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Authors: Tori Richards
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do.”
Ironically, Marc showed up in the jail on a drunk driving arrest a few weeks later. Steve talked to him to find out how he was doing. Marc “leaned on me to help him with his brother,” Steve said. “He said, ‘Mike thinks I’m gonna talk and make problems for him because of what I know and (I) could get him in trouble.’” Echoing his earlier wiretap conversation, Marc added, “I’m not going to say anything. I wish he would leave me alone.”
According to Steve, Marc was “petrified” of Mike and “thought Mike would kill him some day.”
Steve tried to help Marc out by broaching the subject to Goodwin about getting Marc into a sober living situation. The idea was dismissed. Instead, Goodwin asked the jailers to let him talk to his brother in a separate block. Apparently the jailers weren’t aware that Lillienfeld considered Marc an accomplice in the Thompson murders and should be kept away from his brother in order to prevent collusion.
After the meeting, Goodwin sought out Steve. He said Marc was due to be released, and he wanted to know if Steve would find a suitable place for him to live where he would be kept “occupied.” Then Goodwin whispered, “Anyone you trust? You know, the right position so they could give him a hot shot?”
A hot shot is slang for a fatal injection of heroin or cocaine.
Steve was stunned at what he just heard and at the same time angry that Goodwin would consider him capable of such a deed. “Why would you ask me to do this?” he demanded. Goodwin offered shares in one of his business ventures as compensation, but still Steve balked and later contacted a jailer regarding Goodwin’s solicitation. This led to a conversation with Lillienfeld.
Lillienfeld admitted that he believed Steve’s account of what happened.
“His story was full of unique details that only Goodwin could have provided (to him),” the detective said. “He also provided the motivation that Goodwin expressed for wanting Marc dead, and was very articulate in his reasons for it.”
In addition, Steve provided Lillienfeld with several letters and documents that Goodwin had given to him.
Marc was soon released from jail and Steve never saw him again. Marc turned up dead four years later of the very thing Goodwin had requested: an overdose of synthetic heroin administered by a syringe.
“I have no doubt in my mind that Goodwin did this, it doesn’t matter that it was a few years later. It takes time to recruit someone to kill somebody,” Steve said later. “I don’t believe in coincidences.”
As if to prove this point, Goodwin would describe his brother’s death as a murder years later in another jail with another inmate.
According to his autopsy report, Marc Stephen Goodwin died at age 49 on March 24, 2005, of an overdose of oxycodone, a powerful prescription opiate. The painkiller Trazodone was also present in his bloodstream and heart. Marc’s body was discovered by his father on a boat docked in the San Pedro Harbor that the two men called home. A syringe was next to Marc’s foot and a needle mark was on his right big toe along with abrasions on his chin, chest, left arm and right leg. His right hand had a large bruise. It appeared to be just another one of the numerous drug addict suicides in the City of Angels and was labeled accidental by the coroner.
Lillienfeld looked at the case to see whether he could find some connection to Goodwin, some sort of evidence that this was murder beyond just a set of highly suspicious circumstances. He couldn’t. Marc had been a drug addict for most of his life.
Regardless, the timing of his overdose couldn’t have been more perfect for Goodwin. Like thousands of cases that go through the coroner’s office with the probability of another story to tell, this one wouldn’t have another chapter.
“We get a lot more drug deaths that are really murders than we can ever prove,” said one of the coroner’s top investigators, Lt. Cheryl
Ironically, Marc showed up in the jail on a drunk driving arrest a few weeks later. Steve talked to him to find out how he was doing. Marc “leaned on me to help him with his brother,” Steve said. “He said, ‘Mike thinks I’m gonna talk and make problems for him because of what I know and (I) could get him in trouble.’” Echoing his earlier wiretap conversation, Marc added, “I’m not going to say anything. I wish he would leave me alone.”
According to Steve, Marc was “petrified” of Mike and “thought Mike would kill him some day.”
Steve tried to help Marc out by broaching the subject to Goodwin about getting Marc into a sober living situation. The idea was dismissed. Instead, Goodwin asked the jailers to let him talk to his brother in a separate block. Apparently the jailers weren’t aware that Lillienfeld considered Marc an accomplice in the Thompson murders and should be kept away from his brother in order to prevent collusion.
After the meeting, Goodwin sought out Steve. He said Marc was due to be released, and he wanted to know if Steve would find a suitable place for him to live where he would be kept “occupied.” Then Goodwin whispered, “Anyone you trust? You know, the right position so they could give him a hot shot?”
A hot shot is slang for a fatal injection of heroin or cocaine.
Steve was stunned at what he just heard and at the same time angry that Goodwin would consider him capable of such a deed. “Why would you ask me to do this?” he demanded. Goodwin offered shares in one of his business ventures as compensation, but still Steve balked and later contacted a jailer regarding Goodwin’s solicitation. This led to a conversation with Lillienfeld.
Lillienfeld admitted that he believed Steve’s account of what happened.
“His story was full of unique details that only Goodwin could have provided (to him),” the detective said. “He also provided the motivation that Goodwin expressed for wanting Marc dead, and was very articulate in his reasons for it.”
In addition, Steve provided Lillienfeld with several letters and documents that Goodwin had given to him.
Marc was soon released from jail and Steve never saw him again. Marc turned up dead four years later of the very thing Goodwin had requested: an overdose of synthetic heroin administered by a syringe.
“I have no doubt in my mind that Goodwin did this, it doesn’t matter that it was a few years later. It takes time to recruit someone to kill somebody,” Steve said later. “I don’t believe in coincidences.”
As if to prove this point, Goodwin would describe his brother’s death as a murder years later in another jail with another inmate.
According to his autopsy report, Marc Stephen Goodwin died at age 49 on March 24, 2005, of an overdose of oxycodone, a powerful prescription opiate. The painkiller Trazodone was also present in his bloodstream and heart. Marc’s body was discovered by his father on a boat docked in the San Pedro Harbor that the two men called home. A syringe was next to Marc’s foot and a needle mark was on his right big toe along with abrasions on his chin, chest, left arm and right leg. His right hand had a large bruise. It appeared to be just another one of the numerous drug addict suicides in the City of Angels and was labeled accidental by the coroner.
Lillienfeld looked at the case to see whether he could find some connection to Goodwin, some sort of evidence that this was murder beyond just a set of highly suspicious circumstances. He couldn’t. Marc had been a drug addict for most of his life.
Regardless, the timing of his overdose couldn’t have been more perfect for Goodwin. Like thousands of cases that go through the coroner’s office with the probability of another story to tell, this one wouldn’t have another chapter.
“We get a lot more drug deaths that are really murders than we can ever prove,” said one of the coroner’s top investigators, Lt. Cheryl
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