The Stormy McDonald Mystery
Roger Dunbier's ex-wife, Jeannie contacted me recently and has since sent me a large amount of original newspaper articles from this time frame. It was interesting to read them and I found myself engrossed for about a hour when they first arrived. I can't tell her how much I appreciate them!
I was also contacted by a man who used to date Stormy's ex-wife, Pooky. He didn't know anything of this but was interested to have found this webpage
In March, 2005, I was contacted by two of the primary players in this event. Neither was aware that the other had been in touch with me and I have since put them in touch with each other. Thank you to Joyce Shank and John Haeberlin for getting in touch! Check back as I will try to add new info as it is provided to me. In October 2005 I was also contacted by Ivan Berger, an old acquaintance of Virginia Baker's (alias "Pookie"), Stormy's ex-wife. Thanks Ivan for getting in touch!
The Stormy Mystery
In 1964 and 1965, John Leamon, was friends with a local millionaire/UA student named Eugene "Stormy" McDonald. John, Shelby's father, and his best friend, Mark Lowder, helped Stormy with a drag car that he sponsored and owned named "The Golden Rod". In 1965, Stormy was found dead in his home by Mark Lowder with slit wrists and a gunshot wound to the back of the head. John and Mark never truly believed that Stormy committed suicide, as concluded, but that someone had murdered him. Shelby has done some research and is in the process of transcribing the Tucson newspaper articles of the incident into readable text. Stormy died on February 3, 1965 and I will have to make a trip to the library to get those earlier newspapers. Attached are the transcriptions completed so far from the Arizona Daily Star:
February 1965
View a video of the home where
Stormy took his own life.
Young Heir’s Death Puzzles Officials
No Suicide Cause Seen; Inquest Slated Monday
On the surface,
good-looking Eugene McDonald had everything to live for-a $30 million
inheritance, a stable of racing cars and motorboats, an airplane, friends and
every hobby that money could buy.
Why would he kill himself with a bullet in the head? A coroner’s jury was
empanelled yesterday to view McDonald’s body. The death has tentatively been
listed as suicide by the Sheriff’s Department.
Green said there were some unanswered questions about the McDonald death and "why he would do such a thing."
The University of Arizona senior slashed his wrists and shot himself in the back of the head with a .22 cal. Pistol Wednesday night, officers said. The body was discovered by a business associate in a hallway of the $50,000 home McDonald rented at 9043 E. Bellevue St.
McDonald’s father, the late Eugene McDonald, was a fabled playboy businessman who headed the Zenith Radio Corp. He divorced the younger McDonald’s mother in the 1940’s.
Undersheriff James O. Wyckoff said powder burns were found on McDonald’s head and gas stains from the side of gun showed on his hand.
According to friends, McDonald, 23, apparently never bought happiness with his vast wealth.
Sheriff’s detectives were told that McDonald often had questioned the meaning of his life amid such fortune. However, McDonald had never given any indication of suicide, according to Mark Lowder, 33, of 5826 E. Rosewood, who discovered the body and was a business associate in drag strip operations.
A recent letter from his ex-wife, 19 year old heiress, Virginia Baker, may have depressed McDonald, a friend said. McDonald mentioned the letter to the friend, adding that he would have remarried her if he had the chance. They were wed in 1964 and the marriage lasted two months.
McDonald’s body was lying in a hallway between the living room and a combination bathroom darkroom. He was clad only in slacks.
In the living room was his elaborate stereo setup and a large music library.
McDonald kept a St. Bernard dog and had owned a 6 ½ foot boa constrictor that died four months ago.
Recently he purchased a $7,000 inboard ski boat, which he kept outside his house.
McDonald, nicknamed "Stormy," had a vast collection of guns, according to Mrs. Susan Tanner, his housekeeper.
A friend told of having to lend "Stormy" money to buy a record because he had nothing in his pocket smaller than a $50 bill.
He was president of the Pando Corp., a firm that entered cars, including the Golden Rod and Fuzz stock racers, in events at Tucson Dragway and Phoenix Beeline.
He had a lodge and outboard motorboats at Pardsey Cragg Island, which he owned, in McGregor Bay off the coast of Ontario.
Described as an expert pilot, McDonald sold a twin engine Cessna 310 plane last year that he had flown throughout the country on business trips.
"He and Peter were marvelous mimics," the housekeeper recalled, referring to Peter Fonda, son of the actor. "They’d make up characters they’d never met and then impersonate them."
Fonda, who had been on a Hawaiian vacation with McDonald a week ago, flew to Tucson Wednesday after hearing of the death.
Friends said the student idolized his father, and told stories about how the elder McDonald had worked his way up in the world, starting out as a ar salesman.
McDonald’s body was discovered about 6 p.m. Wednesday. A bathtub containing bloody water indicated that he may have slashed his wrists there before he shot himself. No tract of a razor blade or knife had been found last night.
An autopsy by pathologist Edward Brucker indicated the student died as the result of the bullet wound.
McDonald never appeared depressed, although he studied more intently than usual the past few days according to the housekeeper.
Business acquaintances said the father’s fortune was divided equally between McDonald and his sister, Marianne Cantwell of Chicago.
Mrs. Cantwell, wife of a Chicago lawyer arrived in Tucson yesterday to make funeral arrangements. The body was taken to Adair Funeral Home.
A business and public administration major, McDonald was an average student during his 2 ½ years at the university, according to associate registrar Warren Shirley. McDonald entered the UA in September 1962. Earlier, he had attended the University of Omaha and New Trier High School in Winnetka, Ill.
