TOWN AND COUNTRY, in an expansive piece, cites HOMICIDE AT ROUGH POINT
BY SAM DANGREMOND Sept. 2nd, 2021
With a net worth of around $116 billion, Larry Ellison is the seventh-richest person in the world. He could live anywhere on the planet, but Newport, Rhode Island has captured his attention since 2010. That year, the Oracle co-founder purchased Beechwood, a Gilded Age mansion on Bellevue Avenue that was once a summer residence of the Astor family, for $10.5 million. Ellison now owns four properties in Newport, including Seacliff, an estate adjacent to Beechwood for which he reportedly paid $11 million in 2019. With that purchase, Ellison now owns all four properties between Rosecliff and Marble House, two of the “Newport Mansions” open to the public by the Preservation Society of Newport County.
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This is Sam Dangremond’s take on the reopening of the Newport PD’s investigation into Doris Duke’s murder of Eduardo Tirella, the principal focus of my new book HOMICIDE AT ROUGH POINT:
Doris Duke’s actions after the famous automobile accident in which she was involved are another reason Newport gained national prominence, especially for its architecture.
In the days following the 1966 car accident that killed her interior designer friend Eduardo Tirella under suspicious circumstances (Duke was at the wheel of the car that fatally crushed him against the gate of her estate, Rough Point, after he got out to open it), the tobacco heiress reportedly donated $25,000 to restore the Cliff Walk and $10,000 to Newport Hospital. A few months later, she established the Newport Restoration Foundation, which has renovated more than 80 Colonial-era buildings in Newport and neighboring Middletown.
“Until her death in 1993, saving Newport’s colonial architectural heritage would remain a singular philanthropic focus” for Duke, her biography on the Restoration Foundation’s website states. There is no mention of the accident—or any deal Duke may have struck with local authorities that resulted in the police chief at the time calling it an “unfortunate accident” and declaring, “There is no cause to prefer charges against Miss Duke and as far as this department is concerned this case is closed.”
That changed in early August, however, when the only known eyewitness came forward and spoke with the author of a recently released book about Tirella’s death, Homicide at Rough Point. Bob Walker was a 13-year-old paperboy intending to deliver a newspaper when he biked up to 680 Bellevue Avenue on the afternoon on October 7, 1966.
“I initially heard the argument and screaming of two people,” Walker told the book’s author, Peter Lance, according to Vanity Fair. “The arguing stopped for a couple of seconds, and the next thing I heard was the roar of a motor, the crash, and the screaming of a man.”
Walker, who is now 68 and a former Marine, told Lance that he approached the scene and saw a woman get out of her car. “She was a rather tall woman—regal,” Walker says. As Walker approached from behind her, he says, “She spun around and looked at me. I said, ‘Can I help you, ma’am?’ And she said,”—screaming and pointing her finger—“‘You better get the hell out of here!’”
Walker’s statements prompted the Newport Police Department to reopen the case. “I can confirm that I’ve been assigned to follow up with this case due to new information provided by Robert Walker,” Newport Police Det. Jacque Wuest told the Newport Daily News on August 5. The “case is now open for further review due to new facts coming forward,” Wuest said. “It is an active investigation.”
“I initially heard the argument and screaming of two people,” Walker told the book’s author, Peter Lance, according to Vanity Fair. “The arguing stopped for a couple of seconds, and the next thing I heard was the roar of a motor, the crash, and the screaming of a man.”
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