A haunting tale of a brother’s two-decade search for answers about his sister’s mysterious death has uncovered a sinister trail of secrets.
Eileen Thomson Zaccagnini was 20-years-old when she married her high school sweetheart, Vic Zaccagnini in 1967.
Shortly after, the couple moved from Pittsburgh to California, where he worked as a police officer and she as as a secretary for the assistant superintendent of schools in San Bernardino County.
But just seven years later, their seemingly perfect life ended in tragedy when Eileen was found dead at the age of 27 in September 1974.
Police reported that the gunshot, a colt .38 revolver wound to her chest was self inflicted and ruled her death a suicide.
Yet this seemed inconceivable to her family and her brother James Whitfield Thomson, now 79, was determined to find out what happened.
In his part memoir, part true crime book, ‘A Better Ending,’ James revealed how his own years-long investigation led the police to reopen her case.
James Whitfield Thomson, author of the book ‘A Better Ending’ part memoir, part true crime, urged police to reopen the investigation into his sister’s death
Thomson ecently published a book about the mysterious death of his sister Eileen Zaccagnini
Speaking to the Daily Mail, Thomson explained how he has grappled with the guilt of not doing more to advocate for his sister when she died.
He had been 28 at the time and just completed a three-year stint in the Navy and was in grad school at the University of Pennsylvania.
‘I spent more time buying a used car than I spent investigating my sister’s death. I beat myself up pretty badly about that. I could have done so much more, and I didn’t,’ he recalled.
Thomson had been at the Pirates versus Phillies baseball game in Philadelphia when he got the gut-wrenching news from his wife that his sister was dead.
‘I let out a howl of grief and rage and disbelief, a guttural sound I have never made before,’ he said.
When her family learned Vic had been in the house when Eileen died, they questioned him about what had happened.
Vic claimed Elieen had been having an affair with her boss and shot herself when he found out.
‘He looked me in the eyes,’ Thomson recalled. ‘I believed him and told my parents and brother what he had told me and we all went on with our lives.’
Thomson said he had always remembered Eileen as ‘Miss Bubbly,’ and had been stunned to discover that she had been depressed and experiencing serious marital problems.
Eileen had allegedly sent a letter to her family that arrived after the funeral which explained she had briefly split from Vic.
‘It has been a rough summer but Vic and I are back together and everything is going to be great. I realize what a prize I have in him,’ she wrote, in part.
Thomson said he still has the letter in its original envelope and though it has been more than 40 years the letter ‘has always haunted him.’
But it was not until nearly 30 years later in 2001, when Thomson was planning to write a book about his sister, that he decided to request the police reports on the case from the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department.
He hired a private investigator, Darryl Carlson, to help him and when they requested his sister’s autopsy from the coroner’s office, the police reports were also attached.
The report, which has been seen by the Daily Mail, stated that Vic told police he had only been back with his wife for one week before her death and that they were seeing a marriage counselor.
‘He stated that his wife got a job six months ago and about three months ago she asked him for a separation,’ it continued.
During the three month separation Vic claimed he had caught his wife with her boss on several occasions.
He said she had only finally admitted the affair the day before her death, which had led to a big argument, with police called to her boss’ house over the disturbance.
Vic went on to claim that his wife later said she wanted to kill herself.
‘At this time she apparently went to the bathroom and started taking pills. He stated that he choked her to make her not swallow the pills,’ the report stated.
But after a further argument, he said he left her in the bedroom to call her parents and heard a shot from the den.
‘He ran back into the bedroom and saw his wife kneeling on the floor and leaning against the bed. He stated that he saw a black spot on her blouse and then called the operator,’ the report noted.
Vic also told police that his wife had previously attempted to commit suicide and had grabbed a gun.
‘He said this was on an occasion when he tore her clothes off, smacked her and beat her and called her a wh***,’ the report stated.
Vic also told police that he had hit her just three weeks before her death when she had stayed out all night.
Thomson said that when he read this detail in the report ‘all kind of hell broke loose’.
‘We found out that Vic had beaten up Eileen shortly before she died, called her a whore and threatened to kill her in front of another cop,’ he said.
The report also included an interview with the man with whom Eileen was having an affair. He claimed she had told him her husband had threatened to kill her.
The author with his sister in the hills outside of San Bernardino. He shared that his sister was petite in size at barely 5 feet tall. He was a foot taller, but she stood on a rock in this photo
Thomson and his sister Eileen when they were children. They were only 15 months apart in age
Thomson also uncovered during his investigation that Vic himself had been having an affair while married to Eileen.
