- Almost True - Page 273

If we are to believe that Zeigler is guilty, we must believe that Charlie Mays, Felton Thomas, and Edward Williams all ignored the heavy stains and smears of blood on Zeigler's face and clothes.  Zeigler's upper torso was slathered with blood when he stumbled into Robert Thompson and Don Ficke at the door of the store.  Blood was splattered on his face, and was so thick around his torso and his arms that it looked to Thompson "as if it had been uniformly painted on."

And it was dry.  Thompson carried Zeigler over his shoulder, and got only a negligible spot of blood on his white uniform shirt.

The blood on Zeigler was so copious that it was recognizable even on Zeigler's shirt, which was near-vermilion color.  Thompson noticed the blood at once.  It was the most obvious feature of Zeigler's appearance that night.

According to the state's theory, Zeigler met Mays and Thomas in the motel parking lot within minutes after having fought and killed Perry Edwards, who bled heavily from his wounded car during the struggle.  Yet Thomas never mentioned seeing blood on Zeigler, although according to the state's theory he was with Zeigler for twenty minutes or more.  For at least ten minutes, if Thomas's testimony is correct, he sat beside Zeigler in the front seat of Curtis Dunaway's Oldsmobile but never noticed the blood.

Williams twice saw Zeigler in the well-lit garage at 75 Temple Grove, and sat beside him as they drove to the store.  By this time Zeigler had bloodily beaten Mays to death, according to the state's theory.  But Williams did not see the blood.

At one point in the relatively well-lit back compound, Zeigler was supposed to have put his arm around Williams.  Williams finally claimed to notice "spots of blood" speckled on Zeigler's face and clothes as Zeigler pleaded with him.  But Williams never mentioned the heavy bloodstains that would be so obvious to Robert Thompson.1

In short, the testimony by the four principal witness against Zeigler require us to accept improbabilities compounding improbabilities, all of which must be credible if Zeigler is culpable.  But the implicit difficulties in believing Zeigler's guilt don't end there.  Let's look at some of the broader issues that the state's theory addresses only with great awkwardness.

THE MOTIVE

Why would Tommy Zeigler want to kill his wife?  The insurance policies were a classic motive for murder that any jury could comprehend: half a million dollars is a lot of money.

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1   This observation is by Vernon Davids, who says that he realized it only after ten years of studying the record.