Obsessive Fan Shoots Playboy Playmate’s Husband In Murder-Suicide

A California man who became obsessed with a former Playboy centerfold traveled to Ohio and fatally shot the woman’s husband before turning the gun on himself.

On Oct. 29, 1991, James Arthur was outside a building in Bellefontaine he co-owned with his wife Stacy Arthur, who was Mrs. Ohio in 1990 and Playboy’s Playmate of the month in January 1991.

Glendale Zell, an architect renting office space in the building, said other tenants recalled James Lindberg, 32, had shown up earlier and “was very impatient to see Jim” and “was getting upset,” the Associated Press reported.

The tenants thought Lindberg appeared to be “high on dope” or suffering mental health issues, Zell said.

When the shooting occurred, Jim reportedly was at his van and attempting to leave when Lindberg approached him.

Two witnesses said they heard four gunshots, saw Lindberg run to a nearby city parking lot and then heard a fifth shot ring out.

Lindberg “shot him first in the face, then in the hand,” Stacy said of the attack on her husband. “As Jim tried to run, he shot him twice in the back.”

Lindberg was found with an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head. He died later that evening.

Zell said the building’s tenants recalled Lindberg, of Woodland, California, had shown up at the building on a previous occasion and “said something about wanting to photograph [Stacy Arthur] in Toledo.”

The victim’s wife noted she and the suspect had been in contact numerous times prior to the deadly incident via Playboy magazine’s 900 telephone line, which allowed fans to speak with Playmates for $3 a minute.

“He asked me questions,” she said, UPI reported. “He sent me gifts, stuffed animals, balloons for my children. He always gave his best to [my husband] Jim. He was a very dedicated fan. He loved Playboy.”

The day before the shooting, Stacy said her husband met with Lindberg, who gave him a gift meant for her. Jim told Lindberg he could see his wife in person when she appeared at a Toledo auto show meet-and-greet that weekend.

“We were a team,” Stacy, now 54, said of her husband after the murder, according to UPI. “We were inseparable. He was the wind beneath my wings.”

For more on this case, stream The Playboy Murders: "All That Glitters" on Max.