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Overview
When Mickey Thompson and his wife Trudy were assassinated in their driveway in the pre-dawn hours of March 16, 1988, the salacious details of the crime and the years of legal wrangling that followed made for hundreds of splashy headlines and sexy television soundbytes.
After all, the story had it all . . . unknown hooded gunmen riding into a gated Southern California community on bicycles, ambushing their victims and brutally ending their lives while neighbors ate breakfast and read the morning paper.
Leaving behind more than $70,000 in jewelry, the killing was an obvious “hit,” and those close to Mickey and Trudy immediately pointed to Mickey’s hot-headed former business partner Michael Goodwin as the mastermind behind the tragedy. Nearly 20 years later, Goodwin was found guilty by a Pasadena Superior Court jury in 2006 of two counts of first-degree murder. The actual gunmen were never identified or apprehended.
John Walsh and America’s Most Wanted did multiple episodes leading up to the conviction. Robert Stack featured the murders on Unsolved Mysteries. CBS’ 48 Hours Mystery got in the act. Everyone wanted a piece of the story.
A good story, however, has much more than a powerful ending.
Who was Mickey Thompson? What made him more than just another victim of violent crime in America? This is what Mickey Thompson: The Fast Life and Mysterious Death of a Racing Legend explores.
Mickey was one of the most influential figures in early American motorsports. While he did have loyal and longtime friends, Mickey always did things one way . . . his way. And he did it with speed . . . he did everything with speed.
From his 1950s adventures in the Carrera Panamericana, ending with five dead and dramatic pictures in Life Magazine in 1953, through making a one-way run of 406.60 miles per hour at the Bonneville Salt Flats in 1960 in his famed Challenger, through multiple trend-setting entries in the famed Indianapolis 500 and into the creation of some of the most popular off-road racing series and motor sportsstadium shows, Mickey’s life was full of “firsts.”
And in a world that seems to be moving faster than even Mickey Thompson could have imagined, the complete story of this true American legend is one worth slowing down for.
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9781616730123 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Motorbooks |
| Publication date: | 03/11/2011 |
| Sold by: | Barnes & Noble |
| Format: | eBook |
| Pages: | 304 |
| Sales rank: | 602,466 |
| File size: | 9 MB |
About the Author
Table of Contents
Dedication 7
Foreword Danny Thompson 9
Preface 11
Acknowledgments 15
Chapter 1 History Interrupted 17
Chapter 2 A Fast Start 32
Chapter 3 The Roar at Lions 61
Chapter 4 Challenges Met 82
Chapter 5 A Lion, a Monkey, a Bomb Shelter, and the Indy 500 118
Chapter 6 Going Back to Move Forward 153
Chapter 7 Getting Dirty 135
Chapter 8 Taking the Game Inside 213
Chapter 9 A Battle of Wills 236
Chapter 10 Shattered Lives 255
Chapter 11 Quest for Justice 276
Sources 297
Index 299
What People are Saying About This
SPEEDTV.com, September 2008 (views per month: 604,122).
