Who Killed Drag Racer Mickey Thompson? The True Story Behind the Murder Featured in Homicide: Los Angeles

Mickey Thompson and his wife, Trudy Thompson, were shot in the driveway of their Bradbury, Calif., home on March 16, 1988.

Known as the “Speed King,” the off-road racing legend revolutionized the racing world as a drag racing driver, builder and promoter. Known for his motto, “Stand on the gas,” Mickey began racing professionally by 25 years old, according to CBS News and set about 500 speed records, per Reuters.

Mickey’s most iconic moment remains when he broke the land-speed record in 1960. On the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah, he became the first American to reach 400 miles per hour while powered by a piston engine, clocking in at 406.60 miles per hour in his Challenger I car, per the Automotive Hall of Fame.

In 1988, Mickey’s life was tragically cut short when he and his wife, Trudy Thompson, were shot execution-style in the driveway of their home around 6 a.m. in March 1988. Witnesses testified that they saw two Black men shoot and kill 59-year-old Mickey and 41-year-old Trudy before fleeing the scene on bicycles.

The investigation into Mickey and Trudy’s murders went cold until more than a decade after their deaths, when Mickey’s former business partner, Michael Goodwin, was arrested in 2001 and charged with orchestrating the killings.

Despite multiple documentaries and shows made about the murders — including Unsolved Mysteries, 48 Hours and the Netflix docuseries Homicide: Los Angeles — the two gunmen who killed Mickey and Trudy have never been identified.

The racing legend was posthumously inducted into the Motorsports Hall of Fame of America and the International Motorsports Hall of Fame in 1990 and the Automotive Hall of Fame in 2009. One of Mickey’s children, his son Danny Thompson, carries on his legacy as a racer himself, speaking at events and even beating his father’s racing records.

So who killed Mickey Thompson? Here’s everything to know about the drag racing legend’s life leading up to his unexpected death.

Who was Mickey Thompson?

Mickey was born in 1928 in Alhambra, Calif., and bought his first car at 14 years old —  a 1927 Chevy that he purchased for $7.50. He built cars by hand out of his home before he was even legally allowed to drive, according to the Automotive Hall of Fame.

Mickey quickly pursued a career in racing, designing the “slingshot dragster” racing car in the mid-1950s, whose pioneering design placed the driver behind the car’s rear axle rather than in front of it.

From there, Mickey worked as a journalist at the Los Angeles Times while running his own muffler shop and drag racing strip in the city. He then founded the Mickey Thompson Equipment Co. to create high-performance parts for race cars, and in 1963, he established Mickey Thompson Tires — which still exists today.

Over the course of his racing career, Mickey secured about 500 land-speed records, and on Sept. 9, 1960, he became the fastest man in America, surpassing 400 miles per hour on the Bonneville Salt Flats in the Challenger I — equal to the muzzle velocity of a bullet, per Smithsonian Magazine.

He revolutionized drag racing with his home-built “slingshot” dragster, in which he became the first-ever drag driver to exceed 150 miles per hour and created off-road desert racing as a spectator sport.

In 1971, after a short marriage to his first wife, Judy — with whom he welcomed a daughter, Lindy, and son, Danny — he married Trudy Feller, who at the time was a secretary at Hot Rod Magazine, per the L.A. Times and CBS News.

“He was the man. He was a great dad, you know?” Danny told CBS News 2007. “[He] coached baseball, coached football, [and] still was out racing. Like I said, he was the man.”

How did Mickey Thompson die?

On March 16, 1988, Mickey and his wife, Trudy, left for work together around 6 a.m. as they usually did. While the couple tried to depart from their home in Bradbury, Calif., a gated suburb of L.A., the neighbors reported hearing screams and gunfire, according to court documents. They also then saw two Black men riding away on bicycles.

Watching through the windows of their home, one witness described seeing the Thompsons’ minivan in the driveway with the doors open and Mickey standing at the top of the driveway by the garage door. One gunman was pointing their gun at Mickey, while Trudy was at the bottom of the driveway on her knees with another gunman, the witness said.

Mickey repeatedly pleaded, “Please don’t kill my wife,” according to the witness, before the gunman stood over her and shot her. The other gunman shot Mickey in the torso after appearing to have been injured in other parts of his body. Multiple witnesses then reported seeing two Black men fleeing the scene of the crime on bicycles, per the court documents.

Some people theorized that the crime was a robbery gone wrong. However, hundreds of dollars in cash in Mickey’s wallet, as well as Trudy’s expensive jewelry and thousands of dollars in cash in her purse, were untouched when police arrived on the scene.

Just after the murder in 1988, L.A. Deputy Richard Dinsmoor told the L.A. Times that the murder was “an assassination,” and the outlet reported that Mickey had been receiving death threats for some time.

Who killed Mickey Thompson?

Mickey and Trudy were killed by two gunmen who shot them both several times in the torso, according to the L.A. Times. The two gunmen fled the scene on bicycles, and to this day, they haven’t been found.