He was an active member of Phi Kappa Psi fraternity.
Fonda said McDonald was his best friend, "I was older than he was but we had been best friends since we went to the University (of Omaha) together.
McDonald Is Called "Complex" by Kingsley Wood
Eugene McDonald was
a highly impressionable person and anything could have set him off---even a
movie such as "Mondo Pazzo" which he attended with a friend Tuesday
night.
"He was not afraid of people knowing about him, but I think that he may have believed that he was not quite as smart as some other people. And that was the irony of it all," Fonda recalled.
"Stormy was one of the most honest and intelligent persons I’ve ever met. He had a complexity with whatever he did---cars, animals, cameras.
"Once he spent the night aboard a trawler in Marseilles. He didn’t speak French and the fisherman didn’t speak English, but somehow the fisherman understood that Stormy loved engines and they communicated."
McDonald was "always looking forward to things," Fonda remembered. "He’d call me at the spur of the moment and say "I’ve just read the best book, you’ve got to come right over." Or he’d say that he had just had a dream about Canada and that we should get together because Canada would be a good place to travel to."
Sister Now May Get Entire Trust Fund - McDonald Made Out New Will
Millionaire playboy Eugene McDonald
III made out a new will about the time of his divorce last June and seven months
before he took his own life, a Chicago attorney said yesterday.
New York reporters learned from 20 year old Virginia Baker yesterday that she and the University of Arizona senior had frequently discussed death and suicide during their tow month marriage.
Interviewed in New York, Virginia, known as "Pooky" to her friends said she was uncertain about the details of the divorce, as she had only been informed of it by McDonald.
"It had been a difficult, trying time for us," she said. "He took care of all the arrangements for the divorce I didn’t want to have anything in do with it."
Its status conceivably could have a bearing on disposal of McDonald’s share in the $30 million trust left McDonald by his father, the late president of Zenith Radio Corp.
She said they parted about the first of last June, and subsequently he notified her that the divorce had become final, about June 28, as nearly as she can recall, in Tucson.
McCausland, a trustee of the trust set up by the late Eugene F. McDonald, Jr. for his son and a daughter, Marianne Cantwell of Chicago, said the son’s share will go to her under terms of the trust.
Any will he might have made would apply to assets accumulated outside the trust, McCausland said.
McDonald would have received between $2 and $3 million had he lived to the age of 30. The UA student had been receiving monthly payments of about $7,000 or $8,000 and was the beneficiary of a lump sum of $350,000 two years ago when he reached 21.
Sheriff’s detectives have become increasingly convinced that McDonald took his own life. However, his death is under investigation by County Atty. Norman E. Green who called an eight member corner’s jury.
Jurors will hear testimony in Justice Court Monday from 10 witnesses, including Peter Fonda, son of the actor and a close friend of McDonald.
Also subpoenaed were Eugene M. Kinney of Kenilworth, Ill., the student‘s guardian until he reached 21; Ronald Watkins, Mark Lowder, and John Haberlin, three friends; Lillian Daniels, owner of the home McDonald rented,; Mrs. Susan Tanner, the youth’s housekeeper; pathologists Edwards K. Brucker and Louis Hirsch; and Dunbier.
"It seems unlikely," Sheriff Waldon V. Burr said, "that a murderer (assuming the crime was murder) would have taken the trouble to have slashed McDonald's wrists twice and then placed a right thumb on the trigger and the left hand on the barrel."
The body of the Zenith Radio Corporation heir was discovered Wednesday night in the $50,000 home which he rented in Tucson.
A blood test by the Tucson Police Laboratory showed no signs of alcohol or drugs, sheriff's officers said.
Feb. 7, 1965
Monday Services Set at Chicago For McDonald
Chicago (Special) - Private services will be held Monday for Eugene F.
(Stormy) McDonald at the Jordan Funeral Home here. McDonald, 23, was found
dead in Tucson Wednesday, apparently by his own hand.
The body of the 23-year old Zenith heir was flown here Friday
accompanied by his sister, Marianne Cantwell, of Rancho Santa Fe, Calif., and
Mr. and Mrs. Peter Fonda, close friends.
The mortuary will admit visitors Sunday afternoon. The
place of burial has not been announced.
In Tucson, a coroner's inquest has been called for Monday
morning to probe the death, tentatively described as a suicide.
Feb.
8, 1965
Coroner's Jury Probes McDonald Death Today
11
Have Received Orders to Appear - A coroner's jury this morning will begin to
probe the death of Zenith scion Eugene (Stormy) McDonald, tentatively ruled a
suicide by two pathologists.
McDonald, found dead in his rented eastside home last
Wednesday, will be buried today in Chicago after private services. He was
23.
The inquest was requested by County Atty. Norman Green and
ordered by Justice of the Peace Toby LaVetter. It will begin at 10 a.m. in
LaVetter's office.
Eleven witnesses have been subpoenaed to appear, including
McDonald's closest friends and associates. Informed sources said that an
effort had been made to ask Virginia Baker, McDonald's 20-year-old ex-wife, to
appear, but that she was unavailable at her New York City home.
Green denied knowledge of that request, and added "I
can't remember how many I've subpoenaed, - eight, nine or maybe eleven."
He added, "There is nothing here particularly unusual,
except that he (McDonald) had $30 million. So far, we've found nothing
suspicious."
