee] See international
speed kings in action. Mickey Thompson.

[reporter 3] He has competed
in every form of automobile racing.

I think, at one time,
my dad had over 370 records.

But the one that put him on the map was

when he was the first American
to go over 400 miles an hour.

[engine purring]

His top speed, 406.6 miles an hour,

a record for the one-way run.

[man 2] Mickey Thompson
was not just a winner,

and not somebody
who was just interested in cars.

He was a promoter.

He was the guy that basically invented
indoor stadium racing.

We now put on
what's called "short course racing."

We put it on in football fields,
baseball fields,

inside domes, any place.

[commentator] Thompson taking the win!

[reporter 4] Mickey's son Danny
has also decided

to dedicate his future
to automobile racing.

I was racing full-time in my dad's series.

We'd fill these stadiums up.
It was, I mean, incredible.

[rowdy rock music continuing]

[reporter 5] Thompson's own son took part,

and his wife Trudy
was also involved in promoting the event.

I like to be close to him,
and I like to do what he's doing,

and I like to go fast.

And I'm gonna be around
for a long time driving race cars.

And I'm gonna win a lot more races.

[tense, quizzical music playing]

I got a call early in the morning.

They said, "Know who Mickey Thompson is?"
I said, "Yeah. Sure."

He says, "He and his wife, it appears,
have been shot in front of their house,

and you're rolling to assist."

And we had the queen of our lab,
Liz Devine.

She's brilliant, and everybody
always wanted her on your crime scene.

I love going out. So I put on my jumpsuit
and grabbed my kit and went out there.

At the time of this case,
I was a senior criminalist

for the Los Angeles County
Sheriff's Department.

We met and drove up to Bradbury Estates.

Bradbury Estates
is an upscale housing area

that is... is a gated community.

My daughter Juliana,

she was taking horseback riding lessons
in Bradbury Estates.

Every time I went there, I had to show ID,

I had to show permission
from the stable owner just to get in.

And I couldn't fathom,

"How could somebody get in there
to k*ll Mickey Thompson and his wife?"

Driving up,
it was obvious that this was a huge case.

I've never seen so many cameras
in one place in my life.

Obviously, it's a very nice house.

It's a very wide driveway.

Mickey's wife Trudy was laid out
at the bottom of the sloping driveway.

And she had been shot,

and blood was running down
into the gutter.

And Mickey Thompson is now laying
up by the garage, which is on the top.

He has been shot in the body.

He had also been shot in the head.

They shot her in the head too.

We're going around and talking to people,
and we talk to some of the witnesses.

Uh, we heard a series of shots.

All of a sudden, there was a period
of about 10 or 15 seconds of silence.

Then I heard Mickey Thompson yelling,
"Don't hurt my wife! Don't hurt my wife!"

And the next thing we heard is
another series of shots and then silence.

Well, Dr. Johnson,
he lived behind Mickey and Trudy,

and when he heard g*nshots,

and he looked out,

he sees the bicycles
going down Woodlyn Lane.

Dr. Johnson saw two
young Black men on ten-speeds.

I mean, that was obviously
a route of escape.

Dr. Johnson also said that
Mickey Thompson, he had a routine down.

At six o'clock every morning,
they would leave their house in Bradbury

and drive all the way to Anaheim Stadium,
where their office was.

They used a van,
and Trudy would generally drive.

She would back it out.

He would then lower the door,
get in, and they would drive to work.

[Bowers] We know
that there's two men on bicycles,

who we assume are the shooters,

but what was their purpose?

Now, it could be a robbery,

but when the detectives started
checking the van that Trudy was driving,

it was full of jewelry,
very expensive jewelry,

and Mickey, he had
several thousand dollars in his wallet.

It wasn't taken, wasn't touched.

Obvious stuff is right on the seat,
and they didn't grab it?

That makes no sense.

And then the neighbor heard

Mickey call out to Trudy,

and that they went after her first.

If this was a robbery,
they never k*ll the woman first.

They always k*ll the man first.

He's a big guy.

Absolutely illogical.

[somber, pensive music playing]

Trudy was down on the ground.

There were fingernails broken off.

I mean, I just felt like she was driving.

They shot through the window at her.

I think she was running away
and not fighting.

And, Mickey, you know,
he was turned toward her.

And it just...

broke my heart.

It's the cruelest thing.

[light, inquisitive music playing]

[Verdugo] Everybody is telling us
Mickey loved Trudy.

