evidence was collected—that is, apparently a week after the OCSO technicians had completed their search.  (The property receipts, and Alton Evans's testimony from  his notes, are unequivocal on the date of the find.)

Property receipts also show that early Christmas morning, investigators impounded a can of furniture wax and a rag, which were kept on or around that cabinet, beside the large bay door.  This indicates that the storeroom, specifically the immediate area around the cabinet, was searched long before January 2.  Why was this sizable cache not discovered in this original sweep?

The only evidence connecting Zeigler to the gun boxes in the bags was the testimony of Ray Ussery, owner of the bait and tackle shop where Zeigler bought three pistols in 1974.  Ussery testified that the boxes came from a pile that accumulated when customers bought pistols but did not take the boxes that came with them; those boxes would then be thrown into the pile, and given to other customers who wanted them. Ussery was testifying nearly two years after Zeigler bought the pistols, a transaction he himself did not handle.  Yet he was certain that the two boxes in that cache were the very same boxes that his clerk had given Zeigler.

The dates are significant.  Gun boxes carry the serial number of the gun they originally contained, and thus can be traced just as the weapons are.  One of the two boxes found in the storeroom cache belonged to a pistol that Ussery sold in December 1974-two months after Zeigler's purchase.  According to Ussery's own testimony about his procedures, the box he attributed to Zeigler could not have been in the pile of leftovers when Zeigler bought his three pistols in October.

It should be noted that Ussery swore that Zeigler's transaction took place on January 9, 1975, although the paperwork was dated October 31, 1974.  Ussery attributed the discrepancy to "a clerical error."

Does any of the other evidence from the cache preclude its having been planted?

The empty shells were from the Securities revolver, which was in police custody.  One of the paper bags was found to have Zeigler's palm print, which seems to be damning.  However, the record shows that police removed a similar paper bag from the home at 75 Temple Grove; yet that item was never logged into evidence.

That still leaves Curtis Dunaway's Oldsmobile, with the Smith & Wesson revolver, the traces of blood on the headrest, and the signs that it had been wiped down.

Several of Zeigler's attorneys believe that the killers drove Dunaway's car to the store that evening.  Terry Hadley claimed in his closing argument at the trial that the killers' original plan was for Edward Williams to drive away from the scene in his pickup truck, and that the gate had been forced open for this reason.