Sheriff Waldon V. Burr confirmed that eleven witnesses had
been called. "It still appears to be suicide." said Burr,
"The inquest was called when it first happened. Since then we've
gotten our lab reports, it hasn't changed our minds too much."
A principal witness is actor Peter Fonda, long-time friend of
McDonald's who accompanied the body to Chicago. Also appearing will
be:
Mark Lowder, a friend and racing
associate who found the body; John Haberlin, a former roommate who had
reportedly last seen McDonald alive; Ronald J. Watkins, also a friend and racing
companion.
Eugene Kinney, of Illinois, a cousin and former administrator
of McDonald's estate; Roger Dunbier, president of Arizona Economics Inc. in
Phoenix is executor of McDonald's will.
Lillian Daniels, owner of the home McDonald had rented; Mrs.
Susan Tanner, his housekeeper; Martha Ross, a neighbor; and pathologists
Louis
Hirsch and Edward A. Brucker, who performed the autopsy.
McDonald, who had just registered as a senior at the
University of Arizona, was found dead outside his photography lab with a .22
caliber head wound and slashed wrists. No notes were found and there was
no apparent reason for the suicide, investigating officers said.
McDonald's closest friends however, said he tended to be
moody and to make snap judgments. His ex-wife told New York reporters they
had often talked of death. A blood test by the Tucson Police Laboratory
showed no signs of alcohol or drugs.
McDonald and his sister, Marianne Cantwell, of San Diego
County, Calif., were principal beneficiaries in the $30 million estate of their
father, the late Eugene McDonald Jr. He had been receiving $7,000-$8,000
monthly payments and had gotten a lump sum of $350,000 when he turned 21.
Had he lived seven more years, he would have received between $2 and $3 million,
and the remainder of the trust at the age of 40.
Feb. 9, 1965
Zenith
Heir Fired Fatal Shot, Pathologist Says
by Kingsley Wood
Inquest Resumes Thursday Morning
Millionaire Eugene McDonald III
held a “death grip” on the .22 caliber Luger revolver he apparently used to
kill himself Wednesday morning, a pathologist testified yesterday at a
Testimony by Dr.
Edward A. Brucker tended to remove any further doubts that McDonald –
the heir to half his father’s nine per cent interest in Zenith Radio Corp. –
committed suicide.
However, County Atty. Norman Green said
he will resume the inquest at
Green said he is still puzzled by blood splotches found
beside the
Green plans to question Brucker at
greater length to determine the origin of the “unusual” stains.
They are much heavier than those which could be expected from the
instrument McDonald apparently used to slash his wrists, the county attorney
said.
Sheriff’s Capt. James E. McDonald
said he believes the splotch of blood at the man’s feet was produced by a
reflex action.
“It appears that someone is just
trying to make a publicity show out of all this,” he said.
Green has declined to elaborate on one
of two other matters about the case that puzzle him, although he told the
seven-man coroner’s jury that the facts so far mostly “add up to suicide.”
He said he plans to question actor
Peter Fonda, who attended private funeral services for McDonald in Chicago
yesterday, as well as two other of McDonald’s close friends, Ronald Watkins
and John Haberlin.
Testimony by Brucker and McDonald
indicated that the wealthy heir held the fatal weapon with two hands.
A three-inch cut across the right wrist
three slashes on the left wrist and two on the left elbow all were
“hesitation-type wounds,” Brucker asserted.
McDonald he said evidently pressed a sharp instrument on his skin in a
sawing motion because of the pain.
He added that the gunshot wound could
easily have been inflicted by a person holding a revolver in the awkward
position McDonald’s gun was held. The
bullet entered the skull, and two fragments were lodged in the brain, Brucker
said.
Capt. McDonald testified, “It’s a
grip I’ve seen only two or three times in my life.
He was holding that fun so hard I didn’t think I could get it out of
his hand.” The detective testified
he has investigated close to 1,000 homicides and suicides, and in each instance
a person was found to have shot himself in the back of the head when he had the
same grip as the Zenith heir.
The detective explained that a muscle
spasm generally occurs after a bullet has entered a portion of the brain, and it
will cause a person to hold a weapon tightly even before he dies.
Although the student died between 5 and
The student apparently tried to wash a
sharp instrument down a darkroom sink as indicated by blood found on the sink
trap, Capt. McDonald said.
Earlier
Only one of yesterday’s six
witnesses was inclined not to believe that McDonald took his own life.
“I never knew anyone who didn’t
like him,” Mark J. Lowder testified. Lowder
was associated with McDonald in drag strip racing and was the man who discovered
the body.
“And with all the guns he had, why
didn’t he blow himself to death with a bigger gun?
Also, he never locked the house and he kept the drapes open. Why
was the house locked and the drapes closed?”
Mrs. Martha Ross of
McDonald’s Friends Get Bulk of His Belongings
Eugene
F. (Stormy) McDonald’s will – drawn up the day following his June 10 divorce
– left most of his personal belongings to his friends, the Star learned last
night.
The 3-page document included awards of
money and stock, but also included the disbursal of nearly all his possessions
to friends.
An inquest into the 23-year-old
McDonald’s death last Wednesday – is scheduled to reconvene tomorrow
morning. Despite a pathologist’s
testimony that the Zenith heir committed suicide, County Attorney Norman Green
said he was puzzled by blood splotches near the body, some distance from others.
Sheriff Waldon V. Burr, when contacted about the will last
night, declined to comment, saying it was beyond the sheriff’s department’s
sphere of investigation.