He was totally devoted to her,

and he was just madly in love with her.

My dad and Trudy,
when they got married, it was a big deal.

She had a great personality, very jovial,

and they had a great relationship.

They were a really good team
working together.

[man] They were a good match

in the same way
that a chord is a good chord.

They were very, very different,

but it worked in... in amazing ways.

My Aunt Trudy
was an important part of my life.

Trudy had grace, kindness, and love.

She was the one who made people feel
that they were appreciated.

[suspenseful, erratic music playing]

[Devine] The entire crime scene
was outside,

but I was really trying to be observant
and look at what is out of place.

We went into this office
that was off the garage.

And out of the corner of my eye,
I see somebody in there,

and I screamed.

[eerie music playing]

Now, of course, the deputies
come running in. Rey was there.

And it was a full-size mannequin
of Mickey Thompson in his racing suit.

And, um, I was so embarrassed.

We were all laughing, but I...

You know, it was a light moment.
Another... like, needed light moment.

You have to lighten the air or...
I don't know.

You have to laugh so you don't cry.
You just have to.

Then you go, "Okay, this is my job.
I gotta get back out there."

[measured, mysterious music playing]

I was really looking around,

really trying to evaluate
what I could bring to the table.

I had photographs taken on the driveway
of shoeprints in mud.

There was a stun g*n
on the ground by Mickey.

There were some cartridge casings.

Next to the garage door
were these small, little orange trees.

And I looked,
and I saw orange peels on the ground.

They were cut.

And it was fresh.

I mean, I remember just thinking,
"They were sitting out there

and they're gonna have an orange
while waiting to execute people."

It just made me know

that they knew
exactly where to sit and wait.

[Verdugo] You start
piecing this all together.

They were lying in wait
in front of the garage.

There was, yeah, the stun g*n.

Now, was that used on Mickey?
Was it used on her? We're not quite sure.

But it was there, obviously,
to try and take control.

Ten-speed bicycles, g*ns...

Ah, k*lling in the sequence that would
do the most harm and pain for Mickey.

We're talking a hit.

It is a hit.

[music trails off]

Our primary suspects are two male Blacks.

They're described
as 20 to 30 years of age.

There was a woman that was driving
down the road near Bradbury Estates.

And as she's driving,
suddenly from across that little driveway,

these two male Blacks on bicycles.

It seemed like they were out of control.
They were going too fast.

But she got a look
because she nearly hit them,

and as a good citizen, calls in.

Uh, she made a comment
to the sheriff's department,

and the sheriff's department
got her in contact with a forensic artist.

All the officers are aware,
all the surrounding areas,

and we put up traffic stops
at major intersections.

We're handing out these artist renderings
of the suspects.

[reporter] Homicide detectives in LA
hope someone somewhere

will see this report on the m*rder
of racing legend Mickey Thompson

and his wife Trudy,

and volunteer information
about these two men.

The media coverage, it was...

As sad as it was, they just shoved it
down your throat every two seconds.

Police say he and his wife
were shot several times...

[reporter] The two men
then fled on ten-speed bicycles.

The biggest question
still unanswered is, "Why?"

It was on every station.

It was on all the major networks.
Even the non-major networks were there.

The media was out of control.

[helicopter whirring]

It was very oppressive
and very hard seeing it on the news...

uh, with the helicopters...

[voice breaking] ...showing pictures
of where their bodies were.

And there was no personal space for grief.

[Verdugo] Now, one of the things
you've got to do is learn your victim.

When did they get into that position
where they were gonna be victimized?

It's very important.

We were directed to go to a house
not far from the crime scene

where the family had gathered.

Everybody was very, very hurt,
very broken up.

And we were coming in to talk to 'em.

That's one of the worst parts
about the job.

I think everybody was in a daze.

I mean, "Is this really happening?"

I tell you one thing, they k*lled
the finest two people in the whole world.

[Verdugo] Part of the gathering
was the sister, who is Collene,

and she just loved
Mickey and Trudy to death.

Danny, who was trying to fill in
as much information as he could,

but he was... he was crushed.

He was hurting.

I told the investigators right at first,
"This wasn't an easy residence to get in."

"You had to have a plan."

"And it had to be premeditated."

While we're interviewing everybody
in the family, they had a feeling of,

"If it's done,
Mike Goodwin was responsible."

[tense music playing]

[Jackson] Mickey Thompson and Mike Goodwin
were in similar businesses.

