On December 1, 1988, 27-year-old African American male Jeren Beeks was fatally shot while working as an unarmed security guard at Universal Studios in Universal City, California. Beeks was stationed at the main gate alongside fellow guard Armando Torres, 18, when the assailant, later identified as 43-year-old Nathan Nicholas Trupp, approached the guard shack. Trupp had earlier asked to use the studio’s phone to contact actor Michael Landon, whom he was reportedly stalking.
After being denied access and told to use a public phone, Trupp returned and opened fire on both guards, shooting them in the head. Beeks died at the scene, while Torres succumbed to his injuries the following day.
Trupp, a white male with a documented history of mental illness, had been released from a psychiatric hospital in New Jersey earlier that year. He was reportedly delusional and believed he was on a “mission from God.” Just two days prior to the Universal Studios shooting, Trupp had allegedly murdered three individuals—Richard Wilt, 39; his wife Jeanne, 37; and her father Joseph Famiglietta, 63—at a bagel shop in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Witnesses and cab drivers later identified Trupp as the man who had purchased a. 38-caliber revolver and practiced shooting in the days leading up to the killings.
Law enforcement agencies in Albuquerque had received tips about Trupp’s suspicious behavior and mental instability, including his purchase of the firearm and erratic conduct. Despite this, Trupp managed to evade capture and boarded a Greyhound bus to Los Angeles on November 30, arriving the next day. After the Universal Studios shooting, Trupp was wounded in a gun battle with a sheriff’s deputy and taken into custody.
Trupp was later charged with multiple counts of murder. However, due to his mental health history and psychiatric evaluations, he was found not guilty by reason of insanity and committed to a state mental hospital in May 1990. Prosecutors accepted the plea agreement, citing the unanimous findings of three court-appointed psychiatrists that Trupp was legally insane at the time of the killings. Family members of the victims expressed mixed emotions but hoped Trupp would remain confined for life.
