On December 26, Frye began to study the financial paperwork in Zeigler’s office desk.  In a locked drawer of the desk2 Frye found three term life insurance policies.  All had been applied for in September of 1975.  One was issued in October 1975, the other in November, less than two months before the murders.

One of the policies, in the amount of $250,000, was on Tommy Zeigler.  Two others, each for $250,000, were on Eunice.  Both of these had been applied for by Tommy.  Counting smaller policies, Tommy Zeigler and the family corporation of which he was part owner stood to gain more than half a million dollars from the death of his wife.  The policies not only provided a classic motive for murder, but suggested that Zeigler had contemplated the killings for many weeks.  Other evidence implied that Zeigler had planned in thoughtful detail.

Mattie Mays told investigators about the promised TV, and the 7:30 appointment at the store.

Curtis Dunaway said the blue towel came from his car: he used it to cover up holes in the upholstery.  Dunaway told how he and Zeigler had exchanged cars on Christmas Eve.  Zeigler, not Dunaway, had initiated the swap.  The new white Toronado would have been obvious as Zeigler drove around the streets of his hometown.  But he would be much less conspicuous in Dunaway’s drab four-year-old model.  When he drove with Felton Thomas, and later, Edward Williams that night, Zeigler followed routes that bypassed busy Dillard Street.  He literally went out of his way to escape recognition.

Don and Rita Ficke told Frye about their three trips to Temple Grove Drive when they were looking for Tommy and Eunice.  On their second visit, around 8:10, they saw Edward Williams in his pickup truck, waiting in the driveway.  There was no car.  This corroborated William’s account.  On their third trip, the pickup truck was gone, and Dunaway’s Oldsmobile was parked in the garage.  This, too, was consistent with William’s story.

Robert Thompson, the Oakland chief of police, told Frye that Zeigler had come to Oakland on December 23, specifically to invite him to the Van Deventers’ party.  At Zeigler’s request, Ficke had posted a bulletin at Winter Garden police headquarters, inviting all officers to attend the gathering.  Frye felt that Zeigler had contrived to have all the local police at the party and off the streets by 7:10, when he would be bringing Eunice to the store to kill her.  Her parents would arrive a few minutes later, and Charlie Mays’s appointment was less than a quarter of an hour after that.  At the same time, Edward Williams would be finding the note in the garage at Temple Grove Street.  Frye was convinced that Tommy Zeigler had planned four murders almost to the minute.

2              Investigators forced it  open with a screwdriver.