Chuckie Mulroney interview

Monday, April 20, 2020 – 3:30 p.m.

Charles Mulroney provided funding for and was the executive producer of Dalton Kimbrough's film.

Detectives Armstrong and Murphy interviewed him at his medical office at 1311 Medical Park Drive in Oxford.

Participants:

• Detective T. Armstrong
• Detective S. Murphy
• Chuckie Mulroney

Detective Murphy: For the record, please state your name, age, address, and occupation.

Chuckie Mulroney: Why, certainly. My name is Charles Mulroney, but everyone has always called me Chuckie. I am 47 years of age. I live at 140 North Mathis, and I am a plastic surgeon here in town.

Detective Murphy: How long have you lived in Oxford?

Chuckie Mulroney: All my life. Was born and raised here.

Detective Murphy: How'd you come to know Mr. Kimbrough?

Chuckie Mulroney: Met him at Downtown Grill, having a cocktail at happy hour one day. He was actually sitting on my stool, drinking my drink.

Detective Armstrong: What was that?

Chuckie Mulroney: Maker's and Coke. So what?

Detective Armstrong: Then what?

Chuckie Mulroney: Somebody made a joke, "Hey, Chuckie, this kid's tryin' to be you." We all had a good laugh. I told him my name and my game, and he told me what he did. I said, "Hey, we both sound like a couple of happenin', ambitious guys. We should work together." And that's when he laid it on me, the whole executive producer bit.

Detective Armstrong: Which was?

Chuckie Mulroney: Well, he said he was making a movie and was looking for investors. I told him how I'd been a lifelong fan of the movies and wanted to help out. I told him I'd spent ten years in Hollywood, and I knew the business backwards, forwards, and doggy style. I had the money too. And that was all he was interested in.

Detective Armstrong: Oh?

Chuckie Mulroney: He said a $20,000 investment was all it would take to get me an executive producer credit. I had some greenbacks stashed in the mattress if you know what I'm sayin', so I figured, what the hell. Hollywood would look good on me again.

Detective Murphy: When was this?

Chuckie Mulroney: Back in the winter. December, I believe.

Detective Murphy: And when did you give him the money?

Chuckie Mulroney: Let's see, this happened on a Friday, and I wrote him a check on the following Monday. I mean business. No pussyfooting around when it comes to a business deal, and he was the same way. That's why I liked him. And plus, I liked his script. I could tell by readin' it, it was gonna knock the socks off the kids. It was loud and mean and sexy. That's what's hot now. I just knew this deal was no-fail.

Detective Armstrong: You gave him all $20,000 in a lump sum?

Chuckie Mulroney: That's right. And to be honest, he got a helluva lot more than $20,000. He sent me one bill after the next, expecting me to shell out on top of all that I'd paid him.

Detective Murphy: What kind of bills?

Chuckie Mulroney: Let's see, he had me hire a farmer or some damn body for one of his actor's chicken farm. There were a couple of rent checks I had to sign for Wechsler, the guy who owned the lodge. He had me buy some general supplies at stores around town, nothing fancy. And I had to keep him in fireworks and liquor.

Detective Armstrong: Did you buy guns for him?

Chuckie Mulroney: What do you mean?

Detective Armstrong: Exactly what I asked. Did you pay for guns? Did you find guns for him?

Chuckie Mulroney: Ha, ha, please… Detective.

Detective Armstrong: Level with me.

Chuckie Mulroney: Okay, I let the guy borrow some guns. What can I say? He's a man after my own heart. He likes to hear that crack… that BOOM!… you know, that report. He walks taller with it holstered around his shoulders.

Detective Armstrong: And I take it you do too?

Chuckie Mulroney: They're my guns! Sure, sure, I do! But I do it in the safety of my own home, and I sure as hell don't go around blowin' off caps in people's faces! C'mon!

Detective Armstrong: Relax, Chuckie. We're not trying to put you away for having guns.

Chuckie Mulroney: Any man with sense would carry a gun.

Detective Armstrong: I've often thought that myself. But then, sometimes you walk into a room and see a man shredded to bits, in the most unnatural state a man can be in, and you suddenly feel like cursing the name of the jerk who first put a spark to gunpowder.

Chuckie Mulroney: Detective, I've got a breast job at 5:00, and I've really been looking forward to it. Will we be done?

Detective Murphy: So you're throwing money at this Kimbrough kid like he's the next Tarantino, and then what? When did you sense a problem with the deal?

Chuckie Mulroney: Well, I was out of town when the movie started filming. A friend and I have a little place in the Caymans. I've had John Grisham stay with me several times. So when I got back to Oxford, I couldn't get anybody to take my calls, and I just drove out to the lodge to see how things were going. Wanted to check out my investment, you understand.

Detective Murphy: Uh-huh. And?

Chuckie Mulroney: And it appeared pretty clear to me that Dalton didn't want me near his precious movie set. He said money and art mixed about as well as blood and oil. I said, "Hell, I wouldn't know I've never mixed the two."

Detective Murphy: What did he say?

Chuckie Mulroney: He said, "Yeah, you have. You're a f****** doctor."

