Nineteen

Between Christmas and New Year’s Day, Hadley began to organize Zeigler's defense.1  He hired private investigator Gene Annan, who had twelve years' experience as a special agent with the Air Force's Office of Special Investigations.  William "Pete" Ragsdale, who had recently resigned as director of the Sanford Regional Crime Laboratories, hired on as the defense's forensics specialist.

Hadley also asked Vernon Davids, one of his two law partners, to join him on the case.  Davids practiced mostly civil law, but he was a quick study and he had a mind for details.  Davids began reading textbooks of forensic science.  Later Hadley hired several other investigators.  And his legal secretary, Leslie Gift, soon was working full-time on the defense team.  It was a large, expensive effort. Zeigler's parents had the means to defend their son, which put him in a class beyond most defendants in important criminal cases.

At first the defense knew almost nothing about the case except what Hadley had seen at the store and had heard from Frye.  Hadley offered Eagan an agreement for "mutual discovery" that would obligate both sides to reveal any relevant evidence.  Under the disclosure agreement, Hadley would be legally and ethically bound to turn over any unfavorable information.  In return, though, he would learn exactly what evidence the state had against his client.

Eagan refused the offer.

Zeigler, in a second interview with Hadley, supplied some details. He said that his home had been burglarized in 1974, and he had lost several guns.  To replace them, he had bought three pistols: the Securities .38 the Smith & Wesson .38 (found in the Dunaway Olds), and the Colt .357.  All three were purchased in October 1974 at Ray's Bait and Tackle, a local gun shop.  The Colt and the Smith & Wesson were kept in the store, one in a desk in the rear hallway, the other near the front counter.  He said that he had last seen the chrome-plated Securities Industries pistol and his shoulder holster in the truck desk, around December 11. The passenger door of the truck did not lock: anyone could have taken the gun.

Zeigler told Hadley what he remembered of the assault at the back of the showroom.  He had struggled with a least two assailants, but in the darkness, and having lost his glasses at the beginning of the fight, he couldn't identify them.  His memory of the fight was hazy. He had perhaps fired the .22 automatic that he carried with him; he could remember ejecting a jammed cartridge from the little pistol. After he was thrown into the hallway, he managed to pull the Colt revolver

1   Until he was arrested, Zeigler was technically considered a suspect. After December 29, he became officially identified as a defendant.