Naman Shrestha
In the second episode of Netflix’s ‘Homicide: Los Angeles,’ the viewers are provided with a detailed account of the horrific and cold-blooded murders of Mickey Thompson and his wife, Trudy, in the driveway of their Bradbury house in 1988. Several years later, the investigators found hard evidence and testimonies against Michael Goodwin, the victim’s former business partner. All the aspects of the case, from the crime to the conviction of the perpetrator, are covered in the episode, in addition to the exclusive interviews with the loved ones of the victim, raising questions about the killer’s whereabouts.
Michael Goodwin’s Partnership with Mickey Thompson Did Not Turn Out Well
Born around the mid-1940s, Michael Frank “Mike” Goodwin grew up with a couple of major interests — rock and roll and motocross. Not only did he work to promote rock in the 1960s, but he also used to ride dirt bikes and attend outdoor motocross races. When he learned that thousands of fans attended an indoor flat track race in New York, he had an idea to put a motocross race in a stadium as well. After several efforts, he finally managed to convince the Los Angeles Coliseum to let him host the event in 1972, calling it “The Superbowl of Motocross.” Although it wasn’t the first time that a Speedway race was held inside a stadium, what made it different was the fact that he brought a rock promoter’s hype to the show. This was the origin of “Supercross,” which was introduced and owned by Michael Goodwin until the mid-80s.
At some point, Michael also met Diane and tied the knot with her. When he crossed paths with an accomplished drag racer named Mickey Thompson, they merged their companies and formed a business partnership to promote races in Southern California. However, due to their contrasting personalities, the two had a falling out just a few months after they became business partners. Ultimately, it cost Michael his business as he was forced out of the sport by late 1987, filing for bankruptcy. About a year later, on March 16, 1988, Mickey and his wife Trudy were killed right outside their home in Bradbury, California, by two individuals who fled the scene on bicycles wearing hooded sweatshirts.
Many Witnesses Pointed the Finger at Michael Goodwin
Initially, the incident was believed to be a burglary gone wrong, but when the police learned that nothing of value had been stolen from the property, they changed it to homicide. Given the dispute-filled history between the victim and Michael, the latter was the prime suspect from the very beginning, but the investigators could not find any evidence to charge him with murder. He and his wife invested thousands of dollars worth of gold coins a couple of months before the murder and wired approximately $400,000 to banks in Grand Turk Island. Five months after the murder, the two fled the country on their yacht and stayed outside the United States for more than two years. However, in 1995, the suspect was convicted of bank fraud in another case, resulting in his imprisonment for two years.
Even several years after the murder, the detectives did not stop looking until they caught the perpetrator responsible for the death of Mickey and his wife. The victim’s sister, Collene Campbell, even hired private investigators and offered a reward of $1 million to anyone with significant information regarding the murder. When about 15 witnesses testified against Michael, several of them being his employees, the case finally saw some development. One of the witnesses claimed that Michael had confessed to the murders a decade after they took place, while another one claimed that he had seen him in front of Mickey’s house, scouting the neighborhood through a pair of binoculars. In light of all these witnesses and their testimonies, Michael Goodwin was arrested and charged with murdering Mickey Thompson and his wife in June 2004 in Pasadena, California.
Michael Goodwin is Incarcerated at a California Prison
In early January 2007, Michael Goodwin was found guilty of murdering Mickey Thompson and his wife Trudy in 1988. A few months later, in April 2007, he was sentenced to two life sentences without the possibility of parole. Throughout his trial and beyond, Michael maintained his innocence and claimed that Mickey had many enemies, one of whom killed him in a robbery of gold coins he had purchased a few weeks prior to his demise. In 2015, an appeal for a new trial was denied by the court as the evidence against the convict was overwhelming.
In 2021, Michael filed a petition and alleged that the trial court was wrong in denying his appeal for re-sentencing without appointing an attorney. In response, the court ruled that the trial court did not make a mistake in ruling him ineligible for re-sentencing under a recent change in state law. Currently, Michael Goodwin is serving his sentence behind bars at Richard J. Donovan Correctional Facility at 480 Alta Road in San Diego, California.
