Larry Bethea - Personal Life

Personal Life

Bethea was rumored to have a drug abuse problem dating back to his college days, and cocaine addiction was blamed for the problems he had during his adult life.

His troubles with the law began in 1985 when he pleaded guilty to setting three fires in Mount Rainer National Park in Paradise Washington. He was ordered to pay $1,000 dollars to the park to cover the cost of fighting the fires.

In 1986, he was jailed on charges of assaulting his wife and stealing his mother's life savings of $64,000 dollars. In 1987, he was given a suspended four-year prison term for stealing. The judge also ordered Bethea to serve two years on probation while repaying the money.

In the final incident, on April 24, 1987, police were called by an unidentified source who said the former football player had robbed two convenience stores. Bethea, 30, was later found in a friend's backyard with a self-inflicted gunshot wound to his right temple and a .38-caliber automatic pistol near his body. He was taken to Hampton General Hospital, where he was pronounced dead at 2:08 a.m. The gun used in the shooting and the two robberies was believed to be a weapon that was reported stolen from a parked vehicle in the city.