Forty

Hadley opened Tuesday, June 29, with a request to put the defense's consulting psychiatrist, Allen Zimmer, on the stand.  Hadley was about to attempt an unusual tack for a defense attorney: he wanted to present evidence that his client was too sane and well-adjusted to have committed the crimes.

With the jury out, Zimmer gave "proffer"—that is, a preview of his potential testimony, given with the jury out, so that the judge could rule on its value.

He said he had practiced his specialty for nine years, in Florida, Ohio, Missouri, and California, and that he had been "involved with approximately six to eight thousand personalities of antisocial behavior."  He referred to his four-day psychiatric examination of Zeigler in Orange County Jail.

Zimmer said that the murders in the furniture store were "a heinous crime in any standard and would require an individual who was completely irresponsible and who has no conscience and who has no compassion and who has no awareness of the consequences of his behavior for which he probably has rationalized."  The crime appeared to be the work of a psychopath, he said.

Hadley asked whether Zeigler was a psychopath.

"Tommy Zeigler is not a psychopath.  My diagnosis was that he had no mental disorder," Zimmer said.

Had he found any indication of antisocial traits?

"On the contrary.  I found him to be just the opposite."

Eagan argued that the testimony was incompetent.  Every man is presumed to be sane, he said, and no issue of insanity had been raised.

Hadley answered that by charging Zeigler with such crimes the state had, in effect, put his mental health in question.

Paul denied the proffer: Zimmer's testimony was irrelevant; he would not be allowed to testify that Tommy Zeigler was incapable of committing the crimes.

Alton Evans, on the stand for the ninth time, testified that no money or valuables were found on the bodies of Eunice Zeigler, Perry Edwards, or Virginia Edwards.

Hadley called Tommy Zeigler.

*

Zeigler's voice was quiet, perhaps slightly timid, as he answered some preliminary questions from Hadley about his position as president of the family corporations, and about duties at the furniture store.