Art Billings was the cream of the crop body man and he was magic in repairing damaged cars. He was a genius at painting custom colors. Candy Apple Red was one of his specialties.
I owned at the time in 1957 an almost new 56 Chevy. I asked Billings to remove the airplane off the hood, flatten the area to make it seem factory done and like magic he did it. My car was red and white. I wanted it just red and Art did that like Magic too. No ripples in the enamel paint. Then a lot of new cars had enamel and later they were painted using lacquer.
Later I bought a Lincoln Continental MK 4. Some jerk hit the left rear tail panel and dented it. I asked Art Billings to fix it, make sure it was perfect all over and paint it a custom color. And he did it so well.
I am getting to his story. Art ran A gas at the Drags and did pretty well. At times we would go in the same car to the drags. So we were pretty good friends.
The story ended much later this way.
UPI Archives
Jan. 20, 1987
HAYWARD, Calif. -- An auto body shop owner and two adult sons, troubled by heavy drug use, debts and legal problems, climbed into a black Lincoln Continental and committed suicide together, police said.
Arthur H. Billings Sr., 54, his sons, Arthur Jr., 31, and Frank, 27, piped carbon-monoxide from the car's exhaust into the vehicle, then taped the opening around the pipe from the inside, Detective Lloyd Meyers said Tuesday.
Their bodies were found just before 10 p.m. Sunday inside the car parked in Art's Custom Body Shop by the elder Billings' girlfriend, whom police identified as Audrey Moreira.
The three were deeply in debt and had 'so many problems,' Moreira told investigators.
In addition, the Billings sons were despondent over their father's use of the drug crack and alcohol, his upcoming trial on auto-theft charges and their own use of PCP, Meyers said.
The sons had unsuccessfully tried to take their own lives in other incidents before they joined their father in the triple suicide, the detective said. Arthur Billings Jr. shot himself in the chest about a month and a half ago and he and his brother ate rat poison last week, Meyers said.
'It's strange,' Meyers said. 'You'd think that with three adults, one of them would have tried to bail out' of the suicide. But there were no signs of struggle, no suicide note and no indications of violence, he said.
The elder Billings was free on $10,000 bail on auto-theft charges and he also faced unrelated drug charges, police said.
A tearful Ann Billings, who had been separated from Arthur Sr. for more than two years, said she had met with him Friday to discuss the divorce and they parted as friends.
She said his two sons from a previous marriage had been very close to their father. The sons lived in a loft above the auto shop. Their father had taught them the auto-body business and they had worked in the Hayward area for many years, she said.
I owned at the time in 1957 an almost new 56 Chevy. I asked Billings to remove the airplane off the hood, flatten the area to make it seem factory done and like magic he did it. My car was red and white. I wanted it just red and Art did that like Magic too. No ripples in the enamel paint. Then a lot of new cars had enamel and later they were painted using lacquer.
Later I bought a Lincoln Continental MK 4. Some jerk hit the left rear tail panel and dented it. I asked Art Billings to fix it, make sure it was perfect all over and paint it a custom color. And he did it so well.
I am getting to his story. Art ran A gas at the Drags and did pretty well. At times we would go in the same car to the drags. So we were pretty good friends.
The story ended much later this way.
UPI Archives
Jan. 20, 1987
Father, two sons in triple suicide
HAYWARD, Calif. -- An auto body shop owner and two adult sons, troubled by heavy drug use, debts and legal problems, climbed into a black Lincoln Continental and committed suicide together, police said.
Arthur H. Billings Sr., 54, his sons, Arthur Jr., 31, and Frank, 27, piped carbon-monoxide from the car's exhaust into the vehicle, then taped the opening around the pipe from the inside, Detective Lloyd Meyers said Tuesday.
Their bodies were found just before 10 p.m. Sunday inside the car parked in Art's Custom Body Shop by the elder Billings' girlfriend, whom police identified as Audrey Moreira.
The three were deeply in debt and had 'so many problems,' Moreira told investigators.
In addition, the Billings sons were despondent over their father's use of the drug crack and alcohol, his upcoming trial on auto-theft charges and their own use of PCP, Meyers said.
The sons had unsuccessfully tried to take their own lives in other incidents before they joined their father in the triple suicide, the detective said. Arthur Billings Jr. shot himself in the chest about a month and a half ago and he and his brother ate rat poison last week, Meyers said.
'It's strange,' Meyers said. 'You'd think that with three adults, one of them would have tried to bail out' of the suicide. But there were no signs of struggle, no suicide note and no indications of violence, he said.
The elder Billings was free on $10,000 bail on auto-theft charges and he also faced unrelated drug charges, police said.
A tearful Ann Billings, who had been separated from Arthur Sr. for more than two years, said she had met with him Friday to discuss the divorce and they parted as friends.
She said his two sons from a previous marriage had been very close to their father. The sons lived in a loft above the auto shop. Their father had taught them the auto-body business and they had worked in the Hayward area for many years, she said.
