We spoke to Carole, the late Hal Guthu's business partner, and the C, in Guthu's modeling agency, CHN International. Police have determined that Guthu, who learned that he had spine cancer, committed suicide. Carole is not totally convinced that Guthu took his life.
G. Ross: "I met Hal on several occasions and everybody just seems to be blown away by what happened to him or why he did this.
Carole: "Absolutely. It was very out of character. Hal was consistently consistent in everything that he did. And there's so many loose ends. But there's an absolute possibility that, yes, this is suicide, but some of the patterns don't fit...I'm not going to speculate. There's so much spin going on to this...to the Russian mafia, deals gone bad which absolutely make no sense. I know that they live and carry on business in that area. There was also another story about the massage parlor across the street. Hal was very good to his models. If they asked him about working somewhere and he knew it was a bad place, the only he would do is say, 'I wouldn't go there.' He certainly wouldn't confront someone on that level or that nature.
"If somebody wanted his business, they would have taken him out, shot him elsewhere and had a phony bill of sale. They wouldn't have burned down the very thing that they wanted."
G. Ross: "The other alternative seemed so plausible, that he had a health condition and decided to end it, taking the easy way out."
Carole: "Hal was very vain. He dyed his hair. He kept his weight down. His clothes were always meticulous. I could not imagine that he would physically damage himself, so that anyone that saw him would see him in a non perfect state. From that standpoint, that doesn't make sense to me. He did not like guns. In the 35 years that I've known him, I never knew him to own a gun other than props. He didn't like smoke. He hated smokers. He hated the smell of smoke, so the only thing I can think of, the final conclusion, that he did do this, it was in despair and he wasn't thinking in his normal stream of thinking. In fact he would never let anyone smoke around him. And he never let anyone drive his car. I drove his car years ago when he and I were together. But his car would not be out of that parking lot. That's one of the things they can't figure out. [Guthu's car was discovered parked several blocks from his studio.]
"I was referred to his studio by a friend for head shots. I was a commercial model. I tried to get into the commercial field for print. And we just became friends. He were together as a couple for four years. It was very amicable. We stayed friends. He was kind of like uncle Hal to my son and daughter. In fact my son had an appointment with him Monday to go over some lighting because my son's a photographer."
G. Ross: "Hal didn't give a hint that something was wrong?"
Carole: "His ego was such that he would not let anyone think of him as weak. He had been in pain all his life. He never complained. He never said much about it, though I know he had headaches over the last several years because of this spine problem. But this started seven years ago. I was living in San Luis at the time and he brought Max [Guthu's parrot] to me. He wanted to take care of him until he found out whether or not it was a terminal thing seven years ago. He got with his doctor who was giving him some kind of treatment. He came back, got Max. We had a conversation about six months ago whether, again, I'd like to take Max....and I spoke to him a couple of weeks ago. We talked back and forth on the phone."
G. Ross: "Was Hal living with you on the Edgar Rice Burroughs estate?"
Carole: "That's not true. We did not live there....nobody knows those details. I'm like Hal. I'm a very private person. Number one, Hal did not tell anyone where he lived. When we lived together, we did not have a phone, because when he left the business, that was it. There was no more business for the day. All his business was done during business hours."
G. Ross: "You would have thought in this world of cell phones, he would have relinquished that rule."
Carole: "He didn't have one. At least not that I ever saw. Every once in awhile we'd go on junkets for props and things. We'd go for a day to San Francisco or down to San Diego. The last time we did that was a year and a half ago. Then he decided that he didn't need any more props. Then I was just coming to visit him at the studio."
G. Ross: "When did you become a business partner?"
Carole: "In 1966. Then when I left everything reverted to him...I left probably 69 or 70...I moved on, back to New York and started another life. I didn't do any layouts. He taught me portrait. Mostly we went out to the desert and shot a lot of stock shots. We did a lot of slides and stock shots.
G. Ross: "Did you pursue a career as a photographer?"
Carole: "No...but my son, who wants to become a director and videographer, is a good cameraman. About three years ago Hal game him a bunch of still equipment - lights, tripods and cameras. Our relationship was very removed from the business. It was personal. Hal's probably furious right now if he knew that all this din and speculation was going on about who he was."
G. Ross: "He was a legendary name."
Carole: "I don't know that he looked at himself that way. He had an ego that was healthy when it came to personal maintenance but took the business with a grain of salt. He was very respectful of all his models. He didn't date them. He did not allow anyone to wine and dine him. Business was business. He was very matter-of-fact about it."
G. Ross: "How did the news strike you?"
Carole: "When I first heard about it, it was on Fox 11 News. I missed the first part of the story but when I saw they were dusting the car, I knew it was Hal's. Then when they showed the front of the building, obviously I knew. We got in contact with Fox and did some of our investigating. We started corresponding with detectives."
Carole says she's making plans for a memorial. "His sister and I will be determining when and where," she said. An announcement will be made on this site. Carole's e-mail is
