Historic Indianapolis Crimes by Fred D. Cavinder

Author:Fred D. Cavinder
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Historic Indianapolis Crimes: Murder + Mystery in the Circle City
ISBN: 9781614232032
Publisher: Arcadia Publishing

Just Like Something in the Movies

Alfred Henry Smith, seventy-one years old, did what most normal people do when gunfire erupts: he rose to flee. That’s when Smith, who was having an early lunch with his wife, became a happenstance murder victim. His wife, Linda, held him in her arms for an hour after she heard his last gasp of life. Although not slain or wounded, she was also part of one of the most bizarre hostage homicides in Indianapolis history.

It began about 11:00 a.m. on Monday, May 23, 1994, at a Denny’s restaurant on Pendleton Pike in northeast Indianapolis and didn’t end until nearly 5:00 p.m. that day; four people were wounded and a parade of hostages was freed during the incident. Finally surrendering were two brothers fleeing from a theft charge in Casper, Wyoming, who had picked Indianapolis almost at random as a bus ride destination in their flight.

Alfred Smith and his wife had chosen the restaurant at random. They did not dine there regularly. Undoubtedly, others among the numerous patrons were also there by chance, although some may have been “regulars.” Whether the gunmen planned a robbery is uncertain. They did have only about one dollar between them, had ordered food for which they could not pay and were armed with a .357 Magnum and 9mm semiautomatic assault pistol.

Thomas E. Mathisen, twenty-four, and his brother Ronald Jr., twenty-seven, had purchased weapons from a private dealer before leaving Casper. They had been in an Indianapolis motel for three days and chose the Denny’s, they said, because it was nearby.

Robert Doan, forty-nine, a Denny’s manager, was also in the restaurant by happenstance. He had come there to interview a prospective employee. His encounter with the edgy Mathisen brothers was accidental, too. Tom Mathisen was moving to the back of the restaurant when he bumped into Doan. Tom’s gun went off twice, perhaps accidentally, the bullets hitting Doan in the stomach and buttock. When that occurred, Ronald panicked and began shooting wildly at least six times with his revolver. One slug went through Alfred Smith’s arm and into his chest, killing him. Four other restaurant patrons were wounded. Bedlam broke loose. “It was just like something you see in the movies,” said one of the restaurant cooks, “but it wasn’t a movie.”

Alfred Smith, a World War I army veteran, had been a retired car salesman and former self-employed carpenter. Later during the standoff, when the gunmen were in telephone contact with police, they said that they were sending out Smith’s dead body because they “couldn’t stand it.” Two hostages were allowed to open the restaurant door and place Smith’s body outside on the grass.

The wounded, besides Doan, were Justin Basicker, five; Steve Johnson, twenty-three; and Cecil Williams, seventy-five. During the standoff, the Mathisen brothers expressed remorse for the situation. They later admitted that they had planned to rob people in Indianapolis, commit murders to eliminate witnesses and then perhaps take their own lives. Suicide seemed to be personal atonement for their problems.

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