Mickey Thompson
would bring in Baja-style racing indoors.

Mike Goodwin
was emulating that to a certain degree

on the motocross circuit.

The two of them decided
a partnership would benefit them.

Mike Goodwin was incredibly bright,
incredibly big personality,

incredibly charismatic,
and he was used to winning.

He won at everything he did.

Mickey and Trudy
had focused in on the car side of it,

and at the same time,
Goodwin was beginning to promote

motorcycle racing
under similar conditions.

Bringing the motorcycles in,

motorcycle events
along with the car event together,

you know, made good sense.

[Jackson] Mickey Thompson had the name.

He was lending his name and reputation
to the event to fill the stadium.

My dad secured the contracts
at Anaheim Stadium

for both off-road and supercross.

It looked like Goodwin
would've been a good partner.

But Goodwin, after a couple events there,
ran the bills up, didn't pay 'em,

and burnt the relationships
with the stadiums, you know,

by not paying and being Goodwin.

[Verdugo] When we looked into
Goodwin's background,

one of the things we found about him is,

any time he got a chance,
he would screw you.

He was a crook.

For Mickey,

integrity and making sure
that everyone was taken care of

was incredibly important.

There... There was
a realization on Mickey's part.

"No, I'm not gonna lend my name
to something like that."

So Mickey terminated the partnership,

and that was the beginning
of a long legal battle.

[Danny] All the court battles.

My dad kept winning,
and the judgements were in his favor.

Goodwin started switching money around,

and, you know, claiming bankruptcy here,

switching it to this person, that person.

[Weissler] The last time
that I saw Mickey and Trudy,

there was a phone call.

Mickey turned it over to speakerphone.

I... I recognized, uh, Goodwin's voice,

and what he was saying was,

"I'm going to make you pay."

"You'll never see
the loss through its end."

Goodwin's tone was deadly serious.

[Danny] One of the last conversations
I had with my dad,

he warned me
that Goodwin was out of control.

[Verdugo] Well, obviously,
we've now got to interview Mike Goodwin.

So we drive down to their law offices.

As we get in, Mike Goodwin
was standing behind his attorney.

His attorney said, "We're not gonna
allow him to talk to you."

And he stood there...

God, he went through this ritual of...

Hands up. [sarcastically] "Ooh!"

[cryptic music playing]

He kept pointing at his attorney.
I thought, "Oh, God, I'm gonna throw up."

[Danny] Goodwin had told his attorney

that he was at a gym
at six o'clock that morning,

and he was talking to people.

A lot of people could verify he was there.

Mike Goodwin
was on a treadmill in Orange County

at the time these two people
were k*lled in the San Gabriel Valley.

So there was nothing connecting
Mike Goodwin to that crime scene.

[Bowers] There is no direct evidence,
there is no smoking g*n,

because no one ever determined
who were the shooters.

[cryptic music playing]

And then a short time later,
Michael Goodwin and his wife,

they just disappear.

And when they contacted
Michael Goodwin's attorney, they said,

"All that we know
is they bought this boat,

and they left the country."

So he couldn't be questioned,
he couldn't be investigated.

Every homicide investigator
in the history of mankind

has one or two cases

that they can't pull the trigger
on that last bit of evidence.

There is those cases that you think,

"My God, that one bothers me."

Mickey didn't deserve this.
Trudy didn't deserve this.

And you have
this punk Mike Goodwin fleeing.

Yeah, I mean,
I think it really hurt those detectives.

They all were really upset
that they just couldn't break it.

Everybody wanted that to be solved.

They don't always get solved.

[engine revving]

[tense music playing]

[Lillienfeld] The Cold Case Unit
of the LA County Sheriff's Department

at that time was composed of

about six older, mature,
close-to-retirement detectives.

A great detective,
a guy named John Yarbrough,

he basically said, "Hey, I've got
this really big unsolved cold case,

the Mickey Thompson,
Trudy Thompson murders."

"And I'd like you to learn
about the nuances of this case

because there's a lot to it,
and I'm old. I'm gonna retire soon."

"You're young. It'll be easy for you.
It won't be hardly anything at all, kid."

He ultimately retired around 1994,

and myself and my new partner

then kind of assumed control of the case
from that point on.

I'd never heard of Mickey Thompson
in my life

until I got introduced to the case.

It's a high-profile case,

and I'm really at the beginning
of my m*rder career.

I've only been a m*rder cop two years.

I went to Rey for advice.
I respected him greatly.

