The investigation of the murders should address the following questions and should consider the setting as described below. Also see the list of unresolved issues.

1) Can Tommy Zeigler be guilty when the judge who sentenced him to death ( Maurice Paul)  had a personal confrontation with Zeigler just four months before the murders? They were opposing character witnesses in the Andrew James trial which led to the burning of the house of James' accuser.

2) What was the relationship between Judge Paul and Andrew James' accuser, Herbert Baker?

3) Was Maurince Paul in a position to influence the outcome of Zeigler's appeals after he became a Federal District Judge? 

4) Can Tommy Zeigler be guilty and the blood on his through and through gun shot wound to the abdomen have been dry when the police arrived just minutes after he called them? The jury was told by policeman Robert Thompson that it was wet contrary to what his written report said. (That report was hidden.)

5) How could the small community of Oakland hire and pay for Chief Robert Thompson, who had been head of security for Gov. Claude Kirk, and why did Chief Thompson leave job upon Zeigler's conviction?

6) Was there any relationship between Paul and Thompson?

7) Was there any relationship between the above individuals and former Orange Co. Sheriff, Dave Starr, a known member of the Ku Klux Klan who lived in Oakland?

8) Can Tommy Zeigler be guilty and three of the guns used in the murders have been directly connected to his principle accuser, Edward Williams, who had one of the guns in his possession?

9) Who owned the Edgewater Hotel before Zeigler had it shut down because it was being used as a house of prostitution, and were they the same people who were involved in the loan sharking?

10) Can Tommy Zeigler be guilty when Detective Tom DeMars found evidence that Charlie Mays, the black "crew boss" found dead in Zeigler's store, was the shooter in the unsolved Shorty Reddick homicide? Click here to watch a video deposition.

11) Can Tommy Zeigler be guilty when the blood soaked into Charlie Mays' pants came from the dead man the prosecution claimed Zeigler had killed at least a half hour before Mays died? 

12) Why did Chief Robert Thompson deliver a Christmas basket to Charlie Mays just before the murders?

13) Did Charlie Mays make any large purchases in 1970 after the shooting of Shorty Reddick?

14) Why did the current Orange Co. state attorney, resist DNA testing for years, and then claim that blood stains must have been overlooked that would prove Zeigler's guilt? (Yet he had selected what stains to test.)

The Setting

Winter Garden in the seventies was in the heart of  citrus country and still steeped in Jim Crow policies and politics. Situated between Ocoee immediately to the east and Groveland only a few miles to the west, it is in the northern part of Orange County where FBI documented klansman, Sheriff Dave Starr, reigned supreme in law enforcement for more than twenty years before being forced to retire while still in full command in the early seventies. The county just to the north, Lake County, was the fiefdom of the even more notorious Sheriff Willis McCall, who dominated for almost 30 years, before also being forced to retire in full command in the early seventies. If you will study the history of this area and these two commanding figures, you will find that Ocoee was the scene of the slaughter and burning of African-Americans in the twenties and Groveland became famous in the fifties after four young blacks were accused of raping a white woman. Willis McCall personally executed one of those men and shot another three times one night along a lonely road after the US Supreme Court granted them a new trial. As late as 2004, an investigation by then attorney general and now Governor Charles Crist, of the bombing of civil rights leader Harry Moore and his wife, found that the slayings were carried out by an Orlando Klansman in retaliation for Moore’s efforts to help the Groveland Four as they became known internationally. His report, which is available on line, states in  the executive summary: "It is also sadly evident that some members of area law enforcement were Klan members and/or sympathizers and may not have supported the FBI’s investigation. The damage caused by that regrettable state of affairs is still evident today, as this investigation concluded that a number of witnesses were reluctant to be completely candid with this investigation for fear of retribution."    
    If that kind of atmosphere still prevailed in 2004, one can only imagine the reaction of the Klan and Klan sympathizers to a “ni--er lover” white guy who stood up for a black friend at a trial that was supposed to have relieved the black bar owner of his 4COP license so that the white loan sharks could use it for themselves.  That dastardly deed by young Tommy Zeigler,  just four months before the murders in his store as well as Tommy’s  successful efforts to close down the once elegant Edgewater Hotel - then being used for prostitution - was tantamount to waving a red cape in the face of the bulls of the Klan.