Famous San Diego characters

The Deadly Circle

The fear of ejecting over the heavily populated Red River Valley and of becoming prisoners of war kept Cunningham and Driscoll in the plane until it began tumbling and burning just over the coast. F-4s and A-7s were circling all around, their pilots screaming at them to eject. Cunningham deployed the drag chute to try to stabilize the plane. The pilot gave the word, and Driscoll reached down and pulled the ejection handle between his knees.

By Neal Matthews, March 29, 1984 | Read full article

Crime and Politics

In early 1982, while he was running for Congress and helping Penthouse defend itself, Aguirre went to Bill Kolender and asked the police chief to request a grand jury probe into organized crime in San Diego. The San Diego Crime Commission would provide Aguirre another highly visible platform on which to stand in the race against Bates. Kolender nixed the idea of the probe, saying that his own intelligence unit was on top of the problem.

By Bob Dorn, April 19, 1984 | Read full article

Questions and answers

There is, however, evidence of Mr. Hedgecock coming in, as you will recall, to speak with Mr. Dominelli immediately following the primary election and bringing to his attention — this is through attorney Storm. We know the meeting took place when Mr. Hedgecock brings to his attention the need for financial support. We know from Mr. Dominelli’s outbursts, at least early in 1983, in February, that he was a provider of financial support.

Nov. 1, 1984 | Read full article

The Long Trial of Ron Mix

Since early 1983, Larry Keller of the Daily Transcript had been writing articles about the McKee/Mix case. Possibly out of deference to Ron Mix, neither the Union nor the Tribune had covered the lawsuit. If reputations are sacred, Keller was extremely irreverent, aggressively reporting the key details of the lawsuit. Mix, the football star and charity crusader about whom nary a foul word had ever been said in the press, was smarting from Keller’s candor.

By Stephen Meyer, Oct. 31, 1985 | Read full article

The Unbearable Rightness of Being Roger Hedgecock

“I was at Santa Barbara, a junior in college, and I got appointed as the head of all social programs. And we did Ray Charles, the Doors, we did a concert with Cream right after their Fresh Cream album came out, we did the San Francisco bands the first time they’d been that far south. When Janis Joplin was with Big Brother, for instance, we had them together, we had Quicksilver Messenger Service….”

By Richard Meltzer, March 24, 1988 | Read full article

Road Man

Up in these parts, in 1955, Dekema was hung in effigy for backing a shoreline route for Interstate 5. Many San Dieguito residents wanted an inland route that would bypass Encinitas and the other beach communities, but Dekema’s predecessor, E.E. Wallace, had favored a route that overlay Highway 101. Indeed, in 1949 he built a stretch of the proposed expressway from Carlsbad to the northern edge of Leucadia…. Dekema finally realigned the freeway where it is today.

By Joe Applegate, March 23, 1989 | Read full article

Thinker with a Sinker

“Eighty percent of baseball conversation is just nervous chatter, and a lot of it is put-downs. There’s such a lack of communication, even among the coaches. You have to be careful about the questions you ask because they’re usually misinterpreted. Like, I was afraid to ask if I was going on the next road trip [to Cincinnati in mid-July] because they’ll think that means I don’t want to go. If you’re open about things, you’re considered feminine.”

By Neal Matthews, Aug. 10, 1989 | Read full article

Up for Adoption

“What I wanted to do most when my dad got out of office was find out who Mike Reagan is. Because Mike Reagan has always been the son of somebody all of his life; he’s never been Mike Reagan. He’s always been the son of Jane Wyman, Ronald Reagan, depending on which parent was most famous at that point. And so I came to San Diego to build my own base and find out who Mike Reagan was.”

By John Brizzolara, Apr. 16, 1992 | Read full article