He gave me great advice.

"Only one way to eat an elephant."

"One bite at a time."

Mark Lillienfeld.
I was always impressed by him.

If I am m*rder*d,
I want him investigating my m*rder.

He has the skills,
tenacity, intelligence, humor,

and, uh, he was not impressed
or pushed around by hierarchy.

[Lillienfeld] It's good sometimes
to question authority.

You gotta think globally,
be open to other ideas,

but to not dismiss out of hand
certain other theories that may come up.

Was somebody mad at somebody else
for another reason other than

this business dispute between
Michael Goodwin and Mickey Thompson?

You've gotta be open to that.

So one of the first things we did
was I met Collene Campbell,

Mickey Thompson's kid sister.

Collene Campbell is a force of nature.

She's an amazing woman.

Anybody that's had somebody m*rder*d,
I think, understands.

There is so much anger inside of you,
and you don't get past it,

and you relive it
every night in your nightmares.

[plaintive music playing]

[Lillienfeld] The first time
I met Collene was at her home.

I hit it off with her.
I liked her right away.

We kind of had a connection.

And of course,
after four minutes of being in the home,

I had to use the restroom.

As I'm walking down the hallway,

I see a photograph
of a young man on the wall,

and it was Scott, her son.

In 1982, Collene suffered, you know...

The most horrific tragedy any parent
could suffer is the loss of a child.

Scott had been hanging around
with the wrong people.

[Verdugo] He was k*lled,
and his body was tossed out of a plane.

She basically investigated it herself.

She brought everything,
all the information together.

She worked those innards
to make 'em outards.

And she was very instrumental
in pushing for, uh, prosecution.

[Danny] I mean,
she was relentless, never giving up,

and she was all the time on it,

and on it in ways
that you would never even imagine.

Larry Cowell was ultimately convicted
for the m*rder of Collene's son,

and Collene, she described repeatedly,

"You need to at least look at this
and eliminate Larry Cowell."

Because it turns out during the trial
of Larry Cowell and his crime partner

for the m*rder of Scott Campbell,

Mickey Thompson actually testified.

Larry Cowell was, uh, deeply enmeshed
in the narcotics world

'cause he was a dope dealer,

but also, he was a big auto racing guy.

And Mickey testified as an expert witness

regarding these car parts
found in Larry Cowell's shop.

The trial ended eight or ten months prior
to the deaths of Mickey and Trudy.

It's kind of unusual
that m*rder should hit a family like that.

So we looked for a connection.

We reviewed
all the Scott Campbell m*rder reports.

We spoke to the original detective.

You know, we took it seriously.

There was not a shred of evidence
to indicate any relationship

between the murders
of Mickey and Trudy Thompson

and the m*rder
of Mickey's nephew Scott Campbell,

other than the fact that they devastated
a very nice, big, warm, loving family.

[heavy, foreboding music playing]

My partner and I wound up
going back, really, to square one.

We'd come up with theories, ideas.

All those things have been eliminated.
The one thing that hasn't been eliminated

is the fact that
somebody was paid to do this m*rder,

and they were paid
by Michael Frank Goodwin.

[Jackson] Once Mickey Thompson
was m*rder*d,

once Trudy Thompson was m*rder*d,

if Mike Goodwin had nothing to do with it,

you'd expect him
to live his life very normally,

going about his business,

not changing anything of any note.

But what did Mike Goodwin actually do
after Mickey was k*lled?

[Bowers] Michael Goodwin and his wife
decided to sell their house,

and they take
all the assets that they have,

and they funnel 'em into a Caribbean bank.

Eighty-eight days after the m*rder,
he fled the country on a boat

that he obtained through fraud.

In 1993,
Mike Goodwin was charged with fraud

after he came back to the United States.

He was found guilty
and went to federal prison.

And he would receive a sentence
of two and a half years.

[Lillienfeld] Mike Goodwin
wasn't gonna talk.

He'd never talk to the cops,
but we had his phone calls monitored.

At the same time,

every person that was ever interviewed
by the original detectives,

my partner and I went back
and re-interviewed those people.

In speaking with Dr. Lance Johnson,

who was kind of
an earwitness to the as*ault,

he said, "My daughter,
her best friend, Allison Triarsi,

lived across the street
from Mickey Thompson."

"She saw the whole thing."

And he wasn't sure if law enforcement
had ever contacted Allison Triarsi.

It turned out, in reviewing the records,
law enforcement never had.