The Thompsons’ murder case went cold for 13 years, but Mickey’s former business partner, Michael Goodwin, remained the prime suspect — despite a lack of physical evidence against him. In December 2001, Goodwin was arrested and charged with conspiracy to commit murder, according to court documents.

Five years later, after a lengthy six-week trial, Goodwin was convicted of the first-degree murder of both victims for orchestrating the deaths of Mickey and his wife, per court documents and Reuters.

After the murders, both police and Mickey’s family — his sister, Collene Campbell, who offered a $1 million reward for anyone with information leading to the arrest and conviction of  the killers, per Car and Driver, and his son, Danny — believed Goodwin was the mastermind behind the murders.

“It was Goodwin the whole time,” Danny told Reuters after the verdict. “I always thought that. I think that now. And obviously the jury thought that and I thank them.”

Did Michael Goodwin order Mickey Thompson’s death?

In the years leading up to Mickey’s death, Mickey and Goodwin had a strained relationship that turned deadly.

Goodwin, a one-time rock music promoter turned motocross promoter, and Mickey — who was running his own stadium and off-road racing promotion business at the time — joined forces as business partners in 1984, according to court documents.

After a few months, their business relationship turned sour, and Mickey sued Goodwin and won the case in his favor — with Goodwin ordered to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars in damages to Mickey. While Mickey continued to excel in his promotional career, Goodwin’s business deteriorated, eventually filing for personal bankruptcy in 1986.

A few months before the murders, Goodwin was often heard threatening the life of Mickey. In one instance, he told friends that “Thompson is killing me. He’s taking everything I’ve got. He’s destroying me. I’m going to take him out,” per court documents.

Another witness reported hearing Goodwin say while on the phone with Mickey, “I’m going to take you out.”

Two witnesses later told police that days before the murders, they saw two men in a blue-green Chevy station wagon with Arizona license plates parked in the neighborhood. The men in the car were looking through binoculars down the street in the direction of the Thompsons’ home. In March 2001 — more than a decade after the incident — the two witnesses identified Goodwin in a lineup as one of the men they saw, according to Car and Driver.

Police used this identification, along with testimony from those who witnessed the threats against Mickey — as well as evidence that Goodwin and his wife liquidated assets and left the country five months after the murders — as circumstantial evidence of Goodwin’s involvement. In 2007, Goodwin was convicted by a jury for the murder of both Mickey and Trudy.

At his sentencing in 2007, Goodwin insisted he was innocent. “I have condolences for Ms. Campbell,” he said, referring to Mickey’s sister Collene, the L.A. Times reported in 2015. “But I can’t apologize, because I’m not guilty.”

Where is Michael Goodwin today? 

Goodwin is serving two consecutive life sentences without parole for orchestrating the murders of Mickey and his wife. Since he was sent to prison in 2007, Goodwin has always maintained his innocence in the case — claiming he had no involvement in the murders and that he himself was the victim of an unfair criminal trial.

In 2015, Goodwin appealed his conviction, stating that there were many errors in the prosecution of the case against him, according to the L.A. Times. He claimed there were issues with investigative misconduct, perjury and improper admission of eyewitness testimony.

However, a three-judge panel upheld Goodwin’s conviction, stating that while there was no direct evidence linking Goodwin to the case, the circumstantial evidence “was overwhelming,” the L.A. Times reported in 2015.

Goodwin is currently being held at the Richard J. Donovan Correctional Facility in San Diego, where he is still serving two consecutive life terms without parole.

Where are Mickey Thompson’s children now?

Mickey welcomed two kids during his marriage to his first wife, Judy Thompson. Their daughter, Lindy, leads a private life, and not much is known about her. Their son, Danny, however, has followed in his father’s footsteps.

“My dad’s impact [on me] can’t be exaggerated,” he told WIRED in 2014. “Racing is all I ever wanted to do, and he was the reason.”

Danny has become a racer himself — beginning his career in motocross racing and winning his first 18 consecutive events, according to his website. He continued racing for years, even winning the inaugural Mickey Thompson Off-Road Grand Prix. Danny also followed his dad into promotion as the president of Mickey Thompson Entertainment Group.

In 1988 — before Mickey was murdered — he asked his son Danny to break his speed record in the piston-engined Challenger II car, which the father and son built by hand on the base of the Challenger I, per Smithsonian Magazine and NBC Sports. But Mickey died before the dream was fulfilled, according to WIRED.

After nearly four decades, Danny fulfilled his promise to his father in 2016 and beat his land-speed record on the same turf Mickey did back in 1960: the Bonneville Salt Flats. He narrowly defeated his dad’s speed, reaching 406.7 miles per hour.

“I wasn’t quitting until it got done,” Danny told CNN at the finish line. “There has never been any doubt. It was going to happen.”

In 2018, Danny outdid his father’s record again — this time, clocking in at 448.757 miles per hour, according to Smithsonian Magazine.

Danny carries on his father’s legacy in other ways, too. In January 2024, he presented the Mickey Thompson Award of Excellence in his father’s honor, and continues to race on the Bonneville flats.