Inez Riddle McDonald,
McDonald’s mother, who is believed to be living in
The Star’s source said
McDonald left Peter Fonda, son of actor Henry Fonda, “his boats and planes and
other tangible items not enumerated.”
John Haeberlin, a
student at the
William and Frances Barrett, of
McDonald asked that
Roger Dunbier, president of Arizona Economics, be left 5,200 shares of his stock
in the corporation.
He also bequeathed the
same number of shares in Arizona Economics Corp. to Peter Fonda.
The corporation was established to research the economic potential of
businesses.
McDonald also wanted his
photo equipment to be given to a friend, Fred Niemann, of
The document awards the
bulk of McDonald’s estate to his sister, Marianna McDonald Cantwell of
The will was dated
Norma H. Meyer, 1125 Jeannett Ave., Des
Plains, Ill.; Patricia A. Power, 2800 Elm St., Franklin Park, Ill.; and Isabella
M. Palazzie, 2918 .75 Court, Elmwood Park, Ill.
Heir Not Alone
Visitor Saw Stormy Die, Say Experts by Kingsley Wood
Millionaire
In another unexpected development at
the inquest into McDonald’s death, a coroner’s jury learned that officers
had found the equivalent of 175 marijuana cigarettes in his home, McDonald was
found dead in his home Feb. 3 of a gunshot wound,
Joyce Shank, 19, of
However, Fonda and Haeberlin, two of
McDonald’s closest friends, denied the incident when called back to the stand
by County Attn. Norman E. Green and Deputy County Atty. Lars Pedersen.
Fonda described his own feeling toward
McDonald as that of “love.”
It was an “emotional and verbal
attachment,” he explained.
The county attorney’s office
requested Miss Shank’s presence in
“We’re sure someone was in that
house at the time of the death or almost immediately afterwards,” Green said
after continuing the inquest until
Dr. Joseph
Beeman of the
Presence of a second person seems
likely, Beeman said, in view of the blood puddle at McDonald’s right foot.
“If he shot himself in the back of
the head,” the surgeon said, “the shock produced by the bullet would have
caused him to fall forward into his own blood or the blood found beside his
head.”
But McDonald fell over on his left side
instead, Beeman said. He explained
that a person who shoots himself probably would not lean forward, turn around
and then fall over on his left side.
The blood at McDonald’s right foot
can be explained more easily if there had been a struggle, Beeman told the jury.
If someone had pointed the weapon at
McDonald, according to Beeman, a struggle would have ensued.
It’s possible that McDonald could have reached behind his head to grab
the weapon, Beeman said.
His assailant probably would have held
him up before letting him slump to the floor.
In this situation, it is likely that blood gushing from McDonald’s nose
would have landed at his feet, Beeman theorized.
Beeman said the uphill path of blood
stains on McDonald’s face and on a wastebasket found near the body also
puzzled him.
Blood doesn’t run uphill, Beeman
testified, and the upward path from the back of the head to the chin indicates
the body was moved before police photographs were taken.
Something also happened to the wastebasket, he said.
Beeman, who examined the photographs
and other evidence at Green’s request, was puzzled by a superficial wound on
the victim’s head which did not come from a bullet.
The wound he testified could not have come from the recoil or kick
produced by the firing of the death weapon – a .22 Ruger revolver.
Beeman said he tested the weapon and
was convinced that the recoil could not have produced the head wound.
“This gun had a very small kick – not at all like that of a .44
Magnum which will tear your hand,” he said.
The finding of 34.2 grams of marijuana
beneath a mattress in a bedroom of the McDonald home was announced by Green
before calling Miss Shank to the stand.
She testified that Fonda held her nose
at
She said that Sheriff’s Detective John
Lyon discussed the subject of marijuana with her after McDonald’s
death, and that she later advised Fonda to tell officers all he knew.
Fonda testified that he could recall no such conversation with Miss
Shank.
Haeberlin also denied any knowledge of
narcotics – either at the Drake Hotel or in McDonald’s home.
Both Haeberlin and Fonda, according to
Miss Shank, had an unusual emotional relationship with one another.
“It was a sort of Seventh sense about
each other,” Miss Shank recalled, “but Stormy nevertheless envied John for
his ability to tell a girl he loved her and mean it.”
She theorized that McDonald was too
much of an exhibitionist to have killed himself the way he did – “by pulling
shades down, locking doors and taking his shoes off.”
“He was the kind of person who would have killed
himself by taking out a fast car or motorboat and exploding it.”
Pathologist Edward A. Brucker was
puzzled by the absence of blood stains on the outer part of McDonald’s
trousers. There were stains on the
inside band.
He said he was disturbed to find blood
throughout much of the home and no blood outside the trousers.
“If McDonald slashed his wrists,” Brucker asked, “why didn’t
blood get on his trousers?”
“Could his trousers have been down?
Did someone else pull them up and then zip them?
Quite possibly.” Brucker
could not account for the stains on the band inside the trousers.
Both Beeman and Brucker wondered why,
McDonald would have “shot himself the hard way.”
He apparently did everything backwards, including pulling the trigger
with his thumb while the gun was behind him.”
“Why?” Beeman asked.
Sheriff’s detectives had testified
Monday that powder residue from the fatal bullet was found on McDonald’s
hands, indicating he apparently fired the weapon.
This finding is insignificant since tests for powder residue often
produce negative findings, Beeman testified.
The subject of suicide came up in the
few days before McDonald’s death, according to Fonda.