They didn't overlook her.

At the time of the murders,
Allison Triarsi, a 15-year-old girl,

she was actually hidden by her parents

because of the psychological trauma
that she had.

And I get it. If I had children...

If it was my dog that was an eyewitness,
I would have hidden my dog.

I wouldn't let my dog
talk to the cops either.

Allison Triarsi, she's a grown woman now,

so we were able to locate her.

Allison told my partner and I

that she was getting ready
to go to school,

and she heard
this really high-pitched screaming

as she ran to these living room windows
that looked down on the Thompson estate.

So Allison actually saw

Trudy Thompson crawling
on her hands and knees down the driveway.

[Jackson] Mickey Thompson
was kneeling with his hands raised,

begging, "Please don't k*ll my wife.
Please don't k*ll my wife."

Not begging for his life,
begging for her life.

[Lillienfeld] When Trudy got to the end,

the suspect pulled the trigger
and fired into Trudy's head.

[g*nsh*t]

Allison watches that same suspect
walk up the hill, sh**t, and k*ll Mickey.

Allison was able to describe right away

that it was two African-American males
that fled on ten-speed bicycles.

[Jackson] They wanted Mickey
to watch her suffer,

allowing him to understand

that the last thing
he's ever gonna see on this earth

was the love of his life being ex*cuted.

[somber music playing]

[Weissler] He so treasured her.

He was that kind of person.

The fact that he'd try and put himself
in harm's way to protect her,

it was no surprise at all.

[Danny] It was planned to t*rture my dad.

Cut and dry.

And it did.

[suspenseful music playing]

[Lillienfeld] Hearing Allison's version
of what occurred

really kind of drove the nail
into the coffin a little bit more

in corroborating what we already believed.

She is the only living eyewitness

that was able to describe
the actual sh**ting of both victims.

So she was pretty critical.

It's one thing to hear about it.
It's another thing to actually see it.

There was only one reason
to k*ll these two people in this manner,

and that was pure, unadulterated revenge.

But more evidence was needed

to literally tether Mike Goodwin
to the actual murders.

Mike Goodwin paroled from federal prison.

He flew out to Orange County,
Santa Ana airport.

So I wound up having his luggage
somewhat lost, um, when the plane landed.

So I pretended, you know,
that I was a passenger on the plane too,

and we're both pissed off,
waiting for our luggage.

He was clueless.

I had a tape recorder going
'cause I wanted to record his voice,

'cause I knew at some point in time

I was gonna attempt
to wiretap his telephones,

so I wanted to know what he sounded like.

So that was really my primary goal,

and secondarily,
it was simply just to meet the guy.

Much like knowing
about your m*rder victims,

the more you know about your suspect,

the more you can find their weak spots
and exploit that to your advantage.

During that 40-minute airport meeting,

it was all Mike Goodwin, all the time,

and it was all bullshit.

Mike Goodwin claims to be the youngest
Eagle Scout in history. Bullshit.

Mike Goodwin claims to have bedded
every Playboy Bunny. Bullshit.

Mike Goodwin claims he's the Golden Gloves
Champion of Pensacola, Florida. Bullshit.

Really bullshit, inconsequential lies

that don't amount to a hill of beans,
but show a pattern of conduct.

The guy can't tell the truth.

His whole life was a lie.

[cryptic music playing]

[Danny] At first, it was quiet.
Nothing was really happening.

As much as I like Lillienfeld,
he didn't tell me anything.

But he couldn't. That's not... He...

His job is not to blab around everything.
His job is to investigate, figure it out.

After so many years on this
Mickey Thompson, Trudy Thompson k*lling,

you needed to approach in a different way.

The Sheriff's Department Homicide Bureau
were not media-driven,

but I had used the TV show
America's Most Wanted previously

on another unrelated m*rder case,

and it generated some really good clues.

I was trying to identify the shooters.
They were still interested.

[phones ringing]

We got a couple hundred phone calls,

and some of them
were the crazy phone calls,

the alien phone calls,
or John Wayne did it, or whatever,

but a number were of value.

[Devine] What makes Mark so great is

he's gonna find these little things

and figure out a way to get information.

In this case, found a girl
that got done wrong by him.

[Lillienfeld] We received
a call on a tip line.

This woman, she'd had a brief
romantic relationship with Goodwin.

She told us on the phone
that Mike Goodwin and her

were watching a crime show
on the Mickey Thompson murders,

and that Mike had confessed to her

his responsibility
for having arranged those murders.

