Bart Bartholomae was a Californian oilfield roughneck who bought some unwanted land in his home state and struck oil on it just after World War I. He used the fortune he amassed from this to branch into gold mining, cattle ranching, and real estate, compiling a fortune estimated in the early 1960s as $40 million (US). In January 1964 Bartholomae was at his Newport Beach estate where he lived with his brother, Charles, Charles’s wife, Carmen Gallardo, and her sister, Minola, who had come to visit. Carmen was recovering from the birth of her recent child, and while cooking breakfast, collapsed on the floor. Bartholomae went to look after her, and had picked up the knife with which she was chopping mushrooms. Her sister came into the room and flew into a rage, thinking Bartholomae had hurt her, and as she did not speak English, could not understand his protestations. She grabbed the knife from his hands and stabbed him twice in the abdomen, killing him. Gallardo would later stand trial but was found not guilty of manslaughter.
United States