personal relationship with Williams and Smith and had argued with Zeigler over a disputed loan.

The state's theory presumes that Williams, Thomas, Smith, and Stewart were innocent and unwitting.  Therefore we must completely accept their testimony on all important points, since the guiltless would have nothing to conceal.  If any one of them is unconvincing, they are all unconvincing.  If any one of them can be impeached on any important matter, the entire case against Zeigler withers.

What does this mean, in terms of the testimony of these four witnesses?

If we are to believe that Tommy Zeigler is guilty, we must accept that he told at least three people—Williams, Smith, and Stewart—that he was in the market for untraceable guns.  Yet to do so was to guarantee that he would come under suspicion.  Even if he managed to kill Williams, both Smith and Stewart could implicate him.

The state's theory is almost schizophrenic in the assumptions that it makes about Zeigler's behavior.  Here, and at several other points, Ziegler appears to be almost oafish in his planning of the crime.  Yet at other times, he is claimed to be highly clever and obsessed with details.  For example, Frye speculated (without evidence) that Zeigler arranged for Charlie Mays to park his van behind the store, on the wrong side of the six-foot fence, a position far more suited for burglary than for picking up a television.

If we are to believe that Zeigler is guilty, we must accept that Frank Smith used his own money to buy two pistols for a stranger whom he knew only as a voice on the telephone.  According to Smith's testimony, he bought the guns after a single telephone conversation with a man he believed was Zeigler.  He paid between $100 and $150 of his own money (Smith's testimony varies on the exact amount), although he was not even sure that Zeigler would want the weapons, since Zeigler was said to have requested name-brand weapons.

After the murders, Smith did not immediately go to the police with the story of the transaction.  His first statement was dated January 21, which apparently was the date that police discovered the sales records of the two RG pistols.  Yet Zeigler's name and the story of the murders were extremely prominent in the local news.  As early as December 27, the Sentinel Star reported that police did not know who owned some of the weapons.

Both Williams and Stewart claimed to have been aware that Zeigler was interested in untraceable guns, yet neither included this important allegation in their original statements to police.  Williams did not mention it when he testified at the preliminary hearing on January 16. The first recorded mention of it from Stewart is a signed statement dated May 28, only a few days before trial.

If we are to believe that Zeigler is guilty, we must believe that he gambled everything on Charlie Mays' arriving no sooner than 7:30. According to the state's theory, Zeigler had planned the murders almost to the minute, and must