The Mammoth Book of Celebrity Murders (61 page)

Theresa Williams told the police that her husband had arrived home on the night of Sal’s murder with his shirt covered in blood, and confessed to her later that evening while they were
watching a news report about Mineo’s murder on television. She claimed that her husband told her, “That’s the dude I killed.” He said that he had murdered Sal with a hunting
knife, which he had recently purchased for just $5.28. She also said that he had used the same knife in other robberies he had committed. She claimed that his motive was to rob the star. Sadly, the
police would never get this witness to testify in court, as shortly after giving her statement she took her own life.

The police then focused on Lionel Williams. They found that he had a criminal record involving robbery and was already being held in prison because of bad cheque charges. The only problem they
faced was that their new suspect did not fit any of the previous witness descriptions, as Lionel was a black man, although it has to be said he was reasonably fair-skinned.

While in jail, prison guards heard Williams telling other prisoners that he did in fact kill Sal Mineo. They duly contacted the police and Lionel Ray Williams was charged with murder and was
extradited to Los Angeles in January 1978 to face the charge of murder as well as lesser charges of attempted robbery. At a pre-trial hearing, he pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder and bail
was set for $500,000. He returned to jail to await his trial, which would not take place for a year. The judge presiding over the hearing was Judge Ronnie Lee Martin. The prosecution was led by
Deputy District Attorney Michael Genelin, and the defence lawyer was Mort Herbert; the jury was an even mix of men and women.

The prosecution claimed that the murder was premeditated. If this were proven it would mean that Williams could face the death penalty. Their case was based on the evidence provided in
Theresa’s statement to the police prior to her death, and on testimonies from the medical examiner and that of a colleague of Williams. They stated that in their opinion Lionel was sitting in
wait for Sal on the night of the murder with the intention of robbing him. They produced a knife similar to the one which Theresa Williams had described her husband using in the robberies. When the
knife was examined by the medical examiner, Dr Noguchi, and placed inside the wound in Sal’s heart, it was found that the blade was an exact match.

Herbert told jurors that it was difficult to guess which knife Williams had used and it would be wrong to assume that the replica was an exact copy, pointing out that Theresa was not there to
testify that it was identical to the one she had earlier described.

A witness for the prosecution was Allwyn Price Williams (no relation to the accused), who was brought from prison whilst serving a sentence for kidnapping to testify that Lionel Williams had
boasted about stabbing Sal Mineo while he was being robbed. He claimed that Williams had described driving around the area looking for somebody to rob. He said that Williams was alarmed by
Mineo’s cries for help and in his panic stabbed him and fled without taking any of his belongings.

But his statement was challenged by the defence, who claimed that he was not telling the whole truth and was hoping to have his sentence shortened by assisting in the Sal Mineo murder case.
Under cross-examination, Allwyn confessed to embellishing his story, claiming he had made things up because “I was hoping to get out of jail” and thought a “strong” story
would do the trick.

“Would you lie again?” Herbert asked, “if it was absolutely necessary to get off the hook?”

“I guess so, sir,” Allwyn admitted.

The defence then produced the three witnesses who saw a suspicious man fleeing from the scene of the murder. None of them stated that the man was black; their descriptions ranged from a white
man with light hair to a Mexican-looking man with curly hair. One witness described the getaway vehicle as a Toyota. Herbert therefore concluded that Lionel Williams was not the person who was seen
at the crime scene.

The prosecution were quick to show the jury a photograph of Williams at the time of the murder; he appeared to have light skin and had long bleached hair. They also pointed out that they had
records to prove that Williams was using a light-coloured Dodge Colt on the night of the murder, and that this vehicle resembled a Toyota.

In his summing, up the Judge described Williams as “a predator, a man who wants the world to know how tough he is”. He then went on to instruct the jurors to connect the dots of
evidence and that the portrait drawn “is the face of the defendant”.