And he was bragging about
how he'd never be caught

'cause he was too smart.

[cryptic music playing]

So she became a good witness,

but it was one part of the bigger puzzle

that the women in Mike Goodwin's life
had obtained admissions from him,

and God knows how many other women
are out there that hold that secret.

[man] I was asked by Mark,

"Hey, I'd like you to head this up."

"I want you to go to Virginia to monitor
the activity of Goodwin's ex-wife."

Mike Goodwin was married

at the time of the murders
of Mickey and Trudy Thompson,

but, eventually,
he and his wife of that time divorced.

[Lillienfeld] Mike Goodwin
paroled from federal prison

pretty close to the same time
his ex-wife Diana Goodwin

went to live with her parents
in Virginia Beach, Virginia.

We applied for and received permission
to do a wire intercept

in the state of Virginia
on Diane Goodwin's home phone

and her business telephone.

During undercover operations,

we sometimes want to stimulate people
to talk about crime.

[phone ringing]

One of the ways, and it's very common,
is quite frankly by calling the person.

"I'm Detective Mark Lillienfeld from
Los Angeles County Sheriff's Homicide."

"I would love to talk to you
about your ex-husband."

I don't really care if she talks to me
or tells me to go f*ck myself,

which is basically what she did.

All I care about is I got her brain going.

[Smith] When she started
getting phone calls from Mark Lillienfeld,

we were there to monitor her
in an assortment of surveillance tactics,

and see what she did,

because it's gonna lead to more evidence.

[Lillienfeld] One phone call in particular
we listened to,

she basically makes an admission
that Mike had admitted to her

that he was responsible
for the Thompson murders.

We've got two different people

in two different states
at two different times

making the same statement,

that Michael Goodwin admitted
being responsible for the murders

of Mickey and Trudy Thompson.

That's good sh*t,
a legal term in my world.

[tense, mysterious music playing]

[Jackson] Everything about this case
was circumstantial,

in terms of connecting Mike Goodwin
to the actual murders.

That changed
with the revelation of new eyewitnesses.

The America's Most Wanted show
generated a call from a gentleman

who was an accountant, and they said,

"I've got a client,
and he saw some suspicious activity

a couple days before the m*rder."

"He's tried calling the cops,
but they always brush him off."

This gentleman's name is Ron Stevens.

Basically, he said,
"I didn't know Mickey Thompson,

I never met him,

but I lived about three blocks away
from where he was k*lled."

Ron goes on to tell me,
"I come home early,

and my wife steps outside the house
to greet me in the driveway."

"She said, 'Hey, I'm glad you're home.'"

"'There's a suspicious car
parked on the street.'"

"'It's got two men in it,
and they got binoculars,

and I think something is up.'"

"'There's a grade school down the street.
Maybe they're pedophiles, kidnappers.'"

And Ron Stevens actually walks
towards where this car's parked,

and he can see the side of the driver.

Driver was white. Passenger was Black.

When Ron Stevens gets closer
to the driver, he gets out of there.

He, like, peels rubber leaving the scene.

And Ron thinks, "God, that's odd."

He called the LA County
Sheriff's Department.

Sadly, we never
sent a radio car out there.

So it... it's on us. It's our bad.

[mysterious music continuing]

This is about four days before
the Mickey and Trudy Thompson murders.

And when he describes the driver,

he describes
Michael Goodwin almost to a tee.

[suspenseful music pulsing]

[Jackson] Could this have been Goodwin?

Could he have been there
actually surveilling the area

in order to set the plans in motion
to have them m*rder*d?

So now what had to be done
was there had to be a lineup

to see if this witness
really could identify Goodwin.

That was the problem.
How are you gonna do that?

If the person was in custody,
you could do it.

So the idea was,

"Well, let's arrest him
on a Ramey warrant."

Ramey is a term we use in California
for a probable cause arrest warrant,

where we take
the actual warrant to a judge.

He signs it.
The prosecutor is not involved.

So I write an arrest warrant
for Mike Goodwin.

f*ck Mike Goodwin.

[low, suspenseful music playing]

[reporter] Mr. Goodwin, you are here

because you refused
to volunteer for the lineup.

Would it have been easier, in hindsight,

to simply volunteer
rather than go through this?

No, I think we have to challenge
government misconduct whenever we can.

But let me ask you this,
if I committed otherwise a perfect crime,

would I have been so stupid
to go to the scene of the crime?

