Barthel - A Death in California: A True Account of Love and Murder Among the Very Rich

A Death in California

Joan Barthel

For James E. Cronin,

my teacher,

founder of

The Writers Institute,

Saint Louis University

List of Characters

LOS ANGELES

Hope Masters, a Beverly Hills socialite

Tom Masters, Hopes estranged husband

Bill Ashlock, advertising writer, Hopes lover

Fran Ashlock, Bills estranged wife

Keith, Hope Masterss oldest child, age 12

Hope Elizabeth, Hope Masterss daughter, age 10

K.C., Hope Masterss youngest child, age 3

Honey, Hope Masterss mother

Van, Hope Masterss stepfather, member of a prominent Los Angeles law firm

Michael Abbott, young lawyer, a friend of Hope Masters

Lionel, screenwriter, a friend of Hope Masters

Sandi, a friend of Bill Ashlock

Nadine, a friend of Tom Masters

Martha Padilla, Hope Masterss weekday maid

Licha Mancha, Hope Masterss weekend maid

Reverend Kermit Castellanos, rector of All Saints Episcopal Church, Beverly Hills

Cliff Einstein, Bill Ashlocks boss at the advertising agency

Helen Linley, Bill Ashlocks secretary

Sara Monaco, receptionist at the advertising agency

Richard Miller, Bill Ashlocks partner in a filmmaking company

Ned Nelsen, Hope Masterss defense attorney

Tom Breslin, Hope Masterss defense attorney and Ned Nelsens partner

Gene Tinch, a private detective

Fillmore Crank, manager of the Howard Johnsons Motor Lodge in North Hollywood

Gary LePon, assistant manager of the SheratonUniversal Hotel in Hollywood

Robert McRae, desk clerk at the Holiday Inn in Hollywood

Paul Luther, agent, Federal Bureau of Investigation

Robert Sage, agent, Federal Bureau of Investigation

Beverly Hills police

Billy Ray Smith

William Clyde Stien

Philip DeMond

Los Angeles investigators

Kenneth Pollock

Paul OSteen

Arthur Stoyanoff

CHICAGO

Robert Pietrusiak, a patient at Illinois Research Hospital

Catherine Pietrusiak, his wife

Armond Lee, a guard at Illinois Research Hospital

Marthe Purmal, an attorney with Legal Services

Mort Friedman, chief prosecutor, Cook County States Attorneys Office

Robert Baucom, agent, Federal Bureau of Investigation

Illinois State Police

Robert Swalwell

Sven (Gus) Ljuggren

Williard Rowe

Frank Waldrup

Illinois Department of Corrections

Ronald Tonsel

Willis Stephans

Ray Clark

Ron Hepner

Pete Lane

TULARE COUNTY

Jim Webb, caretaker at the ranch

Teresa Webb, his wife

Gerald Webb, Jim Webbs brother, a part-time Baptist minister

Dorothy Anderson, former housekeeper at the ranch

Tulare County investigators

Gene Parker

Jim Brown

Forrest Barnes

Henry Babcock

Ralph Tucker

Jack Flores

Vern Hensley

Doyle Hoppert

Donald Landers

Michael Scott

Joseph Teller

Butch Coley

Ollie Farris

George Carter, judge, Porterville Justice Court

Virginia Anderson, clerk, Porterville Justice Court

William Thompson, bailiff, Porterville Justice Court

James Heusdens, prosecutor, deputy district attorney, Tulare County

Joseph Haley, prosecutor, deputy district attorney, Tulare County

Jay Powell, public defender, Tulare County

Jay Ballantyne, judge, Superior Court, Tulare County

Leonard M. Ginsburg, judge, Superior Court, Tulare County

OTHER PLACES

Taylor Wright, a jewelry salesman from Benton Harbor, Michigan

Larry Burbage, an electronics equipment salesman from Atlanta, Georgia

Richard Crane, an engineer from the state of Washington, found murdered in a motel on Sunset Strip

G. Daniel Walker, a man of many identities

AUTHORS NOTE

This book has been written from the memories of many people. The core of the story, which is a weekend at a ranch in northern California, is based on Hope Masterss remembrance of that time. Certain scenes in this story have been composed in a literary rather than a journalistic manner, using a variety of sources, including police reports and notes, court transcripts and other legal documents, tape recordings, letters, and diaries, as well as dozens of interviews, some of them conducted at that time, some recently, as I was writing this book. One persons memory sometimes collides with anothers; but what is important about memory, it seems to me, is not its indisputability, but its texture.

For her openness in discussing with me, not only the events of 1973 but her life and thoughts, in an unconditional, wholehearted way, I am grateful to Hope Masters. I am grateful to members of her family, especially her mother, and to her friends who, in talking with me, helped me come to know her.

Special thanks to the people who spent many hours with mesometimes daystalking about the case and about themselves: Detective Robert Swalwell of the Illinois State Police; Detectives James Brown and Gene Parker in Tulare County, California; former Deputy District Attorney James Heusdens; former District Attorney Jay Powell; George Carter of the Porterville Justice Court; Judge Leonard M. Ginsburg; Thomas P. Breslin and Ned R. Nelson, attorneys; and Gene Tinch, private investigator.

My thanks to jurors Ruthe Snelling and Lois Bollinger for sharing their insights into the trial. I appreciate the friendly cooperation of Taylor Wright and Marthe Purmal and the courtesy of Tom Masters.

For their help with research, I am grateful to Jenny Vogt and her staff in the Tulare County Clerks Office in Visalia, California, and to Shirley Askins at the Criminal Court, and to Kevin A. Swanson and Velda J. Poe at the Appellate Court in Fresno, California.

For their editorial help, I thank Ellie Kossack and Deborah Lyons. I am obliged to friends whose help was sustaining: Elizabeth Pace, Linda Berman, Girlie Persad, and Zita Drake in New York, and Janine Coyle in Los Angeles. My loving thanks to Jim and Anne, who helped as only a husband and a daughter can.

Joan Barthel

May 1981

PROLOGUE

So many pretty girls were swirling through the lobby that the desk clerk didnt pay much attention to the man who was checking in. He didnt notice the slight heave of relief from the tired-looking, middle-aged man when the clerk said yes, they had a single for one night, and the pool was open. The man set his briefcase down on the floor beside the desk and reached for the registration pad. T. O. Wright, Benton Harbor, Michigan. Under FIRM NAME : T. O. Wright and Sons. The clerk, Patrick Rye, wrenched his attention from the girls in the lobby back to the desk and reached for a key. Room one-ten, he told T. O. Wright. First floor.

The man picked up his briefcase and went back out through the revolving door to his car, parked at the entrance. He drove around the long rectangle of the Marriott to a parking space and sat at the wheel for a moment. He was exhausted from his week on the road, this long days driving from Cleveland through Toledo and now into Ann Arbor, and he longed for the bliss of a heated pool. Before hed left home Monday morning, hed made sure his brown swimming trunks were packed. Swimming was a Wright family passionmaybe it came with the territoryand swimming was the reason he wasnt heading home to Benton Harbor this Friday evening. His sons, Taylor and Jamie, were swimming in an A.A.U. meet tomorrow in Jackson; he planned to meet them and the rest of the family there. As tired as he was, hed passed up the Howard Johnsons when they told him their pool was closed for repairs.