He testified that McDonald had discussed the thought of flying a plane
out to the
“We had talked about this year ago as
a joke, but he was depressed and mentioned the subject the Friday and Saturday
before his death,” Fonda recalled.
Under questioning by Green, the actor
said that he had recently advised McDonald to request Haeberlin to move out of
his home.
“Stormy leaned on John’s
companionship, but I recommended to him that he should not have many people
hanging around the house,” Fonda said. He
did not elaborate.
Haeberlin testified that he moved out
of the house because he couldn’t pay the monthly rent of $100.
He was the only person who had a key to
the house, Haeberlin testified. Haeberlin
recalled that McDonald and Fonda both wore gold inscriptions on a chain around
the neck expressing each one’s love for the other.
The witness testified that he arrived
at the death scene about the same time as sheriff’s officers.
Fonda had called him inquiring as to McDonald’s whereabouts, Haeberlin
told the coroner’s jury.
Green plans to call Richard
Allen and John Williams, all apparently
classmates of McDonald’s to the stand next Thursday.
An effort also will be made to identify
a doctor in
McDonald’s will was filed late
yesterday in Superior Court with a petition for probate.
A hearing has been set for March 1. The
petition indicates that McDonald has property in
Friends Detail Heir’s Moods by Tam Kincaid
A surprise
witness – 19 year-old Joyce Shank – and a business associate of
The business associate, Roger Dunbier,
of
“We lived in the same house for two
years,” Dunbier said, “and I would like to say you don’t live in the room
next to a man for two years without knowing him.
He wasn’t a homosexual.”
Dunbier and McDonald first met at the
“I know he wasn’t,” echoed Miss
Shank, who described herself as “Stormy’s closest friend.”
“I met him at
“Stormy would never had killed
himself the way he did,” she said.
Miss Shank arrived late Wednesday by
plane from
“I believe Stormy could have
committed suicide, Dunbier said. (Stormy
was found shot in the back of the head, his wrists slashed, with all the doors
in his house locked.)
Miss Shank recalled, “I have
vacationed with Stormy often. The
whole family came up many times.”
She said, “The last time we talked
was Jan. 29. I spoke with him on
about two separate occasions (by long distance telephone) that day.”
“He was kidding around the way he
did. When the operator broke-in and
asked, “Is this a coin operated telephone.” He said, “Just a minute
operator, I’ll check.”
“He was depressed that day and he
cried.”
I asked Stormy ‘What am I your
mother?’ he answered, ‘You are all I can turn to.’”
Miss Shank is the daughter of a surgeon
in
Dunbier added, “he was too
introspective. Deep-seated but naïve.
He had a strong moral code but he felt that was transgressing –
particularly over the last year or so.”
Dunbier refused to elaborate further on
his statement.
Sheriff’s Aide Disagrees with
Doctors’ View
At least one officer was unimpressed with some of the medical testimony
offered in yesterday’s inquest.
Sheriff’s Capt. James McDonald
asked: “I wonder if these medical experts have ever seen a suicide?”
Capt. McDonald said that when a person commits suicide blood collects in
his mouth – or nose and pours out.
“It pours up as well as down, the
detective said,. McDonald could
easily have fallen slowly and then landed on his side after committing
suicide,” Capt. McDonald said.
Reporters questioned Capt. McDonald
after the inquest yesterday and the detective said he agreed with the finding
that described powder traces on the victim’s hands as inconclusive.
“Our tests can’t pinpoint the exact
time of firing,” the detective said.
Second Gun Clouds McDonald Death
Heir, Girls Posed for Nude Pictures by Kingsley Wood
Another
bloody revolver was found several feet from the gun that killed millionaire
Eugene McDonald III, sheriff’s detectives reported yesterday.
This finding, in the opinion of Deputy County Atty. Lars
Pedersen, increases the likelihood that one or more persons witnessed McDonald’s
death late Feb.2 or early Feb. 3.
Detectives said a bullet had been fired from the bloody
weapon, which was a .44-40 Colt New Service revolver. However, an extensive
search of McDonald’s home Thursday night failed to reveal the missing bullet.
Pathologist Edward A. Brucker believes the .44-40 revolver
was not fired by McDonald, since a .357 Magnum bullet – the wrong bullet for the
gun – was used. McDonald kept a vast gun collection and apparently knew a great
deal about firearms.
In other developments yesterday:
-It was disclosed that photographs of McDonald posing with two girls in the nude
were discovered in McDonald’s home and subsequently confiscated by someone.
Sheriff Waldon V. Burr says his office has two or three prints of this nature,
but pathologist Brucker would like to know where the rest are.
-Mrs. Lillian Daniels, owner of the home McDonald rented recalled an angry
conversation with actor Peter Fonda about her right to show contents in the home
to a sheriff’s officer after the Zenith heir’s death. Fonda was a close friend
of McDonald and had described their relationship in court Thursday as one of
“love”.
-University of Arizona officials disclosed that McDonald would not have
graduated this June if he had lived, since he withdrew from the university two
pervious semesters. He listed “a family illness” as the reason for withdrawing
Feb. 24, 1964, according to William T. Foster, assistant to the dean of the UA
College of Business and Public Administration.
-Subpoenas for 10 John Doe witnesses were issued by the Justice of the Peace
Toby LaVetter. The county attorney’s office is trying to locate the
unidentified witnesses so that they can testify next Thursday before a corner’s
jury investigating McDonald’s death.
