Coffey Frank - Thin ice: the complete, uncensored story of Tonya Harding, Americas bad girl of ice skating

THIN ICE

The Complete, Uncensored Story
of Tonya Harding,
Americas Bad Girl of Ice Skating

Frank Coffey
and Joe Layden

PINNACLE E-BOOKS

Kensington Publishing Corp.

www.Kensingtonbooks.com

Contents

ITS IMPOSSIBLE TO FORGET TONYA

[Tonya] is a Larry Bird or Wayne Gretzky. Shes the best there has ever been athletically. There is not another figure skater who has ever laced up skates who could hold her skates. She has more talent than God has ever given anybody.

Larry McBride, owner,
Valley Ice Arena, Beaverton, Oregon
as quoted in The Oregonian

Tonya eats, lives, breathes, sleeps because she wants skating. And if someone tells her she cant do it, shell do it better and better.

LaVona Golden,
Tonyas mother

Most girls needed to be talked into doing some of the hard things. Not Tonya. Shed try anything. She was fearless.

Antje Spethmann, skater
as quoted in The Oregonian

People like her because shes a great skater, not because shes Tonya. She has an air about her that puts people off, an air of, If you dont like it, tough luck, thats me. Thats a hard way to make friends.

David Webber,
father of one of Tonyas closest friends

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Copyright 1994 TD Media

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PINNACLE BOOKS and the Pinnacle logo are

Reg. U.S. Pat. & TM Off.

First electronic edition: February 2018

ISBN-13: 978-0-7860-4497-9

ISBN-10: 0-7860-4497-7

This book is dedicated to Tony Seidl, who accelerates from zero to 60 faster than any man or woman in all of book publishing.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Those of us who work in publishing know that all books are created by group effort; the following people made valued contributions to a project executed under a challenging deadline. At Pinnacle Books wed especially like to thank our talented editors, Paul Dinas and Ann LaFarge, publisher Walter Zacharius, publicity director Laura Shatzkin, and editorial assistant, Susan Lippe. Thanks also to Deborah Hartnett, John Pynchon Holms, Robert Engle and Sherry Tunkel, the finest canape purveyor in all of Manhattan.

FC & JL

To my wife, Sue, whose patience and understanding allowed me to chase a dream. And to the Albany Times Union , for its support and encouragement.

JL

To my brother Waynein this case the competition. I hope Ill be buying.

FC

Tragedy:

a serious play having an unhappy or disastrous ending brought about by the characters or central character impelled, in ancient drama, by fate or, more recently, by moral weakness, psychological maladjustment or social pressures.

Websters New World Dictionary

In skating over thin ice our safety is in our speed.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

The Cast of Characters

TONYA HARDING: 23 years old. Born and raised in Portland, Oregon. Two-time U.S. national figure skating champion. Began skating when she was not quite four years old. Showed tremendous promise at an early age. Small (5 1, 105 pounds), but very athletic, aggressive skater. First American woman ever to land a triple Axel in competition. Childhood was extremely difficult. Mother was allegedly abusive, father suffered from physical problems that often prevented him from working. Family had little money and stabilityhad eight different addresses in the Portland area while Harding was growing up. Married Jeff Gillooly in 1990, when she was 19 years old. Filed several complaints with police during their three-year marriage. Divorced Gillooly in summer of 1993, but reconciled shortly thereafter. Volatile personality and rough edges prevented her from landing many endorsements. Implicated in the attack on Nancy Kerrigan, but not charged. Said she learned of the plot after it happened, but denied any prior knowledge.

NANCY KERRIGAN: 24 years old. Resident of Stoneham, Massachusetts. Assaulted on January 6 at Cobo Arena in Detroit following a practice session for the nationals. Named to U.S. Olympic team despite being unable to compete in nationals (which serve as Olympic Trials). Bronze medalist in 1992 Olympics. National champion in 1993. Had been skating particularly well in the months prior to her attack, and was favored to win at the nationals. Was, and is, a valuable endorsement commodity.

JEFF GILLOOLY: 26 years old. Allegedly masterminded the plot to assault Nancy Kerrigan. Portland resident. Graduated from David Douglas High School in 1985. Worked as a clothing store salesman and as a conveyor belt operator for the Oregon Liquor Control Commission. Married Tonya Harding in March, 1990. Theirs has been a stormy relationship, filled with passion and pain. They have separated on several occasions. Twicein 1991 and 1993Gillooly was the recipient of a restraining order barring him from coming near Harding. They divorced in the summer of 1993, reconciled a few months later. Described as a bit of a control freak by some. Tried, in 1992, to serve as Hardings coach, though he knew almost nothing about figure skating. The arrangement did not last.

SHAWN ERIC ECKARDT: 26 years old. Portland resident. Allegedly helped arrange the plot to assault Nancy Kerrigan. Described by virtually all who knew him as a blowhard. A big man (320 pounds) with big dreamsfantasies, really. A computer hacker who lived with his parents and yet fancied himself a master of espionage and counter-terrorism. Tossed out such phrases as asset-protection strategies. Rsum included such outrageous lies as successfully tracked and targeted terrorist cells throughout the Middle East, Central America and Europe; coordinated and conducted successful hostage retrieval operations. According to the dates on the rsum, Eckardt accomplished these remarkable feats of bravery when he was between 16 and 20 years of age. A high school and community college dropout who liked to pretend that he could arrange protection or mayhem; that he could move illegal goods, including drugs, if necessary. Fascinated by guns and survivalism and wealth, and yet he ran his small business, World Bodyguard Services, Inc., out of his parents house and drove a 1974 Mercury with missing hubcaps.

A boyhood chum of Jeff Gillooly.

SHANE MINOAKA STANT: 22 years old. The man who allegedly attacked Nancy Kerrigan. Born in Portland, spent time in California as a child, returned to Portland as a teenager. Resident of Phoenix, where he lives with his uncle, Derrick Smith. A bounty hunter and survivalist. A rugged, sometimes hostile young man who carries 225 pounds on his 6-foot frame. Prominent scars on his face and head. Looked like a body-builder, which was precisely what he was. According to former classmates and acquaintances, Stant liked a good fight. Fascinated by violence. Arrested in 1991 for allegedly taking four cars from the parking lot of an auto dealership and going for a joyride. Spent 15 days in jail. Talked of becoming a bodyguard.

DERRICK BRIAN SMITH: Allegedly drove the getaway car for his nephew, Shane Stant. Overweight, balding, appears far older than his 29 years. Resident of Phoenix. Former resident of Corbett, Oregon, near Portland. Friend of Shawn Eckardt, with whom he shared an interest in paramilitary activities. Former night janitor who moved to Phoenix with the hope of setting up his own anti-terrorist training academy. His home in Corbett, according to neighbors, was an exercise in paramilitary madness, with barbed wire and bent-tree boobytraps surrounding the property. Armed services veteran who frequently told acquaintances that he had done work for a Swiss company that specialized in counterterrorism.