Homicide at Rough Point: The Untold Story of How Doris Duke, The Richest Woman In America, Got Away With Murder (First Edition)

Peter Lance (author); Doris Duke (subject)

ISBN 10: 1736363603 / ISBN 13: 9781736363607

Published by Tenacity Media Books, 2021

About this Item

A lovely First Edition copy! Fine in trade paperback -- crisp, bright, and tight -- with no marks and no defects of any kind. Stated First Edition. Suitable condition for adding to a llibrary, or for preentation as a gift. (438 pages.) Story of a unsolved murder -- which occurred outside of the estate of Doris Duke in Newport, Rhode Island in 1966 -- of the interior designer Eduardo Tirella. Doris Duke (1912-1993), the only daughter of Duke University founder James B. Duke, was once known as "The Richest Little Girl in the World." Ships from NC. All paperbacks are sealed in recycled plastic, packaged securely with recycled cardboard backing, and shipped promptly with tracking information.

Seller Inventory # ABE-1773326351922

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Homicide at Rough Point: The Untold Story of How Doris Duke, The Richest Woman In America, Got Away With Murder (First Edition)
• Publisher: Tenacity Media Books
• Publication Date: 2021
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1736363603
• ISBN 13: 9781736363607
• Binding: Soft cover
• Edition: 1st Edition
• Condition: Fine
• Seller catalogs:
  • North Carolina
  • American History
  • Mystery & Crime

About this title

Synopsis

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 gay Renaissance man and war hero whom Duke went to great lengths to erase from the history of her troubled life.  

Praise for Homicide at Rough Point:

“Homicide at Rough Point is a page-turning epic for our time. Proof that when a narcissistic billionaire assumes, they can get away with murder, there’s a reporter out there willing and able to expose them.”                               -Nicholas Pileggi, author of Goodfellas and Casino

“Homicide is the best true crime book I’ve read in years; solving the horrific cold case murder of Eddie Tirella, a gifted Italian-American war hero who didn’t deserve to die. Peter Lance is the most tenacious reporter I know. A must read!”  -John A. “Junior” Gotti

Praise for Peter Lance’s Harper Collins Mafia biography Deal with the Devil:

“The perfect mix of thorough research and gripping storytelling.” (NPR)

“[A] thrilling account. . . This scrupulously investigated tale. . . will have true crime fans on the edge of their seats (Publishers Weekly, starred review)

“A meticulously researched and frightening account of the long term relationship between the FBI and vicious Mafia thug Gregory Scarpa Sr. . . Stunning revelations.” (Booklist)

About the Author

Peter Lance won five Emmys for his work as a producer and correspondent for ABC News and WNET. Among his Awards are The Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award and The Sevellon Brown Award from The New England Associated Press for "Newport's Back Yard." Mid-career he worked as a writer, producer and/or show runner on multiple dramatic television series including Crime Story, Miami Vice, and Wiseguy. In addition to his four books for HarperCollins, 1000 Years for Revenge, Cover Up, Triple Cross and Deal With The Devil, published between 2003 and 2013, he's written pieces for Playboy and contributed for years to The Huffington Post.

  

His 8,000 word investigation into the killing of gay designer and art curator Eduardo Tirella by billionairess Duke. was the lead non-fiction piece in the July/August 2020 edition of Vanity Fair. In 2021 Lance expanded that initial investigation into HOMICIDE AT ROUGH POINT, a 438 page book with 60 pages of annotations and 110 images including, never-before-seen forensic documents, proving definitively that the vindictive, possessive tobacco heiress got away with murder. The 130,000 word book is available in Hardcover, Trade Paper, Kindle and Audible editions with Lance narrating his first-person account of the probe.