Detectives reported yesterday that the shell casing of a .357
Magnum bullet as well as a live cartridge were found in the chamber of the
.44-40 revolver. The gun had been discovered on a counter in the combined
darkroom-bathroom of McDonald’s home.
It would be impossible to determine the type of blood on the
gun, since the stains were too small, according to Brucker. He said he could
not tell when the weapon was fired. The only fingerprints on the second weapon
belonged to McDonald.
He might have known more about the presence of another person
in the house, Brucker said, if more fingerprints had been taken at the scene.
Sheriff Waldon V. Burr believes the .44-40 was fired before
the shooting because of “the absence of lingering gas in the barrel of the fun
when we found it.” Burr’s chief investigator, Capt. James McDonald, believes
the heir probably fired the gun outside the house.
If so, Deputy County Atty. Pedersen suggested, why wasn’t the
gun cleaned when McDonald returned inside the house? Friends of McDonald
reported that he was meticulous about cleaning his weapons.
The deputy county attorney says it is not improbable that
another person fired the weapon at himself.
“Perhaps that person had entered into a suicide pact with
McDonald,” Pedersen suggested. “The bullet in this case was the wrong bullet
for the .44-40 gun. It could have been fired, however, and entered the stomach
and shoulder of the person who fired it without causing much damage. It may
even be in someone’s body right now.”
Pedersen and Sheriff’s Detective
John Lyon also failed Thursday night to find the razor blade McDonald
apparently used to slash his wrists.
McDonald Vetoed Bid for Visit
Girl Friend Relates Phone Conversations
Millionaire
Eugene McDonald III rejected a day or two before his death the offer of a visit
to Tucson by coed Joyce Shank because he didn’t want her “in this mess.”
Sheriff’s Detective John U. Lyon said yesterday the pretty
Mills College, Calif., brunette told him that McDonald telephoned her at Mills
College at 12:30 a.m. on Feb. 1 and said:
“Don’t come here. I don’t want you in this mess. I’ve
learned things the last few days.” In a conversation two hours earlier, a
tearful and depressed McDonald had told her “things so shocking” she didn’t
remember what they were, Miss Shank informed Lyon. The 19-year-old has
described herself as his “closest friend.”
McDonald, 23, was found dead in his home Feb. 3. The county
attorney’s office is inclined to believe that another person witnessed the
Zenith heir’s death as the result of a bullet would.
However, Lyon and Sheriff Waldon V. Burr said the following
evidence supports the theory that McDonald killed himself in the presence of no
one:
-No
footprints were found in the blood puddles beside the body. If someone had held
McDonald
or struggled
with him, that person in all likelihood would have stepped in the blood
-There are no
indications that the body was touched or moved, despite medical testimony about
blood “running uphill” on McDonald’s head and on a
wastebasket.
However, McDonald’s head hit the floor inches from the
basket. Blood was spurting from his nose according to Burr and Lyon and it
splashed against the basket as water hurled from a pail will splash against a
wall and travel upward briefly.
Also, the position in which McDonald’s head came to a rest on
the floor only gives the impression that blood ran uphill from the back of the
head to the chin. Actually, blood was pouring downward as McDonald was
falling. The bullet entered the right portion of the head and possibly caused
him to jerk his head to the left.
-Blood stains inside the band of a pair of trousers indicate
that McDonald may have donned them after standing in a bathtub and slashing his
wrists. Red stains were found in the tub and superficial cuts were on his
wrists.
A close Friend, actor Peter Fonda, had told him that the best
way to commit suicide is to slash wrists in warm water, which will reduce the
pain.
Burr said one of the nude photographs found at the house
showed McDonald at a beach with one girl. Two others showed him standing by a
divan with two girls. In both shots, the girls were naked from the waist up by
(should be “but”?) McDonald was completely nude.
The sheriff said he learned that the photographs were
produced by a camera with delayed timing device. Hence, no photographer snapped
the pictures.
Lyon was told that McDonald closed down Pando, Inc. – a firm
engaged in dragstrip operations – the week before his death. Friends of
McDonald said a Phoenix company in which he had an interest was not doing well,
and that he was worried about it’s future.
“When you combine this with McDonald’s obvious
depression about recent events, as indicated in phone calls to Joyce Shank, why
doesn’t it add up to suicide?” Lyon asked.
He said Miss Shank discussed the conversations Thursday
morning in the office of County Atty. Norman E. Green before testifying in
court.
Feb.
16, 1965
Burr Sees No Reason For Move by Dave Green
Former Sheriff’s detective
Richard C. Smith has been appointed to investigate further into the death of
Zenith heir Eugene F. McDonald by County Atty. Norman Green, who said yesterday
that “we want to be very thorough and wee need additional help.
Smith resigned from the sheriff’s department a year ago and
entered last year’s race against his former boss, Sheriff Waldon V. Burr, but
withdrew prior to the primaries.
As a candidate against Burr, Smith decried the “deplorable”
state of affairs at the sheriff’s office. He described the sheriff’s office at
that time as being “technically antiquated and operationally inefficient.”
Commenting on the appointment, Burr said yesterday “I can’t
see what will be gained in the game, but I have no objection.”
Green said Smith “will work with detective John Lyon in
“delving into the case further. Right now there are too many inconsistencies.”
The county attorney said it was his personal feeling that
“someone else is involved.”
Eugene (Stormy) McDonald was found dead on Feb. 3 in his
rented $50,000 home at
9043 E. Bellevue St.
He died of a bullet wound in the back of his head.
