Tenacity, Trust Play Role in Saga of Busch Beer Baron

A few days before Christmas, an anonymous caller told a St. Louis Post-Dispatch editor that a young woman had died at the home of August A. Busch IV, the ex-beer baron of Anheuser-Busch.

If true, it was a huge story in the region where the name “Busch” conjured near-royal status. Busch’s grandfather, often referred to as Gussie, had not only steered the big brewery to national dominance, but also owned the St. Louis Cardinals during glory days in the 1960s and 1980s.  On special occasions he would drive into Busch Stadium on a wagon pulled by Clydesdale.

But by 2010 the brewery had been sold to the Belgian brewer InBev. August IV confided later that he was battling depression, one factor in his deciding to leave the InBev board earlier this year.

The woman had died Sunday, Dec. 19, 2010 but it was mid-week before the tip reached the newsroom. The night staff worked it Wednesday, but police weren’t talking.

It wasn’t until Thursday afternoon, Dec. 23, when the St. Louis County medical examiner confirmed enough facts for the newspaper to go online with the first word that Adrienne Nicole Martin, 27, had died at Busch’s mansion.

The event generated national interest. Within hours, all major television networks reported it. And before the story reached its zenith with the release of the prosecutor’s conclusions on Martin’s death, A. G. Sulzberger of the New York Times was dispatched to St. Louis to cover breaking developments.

Throughout it all, the Post-Dispatch remained out front. Nick Pistor, a stringer who joined the newspaper fulltime in 2006, broke the story initially, and then came back Feb. 6 with an exclusive disclosure of the presence of cocaine and oxycodone in the body of the former model and mother of an 8-year-old son.

Pistor got dozens of tips about Martin and Busch. Online comments produced leads as well.

“You spend a lot of time chasing rumors that aren’t true,” Pistor said. “You follow every little lead that you get.”

As developments unfolded, Pistor and reporters from the Associated Press, CNN, Fox, ABC, CBS, NBC and other news organizations sought to interview Busch, who in his college days had wrecked a Corvette in Tucson, killing Michele Frederick, 22. After a lengthy investigation, authorities did not charge Busch.

Busch also got into trouble two years later when police in an unmarked car chased him through the streets of St. Louis, finally stopping his 1985 Mercedes by shooting out a tire. Police had trailed Busch because he was driving suspiciously. Busch said he tried to elude them fearing a kidnapping. Busch was eventually charged with three misdemeanor counts of third-degree assault. After a trial, a jury acquitted August IV.

Nearly all Busch family members loathe interviews. “No comment” has been the watchword with Busch’s father, August A. Busch III. But his son has been somewhat more open, and Deb Peterson, a Post-Dispatch columnist, had managed to talk to him on the record before.

“I think he felt a friendliness to me,” she said. “I’ve never burned him. I’m not a dishonest reporter. I’ve had other experiences with him when I could have made him look bad but I didn’t. I felt he had some trust.”

While the story of Busch’s newest troubles developed, Peterson was on holiday vacation. But the 25-year veteran at the newspaper ended up landing the one and only news interview Busch would give. Excerpts of his remarks were reported around the world.

When Peterson returned to work, Jan. 3, she telephoned Busch, seeking the chance to discuss what had happened. After leaving a message, Peterson did not expect to hear back, but within two hours she got a telephone call: “Hi, Deb, this is Aug.”

For the next 45 minutes, Peterson scribbled notes on
a legal pad.

“To be honest with you, I did not ask him a ton of questions,” she said. “He was clearly eager to talk and so I kind of let him go on and on, and wrote frantically

and tried to be paying very close attention.”

The story that emerged recounted how Busch loved Adrienne Martin and how she had brought him out of depression after In-Bev bought his company in 2008. He said her death was “the saddest thing I’ve ever dealt with.”

Peterson’s story said Busch did not know what caused Martin’s death but that it might have something to do with the medication she was taking. He said Martin’s ex-husband, Dr. Kevin Martin, had told him Adrienne Martin had been taking Trazodone, a sleep medication.

The St. Louis County medical examiner’s office later
found she died of an overdose of oxycodone, a drug for which she had no prescription. St. Louis County Prosecutor Bob McCulloch said on Feb. 10 that Martin also had ingested a lethal dose of cocaine “an hour or so” before she died. He said her death was accidental, and no
criminal charges would be filed.

From the beginning, the story that was reported said the death was being investigated as a possible overdose. Before Peterson’s interview with Busch, there had been no disclosures of what substances were found in Martin’s body.

Peterson said she had no justification for asking Busch any questions about recreational drug use, and she didn’t.

“If you want to continue going back to the source, you are not going to do that,” Peterson said.

When Peterson showed her transcribed notes to her editors, they wanted her to call Busch back and seek answers to two questions. One dealt with an apparent discrepancy between the time Busch discovered that Martin was unresponsive and the time that police were called to his estate. The other focused on something Busch said about being in rehabilitation. Why was he in rehab, the editors wondered?

Although reluctant, Peterson called Busch again and he returned her call a second time. She asked him about the timing issue, and he provided more information in an attempt to clarify.

Busch told Peterson he had been in rehabilitation for depression and “my other issues.” Her story said he did not elaborate.

“I let him talk, and I was looking to hear what he had to say,” she said. “I would not have done it any differently.”

Police got one chance to talk to Busch about Martin’s death, and that was on day her body was discovered. Since then, according to McCulloch, Busch has refused to answer any questions.

Busch’s defense lawyer, Art Margulis, has said the Post-Dispatch interview was a surprise to him, and that he would have advised against it, according to a story in the Missouri Lawyers Weekly. In that account, Margulis said he had gotten mixed reviews on the interview, with some people saying it had helped Busch’s public image.

Peterson believes Busch granted the interview to her on his own, and not as part of some public relations strategy.

Since then, she said, he continues to talk to her but it’s
all off the record.

“Even though he does talk to me, I think he’s much more skittish of me now,” she said.

Bill McClellan, the Post-Dispatch’s talented columnist with an everyman approach, wrote a couple of tough columns on Busch, one likening the family to the reckless French nobility of the “Tale of Two Cities,” and the other comparing Busch to characters in “The Great Gatsby.”

In March, Kevin Martin filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Busch alleging he was negligent in Adrienne Martin’s death. The suit seeks damages for their son, Blake Alexander Martin.

Pistor said the Post-Dispatch and the AP are the only news organizations still following these developments, which are taking place in a courtroom in Cape Girardeau.

Terry Ganey was Jefferson City correspondent for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch for more than three decades until 2005.  In 1992 he and another Post-Dispatch reporter, Peter Hernon, wrote a best-selling book on the Busch family titled “Under the Influence.”  Ganey’s website, http://www.terryganey.com/ says the book “spins a dramatic and startling story of a corporate monarchy that cut a wide and ruthless swath through society in the pursuit of power and profits.”