Detective Murphy: Did you two have a conversation when you went in the house?

Chuckie Mulroney: Yeah, I'll tell you. There was a terrible noise coming from the house. It sounded like this primitive chattering. I banged on the door, but no one could hear, I guess. So I walked right in, and it was like a zoo in there. That's what it sounded like.

Detective Murphy: What was going on?

Chuckie Mulroney: The house is built very open, so all the bedrooms were facing the center of the house, and these people were in their rooms just bitching… really yelling up a storm, and their conversations faded into one. I walked around and eventually bumped into Dalton and begged him to make these people shut up. He kept yelling at me, "What are you doing here?" I just couldn't stand the noise. I made him cut the racket out.

Detective Murphy: What did he say?

Chuckie Mulroney: He was asking me to leave, but I said, "Okay, I'll go. Just show me part of the set. I deserve to see what's going since it's my money that's funding it." And he told me why they were screaming — something about getting them into character. And he said he was recording it for the soundtrack. And then he just started going berserk and chased me out by popping off that gun of his. Lucky for him and me both, I didn't have mine on that day.

Detective Armstrong: You'd have used it?

Chuckie Mulroney: Hell, yeah, I think so. I had no idea he was shooting blanks at me. You ever been shot at?

Detective Armstrong: Yeah. Plenty more times than you, I'd venture to say.

Chuckie Mulroney: Then you know what I mean. It's kill or be killed, baby.

Detective Armstrong: All right then. Did you go back to the house after that day?

Chuckie Mulroney: No, I did not. I called Dalton several times. I tried to get him on the phone, but it was only his voicemail. And I know he checked his messages. I sent him emails too.

Detective Armstrong: We have an email here that I believe you sent. Do you recognize it?

Chuckie Mulroney: Yeah, sure.

Detective Armstrong: So tell us, Mulroney, what's all this about?

Chuckie Mulroney: I was just mouthing off, I swear it, Detective. I was just trying to play his game. I should have known better because it only egged him on to think that some guys were gonna come after him and chop his head off. It was a bad joke. But did you hear what the guy did to me? He had the nerve to call me up a few weeks later, after throwing me out and shooting a gun at me, then never returning my phone calls and emails. He called me and demanded an additional $10,000, or else he was going to fire me as executive producer.

Detective Murphy: And what did you say?

Chuckie Mulroney: I said, "You're going to court, you little son of a b****."

Detective Armstrong: Sounds to me like you were desperate to get after his talent.

Chuckie Mulroney: What do you mean?

Detective Armstrong: What about that contract you wanted him to sign.

Chuckie Mulroney: What about it?

Detective Armstrong: You practically wanted him to sign his life away. Did you think he'd be dumb enough to sign it?

Chuckie Mulroney: Maybe I did. It was just for protection. It's standard Hollywood business. I had a friend of mine — an entertainment lawyer in L.A. — draft it up for me. It's standard. I wouldn't have exploited him. I just didn't want him screwing things up for everybody. Sometimes those kids get famous and go off the deep end.

Detective Murphy: How far were you prepared to go to get your money?

Chuckie Mulroney: I had my brother, Barron, who's a lawyer, looking into the case for me, but he was right — the kid had nothing. The only thing I would have gotten out of it is the satisfaction of imagining his 300-pound cellmate making real good friends with him in prison. But he already got his, and it doesn't satisfy me. It stinks.

Detective Armstrong: Are you acquainted with Gwen Carver?

Chuckie Mulroney: I know who she is. I've admired her from afar. Dalton said she was a good girl, but I never went out with her or met up with her.

Detective Armstrong: What about Kayla Mathis?

Chuckie Mulroney: Yeah, she used to come over to the house with Dalton before the movie was shooting.

Detective Armstrong: She said you had encouraged everyone to have group sex once while they were over. It made her quite uncomfortable.

Chuckie Mulroney: Ha! I think she was the one talking that up, not me. I'm too possessive for all of that. You know what I mean?

Detective Armstrong: What about Cheyenne Wyoming?

Chuckie Mulroney: That's a person?

Detective Armstrong: Yes, a woman.

Chuckie Mulroney: No, don't believe I ever met her. She another one of those hot girls Dalton had workin' on the film?

Detective Murphy: You don't have a lot of respect for women, do you, Dr. Mulroney?

Chuckie Mulroney: What? Are you crazy? I love women! Don't know what I'd do without them — professionally or personally.

Detective Murphy: Your criminal history seems to tell a different story.

Chuckie Mulroney: You mean that statutory rape thing? That was all a big misunderstanding like I said all along. If it had been anything substantive, don't you think I would have done some time or something? It was nothing but a couple of overprotective parents who overreacted to a standard medical examination, and that's how it was treated — like nothing.

Detective Murphy: Is that right?

Chuckie Mulroney: Yes, that's right. It's not even worth talking about. Now, Detectives, I've enjoyed our conversation today, but I hope that will suffice. I really need to do some prep work for the procedure. You know where to find me, I trust?

Detective Murphy: We do. And we trust you'll stick close, in case we need to speak with you again.

Chuckie Mulroney: Absolutely.

Interview ended – 4:22 p.m.