Several puzzling facts have come to light since. Superficial
wounds on his wrists, another blood stained fun, the discovery of marijuana and
blood in unusual places.
At the inquest by a coroner’s jury, due to resume at 10 a.m. Thursday, the county attorney had asked why blood at the
victim’s home had been washed up by investigators before samples could be taken.
Green said the blood had never been typed and one of the questions still not
answered is whether or not all of the blood found at the scene was McDonald’s.
Green also stated at the inquest that aside from fingerprints
on the gun, deputies had failed to take prints from the home.
Sheriff’s detectives testified at the inquest that the victim
apparently used both hands to fire the bullet which caused death, but Dr. Joseph
Beeman, “a pathologist from Veteran’s Hospital has said it is possible that a
second party had the gun at the time the fatal shot was fired.
McDonald “Parties” Disclosed / Marijuana Smoked by Participators
Marijuana parties were attended by Eugene
McDonald III in California, Sheriff Waldon V. Burr said yesterday.
Burr’s investigators were told that McDonald and as many as
10 male and female friends smoked the narcotic in apartment parties on the
coast. However, the sheriff does not believe that the parties will shed any
further light on the theories as to how McDonald died:
-The theory that he held both hands behind his head
and shot himself with a .22-caliber revolver late Feb. 2 or early Feb.3.
-The theory that McDonald was not alone when he died and that a second person
held the death weapon.
Meanwhile these developments in the case have come to light:
-McDonald applied for admission to the University of Southern California in
Berkeley before registering for his 1965 semester at the University of Arizona,
but was turned down.
-Actor Peter Fonda discussed McDonald’s will with another party over the
telephone the day or two after the Zenith heir’s death. The discussion took
place at the actor’s suite in the presence of UA junior Ronald Watkins, also a
close friend of McDonald.
Fonda received 5,000 shares of stock in Arizona Economics
Inc., a Phoenix business consulting firm, under provision of the will. Boats
and planes of McDonald also were left to the actor, but the bulk of McDonald’s
estate was awarded to his sister, Marianne McDonald Cantwell of San Diego,
Calif. County Atty. Norman El. Green said yesterday he has reenacted the two
theories as to how McDonald died, and still believes another person witnessed
the shooting. Green would not reveal the names of three persons who accompanied
him to the McDonald home Sunday night to act out the crime.
Green has indignantly refused to name witnesses expected to
testify Thursday before a coroner’s jury investigating the death.
However, Green is expected to quiz Gerald Lee Allen, a UA
student and acquaintance of McDonald about checks allegedly made out to Allen
and signed by McDonald. Various estimates – including $6,000 – have been given
as to the amount of each check.
The sheriff’s department and at least two local bans have no
knowledge of any such checks being cashed. However, detectives are checking a
rumor that Allen cashed a $200 check signed by McDonald. He reportedly loaned
McDonald small amounts of cash on occasion.
An incident involving an overdrawn account resulted in
Allen’s dismissal last December from the Southern Arizona Bank and Trust Co.,
according to personnel manager Ralph Haywood.
Coroner Jury Rules Out Suicide in Stormy McDonald’s Death by Kingsley Wood
A
coroner’s jury ruled out suicide yesterday afternoon and said millionaire Eugene
(Stormy) McDonald died in the presence of one or more persons.
County Atty. Norman E. Green told reporters afterwards that
he has “a few good ideas” about possible murder suspects. “We have three ideas
as to the motive,” Green said.
In a day of dramatic developments, a packed courtroom heard
testimony that shed a new light on the relationship between McDonald and his
ex-roommate, 23-year-old John B. Haeberlin.
Jurors were told that:
-McDonald had exhibited a noticeable coolness toward Haeberlin after McDonald’s
return to Tucson from Hawaii Jan. 26.
-McDonald’s had made derogatory references to Haeberlin and his friends last
month as “creeps” and “finks”.
-McDonald’s housekeeper overheard a long distance conversation in which McDonald
expressed surprise at Haeberlin’s presence in his home while he was away in
Hawaii. The Zenith heir had placed the call to his home from Hawaii. Mrs.
Susan Tanner, the housekeeper, and Haeberlin both picked up the receiver in
different rooms of the house.
-John Williams told the jury he called Haeberlin’s home at 8:15 p.m. Feb. 3 to
have a chat and was told “something is wrong.” The tone of Haeberlin’s voice
and his words indicated to Williams that he was upset.
Sheriff Waldon Burr, who has insisted from the first that
McDonald took his own life, stuck by his words after the verdict was announced.
“There has been nothing to change our minds,” he said. “We
will continue working on the case but as we see it right now he took his own
life.”
The eight man coroner’s jury deliberated for nearly an hour
before announcing it’s verdict which specified the time of death at between
10:30 p.m. Feb. 2 and 12 non Feb. 3.
Green said his office will continue it’s investigation in
cooperation with the sheriff’s department. All articles taken from McDonald’s
home and placed in storage will be impounded, Green said.
The county attorney’s first three witnesses foreshadowed a
turn in the case by introducing the following new medical evidence:
-McDonald would have held the death weapon in an awkward underhanded position in
order to have fired the fatal bullet into his brain. A demonstration by Green
and a juror showed that the under-handed position would have been far more
awkward for McDonald than an over-handed position. The .22 caliber revolver was
first believed to have been held in the latter position.
-Horizontal marks on the floor of McDonald’s home were similar to the design on
the blood at the lower edge of a wastebasket, indicating the wastebasket was
moved.
