2 Coin-Shop Murders In Limbo -- Heart Attack Took Prime Suspect In Series Of Crimes Across The West

BILLINGS, Mont. - When Charles Thurman Sinclair died of a heart attack in an Anchorage, Alaska, jail cell last month, he was mourned by his family and by police detectives from Missouri to Alaska.

His relatives saw the loss of a loving family man. Detectives, however, lost the chance to question the man they are convinced left a trail of bodies across the West. Police and the FBI have linked Sinclair, 44, a former coin-shop owner, to 11 homicides, one attempted murder and two rapes.

The murders began 10 years ago. But it was not until this summer that investigators in several states, trying to solve separate crimes, suddenly realized they were all looking for the same man.

The break came when police here began investigating the July 31 murders of Charles Sparboe, the 60-year-old owner of a coin shop, and his assistant Catharine Newstrom, 47. Both had been shot in the head. Some $54,000 in coins and gold was taken.

A composite of the suspect provided by Sparboe's son and a description of the crime triggered recognition in several squad rooms.

The common link between most of the murders was coins. A killer, a beguiling character who talked a lot, would go to a coin shop, often many times, pretending to be a customer. The victims would get used to seeing him. Then one day he would return, usually near closing time, rob and shoot to kill with a small-caliber weapon - always in the head.

According to police accounts the unsolved crimes linked to Sinclair include:

-- The Everett murder of David Sutton, Jan. 27, 1980. He was found shot dead in his antique shop. Some $80,000 worth of silver dollars was taken.

-- A robbery and killing of Thomas Rohr, manager of a Mishawaka, Ind., coin shop, Aug. 28, 1985.

-- The Vacaville, Calif., killing of coin-shop owner Ruben Williams Nov. 1, 1986, also shot in the head and robbed.

-- The Spokane robbery-homicide of coin-shop owner Leo Cashatt, shot in the head July 14, 1987.

-- The Kansas City, Mo., killing of LeRoy Hoffman March 12, 1988. Coins worth several thousand dollars were missing.

-- In Murray, Utah, on May 4 of this year, Legacy Coin shop co-owner Kelly Finnegan was shot in the head with a small-caliber gun, but survived.

Finnegan said the shooter had recently been in the store several times, before, saying he was from Texas. Finnegan described his attacker as a polite, friendly man who had said he wanted to buy coins. Instead, after the shooting he stole about $60,000 worth of merchandise.

The fact that Finnegan turned his head saved his life, he believes. The bullet pierced his forehead, but he was not seriously wounded and stayed conscious. He fell to the floor, pretending to be dead. The man he later identified as Sinclair walked back and forth across his body, for several minutes, removing gold and rare coins.

Officials were also looking into Sinclair's relationship to other crimes in northwest Washington not related to coin shops: namely, the disappearance of the a vacationing California couple in August 1986, the rape of a real-estate agent that same month, and the November 1987 kidnapping and killings of a vacationing Canadian couple.

Until the the Billings murders of Sparboe and Newstrom on that hot July afternoon, neither the various state authorities nor the FBI had been aware of a possible serial killer.

The connection between of Sinclair to this and other crimes emerged not long after detectives arrived at the Treasure State Silver & Gold coin shop in Billings.

Sparboe had voiced concern about an odd new customer who was hanging around. Because he did, Sparboe's son Jim and others remembered the man well, and their composite drawing led to the identification of Sinclair.

Jim Sparboe recalled that the customer said he was a ``farmer from Laurel, 15 miles up the road.'' The customer told a story police later found remarkably similar to one told by the customer in the Kansas City murder. The man said he was ``selling his farm, for $130,000, and wanted to invest'' the money'' in gold, Jim Sparboe said.

The elder Sparboe wondered why the man had parked a silver Pontiac some distance away, and then walked up. Jim Sparboe noticed the man had ``banker-smooth hands,'' not those of a farmer.