Earlier in the week Thomas Kinkade’s girlfriend Amy Pinto claimed that the artist died peacefully in his sleep but new evidence has surfaced that might reveal an alcohol related death.
Rescue workers raced to Thomas Kinkade’s home in California after they received a call about a 54-year-0ld man who was unconscious after “drinking all night.”
According to the The Daily a dispatcher in Santa Clara County can be heard telling officials:
“54-year-old male, unconscious, not breathing. Apparently he has been drinking all night and not moving … CPR in progress.”
Pinto had previously told the San Jose Mercury News that Kinkade had, “died in his sleep, very happy, in the house he built, with the paintings he loved, and the woman he loved.”
Bouts of drinking were nothing new for the painter who earned more than $100 million over his lifetime but had recently fallen into bankruptcy. Two years ago Kinkade spent 10 days in jail for drunk driving.
While Pinto claims Kinkade was happy Los Gatos police have confirmed that they responded to “a couple” of calls to the couple’s shared Monte Sereno home, calls that neighbor Edward Bowen says occurred after the couple had “nasty fights” with one another.
At the time of his death the artist had left behind hundreds of unreleased paintings, sketches and writings.
In the meantime the Kinkade Company has not decided how it will go about releasing the late artists unrevealed works but however that reveal occurs $9 million in proceeds from any Kinkade sales will go into paying off the artists’ massive debt.