-The absence of blood below the knee on McDonald’s trousers gave credence
to the view that his body was lifted by another person. There was blood on his
toes, which apparently were dragged through a splotch of blood beside his right
foot.
-There was a large bloodstain on the back of McDonald’s trousers just below the
waistband and no blood on the floor in that area. This indicated to Dr. Joseph
Beeman of the Veterans Administration Hospital that McDonald probably was lying
on his back originally.
The sheriff’s department disputed testimony at yesterday’s
inquest about McDonald’s body and a wastebasket being moved.
Describing comments by Dr. Beeman as “conjecture,”
Sheriff Burr asked why blood was not found on the lip of the basket if the lip
prevented the wastebasket from falling all the way to the floor, as Beeman had
testified.
The sheriff added that “a quirk of the wrist” could have
caused McDonald to hold the revolver in the odd manner in which he did.
McDonald’s housekeeper follow (continued on 1B, Col. 1)
Green Has Little to Act Upon
But Probes ‘Facts’ in McDonald Case
by Kingsley Wood
County Atty. Norman E. Green admitted yesterday that he had “little to go on” in
his investigation of the fatal shooting of Eugene (Stormy) McDonald III.
This statement came on the heels of a “no suicide” verdict
returned Thursday by a coroner’s jury delving into the Feb. 2 or 3 death of the
young millionaire.
When questioned by a reporter yesterday, Green accused the
Arizona Daily Star of stirring up a controversy about the case between his
office and that of Sheriff Waldon V. Burr.
He said that if any future articles implied any such
controversy, he would never discuss the case again with the reporter.
In fact, Green bristled, “I’ll never speak to you again.”
The Star had previously reported opinions expressed by Burr and his
investigators which disputed testimony at Green’s Justice Court Inquest.
Earlier in the conversation yesterday, Green implied that
“those over there” (a reference to the sheriff’s department) have been talking
about “theories” whereas his office was investigating “facts” about McDonald’s
death.
Green reiterated that he was interested in facts rather than
theories when asked if:
-Any significance could be attached to a key introduced at the inquest in
connection with safe deposit boxes kept by John B. Haeberlin and Stormy McDonald
at the Valley National Bank. The two were ex-roommates.
-A game of Russian roulette could have been played by McDonald and another
person.
Green agreed yesterday with the jury’s verdict that McDonald
died in the presence of one or more person. “I am not saying,” the county
attorney explained, “that there’s a homicide here."
He expressed the thought that McDonald “may have possibly
called for someone else to help out.”
Six of yesterday’s eight jurors were asked about their
previous experience on juries. All but one had served on grand juries, civil
juries or criminal juries. Robert Ashenfelter, 49, of Route 3, Box 643, Tucson
described the McDonald inquest as his first jury experience. He asked the most
questions at the inquest.
Two of the jurors – Pete R. Martinez of 642 S. Mann Ave. and
Dave Barnett, 62, of 208 W. Missouri – have police records. Martinez,
about 52, was arrested Nov. 22, 1957, on a charge of failure to register as a
sex offender. Barnett was arrested Oct. 28, 1961, and Aug. 9, 1964, on drunkenness charges, according to police records.
Several of the jurors
said they were contacted on the McDonald case because they left their names in
the constable’s office.
Stormy’s Finances “Were not a Motive” by William Shaub
New York (Special) – If
Eugene F. (Stormy) McDonald III was murdered it had nothing to do with his
financial affairs.
That is the opinion of a New York City certified public
accountant who handled the finances of the late Zenith radio corporation heir.
McDonald, 23, was found dead, shot in the back of the head in
his $50,000 rented home near Tucson on Feb. 5. Authorities in
Pima County first called the
death a suicide, but a corner’s jury Thursday ruled out that theory.
Norman Green, Pima County attorney, now say
evidence found in the home indicates someone was there when McDonald was shot
either intentionally or accidentally.
The certified public accountant is Charles H. Renthal, 60,
who described himself as “kind of like a father” to McDonald.
Renthal told a reporter that McDonald had no big business
deals pending when he died and that nothing in his financial affairs would “give
a motive for murder.”
Renthal said he had been handling McDonald’s finances for two
years, and that McDonald came to him on the advice of a friend he refused to
identify. He is not executor to McDonald’s estate, however.
“I really like this kids,” Renthal said. “I’m sorry he’s
gone. I like him as a human being. I last saw him in November, and we talked
about business – he was thinking about buying a chain of stores, I forgot what
kind, but the most important thing with him was finishing school.”
“We talked a little at the time about his divorce. He said
he and his former wife simply weren’t ready for marriage, and talked about their
being incompatible.”
“I think it’s very hard for two young, rich people to get
married and make it work,” Renthal said. “You need a broader sense of
experience based on knowing yourself and the value of money. I don’t think
Stormy had that yet.”
Except for a small bank account McDonald held in
Tucson, he relied entirely on
Renthal to handle his finances.
“He was a bright boy,” Renthal said, “very happy and
possessed all the grace – very mannerly, very considerate, a very fine young man
with a wholesome view of things.
“Stormy was rather indifferent about clothing, and he hardly
ever touched liquor - he’d have a glass of milk, two glasses, instead.
In Tucson, it was rumored yesterday that McDonald took out a
$99,000 insurance policy. The beneficiaries are not known and Sheriff Waldon V.
Burr said his detectives were trying to track the source of the rumor.
TO BE CONTINUED.................