Dumpster leads to Tonya’s fall
After 22 years, the story can now be told that a dumpster led to the fall of Olympic figure skater Tonya Harding for her involvement in the premeditated assault on her ice rink rival Nancy Kerrigan in Detroit.
The dumpster’s owners Terry and Kathy Peterson, who own the popular Dockside Saloon and Restaurant in Portland, were recently on vacation in Manila. They related to The Star how a cursory look at their dumpsite for “foreign” garbage brought out proof that pinned Harding down before a Grand Jury.
It was Kathy who uncovered pieces of evidence in the 6x6 foot dumpster the Petersons pay $1,000 a year to maintain beside their restaurant. “There’s a law that prohibits people from throwing garbage into a dumpster they don’t own,” she said. “So every day, I check out our dumpster for stuff that we didn’t throw in. When I find garbage that isn’t ours, I check for clues that could lead to who throw it. Sometimes, I find an envelope with an address or a receipt with a telephone number. Usually, it’s garbage from a nearby place. So I take the garbage back to where it came from. I usually leave it in the doorstep of the source. It’s the proper thing to do.”
In 1994, Kathy spotted several “foreign” bags of garbage in their dumpster. She opened the bags, looking for an address to send them back to. “I’m no dumpster diver,” she chuckled. “I check on the garbage because it’s not right for people to throw stuff in somebody else’s dumpster. I found a train receipt to Detroit, a receipt from the National Skating Association made out to Tonya and an envelope with scribbled notes of Nancy’s practice schedule at the Tony Kent Arena in Massachusetts. Nancy was eventually tracked down to the Cobo Arena in Detroit. At that time, Nancy’s assault was all over the news – it happened a few days before. Police tagged four perpetrators. But Tonya denied knowing anything about it.”
Harding and Kerrigan were then the toast of US figure skating but there could be only one queen. On that fateful day, Kerrigan was assaulted in the corridor of the Cobo Arena. The attackers were identified as Harding’s former husband Jeff Gillooly, her bodyguard Shawn Eckhardt, hitman Shane Stant and getaway driver Derrick Smith. Kerrigan’s right leg was whacked by Stant using a telescopic baton in a vicious attempt to maim and incapacitate her from competing at the coming Winter Olympics in Lillehammer, Norway. Kerrigan escaped serious injury with no broken leg.
Ironically, Harding and Kerrigan both made it to the Winter Olympics but neither took the gold. Kerrigan bagged the silver and Harding finished a poor eighth.
Kathy said she was intrigued by what she discovered and called the FBI. “I thought it was incriminating evidence,” she said. “A lady FBI agent came the next day and I showed what I found. She asked if I could go through the rest of the garbage in the dumpster. I told her maybe, the FBI should do it. Two days later, the FBI came back and wanted to check our dumpster but it was too late. The garbage is picked up every Tuesday or Wednesday so that when they returned, the dumpster was empty. Apparently, the writing on the envelope was confirmed to be Tonya’s.”
To be continued