A prominent South Bay bail bondsmen, who worked as a private investigator for a Lomita woman suspected of killing both of her husbands, was found shot to death in his apartment early Friday, police and friends said.
Police said it appeared that Henry Hoskins, 70, the former president of the Gardena Valley Chamber of Commerce, committed suicide. Investigators were waiting for the results of a pending autopsy.
Friends, however, said they did not believe Hoskins took his own life. He ate pastrami sandwiches for lunch with an 85-year-old friend on Thursday, and had told other friends he had planned to go into business selling medical marijuana.
"I don't believe it's a suicide because he talked to me last night and he was in good spirits," said Pat Daniels, his business partner at Henry Hoskins Bail Bonds. "He was fine. He was just like everybody else. Business has been slow, but that's about it."
Police received an emergency call about 1:30 a.m. from a woman screaming hysterically from Hoskins' apartment above his bail bonds office at 16501 S. Western Ave.
Officers found Hoskins unresponsive and not breathing. Firefighters pronounced him dead at the scene.
The coroner's office said police reported the death as a "suicide/GSW," or gunshot wound.
"All the things we have right now are pointing to him committing suicide, Gardena police Lt. Uikilifi Niko said.
Friends said the woman who found him was his
22-year-old girlfriend.
Hoskins served for two years as president of the chamber. Immediately after taking office, he fired executive director Karen Hale, who he discovered had embezzled $35,000 from the chamber.
"She said, `There's not room here for both of us, one of us has to go,"' Hoskins said on March 27, when jurors found Hale guilty of grand theft and forgery. "I said, `Guess which one's going?' She said, `Me.' I said, `You're right.' That's the last thing I said to her."
Hale was sentenced to five years and eight months in prison.
Besides his bail bonds and chamber work, Hoskins also worked as a private investigator. On April 25, 2006, he became a player in the one of the South Bay's most interesting murder mysteries.
Sonia Rios Risken, 60, hired Hoskins to protect her as a Daily Breeze reporter investigated her possible involvement in the slaying of her two husbands 19 years apart.
After Risken agreed to an interview inside her Lomita beauty salon, Hoskins instead intercepted the reporter, telling him, "There will be no interview."
Hoskins took the reporter outside the business, but suddenly stuck out his hand and said, "I'm Henry Hoskins!"
Hoskins said he knew the reporter and intended no harm.
"I was only there as a friend and a private investigator," Hoskins said in a CBS News "48 Hours Mystery" show that aired in February and is set to rerun on Aug. 1. "She said she was getting a lot of harassing phone calls. Complained about her phone being tapped, complained about people watching her."
"He played like he was a bad guy and he said he was a PI acting on her behalf," Daniels said.
A year later, Hoskins, who had dated Risken in his past, was shocked when he learned that the woman who became known as the "Lomita Black Widow" had been shot in the head and killed inside her home.
Risken's nephew and a friend were arrested in April and charged with killing her.
Daniels said that although Hoskins dealt with criminals posting bail, he never had any problems.
Sara Colamonico, owner of Assured Coin & Jewelry, said Hoskins visited her on Wednesday, telling her he was unable to attend that night's chamber board installation. He did not give a reason.
She said Hoskins had lost weight during the last eight months.
Anthony Emanuele said he ate lunch with Hoskins on Thursday, including sitting under a shade tree. Hoskins' young girlfriend arrived, they "had a little bit of an argument," and she left.
Gardena Councilman Dan Medina, another friend, said he knew of no problems in his life.
"I didn't know him as being ill," Medina said. "He was constantly 24/7 working. He was an overachiever. In his business, you have to be. The last thing I expected was for him to commit suicide like that."
Hoskins is survived by a daughter in Seattle.
larry.altman@dailybreeze.com
