Plan B Forum

MONTE SERENO, Calif. — Thomas Kinkade’s paramour is accused of threatening to release damaging information about the painter’s family and businesses on the morning of his alcohol-fueled death, according to court documents obtained by The Daily.

Amy Pinto, 48, had been living in Kinkade’s storybook mansion here since at least January 2011, roughly nine months after the artist had separated from his wife of 30 years.

Kinkade, 54, died April 6 after apparently “drinking all night,” according to a recording of a fire department dispatcher. An autopsy was conducted April 9, but a determination of the cause of death awaits the results of toxicology tests.

Pinto, who did not respond to The Daily’s requests for comment, was described by a local reporter as “in tears.”

But a complaint filed against Pinto in Santa Clara County Civil Court three days after his death paints a different picture of her state of mind.

Pinto showed a family friend, Linda Raasch, a trove of personal photographs, papers and memorabilia on the morning of Kinkade’s death, then refused to return them and threatened to release them even though Raasch warned it would hurt the family, according to the civil complaint.

And Kinkade bodyguard Dean Murray claimed he heard Pinto disparaging Kinkade’s wife and daughters on several occasions and that she was “gathering evidence” to “tear down” the family and its businesses, the complaint states.

“It could only be for her gain,” Raasch told The Daily. “One who truly loves someone would not have that in the forefront of their mind on the day their loved one dies.”

Raasch, the godmother of the Kinkades’ four daughters, would not disclose exactly what the family is afraid of.

But the complaint states Pinto has already released private information to the news media. She has been quoted as saying Kinkade died in his sleep, had heart issues, had been living with her for the past 18 months and loved her. Kinkade paid Pinto’s insurance, credit card bills and other expenses, according to the complaint.

Although not a secret, Kinkade’s separation from his wife, Nanette, went largely unpublicized until his death.

Kinkade built the world’s most profitable art empire, selling his idyllic scenes to buyers inspired by their messages of family and faith. He hid the letter “N” in each painting as a profession of love for Nanette and chronicled his family life in a quarterly magazine for collectors. He even named four model homes in a Kinkade-themed subdivision after each of his four daughters — Merritt, Chandler, Windsor and Everett.

“I think Thom honestly believed all of the things he was talking about, as kind of the meaning behind his paintings,” said Craig Fleming, the former chief executive and president of the Thomas Kinkade Co., one of Kinkade’s businesses.

But his public persona belied a troubled personal life that spiraled in 2010 with the separation, a drunken driving arrest and bankruptcy.

“That is not a message that Thom would have ever wanted to get out amongst his collectors,” Fleming said. “He was a very proud ... I think it probably would hurt the business if [Pinto] was saying those things.”

The complaint was filed on behalf of Kinkade’s parent company, Windermere Holdings, and Nanette, trustee of the Kinkade Family Trust, which owns the Kinkade companies and possibly more than 1,000 of his original paintings.

Pinto will not be served for “private reasons,” a spokeswoman for the trust said.
 
The complaint seeks an unspecified amount in damages and an order barring Pinto from talking and forcing her to return any items covered in a confidentiality agreement she signed in February 2011, shortly after she had moved in with Kinkade.

The complaint also claims she has business information and implied she might be working with others. Raasch said she was “appalled, shocked” at Pinto’s threat on the morning of the artist’s death. “It’s a true statement of her character.”

Nanette Kinkade and three daughters had traveled to Australia to visit the fourth daughter the evening before the painter’s death and were scheduled to stay until April 14, according to the couple’s separation papers.

Pinto has two daughters from a previous marriage — one in college and the other living with her ex-husband, Russell Walsh.

She graduated from the University of South Carolina-Columbia and worked as an electrical engineer, but mostly stayed home during their marriage, Walsh told The Daily. She returned to work full-time around the time of their divorce in 2007, but stopped working once she met Kinkade, Walsh said.

“I think she would have been happy not working,” he said.

Walsh described Pinto as a “very smart woman” born in India and raised in Kuwait, who graduated valedictorian from her high school and was involved with her church.

But he said Pinto’s values and lifestyle changed during a mid-life crisis — around her 40th birthday — and she even appeared on the plastic surgery reality TV show “Dr. 90210” to get breast implants.

In court papers, Walsh claims that after Pinto moved in with Kinkade, their youngest daughter — 16 at the time — had “little interest in having overnights with her mother anymore” because of Pinto’s lifestyle and spent only six nights with her in a five-month period.

When The Daily visited the Kinkade house on Friday, a security guard said Pinto and her daughter were inside, but didn’t want to be bothered.

Raasch said she “would imagine” the Kinkade family would be concerned that Pinto was still inside the home, given that she was purportedly gathering evidence to harm them.

— Additional reporting by Kamala Kelkar and Noreen O'Donnell
@missryley

Amy Pinto, 48, had been living in Kinkade’s storybook mansion here since at least January 2011, roughly nine months after the artist had separated from his wife of 30 years.

Kinkade, 54,

Sue U wrote:Does anyone now doubt that what Picasso, Braque and Cezanne created was "art"? Does anyone now doubt that De Kooning, Kilne, Motherwell, Frankenthaler and Rothko were artists? Does anyone now doubt that Duchamp, Ernst, Dali, Ray, Miro, Magritte and Tanguy were visionaries?

I swear, you people would have been sitting around Lascaux saying, "Well, it doesn't look like a horse to me!"