He eventually married his mistress on September 11, 1975 – exactly one year after Eileen’s death – according to a marriage license obtained by a private investigator.
‘I thought that was pretty weird to get a marriage license on the first anniversary of your ex-wife’s death,’ he said.
Thomson also learned that his sister had been on the phone with two women before she died – yet the lead detective had not interviewed them before closing the case.
After two years of digging, Thomson, who lives on the east coast, flew to California to meet with the private investigator so they could petition the Sheriff’s department to reopen the case as a homicide investigation.
They were successful and the case was reopened in 2003. But during the new probe Thomson learned that all physical evidence had been destroyed after 18 months.
‘It looked like such police incompetence,’ he said. ‘[The sheriff’s department] told me it was the worst investigation they have ever seen.’
Thomson said he reached out to people who knew his sister, including her best friend and co-worker, Betty Clay, who claimed she had no idea Eileen was having an affair.
Vic had been interviewed again by police during the second investigation, but Thomson decided he wanted to meet his sister’s former husband for himself.
Thomson (second from the right) grew up on the north side of Pittsburgh in the 1950s in what he described as a ‘typical lower to middle class family.’ He said by the time he was 46 years old they were ‘all dead.’ His mother was the last to die in the spring of 1992
He traveled to Seattle with his private investigator in February 2005 where they all planned to meet at a local restaurant. Vic also brought along his third wife.
Prior to this, the last time Thomson had seen Vic was the day of his sister’s funeral.
‘As we walked toward the restaurant in the chilly night air, my feet felt sluggish while my mind rushed ahead,’ Thomson wrote in his book. ‘I caught a glimpse of Vic the moment I stepped through the door.
‘He was standing alone near the hostess station, his face in profile. He turned and saw me and lifted his chin in recognition. As I walked toward him, he gave me a wary smile.
‘More than 30 years after Eileen’s death, my journey had come full circle, taking me back to its beginning – I, a jury of one, trying to decide if the hand he held out to me was the hand that held the gun.’
As they all sat together in the restaurant, he told the Daily Mail he laid out the case he was building, adding: ‘It wasn’t what you said it was?’
He remembered Vic sitting there ‘shaking his head saying I didn’t do that’.
Vic also claimed he had taken two lie detector tests. But when Thomson said there was no evidence of this, there was an uncomfortable pause.
When Thomson questioned him over his admission to police that he had hit Eileen, Vic claimed he had only grabbed her once and that the incident in the report ‘didn’t happen’.
Thomson recalled feeling uncertain as he left the restaurant. And despite others encouraging him to keep going, he said he had found himself at a crossroads.
James Thomson (left) with Darryl Carlson (right), the California private investigator he worked with, who died in 2020, five years before the book was published
Thomson’s sister Eileen married her high school sweetheart at 20. She died seven years later from a gunshot wound to the chest
But that same year, the Sheriff’s department closed the case after stating they had no evidence to prove it was a homicide.
In a statement to Daily Mail, they said: ‘We understand how deeply important this case is to James Thomson and all those impacted by Eileen’s tragic death. This case was initially investigated in 1974 and has undergone several reviews over the years.
‘Homicide investigators have thoroughly examined the available evidence during each review. Despite these efforts, no new evidence has been discovered that would change the current status of the case.
‘We remain committed to carefully reviewing any credible new information that may emerge, and we encourage anyone with relevant details to come forward.’
With the case closed and his meeting with Vic concluded, James said he asked himself: ‘Where am I going now?’
He told his wife Elizabeth he would try to forgive Vic for the way he treated his sister, adding: ‘She looked at me and said, ‘Jim, this isn’t about forgiveness. This is about acceptance.”
‘And that is what the book is about,’ he told the Daily Mail. ‘About how to accept something that you will never know.’
Looking back, he said he thinks his sister was likely the one who pulled the trigger, but believes it was due to the ‘situation [Vic] put her in that made her feel worthless’.
‘He’s not guilty of that crime of murder, but is guilty of making a person feel worthless and abusing her. That, to me – along with the fact that he buried everything he could… – is a monstrous f*****g crime.’
The author, who has five children and 11 grandchildren, said that after all this time, he finally feels like he has closure.
‘Eileen’s story is not one-of-a-kind,’ he said. ‘It is one of many stories we see over and over again.’
‘If the book is about anything, it is about how you deal in your life with the fact that there are some things that are extraordinarily important that we will never know that truth no matter how hard you work,’ he said.
He added: ‘My sister’s story is getting out there to the world. I am really proud of that.’
Eileen’s last name was changed in the book and her husband was referred to by a pseudonym.
