Police reopen investigation into socialite tobacco heiress Doris Duke who 'killed her designer' in 1966 after paperboy comes forward 55 years later to say he saw her run him over TWICE with her station wagon'

A dead heiress who was once one of the world's wealthiest women is facing a posthumous murder probe after a former paper boy came forward to say he'd seen her deliberately drive over her designer friend in 1966. 

Bob Walker, a 68-year-old Marine Corps veteran, prompted police in Newport, Rhode Island to reopen their probe into the horrific death of Eduardo Tirella. Tirella is believed to have been crushed by Doris Duke with her two ton station wagon after telling her he was leaving to seek fame and fortune on the west coast.

Walker, who was 13 years old at the time of the crash, decided share his account of events with authorities after reading Peter Lance's meticulously researched book 'Homicide at Rough Point', released in February, which investigated Tirella's killing.

His version of events lines up almost exactly with Lance's theory on Duke's alleged crime. She died in 1993.   

According to the former paperboy, he was on his bike delivering The Newport Daily News on October 7, 1966 around 5pm when he heard 'two people obviously arguing and screaming at each other'.

'I initially heard the argument and screaming of two people,' Walker told Lance in a Vanity Fair interview released Thursday.

'And the next thing I heard was the roar of a motor, the crash, the screaming of a man, ever so slight skidding sound and deacceleration of the motor, a pause in the screaming, a man beginning to scream again, the roar of the motor again, the man's scream turning to horror of 'Nooooooo!' and then another crash.' 

When Doris Duke, the fabulously wealthy tobacco and power company heir, ran over and killed a longtime employee Eduardo Tirella at her Newport mansion in 1966, many people never bought the official police report that the death was an 'unfortunate accident'. Tirella, a gay man in his 40s, was one person who was troubled by the treatment he had been subjected to as Duke's artistic director

Doris inherited her father's massive fortune when he died in 1925, also acquiring the Newport estate - known as Rough Point. The heiress was notorious for her tense relationships and horrible treatment of service workers

Tow truck prepares to haul away a station wagon driven by Doris Duke which fatally crashed into Eduardo Tirella

When he came on the scene, he said he saw Duke get out of a car and move her body to block his view. He asked her if she wanted any help and if she wanted him to call police, and he said she screamed at him to leave. 

'She spun around and looked at me. I said, 'Can I help you, ma'am?' And she said,'—screaming and pointing her finger—'You better get the hell out of here!' Walker recalled. 

He said he offered Duke help twice more before she bellowed at him 'Get out of here now!,' leaving him shaken as he left to complete his paper route.

Walker told his father who advised that he never police what he saw that day, warning his son that Duke was a 'rotten person' who 'had some people on her payroll who were very unscrupulous.'    

He previously had only shared his story with close family and, at the time of the incident, had been warned not to talk about it by his dad, who later confessed he feared Walker would end up being killed to silence him.

Walker said he never bought the official account of Tirella's death and went to police last month as a civic duty.   

At the time, Duke told police the fatal crash at her Rough Point estate on Millionaire's Row was an accident, claiming she she had inadvertently hit the gas instead of the brake. Authorities believed her and the case, declared an 'unfortunate accident,' was closed within 96 hours. 

Within months of the incident, Duke began donating large sums of money - equivalent to hundreds of thousands of dollars today - to the City of Newport, Vanity Fair reported.

Police Chief Joseph Radice, who died in 1997, oversaw the probe and retired shortly after the investigation. Others involved with the case were promoted.

Tirella had worked for a decade refurbishing Duke's homes and appraising antiques

'The narrative that was accepted by the cops was not the narrative that I remembered,' Walker said.  

Tirella had worked as a designer for Duke for seven years acting as her companion, planning her gardens, curating her art collection, and decorating her mansions.

On the day of the death, the pair were taking the station wagon to look at an artifact, according to Lance's book. But Duke was allegedly furious at Tirella for telling her that he was leaving her to become a set designer in Hollywood.

Police conducted a brief interview with Duke several days later at which point she informed them that Tirella was driving but had gotten out of the car to open the estate's massive wrought-iron gates, so she got behind the steering wheel to drive through the gates. 

She told police the car suddenly 'leaped forward'; the police report said Tirella was crushed against the gates.

Walker says the next day, when delivering the October 8 issue of  the newspaper, he saw a headline that 'took his breath away'. It read: Doris Duke Kills Friend in Crash.

The paper also featured a two-column photo showing the underside of Duke's smashed Dodge Polara 'from which Tirella's lifeless body had been extracted'.

'I just sat there reading it, stunned,' Walker explained. 'Eduardo Tirella. That was the man I'd heard screaming. Only they got it all wrong. The story said he was 'crushed against the iron gates,' which was a lie. It also said, 'She was admitted to Newport Hospital, suffering from facial cuts and severe shock.' More lies.'

