Late Driver Had A Fatal Attraction Richmond, Who Was Killed By Aids, May Have Infected Dozens Of Women

Auto racing star Tim Richmond infected numerous women with the AIDS virus before his death in 1989, the Miami Herald reported Sunday.

LaGena Lookabill Greene, Richmond’s former fiancee, went public last year that she was dying of AIDS and said she was infected by Richmond. Greene, a former model who lives in Charlotte, N.C., said she has been contacted by women who say they also were infected by Richmond.

“From those calls alone - only counting the ones from Charlotte - I could have started a support group of women exposed to HIV from Tim,” Greene was quoted as saying.

“There would be about 30 in that support group. They told me they were exposed, that they had had sex with Tim and they were worried.”

The Herald reported that at least two former partners of Richmond are in seclusion on the East Coast, dying of AIDS. The Herald said another woman, Debbie Putman, had an encounter with Richmond and died four years ago.

Richmond’s infectious-disease specialist, Dr. David Dodson, was unsure when the race car driver was infected.

“Perhaps in the late ‘70s,” Dodson said, adding that he had been contacted by possible former sexual partners of the former stock-car racing star.

“I did receive several calls from women around the country,” he said.

Richmond was diagnosed with AIDS in December 1986, according to his family. Greene says he infected her Sept. 10 of that year in a New York hotel.

She believes that Richmond knew he had the virus when they made love after his marriage proposal.

“I grieved his death,” she said, “even though he knowingly planted his seed of death inside me.”

Putman’s obituary did not disclose a cause of death, but The Herald reported she confided to her grandmother Julia Stafford: “Do you remember me telling you about going to a party at Tim’s? That’s where I must have gotten AIDS, because we were together.”