A year ago I took Bob Walker, the former paperboy for Doris Duke, up to Rough Point, her Newport, RI estate, and he told me a shocking story.

By Peter Lance July 2nd, 2022

On July 2nd, 2021, Robert E. Walker, Jr., a former Marine (then 68) who had been the 13 year-old paperboy at Rough Point in 1966, read my findings published in HOMICIDE AT ROUGH POINT and came foreward. He told the Newport Police that he had been present on the late afternoon of October 7th 1966, and not only heard the entire lead-up to the death of Eduardo Tirella, longtime companion, art curator and designer for Doris Duke, but actually confronted Miss Duke moments later, after she emerged from the Dodge Polara “death wagon,” uninjured and acting with cold-blooded indifference to Eduardo’s homicide.

After Bob reached out to me at a book-signing in Newport, I took him up to Rough Point on July 4th and recorded multiple interviews with him recounting the details, which, I confirmed, he had told to a series of friends and fellow Marines as early as 1973.

The interviews led to my second piece in Vanity Fair which was accompanied by this video compiled by VF’s editors. In it, Bob describes how, after he came upon the crash, Miss Duke yelled at him three times to leave the scene, but because his father feared for his life if he came forward, he kept what he’d seen a secret for more than half a century.

The police investigation was commenced by Det, Jacque Wuest, the Newport PD’s cold case detective. Initially, she not only found Bob “credible” but confirmed that he’d given the identical account years earlier. The reopening of the case made international headlines when Mark Pratt reported the story for The Associated Press and it was published in thousands of print, online and media outlets worldwide.

Then, in mid November, 2021, after 5 months, during which she was promoted to Sergeant and left on three weeks vacation in Europe, Det. Sgt. Wuest closed the case, concluding that there was “no new evidence that warrants further review.”  This TIMELINE traces the tortuous trajectory of her 139 day probe.

Her conclusion came despite extraordinary new documentary and forensic evidence (set forth below) proving that Miss Duke murdered Eduardo with intent. It was evidence that synced precisely with Bob Walker’s memory of the events, which he’d recounted to Det. Sgt. Wuest on July 2nd, 2021.

 

THE SECOND COVER-UP

The day after she again closed the case, The Newport Daily News ran a piece by veteran newsman Sean Flynn reporting on how the Newport PD was effectively embracing the 1966 verdict of the then Mafia-related Police Chief (Joseph A. Radice) that the billionairess, who died in 1993,  had no criminal culpability for Eduardo’s death.

That position was supported by the current Chief Gary Silva, and endorsed by his superior Joseph J. Nicholson Jr., the City Manager.

As of today, a year later, the cover-up continues, but I’m now investigating how in 2022, nearly 30 years after her death at the age of 80 in 1993, the tobacco, aluminum and energy billionairess, wields such power over Newport officials. So watch this space.

For the entire story, including links to the GLOBAL MEDIA COVERAGE go here.