The murder of Vincent Vehar
Evanston, Uinta County, Wyoming · 1977
Overview
Vincent Vehar, 67, an Evanston, Wyoming lawyer, his wife Beverly, 51, and their son John, 18, were killed at about 3:35 a.m. on August 7, 1977, when thirty sticks of dynamite thrown through a basement window destroyed their home. Their older son survived. Vehar was suing Mark Hopkinson, a trailer-park developer, on behalf of a sewer district over unpaid hookup fees and threats, and was due to depose him two days later. The case broke in 1978 and 1979 when two young men in Hopkinson's circle talked: Jeff Green, a carpenter who testified that Hopkinson had tried to hire a killer for Vehar, and Mike Hickey, who confessed to a grand jury that he had thrown the bomb on Hopkinson's orders. Green was tortured and shot in May 1979, two days before the grand jury opened, while Hopkinson was in a federal prison in California; prosecutors proved through telephone records and money transfers that he had arranged it. In September 1979 a jury in Jackson convicted Hopkinson of all four murders. He received three life terms for the Vehars and death for Green, and was executed on January 22, 1992, Wyoming's first execution since 1965 and still its last. Nobody has been charged with killing Green.
How it was solved
No forensic breakthrough solved the bombing; two witnesses did. Hopkinson had twice tried to have Vehar killed before the bombing: he paid a man $600 in December 1976 to shoot him, and the man backed out, and he pressed Jeff Green and Mike Hickey for ideas. In April 1977 Green was caught in Utah with a bomb in Hopkinson's car, bound for a lawyer in Arizona. Hopkinson then offered Hickey $2,000, expenses and help covering up a fifteen-year-old girl Hickey had killed in 1976 if he would kill Vehar or the sewer board's president; on the night of August 6 he ordered the bombing, and a very drunk Hickey carried it out. The unraveling began when the girl's body was found and Hickey was charged; Hopkinson had Hickey, Green and himself blame another man, but at that man's trial in July 1978 Green told the truth, implicating Hickey in the girl's death and describing Hopkinson's hatred of Vehar and his attempt to hire a killer. A grand jury was convened with Gerry Spence as special prosecutor. In March 1979 Hopkinson was convicted in federal court over the Arizona bomb and sent to Lompoc, where the Wyoming Supreme Court found he used the telephone to arrange Green's murder: dozens of calls to a Salt Lake City associate, a photograph of Green mailed at his request, money moving through a friend's bank account, and daily calls asking where Green was. Green was abducted on May 18, 1979, and found tortured and shot on May 20, two days before the grand jury opened. Called before that grand jury, Hickey confessed to both the girl's murder and the bombing; he pleaded guilty to second-degree murder for the girl, received twenty years and witness protection, and was given immunity for the bombing in exchange for testifying. Hopkinson refused a plea offer of life for the bombing, presented no defense at his September 1979 trial in Jackson, and was convicted on all counts. The Wyoming Supreme Court affirmed the convictions in 1981 and ordered a new penalty hearing on the Green count; a second jury imposed death in 1983, and federal appeals failed. He was executed in 1992. Green's killers were never identified.
Sources
- Hopkinson v. State, 632 P.2d 79 (Wyo. 1981), full text
“The facts of this case present one of the most bizarre stories in the judicial history of the State of Wyoming.”
- Malevolence, Manipulation and Murder: The Mark Hopkinson Trials (October 2022)
“In the early morning hours of August 7, 1977, an intoxicated Hickey dropped a 30-stick dynamite bomb through an open window of the Vehar home.”
- Of murder and moving on (May 1, 2011)
“Authorities would later prove Hopkinson, from a federal prison in California, orchestrated Green's murder through telephone calls. No one has ever been charged with the actual murder.”
- Hopkinson Is Put To Death In Wyoming (January 22, 1992)
“Hopkinson then exhaled slightly and closed his eyes. There were no further signs of life. It was 12:57 a.m.”
- If Killer Had Pleaded Guilty, His Life Would've Been Spared (January 22, 1992)
“He rolled the dice on that one. And he lost.”
- Condemned Man's Kin Say His Trial Was A Joke (September 23, 1990)
“He got a fair trial in the context of what Wyoming thinks is a fair trial.”
- Wyoming Hasn't Executed Anyone In 33 Years, But It's Tried (May 10, 2025)
“Not even the rigid constraints of federal prison had kept Hopkinson from having Green killed. That was Sullivan's chief consideration.”
- USA (Wyoming): Mark Hopkinson, AMR 51/14/92 (January 22, 1992)
“This is the first execution to be carried out in Wyoming for 26 years.”
- Obituary, Vincent Anthony Vehar Jr., 1950 to 2015
“In lieu of flowers, please send donations to the Uinta County Library Foundation.”
- Mark Hopkinson
“Read for leads only.”