It was now over three years since Sal had died and over two months since the trial began, but on 16 March 1979 Lionel Williams was found guilty of second-degree murder and sentenced to 51 years
to life. He would be eligible to apply for parole in 14 years. The judge allowed Williams a chance to speak in court, following his sentence. William was critical of his attorney and the Judge,
claiming, “He wasn’t in my corner. I didn’t want him but you put him on me. I asked you to get rid of the man twice but you didn’t do it. I fault you for my going to the
penitentiary.”

The case failed to conclude satisfactorily why Sal was murdered and indeed whether Williams actually committed the crime. With no real motive and the fact that the murder weapon was never found,
there were many people who believed that he might have been framed. Could public opinion have forced the police to take Williams to trial, knowing that this would quash tabloid jibes regarding
their inability to bring forward a suspect in over 12 months? Speculation continued to grow and there were various theories put forward. Some believed that the murder was drugs related, but surely
Sal’s drug use was not anywhere near severe enough for him to be a large-scale user, and therefore he would not have run up large drug debts. Others believed that the crime might have been
related to Sal’s sexual leanings and could have been the result of a homosexual dispute. The truth is that nobody will ever know for sure; the mystery died with Sal Mineo on the roadside
outside his apartment block.

Lionel Ray Williams did receive his parole in the early 1990s. He subsequently returned to his old ways of crime and it wasn’t long before he found himself back in prison, a habit that was
to recur on several other occasions.

At best the Kennedy family, America’s one-time royals, are either unlucky, jinxed or the target of an organized group, whose ultimate purpose has never been fathomed. The
family has certainly had its fair share of bad luck. The eldest son of Joe and Rose Kennedy, Joe Jr, was killed whilst on a secret bombing raid during the Second World War. It was this event that
placed John F. Kennedy as the son who would run for President. During the course of JFK’s presidency, his wife and first lady, Jackie, lost their first son Patrick during pregnancy. Only
weeks after this tragic event Kennedy himself was killed in Dallas, Texas, the victim of two gunshots, leaving the way clear for Robert Kennedy to run for President just four years after the murder
of his brother. In a rerun of his elder brother’s assassination Robert Kennedy too was laid low by an assassin’s bullet, whilst campaigning for what was looking like a successful bid
for the Presidency. Later, and not the subject of this chapter, the youngest Kennedy brother, Senator Edward Kennedy, was involved in a near fatal situation when he ran his car off a bridge at
Chappaquiddick, killing his female passenger, Mary Jo Kopechne. The mystery surrounding this event was sufficient to put an end to any thoughts that he might have had for the top job in American
government.

The debate has raged for years over the mystery surrounding the various events which have affected the Kennedy family. It persists with good reason, for in each event there has been significant
reason to suspect that there was more to the events than the law could uncover, yet researchers and investigators have provided evidence to support conclusions other than those reached in either
official government investigations or in the courts themselves.

The “celebrity factor” would seem to play its hand in different ways for different people, sometimes positively and sometimes negatively. If you do not believe the Kennedys have been
the subject of a conspiratorial vendetta then you would need to explain in other ways why evidence has been ignored. Perhaps the “celebrity factor”, when a president or would-be
president is assassinated, displays itself as the authorities and the public looking to hang the first person who fits the bill. On the positive side of the “celebrity factor” is the
fact that researchers, writers and investigators continue to sift through the details, perusing every strand of evidence and often taking decades to get at the truth. Just like President
Kennedy’s assassination, which was originally thought to have been the work of a lone gunman, Robert Kennedy’s shooting, which at first looked to be the result of one man’s
murderous thoughts, turned out to be more complex and the Kennedy name ensures that three and a half decades after the event we continue to look for the truth.