Review
“Mickey Thompson: The Fast Life and Tragic Death of a Racing Legend grabbed me from the second I saw the cover photograph. I would label the image “A couple of Mavericks.” The photo shows Mickey with a bandaged hand posing in front of a Ford Maverick dragster. How appropriate. Mickey was the ultimate “Maverick.” He did things one way-HIS way! Mickey Thompson: The Fast Life and Tragic Death of a Racing Legend documents the triumphs and tragedy of this motorsports legend. The book rates four out of five lug nuts. ” - Gregg Leary, SpeedTV.com
“This 304-page hardcover book, which includes 75 black-and-white photographs, reacquaints readers with Thompson, who he was and what he accomplished.” – National Speed Sport News
“Author Erik Arneson, through close cooperation with the Thompson family, has written a full accounting…” - Ventura County Star
“It’s a compelling book which is hard to put down.” – Drag Racing Action
“Despite the overtone of the couple's murder and the length of time it took for an arrest and conviction, the book is a celebration of the life of the person who, Arneson writes, would "influence more kinds of racing in a wider variety of ways than any other single person, making him the true center of the high-performance era in American history." In addition to reciting the amazing chronology of Thompson's life in motorsports, Arneson includes some delightful anecdotes: how, at age 12, Thompson and his father built a soapbox derby racer and how Mickey equipped the "car" with batteries so he could drive it back up to the top of the derby hill; how a high-school aged Thompson could do math problems in his head but couldn't duplicate his calculations on paper; how, to keep Thompson in the racecar so the crew could fix it without his input, Thompson's partner and crew chief Fritz Voigt had the crew tip the car onto its side, trapping Thompson in the driver's seat, while a leak was fixed by soldering a penny over a hole in the radiator.” - Larry Edsall, IZoom.com
“Thompson was a highly influential driver and promoter in the drag-racing field of motor sports. A hard charger and innovator, he lived life at 200 miles per hour and in the process developed a legion of fans and not a few enemies. Still, it was shocking when he and his wife were murdered in 1988, even more shocking when it took the authorities 15 years to solve the case, and surreal when a business associate was convicted of the crime nearly 20 years after it happened. Arneson (John Force: The Straight Story of Drag Racing’s 300-MPH Superstar) relays the tale in a stark narrative that highlights Thompson’s accomplishments, the facts surrounding his death, and the heroic fight of his family to keep the case in the spotlight until justice was served. Recommended for public and all motor sports collections.” - Eric C. Shoaf, Library Journal.
“The author, head of public relations for Speed Channel, offers a strongly researched recap of Thompson’s remarkable life story in this 304-page hardcover. Arneson enjoyed the family’s cooperation on the book, with added help from countless interviewees and court records from the determined police investigation that finally resolved the slayings and brought the Thompson’s killer to justice. On a bittersweet anniversary, this book arrives as very overdue and very welcome.” - Hemmings Muscle
“Well researched, Erik talked to most if not all of the main players in Mickey's life. Performing the job of bringing all of these facts, stories and remembrances together is no small job. It's done beautifully in Mickey Thompson: The Fast Life and Tragic Death of a Racing Legend. It's a good book and deserves your serious attention, if you want to learn more about a true racing legend. I highly recommend it.” - Ed Justice Jr., edjusticejr.com
“This compelling book is a can’t miss book for racing fans, and everyone, actually. Arneson’s style of writing will pull you in to this interesting story of one of racing’s true “marathon man” heroes. Mickey could do it all. He was heralded as a great racer, builder and promoter until his untimely murder. Your emotions will be on a roller coaster with this book, so get ready when you start reading. You won’t be able to put it down.” - carreraslotcar.net
“His life was one of racing adventures.” - Dan Davis, Victory Lane
“Rarely out of the headlines, Thompson’s life is entertainingly presented by Arneson with co-operation from family and friends.” - Classic & Sports Car
“…it is an excellent book and I recommend it to anyone who is involved in racing. Mickey touched so many people and his life story is simply amazing. Erik, who also wrote the book about Darrell Gwynn and one on John Force, does a great job of capturing the spirit of a man who was involved in so many forms of motorsports.” - Bob Frey, dragracecentral.com
“Arneson has a great and rare gift among biographers; the ability to know when to let his subject’s story tell itself. And he has an even rarer gift: a subject whose life was interesting enough to stand on its own. Of course, Mickey’s friends and family are along for the ride too. Arneson performed extensive interviews with the people who knew Mickey, his family, his friends, his co-workers, his employees, even his rivals, and the result is a picture of a man who could have made his impact in any field that captured his attention.” - Clifford Tunnell, dragracingonline.com
"Mickey Thompson: The Fast Life and Tragic Death of a Racing Legend grabbed me from the second I saw the cover photograph. I would label the image "A couple of Mavericks." The photo shows Mickey with a bandaged hand posing in front of a Ford Maverick dragster. How appropriate. Mickey was the ultimate "Maverick." He did things one way-HIS way! Mickey Thompson: The Fast Life and Tragic Death of a Racing Legend documents the triumphs and tragedy of this motorsports legend. The book rates four out of five lug nuts."--(Gregg Leary, SpeedTV.com)