Dick Hansen - saw this on Websleuths

[Judyhymesisalive]

Originally Posted by TheCars1986

I think the old article that mentioned the mailboxes said they were public mailboxes right outside of where Dick and Jean were hanging out that night. When they left, Dick stood there and talked to Jean for a bit, blocking the mailboxes.

Do you know what street this was?

[Guitar]

It's yet another episode that I remembered well from when I was a kid.

The revelation that he was a druggie also puts that part in the cars when they were driving alongside each other and trying to determine what to do in a humorous light.

Jean "LET'S GO TO THE POLICE!"
Dick: "WHAT?! I CAN'T HEAR YOU."

l-motha-effin'-o-l

[James T]

I am a bit confused about the vehicle they were in when the guy pulled up behind them-some reports say they were in her car & most say they were in his-well I am assuming they mean his van, if so then the plates thing would have zero bearing. I am highly dubious if this actually happened that this was anything to do with her at all & all to do with Dick-looking around he seemed to have some drug issues & a short fuse, you wonder whether he ripped somebody off which was a rumour that he had paid somebody for drugs with funny money. That with the male dead she wasn't attacked or kidnapped suggests that he had zero interest in her or her number plate.

Also I find this story highly unlikely-how would a ten mile high speed chase like this with her swerving all over different lanes & the guy doing the same, her slamming on the brakes & then roaring off with him again copying her seemingly not have one witness that either phoned it in to the cops or came forward later? I think we have to look at the possibility that she invented this person & was the one who had shot Dick in a fit of rage or pre-planned-maybe an act of revenge for something in the past as they were it seems together previously?

[Guitar]

You pointed out a lot of relevant things-- especially the "if it was a high speed chase for ten minutes why haven't other witnesses come forward?" I wonder if Unsolved just got lazy about interviewing those people.

As I get older my "gut" instinct just seems to get more accurate-- especially as it pertains to baseball deals, strangely. ANYWAY, as I indicated with my amusement about the "WHAT? I CAN'T HEAR YOU!" quotation, I believe that he knew the guy, and yes, it related to his drug life. He didn't want to tell her that he knew the guy, and he sure as hell didn't want to involve the police in it. When he exited the car he believed that he could handle it himself. Wrong.

[James T]

Originally Posted by Guitar

You pointed out a lot of relevant things-- especially the "if it was a high speed chase for ten minutes why haven't other witnesses come forward?" I wonder if Unsolved just got lazy about interviewing those people.

As I get older my "gut" instinct just seems to get more accurate-- especially as it pertains to baseball deals, strangely. ANYWAY, as I indicated with my amusement about the "WHAT? I CAN'T HEAR YOU!" quotation, I believe that he knew the guy, and yes, it related to his drug life. He didn't want to tell her that he knew the guy, and he sure as hell didn't want to involve the police in it. When he exited the car he believed that he could handle it himself. Wrong.

It is quite possible he didn't know the guy as he might have been sent to collect or put the frighteners on him by a higher-up who Hansen owed money to. When he went to speak to the guy perhaps the guy said we will take her &/or her car as payment, he told him to get lost, started making threats to the guy & then the individual shot him thinking he was going to get attacked. Perhaps Hansen grabbed him through the window? He had a reputation as a hothead so maybe he just lost it with this guy who panicked & shot him in defence thinking he couldn't match up physically to Hansen in a fist-fight.

That the segment showed him swerving round him rather than just running over him & that he didn't harm the woman shows if it went down as she says then the guy likely never went there to kill Hansen or her-he could have got out of his car by the post boxes & walked up & shot him/them at point blank rage if that was the intention, but it just got out of hand. That there were it seems no other reports before or since of anything similar happening in that area it doesn't sound like anything other than something targeted to him.

[Guitar]

Yeah, I posted that comment during the graveyard hours, so I forgot to add "or he *suspected* that he knew the guy's purpose"-- one or the other, really.