In the wake of President Kennedy’s assassination, Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson was sworn into office vowing to continue the foreign and domestic policies of his predecessor. The
Vietnam War dominated the nation’s front pages, with the loss of countless American lives. The Johnson administration pursued a strategy which increased the number of American servicemen in
Vietnam from 20,000 to half a million. At home, Martin Luther King lead the way in establishing black civil rights, a movement which sat awkwardly with a certain faction of the white
population.

Having served out the balance of JFK’s initial term in office Johnson successfully regained the position by winning the 1964 presidential election. Robert Kennedy, who had completed his
role as Attorney General during what would have been his brother’s first term in office, now successfully transferred his political ambition to the senate.

During the next four years Kennedy watched the American people divide themselves on both domestic and foreign policy. He strongly believed that the Vietnam War could only be brought to a
satisfactory conclusion by diplomatic means, and at home he wanted all Americans, black and white, to live together, sharing the same freedoms and aspirations. He pointed to the heavy price paid by
black Americans in Vietnam, and asked if they were fighting the same war for the same reasons.

As Johnson’s first elected term was drawing to a close Kennedy decided he had no choice but to take on the President for the Democratic nomination – their views on the main areas of
policy were too disparate to be compromised.

As the time approached for those who would be president to declare themselves, it was Senator Eugene McCarthy of Minnesota who first announced his candidature, and he was soon building a healthy
following on the campaign trail. Kennedy, who did not see McCarthy as presidential material, was the next to join the race, spurred by Johnson’s decision to send a further 200,000 men to
war.

Kennedy was a seasoned campaigner with great energy, not to mention the plentiful charisma he oozed when reaching out to the public. Those involved in the campaign would later say it was an
experience never to be forgotten. Once the bandwagon was rolling, it gathered pace and volume, and Kennedy was able to win over most of his audiences through his warm and compelling messages,
finally stepping out of the shadow of his brother. He spoke compassionately of the plight of the poor, the need for civil rights for all, of brave young men dying in the swamps of South-East Asia
and of the roles these young men could play if they were not sacrificed for the vanity of their country.

His speeches touched the hearts of Americans of all creeds and colours; Martin Luther King was sure to support Kennedy’s nomination had it not been for his own premature demise at the
hands of another assassin. It was Kennedy who stood and faced the crowds in an Indiana ghetto, against the advice of local police, to announce the death of King and his own fight for social
justice.

Somewhere along the way, with a backdrop of ever-increasing support and with this the chance to take up residency in the White House, someone or some group decided that Kennedy had gone too far.
The risk of him taking the Presidency was too great for the shadowy powers that be, and his demise was planned.

After his speech in Indiana his victory there was decisive, although he lost Oregon, Orange County and Nebraska to McCarthy. By now Johnson had withdrawn from the contest leaving it a two-horse
race. Kennedy headed for California, with speeches planned for Los Angeles, San Francisco, Sacramento, Oakland and San Diego; there was a real buzz around the campaign as Kennedy entered the
largest of the primaries. The newspapers had their new target and gave unprecedented coverage of the Democratic nomination contest. When asked if Kennedy had all it would take to go all the way,
one reporter, John J. Lindsay of
Newsweek
, responded, “Of course he has the stuff to go all the way, but he’s not going to go all the way . . . somebody is going to shoot him . .
. he’s out there waiting for him now.”

On 5 June 1968 Kennedy stood on the podium looking out at the screaming audience who had come to listen to his campaign speech at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles. He had delivered what some
described as his best speech of his campaign so far. Smiling his broad Kennedy smile he gave the victory sign to the 1,800 strong audience, before concluding, “My thanks to all of you and now
it’s on to Chicago and let’s win there.” To all present there would be few who would doubt they were looking at the next President of the United States.

It had been a tiring few days, but before he would get a chance of sleep there was one more appointment he had promised to keep – with the ladies and gentlemen of the press who were
gathered in a separate room, elsewhere in the hotel. Exiting the podium, Kennedy was shepherded away by his small group of close-knit helpers and taken the shortest route through the hotel to get
to his next venue.