Homicide at Rough Point (Part Two)

01/26/25 • 58 min

In Part One of our two part series on 5 time Emmy winning investigative reporter Peter Lance’s Book, HOMICIDE AT ROUGH POINT, we left off as Mr. Lance was detailing how, back in the fall of 1966, the Newport, Rhode Island police covered up the murder of art curator and designer Eduardo Tirella, whom Doris Duke, crushed to death under the wheels of a two-ton station wagon just minutes after he told the notoriously possessive, billionairess that he was leaving her for a career in Hollywood.

As Peter explained, with little or no investigation, Newport’s police chief, Joseph Radice, closed the case in 96 hours. Calling it an accident, he went so far as to create a fabricated transcript of an interrogation of Doris that never took place, that was purportedly conducted by Newport’s Chief of Detective’s Captain Paul Sullivan.
For decades, after starting his career as a cub reporter for The Newport Daily News just eight months after Tirella’s death, Lance was driven to tell the true story and in 2020, after an 8,000 word article in Vanity Fair, he wrote HOMICIDE AT ROUGH POINT, which was published in 4 editions in early 2021 – leading the police to reopen the case.
We begin Part Two as Peter describes an encounter he had with Captain Sullivan when he was covering a case involving the murder of two sailors by a friend and former classmate of his, named Stephen Robertson, whose incredibly story of homicide and redemption serve as bookends to HOMICIDE AT ROUGH POINT.

Book available at AMAZON at: ⁠https://www.amazon.com/Homicide-Rough-Point-Peter-Lance/dp/0996285598/ref=tmm_hrd_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&asc_campaign=2b5a785186b501c352c95398a3440b1b&asc_source=01G8XG0GEG1CT4D3C07B4FAY7P&tag=namespacebran131-20⁠

Previous Episode

THE POISON TREE

Seven years before Lyle and Erik Menendez gunned down their parents in Beverly Hills, after years of abuse, suffered by he and his sister, Richard Jahnke ambushed their father in the garage of their home on Cowpoke Lane in Cheyenne, Wyoming and shot him dead.

THE POISON TREE is a riveting account of the sadistic physical, mental and sexual abuse suffered by Richard and Deborah. The book also covers the murder, trial and aftermath of an incident with eerie parallels to the Menendez Case.

My guest today is the author of THE POISON TREE, Alan Prendergast.

Next Episode

Homicide at Rough Point (Part One)

In the fall of 1966, Eduardo Tirella, close confidant of billionaire Doris Duke, informed the possessive and vindictive heiress that he was leaving her employ as chief designer and art curator to return to Hollywood where his career as a set designer was just catching fire.
Minutes later, she crushed him to death under the wheels of a two-ton station wagon as they were leaving Rough Point, her Bellevue Avenue estate in Newport, RI, the storied resort.
In a murderous quid-pro-quo, the local police quickly ruled the incident "an unfortunate accident" and Doris began giving a fortune to Newport, restoring 70 colonial-era homes that quickly turned it into a tourist Mecca.

In 2018, Lance, who started his career as a cub reporter for The Newport Daily News eight months after Tirella's death, began a re-examination of the case and proved that the mercurial tobacco heiress got away with murder.
In a riveting, doggedly researched book with 105 illustrations -- including never-before seen forensic files -- Lance, a five-time Emmy winner, rewrites history and finally restores the reputation of Eduardo Tirella, a Renaissance man and war hero whom Duke went to great lengths to erase from the history of her troubled life.

Book available at AMAZON at: https://www.amazon.com/Homicide-Rough-Point-Peter-Lance/dp/0996285598/ref=tmm_hrd_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&asc_campaign=2b5a785186b501c352c95398a3440b1b&asc_source=01G8XG0GEG1CT4D3C07B4FAY7P&tag=namespacebran131-20