The trial for their murders will begin Monday. Goodwin was arrested back in 2001 but has successfully been able to put it on hold for years through legal wrangling. Its nice to know its finally starting and I think the guy is guilty so I hope he's convicted. (I see our favorite tv show even gets a mention in the article).

http://msnbc.msn.com/id/15577933/

It was only hinted but never explicitly stated that the assassination was a hit. That seemed obvious to me.

First, it was clear that the assassins knew of their routine. But this is Bradbury. Someone else was doing the recon, as blacks would stick out like a sore thumb.

Second, that the assassins were black, it's almost certain they would not have left so much jewelry or money behind. (Different groups commit crimes for different reasons at a different frequency. A lot of petty crimes with little financial reward, e.g. robbing cabs, or stealing iPhones or mp3 players, are committed by blacks at a much higher frequency for whatever reason. In my neighborhood, nearly 100% of petty crimes like that are committed by blacks, whereas you'll find far more whites involved in high level theft, like a Wall Street fraud.) The question to ask is why would Thompson know two black guys who'd be willing to off he and his wife? He wouldn't have, unless he associated with lower level workers, which managers don't do. This was clearly a personal crime. That means someone else was paying them off and probably a substantial amount at that.

Third, since Mickey Thompson had a lot of money (with one of the higher rewards I've seen on the show at $260,000), it was almost certainly a business partner or someone who got screwed out of money (perceived). Made worse is that the person had the ability to do the recon, knew of their routine (intimate friendship to some degree), and thus could pay off the guy.

I'm thinking police knew within two years, if not even sooner, who paid off those guys. It was a matter of proving it.

I've always been annoyed the two pieces of trash on the Bikes were never brought to justice for what they did. Secondly, why did LE change the composites of them?