[TheCars1986]

I ponied up the $3 and bought the most extensive article about Hansen's case:

Richard G. Hansen was a big man who was not the sort to be intimidated by a car following him up the freeway and onto the streets of Sunnyvale in the middle of the night. For one thing, he was a former Santa Clara University football player who stayed in shape and weighed 255 pounds. For another, friends say, he had a knack for reasoning with unreasonable people. But neither quality saved Hansen, 36, early Tuesday morning when he was gunned down after he stopped to confront the driver who had followed him and his girlfriend from downtown San Jose.

The killing has left family members and friends with agonizing questions that Sunnyvale Public Safety Department officers say they cannot answer yet. ''We're starting to think it was a complete outsider, a stranger to both," said Gerald B. Hansen, Richard's father and a well-known San Jose attorney. "It could be anybody."

What police know is this:
Hansen and his 47-year-old girlfriend of two years met at Original Joe's about 10 p.m. for dinner and then went in her car to Boswell's, a Campbell nightspot. About 1:45 a.m., they returned to First Street and sat talking behind Hansen's pickup truck. A car parked behind them. When the couple left in separate cars to go to her Belmont home, it followed. When they slowed, it slowed. When they sped, it sped.

He'd had enough

Somewhere on the drive north, after turning from Interstate 280 onto Highway 85, Richard Hansen apparently had enough. He pulled off Highway 85 on Fremont Avenue, cautioned his friend to stay in her car and approached the driver in the car behind.
She heard Hansen yell at the man. She heard two shots. Then she got on her car floor and honked the horn. The man who shot Hansen sped away.

Police say they are baffled. ''I'm not sure there is a best guess," said Detective Don Bacon. "You have to have some kind of a motive." Bacon said the woman, whom he declined to identify for her protection, told police that neither she nor Hansen were involved in any arguments at Original Joe's or Boswell's.

Victim hadn't been drinking

Police also said Hansen didn't drink that night and hadn't had a drink since recently undergoing alcohol rehabilitation. ''I might understand it if you had a run-in verbally or physically," Bacon said. "But it doesn't seem to be that kind of situation." At this point, they are not saying much more. Police say they have no suspects or motive in the shooting, which took place shortly after 2 a.m. The only thing known for certain is that Hansen will be dearly missed by his family and the scores of friends he made while at Bellarmine College Preparatory school, SCU and since.

Importance of family

Talk among friends Wednesday was not about the mysteries of the crime, but about the loves of Hansen's life: cycling, sailing, football, SCU and, above all, family. Hansen's two daughters, from a marriage that ended in divorce, came before all else, said Bradley Mazzuca, a close friend who met Hansen in high school. Mazzuca said he visited the girls, Julie, 13, and Cathy, 11, the night after their father was killed. ''I just sat with them and thought: This is a horrible way to become a grown-up real quick," Mazzuca said. "There aren't any answers." Friends and family remembered a fun-loving man who enjoyed spending time with people.

Undergoing changes

They talked about how Hansen, who had recently left a job as an electronics manager, had come up with several potential new jobs. And they talked about some changes for the better Hansen, who lived in San Jose, had made. They declined to go into detail.
''There were a lot of people who were happy that Dick had been working at some things pretty hard," said SCU football Coach Terry Malley, who played college ball with Hansen in the mid-1970s. "They liked the direction he was headed." Malley said there was never any question that once you were a friend of Hansen's you were a friend for life. He was "the type of guy who would go to the end of the earth for his friends," said Seamus McCracken, a buddy since high school. On Wednesday, some of those friends came to Gerald and Barbara Hansen's Rose Garden home, lending the place the unmistakable feel of a house recently visited by death.

Father prominent in county

The Hansens are considered prominent in some circles. Gerald Hansen was a U.S. court commissioner and he managed John Fitzgerald Kennedy's presidential campaign in Santa Clara County. But Barbara and Gerald Hansen, parents of five, are a down- to-earth couple that has lost a cherished son. Between greeting visitors, Hansen's parents sat under a portrait of Richard at age 3. Gerald touched the cover of an old SCU football program that featured their son, No. 69, and broke down. ''He was just a football player," he said. He won a game ball when he made 15 unassisted tackles against the University of California, Davis. He won an award for the most inspirational athlete. He formed a fraternity at SCU. The Hansens remembered their son's innocent, but devilish, side in college. Fraternity pranks and capers. The sorts of things that bring down parental wrath at the time but that brought only smiles and tears Wednesday. ''I'd always thought about one of my children dying maybe of an illness," Barbara said. "But not murder."