I mean, this is beyond belief.

I coordinate a live lineup
in Men's Central Jail with Ron Stevens,

with him and his wife.

We have them both view the lineup.

They both identified Michael Frank Goodwin

as the guy sitting in the car
with an African-American

three blocks from Mickey Thompson's house
four days before the m*rder.

[Jackson] Being able to place him
at or close to the crime scene

was a revelation, was a huge deal.

We got him now,
and we charged him with m*rder.

This whole thing is a farce and a setup,

and my treatment in jail
was exemplary of that.

-[lawyer] That's it.
-It's a Bible.

[reporter] Thank you.

[somber, introspective music playing]

[Campbell] I looked up in the sky,
and talked to Mickey about...

I said, "You think you've gone through
some endurance races in your life."

"Let me tell you."

"We've just gone through
a 13-year-nine-months endurance race."

"And this is a tough one,
but I did what you taught me to do."

"Never, never give up."

I remember when he was arrested.

It was hopeful.

But it wasn't done.

[reporter] Goodwin called the case
against him "character assassination."

Knowing what a slimy b*stard Goodwin was...

Is he gonna wiggle his way
out of this one?

Mike Goodwin had a hot red, burning hate
for me after I'd arrested him.

The threats and everything
started around that time.

He had people working for him,

and it was a continual,
you know, never-ending thing.

Mark Lillienfeld was starting
to get some pretty significant threats.

Um, threats on his life, death threats,

but Mark was of the opinion,

"I've got a job to do.
I'm not gonna be deterred."

[Smith] Mark is one of those guys
that learned to let blows glance off them,

and I was that dumb Irish boxer

that stood there taking...
absorbing every frickin' blow

to show everyone how tough you are.

To do it as long as Mark did it,
you have to be like Mark,

where you really
can let things glance off of you.

After seeing what these people will do,
I am concerned about anything.

They will make up evidence.

[Bowers] The DA's office didn't want
to get involved in this if it was a loser.

If you don't have all your ducks in order,
you don't want to take a chance,

especially on a publicity case like this.

[Lillienfeld] I met Ron Bowers.
He was a deputy district attorney.

He had retired at the time,

and he'd been hired back
in their Trial Support Division.

So, the two prosecutors,
Alan Jackson and Pat Dixon,

had elicited Ron's help

in preparing all of the court exhibits
and helping get the case organized.

It was a massive case.

And I said,
"Well, I'm more than happy to look at it,

uh, but I'm gonna
have to have the case files."

And Mark said,
"Okay, we'll take care of it."

Next day, I come to work,
and I barely can get into my office.

It is filled with boxes and boxes.

And scribbled on my yellow tab,

Mark had written,

"Ron, these are the boxes
that you requested."

"Now put the case together,
and do it quickly."

[Jackson] Ron Bowers was integral

to putting together
a blueprint presentation

to get the case to trial.

[suspenseful music playing]

Ron was a master at that.

[Bowers] I put together a presentation,
showed it to the district attorney,

and the district attorney said,
"Okay, we're gonna file it."

So that was the beginning
of the preparation

for the trial of Michael Goodwin.

[quizzical music playing]

[Jackson] From day one,

literally day one,

Michael Goodwin had bad intentions.

I'm unaware of any other case
in the history of California

where the actual shooters
were never even identified.

There's just no other conclusion
that's reasonable

but that Mike Goodwin hired these people.

We just kept coming back to the idea

that I don't have to prove
that Mike Goodwin did it

as much as I can prove

that seven billion other people
on the planet didn't do it.

Nobody else wanted Mickey Thompson dead.

So in this case,
motive became very, very important.

Mike Goodwin was homicidal, angry,
claiming to everybody that would listen,

"I'll see Mickey Thompson dead
before I give him a nickel of my money."

[lawyer] The K*llers of Mickey
and Trudy Thompson

have never been identified.

Never been named,
never been caught, never been arrested.

The defense's case
could be most easily summed up as

Mike Goodwin was at a gym
at the time these two people were k*lled.

He had nothing to do with it.
There are too many unanswered questions.

[Lillienfeld] There were
many witnesses we called

to testify regarding the threats,

regarding the pre-offense conduct
that occurred between Mickey and Goodwin.

[Weissler] I testified
about hearing the threats made

and recognizing Goodwin's voice.

He looked smug, like he was sure
that he wasn't going to be convicted.

