Runners-up: An alcoholic tries to kill his wife; his son turns him in
Runners-up for top story of the month:
Robert Franklin Holcombe, 55, of Atlanta, Georgia, had an infatuation with strippers and whiskey that bled his savings accounts dry. He spent $110,000 from an inheritance and repeatedly refinanced his home, using the proceeds to woo young women. To get his hands on $300,000 in life insurance and retirement funds, he hatched a scheme to murder his wife of 30 years. First, hoping to cause an explosion, he broke a natural gas line to the water heater. His wife found a small fire in the basement and didn’t think anything of it. Then he connected a hose between the tail pipe of his car in the garage to the bedroom through a hole he drilled. After letting the car run for 30 minutes and failing to kill his wife, he went to check on the car. Apparently finding that the fumes hadn’t left the garage, he got dizzy and began vomiting. After two more failed attempts using drugs (Percocet and Benadryl), he asked their son, Robert Jr., to help. After realizing that his father was serious despite the fact that “most of the time he was drunk,”Holcombe Jr. reported the plan to the sheriff, who wired him and taped the conversation in which the plot was detailed: strike her on the head and stage a fall down the stairs. When Jr. said, “Hell, you’ve tried this before…taking her out,”Holcombe responded, “Not by this method.”Holcombe was arrested and, just before the trial with his son expected to be the star witness for the prosecution, pleaded guilty to two counts of aggravated assault and one count of solicitation to commit murder.
Oklahoma State basketball coach Eddie Sutton, who ranks fifth in NCAA Division I coaching victories, taking a leave of absence after being charged with DUI. He entered rehab 20 years ago amidst a cloud of NCAA violations, after which he took Oklahoma to the NCAA tournament 13 times in 15 years.
Former Creed lead singer Scott Stapp, who married former Miss New York, Jaclyn Nesheiwat, on February 10 and was arrested for investigation of being drunk at LAX on February 11. In a day and age of terrorism, few non-alcoholics are likely to get obviously inebriated at airports.
Swedish playboy Stefan Eriksson, 44, who slammed his $1 million Ferrari into a power pole on Pacific Coast Highway near Los Angeles at 162 mph. See the antic-of-the-month, below, for the incredible details.
Philip Seymour Hoffman, up for the Academy Award for Best Actor in his portrayal of author Truman Capote in the recent movie, “Capote,”reporting on “60 Minutes”that he never would have reached such heights had he not gotten sober 16 years ago at age 22. However, Capote reached great heights in a state of insobriety, as is true with roughly 30% of Academy Award winning actors. One of the great ironies of alcoholism is that it often goes hand in hand with extraordinary achievement. The opposite of what worked for Hoffman profits far too many for far too long.