10 p.m. Hansen meets friend at Original Joe's at San Carlos and First streets.

11:30 p.m. They leave for Boswell's in the Pruneyard at Campbell Avenue and South Bascom Avenue.

1:45 a.m. They drive back to the vicinity of Original Joe's in her car to pick up his truck parked nearby on South First Street. Minutes later, as they sit talking in her car behind his truck, a car pulls up in back of them. When they leave in separate vehicles for her Belmont home, the car follows.

2 a.m. Hansen and the woman drive north on Interstate 280 and then onto Highway 85, headed toward Mountain View. They get off at Fremont Avenue in Sunnyvale and stop about 50 yards away near Bernardo Avenue. Hansen approaches the car following them and is shot. He dies at 3:10 a.m. at Stanford Hospital.

This is the approximate spot where Dick and Jean were sitting when the man pulled up behind them. This is the route they would have taken from where they left the mailbox to where they ultimately stopped and Dick got out to confront the guy. This is the approximate spot where Dick would have gotten out and confronted the guy before being shot. I don't think some guy known to Dick, who wanted him dead for whatever reason, would kill him and leave the only witness alive, nor would they get involved in a high speed chase creating more potential witnesses. IMO, the dude was some psycho who wanted to use the mailbox and got pissed because they wouldn't move their car up, and he followed them home because of that. It's the only scenario that fits the known evidence.

[Huskerz85]

Originally Posted by TheCars1986

I ponied up the $3 and bought the most extensive article about Hansen's case:



This is the approximate spot where Dick and Jean were sitting when the man pulled up behind them. This is the route they would have taken from where they left the mailbox to where they ultimately stopped and Dick got out to confront the guy. This is the approximate spot where Dick would have gotten out and confronted the guy before being shot. I don't think some guy known to Dick, who wanted him dead for whatever reason, would kill him and leave the only witness alive, nor would they get involved in a high speed chase creating more potential witnesses. IMO, the dude was some psycho who wanted to use the mailbox and got pissed because they wouldn't move their car up, and he followed them home because of that. It's the only scenario that fits the known evidence.

Indeed. Occam's Razor (fits pretty well with incidents of road rage which are slowly becoming all too common now).

[Composite Sketch]

Originally Posted by James T

Also I find this story highly unlikely-how would a ten mile high speed chase like this with her swerving all over different lanes & the guy doing the same, her slamming on the brakes & then roaring off with him again copying her seemingly not have one witness that either phoned it in to the cops or came forward later?

Yeah, that didn't raise a red flag when I first watched the case since I was only a teenager at the time, but when I re-watched it (circa 2003) that struck me as unusual and somewhat unlikely. It's absolute lunacy to slam on your brakes in the middle of an interstate highway!

Also, Jean was 47 at the time of the murder, 11 years older than Dick? Cougar alert!

If this all comes down to the mailboxes, I don't really know what to say about that. Too many people blow the simplest things out of proportion.

[James T]

Originally Posted by Composite Sketch

Yeah, that didn't raise a red flag when I first watched the case since I was only a teenager at the time, but when I re-watched it (circa 2003) that struck me as unusual and somewhat unlikely. It's absolute lunacy to slam on your brakes in the middle of an interstate highway!

Also, Jean was 47 at the time of the murder, 11 years older than Dick? Cougar alert!

If this all comes down to the mailboxes, I don't really know what to say about that. Too many people blow the simplest things out of proportion.

Well apparently the highway was totally deserted apart from them. I seem to remember that Jean has changed gender to male. I guess it is possible-but it didn't look like the guy would have any trouble getting to the mailboxes on the reconstruction.

