'Knight Rider' Car On eBay
Vehicle Was Property Of Slain Greenwich Businessman
By DAVE ALTIMARI
Courant Staff Writer
June 13, 2008
The executor of slain Greenwich businessman Andrew Kissel is selling the Trans Am on eBay starting this afternoon. Bidding starts at $20,000, according to Greenwich lawyer Patrick R. Gil, who has handled the dismantling of Kissel's estate.
Gil had put the car up for auction months ago but then removed it after he started getting calls from all over the world questioning its authenticity. Gil did more research and said Thursday it is one of the handful of KITT cars used in the 1980s series "Knight Rider." KITT was the computer brain of the jet-black car that talked to Hasselhoff and got him out of many scrapes.
Kissel purchased the car from an auction house in May 2005 for $69,000 but never took possession of it. Part of the agreement was that Kissel would allow the car to be used in an Adam Sandler movie called "The Benchwarmer."
"I don't know why he never brought the car back here. My guess is because his troubles started to mount a few months after he purchased it," Gil said.
The car was Kissel's last major possession, Gil said.
Kissel was days from starting a 10-year federal prison sentence for forging documents to obtain more than $16 million in loans from banks and mortgage companies when furniture movers discovered his body in the basement of his Dairy Road home in Greenwich on April 3, 2006.
He had been stabbed four or five times in the back. His hands and feet were bound in Flex Cuffs and his T-shirt had been pulled over his head.
Police arrested Carlos Trujillo, Kissel's former driver, and his cousin, Leonard Trujillo of Worcester, in March.
This week prosecutors announced they were upgrading the charges against Leonard Trujillo to capital felony, meaning he could face the death penalty if convicted. They allege that Carlos Trujillo paid Leonard to kill Kissel.
Carlos Trujillo has been charged with conspiracy to commit murder. Both are scheduled to appear in Superior Court again on June 19.
Andrew Kissel was the second member of his family to die a high-profile, violent death. His brother, Robert Kissel, a wealthy banker, was killed by his wife, Nancy, in Hong Kong in 2003. She poisoned his milkshake.
Copyright © 2008, The Hartford Courant
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