Yet, at the same time,
he never met my eyes.

It was a big acknowledgement to me
that he knew the pain he had caused.

[strained, distressing music playing]

[Jackson] Our closing arguments,

one of the things that I thought
was incredibly... poignant,

sad, but still important,

was the way Mickey
drew his last few breaths.

Mickey Thompson's
last vision on this planet

was that of his wife being ex*cuted.

Why is that so important?

Because there's no other person
on the face of the earth

who wanted Mickey Thompson
to suffer like that.

There's only one guy.

And that was Mike Goodwin.

[Danny] When Alan Jackson came on
and did closing arguments, I was dazzled.

I was going, "Yeah! Yeah!"

Now, he convinced me.

Did he convince
those other 12 people over there?

[ponderous, mysterious music playing]

[Jackson] The jury deliberated
about six days,

and that wait was brutal.

So you're left in this limbo

of not knowing what those jurors
are gonna think of your presentation.

When the jury buzzed
to say they have a verdict,

it was a very, very jarring moment,

thinking, "Okay, here we go."

[foreperson] We the jury
in the above entitled action

find the defendant Michael Goodwin guilty.

When they came back with that,
Collene's squeezing my hand.

It was just like...

There is justice.
You know, there is justice.

[Jackson] Mike Goodwin
was convicted of all charges,

two counts of m*rder,
and special circumstances,

and he was sentenced to two consecutive
life terms without parole.

I stood up, turned around, and...

Collene was just sobbing

with joy and... and relief.

This is for Mickey. This is for Mickey.

He won this race.

[gentle, mournful music playing]

[Danny] It's a great feeling.

This doesn't bring my dad back,
but there's some justice here.

[Weissler] When I heard the verdict,

I remember saying out loud, "Finally."

[Jackson] I gave
a piece of myself to the case.

There's an enormous amount
of personal satisfaction

knowing that the family
of Mickey Thompson and Trudy Thompson,

what they had fought for,
dedicated their lives to...

For every fiber of myself
that I gave to the case,

I got so much more back from them.

[Lillienfeld] My promise
to Collene and Gary Campbell,

and the Thompson family, really,

was simply that I would work it
as hard as anybody and do my best.

I intentionally don't use...

I think it's a horrible word
and a horrible term,

and that would be the C-word,
meaning closure.

When you lose two loved ones
through a horrible act of violence,

you're not getting any closure.

I remember when the verdict came in,
there was finality to that,

both for me and for the family,

but there was a nagging little thing
in the back of my brain.

"But it's unresolved.
The two K*llers are still out there."

[Campbell] We've got one out of three,
but we still want these people.

During the entire investigation,
we never developed a solid lead

on who the actual shooters were.

That's still an active, ongoing case.

[Weissler] It's wonderful
to know that a conviction was gotten.

But their m*rder...

is part of my life.

My Aunt Trudy,

she's there in the back of my mind.

Mickey decided it was time
to fulfill his lifelong dream

and to set the world land speed record.

[Danny] The one thing
that my dad never accomplished

was the world land speed record.

He did it one way,
but he didn't have the official record.

So when he called me in 1987,
and he said, "I want you to drive it,"

that meant more to me
probably than maybe anything else.

And then we started talking about it,
how to do it and everything,

and then my dad got m*rder*d.

Then I let it go,
and I let it sit for 22 more years.

And then I thought, "You know what?"

"I don't want to be
sitting on the couch when I'm 80

wondering if that car
would have gone 450 miles an hour."

We gave up everything to do that.

We gave up every single thing
we had in life to do that.

[riveting music playing]

[music swells]

[music trails off]

And it happened.

[man] Way to go!

[Danny] Car went 459 miles an hour.

I take my helmet off.

I'm still standing in the car,
and I'm looking up.

I finished his mission...

and completed mine.

Probably one of
the most meaningful moments...

ever.

[gentle, sentimental music playing]

[engine revving]

If there's one enemy
of a homicide detective, it's time.

Time is your enemy.

Teresa Broudreaux was found naked
and dead on the beach.

It's been 33 years of no answers.

[officer] What was your wife's name?

[interviewee] Terri. T-E-R-R-I.

[officer] And you guys
were legally married?

[officer] Right? Okay.

[exhales heavily]

Everybody thought I did it.

That I got away with it.

A m*rder case is never closed
until someone's held accountable for it.

Somebody out there knows something.

[suspenseful music trailing off]

[dramatic outro music pulsing]