[2] Sinclair lost his father at a young age, leaving his mother to support the family by operating a coin laundry and taking in ironing.
On July 31, 1990, Charles Sparboe (60), the owner of a Billings, Montana, coin shop, was killed along with his assistant Catharine Newstrom (47),[2] with a .22 caliber handgun.
[2] Similar to the other killings, Sinclair had lingered around the shop, making himself accustomed and known to the owners by representing himself as a farmer from a town close by.
[2] However, he failed to act in time leading to his returning to the shop to find his father and assistant Newstrom dead.
Robert and Dagmar Linton were a working-class couple from the city of Lodi, located in San Joaquin County, California.
In one instance, a large, bearded white man with a bandaged right hand was seen using the Lintons’ credit cards to purchase a clarinet.
On August 16, 1990, police officers in Alaska arrested Charles Thurman Sinclair for the potential connection to at least eight murders.
[4] The police officers raided his storage shed finding: piles of maps, instruments used for creating false identifications, Claymore land mines, C-4 explosives, and valuable coins.
[4] There were many crimes that were linked to the Coin Shop Killer based upon victim characteristics (coin/antique dealers) and the manner of death (gunshot wounds to the head): Pete Piccini, investigator of the Linton case, suspected Sinclair of the November 24, 1989 rape and murder of Amanda Stavik.
[7] On August 16, 1990, Sinclair was arrested near his home in Kenny Lake, Alaska after being tracked down by investigators following the trail of bodies left across multiple states.
Montana authorities charged Sinclair with the murders of Charles Sparboe and Catharine Newstrom and requested his extradition to stand trial.
Utah authorities added charges of attempted criminal homicide and aggravated robbery for the attack on Kelly Finnegan at Legacy Rare Coins.