According to his death certificate , Tirella was 'struck by auto while opening iron gates and then dragged under vehicle'

Walker asserts that Duke 'didn’t have a scratch on her face,' noting that had she shown any sign of injury he would have 'been even more insistent on going for help'. 

He also claims that Duke took no initiative to help Tirella and instead 'just froze there looking down, very deliberate...just standing there doing nothing, looking down at the bottom of the car'.

According to Lance, Walker's recollection of events matched that of police investigator who responded to the scene that day and concluded that Duke struck Tirella once, sending him onto the hood of the car, then when he fell off, accelerated again and ran him over. The car ended up careening across the street where it struck a fence and tree.

Officials determined that Tirella was killed instantly. 

Retired detective James Moss, who solved hundreds of murders with Brooklyn South Homicide, offered input to Lance as he investigated Tirella's death. 

In his assessment of the case, Moss told Lance: 'Walker' most impactful revelations come in his detailed account of how Doris Duke behaved in the immediate aftermath of Eduardo Tirella’s death: using her dominating presence to dismiss a young witness to what she knew was an intentional murder. 

'Bob saw her deliberately exit the crashed wagon, uninjured and cold-blooded. For her to then get back in the car, marking herself with bruises and cuts in an attempt to play the victim, is behavior consistent with the acts of a pure psychopath.'

Heiress Doris Duke attends a polo match in Cairo, Egypt in 1950.Peter Lance's book 'Homicide at Rough Point' released earlier this year concluded that Duke literally got away with murder in the death of Eduardo Tirella

The story of the killing at Duke's Rough Point estate has resonated in the seaside tourist mecca for years, according to Lance. 

'This is one of those stories that is still talked about in Newport,' the author and journalist, a city native who got his first reporting job at The Newport Daily News several months after Tirella's death, shared. 'I read a Facebook page for Newport residents and every three or four months someone brings this up.'

However, he notes that this would not be the first time Duke committed a crime and got away with it.

The author asserts that Duke, who was 'a notoriously jealous and possessive woman,' stabbed her common-law husband musician Joseph Armand Castro during a 'booze-and-drug-fueled haze.'

In a previous Vanity Fair report, Lance claimed that Duke was envious of the attention Castro received when he performed and feared the jazz pianist would eventually leave her. The couple often fought and, with time, their spats became more violent.

'Duke had frequent bouts of depression, deepened by alcohol, barbiturates, and Castro’s temper,' Lance wrote. 'And, one night in 1963 at Shangri La, while Doris was playing a jazz piece, Castro supposedly made a crack, so she grabbed a butcher knife and slashed his arm.'

Duke was not charged in the stabbing.

Doris Duke and her attorney Aram Arabian, leave Superior Court in Providence in 1971

However, shortly after the incident, Castro filed three lawsuits against Duke asking for $150,000 in damages. In a suit claiming assault and battery, Castro alleged that she 'attempted to kill him' and left him with a 'large permanent scare' that impacted his ability to work.

Weeks later Castro renounced his litigation after being 'strong-armed by Duke’s attorneys'. 

Duke was born in New York City on November 22, 1912 to James Buchanan Duke, a founder of the American Tobacco Company and Duke Power, and his second wife Nanaline Holt Inman Duke.

Her father died in 1925, leaving his fortune to his daughter and a charitable foundation he established to serve the people of the Carolinas.

Due to her age, Duke received her inheritance in increments, ultimately becoming the 'richest girl in the world' in 1947 when inherited $100million at age 25, ABC News reported.

Throughout her life Duke donated the equivalent of more than $400million in today’s dollars to various charities and philanthropies.

She is credited with the restoration of 83 properties, three of which now operate as museums that are open to the public, including her Rough Point home which features extensive collections of fine and decorative arts and educational programs. 

A photo of the Grand Staircase at Duke's Rough Point home taken in July 2000. The property is located near the end of Bellevue Avenue in Newport, Rhode Island

The October 7, 1966, crash in Newport, Rhode Island, that killed Eduardo Tirella is covered in Peter Lance's new book Homicide at Rough Point'

She passed away in 1993 at 80 years old, leaving behind a nearly $1billion estate. According to ABC News, Duke left nearly all of her fortune to charity.

She reportedly has two surviving heirs, twins Georgia and Walker "Patterson" Inman III, the offspring of Duke's nephew Walker Patterson Inman Jr., who was a heroin addict that overdosed when the twins were two. 

When she died, Duke left Walker Jr. $7million.

His children, who reportedly endured a 'slavelike childhood' that involved being locked in a feces-filled basement, deadbolted in their bedrooms and scalded by boiling baths, allegedly inherited $1billion on their 21st birthday.

In addition to receiving the remainder of Walker Jr.'s estate, the twins inherited money through their grandmother, Duke's mother, and his father, Duke's half-brother. 

DailyMail.com has contacted Newport Police Department and the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation for comments.