Carole Gold
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How was Wild West performer Chuck “Black Bart” Gold found on the night of the murder?
A Wild West performer lies dead on his kitchen floor.
911, what is your emergency? I need an ambulance real fast. There's blood all over.
There were eight entrance wounds, four in the head, three in the upper chest. He was dressed as a cowboy, dressed all in black, from his boots to his hat. He was known by Black Bart.
His grieving widow has a colorful past.
She was one of Hugh Hefner's first Playboy bunnies. She taught Catholic school by day and Playboy Bunny by night. She had a double life.
The investigation into her husband's murder reveals they had plenty of enemies.
They would do gunfight shows on property on the weekends.
I did ask him if he ever had his ass kicked, and I offered to do it.
Her husband didn't know about it, and she didn't want him to know about it.
The question is, which of their foes killed Black Bart?
His attitude, I have said, someday somebody is going to shoot him.
It just eventually led into, yeah, we'd like to see him dead.
There's nothing worse than being betrayed by a loved one. And that's what it was.
What did the initial crime-scene evidence (wounds, casings, doors) suggest about the killer's method?
Desert nights outside Phoenix, Arizona are normally quiet and peaceful. But at 10.30 p.m. on October 20, 1992, a resident in an upscale neighborhood comes home to violence.
911, what is your emergency? Yeah, my name is Carol Gold. I need an ambulance real fast.
My husband's on a kitchen floor. There's blood all over.
I think he's dead. Officers get to the scene, and the woman who called Carol Gold, she leaves them inside the house, and they find her husband on the ground.
He was dressed as a cowboy, all in black, from his boots to his hat. It kind of jumped out at you. And he had a Western-style belt with a big buckle on it that said Black Bart on it. The victim was identified by his wife, Carol. He was known by either Chuck or Black Bart.
After securing the crime scene, Phoenix police officers notify the Homicide Division. The first detective on the scene is Joseph Petrosino.
When I got there, there really wasn't a lot of blood. There were eight entrance wounds, four in the head, three in the upper chest, and one which was through the wrist. One of the wounds is behind the ear. I suspect that that would have been one where he was down on the floor and it's just, we're just gonna make sure that he doesn't get up off the floor, execution style.
As Detective Petrosino moves into the living room, he notices a strange detail.
I had a chair in the living room, and I can see that the chair has been moved, and I can see that something had been behind the chair, which appeared to be shoe prints. And it's right close to the entrance to the kitchen, so that when, if you came around that corner, you would have immediately been able to see who's in the kitchen. I suspect that once he went into the room, he was confronted almost immediately, and the shooting began.
It seemed it could have been a robbery gone wrong. The robber broke in. And then Chuck scared him.
He died the way a lot of Old West criminals died, you know, gunned down. He was ambushed.
They're looking at the crime scene, trying to figure out footprints, fingerprints, anything that was left behind. So you're left with all these questions. Was this somebody that broke in? Was this a targeted attack on Chuck Gold's life?
Chuck Gold was born in March 1941 and grew up in Illinois as one of four boys in a close-knit family.
He grew up in an area of Chicago called Rogers Park and with very loving and doting parents. They were very good, close brothers. They were raised in a kosher home in a nice Jewish neighborhood.
Growing up, he was very much interested in the West and the cowboys. He rode horses a lot, every chance he had, and worked pretty close with them.
What kid in the 40s and 50s wasn't drawn to gunfights and cowboys?
As a teenager, Chuck traded his Western wear for an Army uniform, serving several years in Germany.
He joined before he graduated high school. I've been told he did cross paths with Elvis around the time that Elvis actually was leaving the army. My dad was out in 61, I believe. My parents met shortly after.
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Chapters
3 chapters
1
How was Wild West performer Chuck “Black Bart” Gold found on the night of the murder?
0:03–1:38
2
What did the initial crime-scene evidence (wounds, casings, doors) suggest about the killer's method?
1:38–8:12
3
What was Chuck Gold’s background and how did he become the Black Bart performer?
8:12–41:54