Ÿ       Two bloody .38 caliber cartridges from the top drawer of Tommy Zeigler’s desk in the office area behind the counter.  Though the cartridges appeared to be live rounds, the primer caps showed the impression of a firing pin: apparently they were misfires.

There were no obvious fingerprints, but Frye and the technicians saw bloody shoe prints in several locations.  One, very distinct, was at the edge of the blood pool around Perry Edwards.  Another was on the office door with the broken jamb, as if someone had kicked the door open.  Others were found in the kitchen, around Eunice Zeigler’s blood.  Several faint shoe prints ran down a narrow hallway that led from the northwest corner of the showroom to the rear parking lot.  All seemed to be of a similar rippled-sole pattern.

Five pistols were collected.

The revolver near the head of Perry Edwards was a Colt .357 magnum, with six empty .38 Special cartridge cases in the cylinder.  (A .357 revolver will fire .38 Special ammunition.)  It had a broken grip and showed traces of what appeared to be blood.

Two near the head of Charlie Mays were nearly identical snub-nose .38s manufactured by RG Industries, cheap five-shot guns; one had a bent trigger guard.  The damaged gun, RG #051827, contained two spent cartridges and three live rounds.  The firing mechanism had been damaged.  RG #051829 contained five empty cartridges and was in working order.

One of the pistols near Mays's feet was a two-shot Burgo derringer, with a live .38 Special round in the bottom chamber and an expended case in the top.

The other gun near Mays's feet was a .22 Smith & Wesson automatic with a round jammed in the chamber; nearby was an empty .22 case and two live .22 cartridges.

The blood evidence was of special interest to Frye.  In 1974, he had attended a one-week seminar conducted by Herbert MacDonell, a consulting criminalist in Corning, New York, who was expert in the flight characteristics of human blood—that is, various splatters from dripping wounds, from beatings, and from gunshot impacts.  Frye had learned to use the size and shape of blood splatters to analyze crime scenes. 

Blood from Charlie Mays’s beating—splashes from the impact itself, and droplets cast off from the weapon as it was swung up and down—showed that he had been beaten to death where he was found.  Most likely, the killer had sat astride his chest, and would have been speckled by the splashing blood. 

Mays's trousers, oddly, were down around his thighs, and the fly was unzipped.  His undershorts were smeared with blood.  The bottoms of the trousers were blood-soaked, and blood was smeared along the tops of his tennis shoes and caked in the soles.