[MegtheEgg86]

Originally Posted by TheCars1986

I ponied up the $3 and bought the most extensive article about Hansen's case:



This is the approximate spot where Dick and Jean were sitting when the man pulled up behind them. This is the route they would have taken from where they left the mailbox to where they ultimately stopped and Dick got out to confront the guy. This is the approximate spot where Dick would have gotten out and confronted the guy before being shot. I don't think some guy known to Dick, who wanted him dead for whatever reason, would kill him and leave the only witness alive, nor would they get involved in a high speed chase creating more potential witnesses. IMO, the dude was some psycho who wanted to use the mailbox and got pissed because they wouldn't move their car up, and he followed them home because of that. It's the only scenario that fits the known evidence.

Thanks for taking the time (and money) to do this, Cars. It's always great to be able to put a little more perspective on a case like this.

I concur with your theory. I don't think either was targeted prior to the guy pulling up and having to wait.

Has it ever been conclusively established that Dick was ever a drug user at any point? The references to 'positive changes' and people applauding 'the direction he was headed' just prior to his murder brought up some old memories of some ancient Web Sleuths conversations about him using or selling cocaine. If so, I could see how that could easily be grounds for a red herring.

[dynoguy88]

Originally Posted by Composite Sketch

If this all comes down to the mailboxes, I don't really know what to say about that. Too many people blow the simplest things out of proportion.

It's a scary (and incredibly pointless) thing to set the whole thing up, getting THAT angry instead of just walking the 20 feet to the mailbox, and yet I can believe it too.

Psycho, unstable people have been set off by things as minimal as that.

[TheCars1986]

You know, the more I think about it, the more the license plate theory could also be probable. Bear with me here, but Dick was murdered in the spring of 1991. The San Francisco 49ers lost to the New York Giants in early 91 in the NFC Championship game. They were winning 13-12 with less than 3 minutes left when their running back fumbled the ball, and the Giants went on to win the game. A lot of people blamed their offensive line for the fumble. Harris Barton was a tackle on the offensive line. He's a dead ringer for Dick Hansen. I think it's possible that some crazed fan saw Dick, mistook him for Barton, saw the license plate and put 2+2 together, and that's why he chased them all over the state before murdering Dick. They mention this in the "Dates From Hell" episode they did, although they never actually come right out and name Barton, but they do mention how often Dick was mistaken for a lineman for the 49ers. In this context, I could see a crazed fan shooting him.

[schmave]

Totally plausible theory. Even though I've seen this case several times and vividly remember watching that NFC Championship game, I didn't put the two together. They took place just 3 1/2 months apart and if I'm not mistaken the 49ers were favored in that game (it was at home and they'd beaten the NYG only a month earlier).

[dynoguy88]

Originally Posted by TheCars1986

You know, the more I think about it, the more the license plate theory could also be probable. Bear with me here, but Dick was murdered in the spring of 1991. The San Francisco 49ers lost to the New York Giants in early 91 in the NFC Championship game. They were winning 13-12 with less than 3 minutes left when their running back fumbled the ball, and the Giants went on to win the game. A lot of people blamed their offensive line for the fumble. Harris Barton was a tackle on the offensive line. He's a dead ringer for Dick Hansen. I think it's possible that some crazed fan saw Dick, mistook him for Barton, saw the license plate and put 2+2 together, and that's why he chased them all over the state before murdering Dick. They mention this in the "Dates From Hell" episode they did, although they never actually come right out and name Barton, but they do mention how often Dick was mistaken for a lineman for the 49ers. In this context, I could see a crazed fan shooting him.

That's an interesting theory. Only problem with it was the man saw Jean, not Dick, get in the car with the 49ER HUGS plate. Once both cars pulled away from the curb, the man would have had no idea if they would be going separate ways home or not. And it was Jean he was trailing for most of the ride which included the impromptu stop and eye contact with each other when Jean slammed on her breaks.

That theory might work, however, if the man thought that Jean was his wife and they would be going to the same home. Dick walking up to him would be essentially handing him a gift on a platter.