time, but did not kill him.  He lay there long enough to lose a significant amount of blood from his wounds, especially the ear that a bullet clipped.

The blood trail to the front door probably originated at that spot.  Most likely that blood was his.  If he found the front door locked he may have started for the back and encountered his assailants again.  He fought, was beaten, and was shot to death with the Securities revolver.

If Tommy Zeigler is innocent—and after months of resisting the notion I have gradually become convinced that he is—then at some point he was the victim of a frame-up: a deliberate attempt to make him appear guilty.  It is possible that someone among the killers conceived that plan after they ambushed Eunice and her parents, but before Zeigler arrived.  This would have required a cool head and considerable intelligence, but it would also have been the solution to an impending disaster, since the original plan now was out of control.

At least one of Zeigler's former attorneys believes that just such a cool head was involved in the crime.  Bill Duane is convinced that one or two local policeman took part in the crime, if not in the store then overseeing it from nearby.  Duane points out that a cop's experience and knowledge would have allowed him to think the thing through in the moments of panic that must have followed the original shoot-out.

Evidence does suggest that a frame-up was already under way the moment Zeigler walked into the store.  If he is innocent, Zeigler's account of the assault at the back of the showroom is probably reliable: that his assailants first tried to subdue him without shooting him, and that they finally shot him only after he had fired several times.  This would be consistent with a plan to frame him.  A scheme to set him up for the murders would also explain why his killers did not execute him.  Placing the derringer misfires in his desk drawers would be pointless if Zeigler was trying to cover up his guilt; as a detail in a setup, however, they are logical.  Likewise, the Securities .38 at the murder scene is calculated to cast instant suspicion on Zeigler.  For Zeigler himself to have put it there would have been virtually suicidal.  Executing Perry and Virginia Edwards with that pistol, the most damning weapons of all for Zeigler, may have been the killers' deliberate choice.

Nothing in the forensic evidence forecloses this theory. However, any hypothesis of the crime must deal with two other areas of physical evidence: the Dunaway Oldsmobile, with the Smith & Wesson .38, and the cache from the storeroom cabinet that included the spent cartridges and ammunition, the towel and gun boxes, and the paper bags.

Bill Duane, among many of Zeigler's supporters and defenders, charges that that collection of evidence was planted by someone who had access to the store while the OCSO held it.  Duane says that the evidence is highly suspect because it was not logged until January 2, more than a week after the last other piece of