The Death of an Heir

Adolph Coors III and the Murder That Rocked an American Brewing Dynasty

By: Philip Jett

Narrated by: Eric Priessman

Length: 10 hrs

Publisher's summary

The chilling true crime account of a family’s gilded American dream that became a nightmare when a meticulously plotted kidnapping went horribly wrong. In the 1950s and 60s, the Coors beer dynasty reigned over the West, seemingly invincible. When rumblings about labor unions threatened to destabilize the family’s brewery, Adolph Coors, Jr., the septuagenarian president of the company, drew a hard line, refusing to budge. They had worked hard for what they had, and no one had a right to take it from them. What they’d soon realize was that they were about to lose more than they ever could have imagined.

On the morning of Tuesday, February 9, 1960, Adolph “Ad” Coors III, the 44-year-old CEO and Chairman of the Board of the multimillion-dollar Colorado beer empire, stepped into his car and headed for the brewery twelve miles away. At Turkey Creek Bridge, he stopped to help a man standing beside a yellow Mercury sedan with its hood raised. He didn't realize that the man's coat pocket shielded a loaded pistol and the Mercury's glove box held a ransom note ready to be mailed. What happened next set off the largest US manhunt since the Lindbergh baby kidnapping.

State and local authorities, along with the FBI personally spearheaded by its director J. Edgar Hoover, burst into action attempting to locate Ad and his kidnapper. The dragnet spanned a continent. All the while, Ad’s grief-stricken wife and children waited, tormented by the unrelenting silence. The Death of an Heir reveals the true story behind the tragic murder of Colorado’s favorite son.

©2017 Philip Jett (P)2024 Philip Jett

Critic reviews

“A suspenseful true-crime narrative that reads like an edge-of-the-seat detective story.” —Booklist

“A compassionate appraisal of the tragedy that shattered the family of Adolph (Ad) Coors III.” —The New York Times Book Review