He had another steam engine that was good enough. All that disappeared at the scene., Since Ford had bought a previous steam engine for many millions and shelved it, whose "turn" was it then to avoid circumventing their pals who sell gasoline?

I know not exactly the same, but my father died a long time ago (late 1980s) and he was far from a Liberal as he distrusted big government, but he equally distrusted big business. He was an electrical engineer, and he felt like the ability to get car fuel efficiency should have been way better. He said when someone figures it out, that person will either be paid off or killed. I was baffled and questioned him, he said when that happens the amount of money lost to the oil companies would be staggering, so much so that murder becomes justifiable to people like that.

that some corporations hire economic hit men........a theory I first heard about carburetors in the 60's.....if they can't convince with cadres of lobbyists and bribes they will get desperate. Sad.

Always comes down to money, personal or crazy. My money, is on money, with this one. Someone wanted to get paid, or wasn't getting paid, or wasn't getting what they felt paid for. YMMV

there r lists out there, ppl.

I saw a claim that that was a rumor started on a conservative Substack and that there has been no verification of it. Curious to see your sourcing.

motive none the less.

I hope Investigators Do find our who did this and Why?

...form of energy for decades, if ever.

Nobody really knows how to convert 14 MeV neutrons into exergy (usable energy) even if they can make said neutrons reliably.

I don't oppose fusion research, as there are important spinoffs from plasma science, but the expectations for commercial applications as an energy device have decades of hype to support them and no results.

For now the best and cleanest form of energy is nuclear fission, but much to the happiness of the fossil fuel industry it has been demonized, largely by people incompetent to understand it.