If You Were From The Same Town As Suspects Portrayed On UM

[Killarney Rose]

Do you think it might change your current opinion of their guilt or innocence?

I was just reading the thread asking if we beieved the spouses/exes were guilty or not.

I notice almost everyone on this board believes Tommy Zeiglar is innocent, though a few think he could be guilty, but most likely not.

I find it interesting that most people in Winter Garden believe TZ is guilty, yet when you put his case out on a public forum, where people had never heard of him until they saw the case on UM, most think he is innocent.

So that got me to thinking about the other spouses/exes mentioned. I wonder if we were from their home town and knew of them, were acquainted with them, or knew them well, if it would change our opinion of their guilt or innocence.

What do you think?

[1990 UM fan]

I'd go and beat them up...lol...no. I don't know, it'd feel kind of weird living in a town with a possible criminal.

[Killarney Rose]

Originally Posted by 1990 UM fan

I'd go and beat them up...lol...no. I don't know, it'd feel kind of weird living in a town with a possible criminal.

Weellll...that kind of gives me another question. So what if you did live in a town where someone...say Chad Noe or Paul Pollis etc lived and you came in contact from time to time....how would you feel? How would you treat them?

We had a fella here- can't remember his name but I remember the case well. He was the manager of a local building supply store( a local chain). One night he and his wife( a well known, well liked, bank employee) were going out to dinner and her told her they needed to go by the store first. It was dark. WHile they were there they were robbed...she was shot fatally , he got a superficial wound...description of the assailant who got away-balck male( sound familiar????)

there were all sorts of rumors of a marriage in trouble, his infidelity,it was staged and he did it, etc. he was arrested, tried, convicted, sent to prison. Got a new trial and got off. This was the late 80s, don't remember the details)So he comes home to start a new life, starts a new life, new wife, begins a group to help the wrongfully convicted get new trials.

Sooo... one night it was dark, out in the middle of nowhere and my car quits on me. There are my mother and me walking along the dark dark road....and along comes a guy in a truck and offers us a ride. It turns out this is the best friend of the guy tried for murdering his wife, and he testified for him at his trial. this was all fresh back then. we were scared but we took the ride cause we were scared not to. Guy was very nice and took us to my house...

guess I am just having wandering thoughts today. And I suppose the guy has lived a quiet life all these years. Did he kill his wife? I don't know. They never had another suspect or caught anyone. Her murder still remains unsolved. He protested long and hard of his innocence, and was quite vocal on helping the wrongfully convicted when he first got out of prison..now he seems to have faded out of sight.

maybe he was innocent, maybe not. All the circumstantial evidence sure pointed to him.....but I suppose dealing with these people in public settings I would treat them like I would anyone else, but I sure wouldn't have anykind of other relationship/friendship with them because there is always that doubt in the back of the mind.

[1990 UM fan]

Originally Posted by Killarney Rose

Weellll...that kind of gives me another question. So what if you did live in a town where someone...say Chad Noe or Paul Pollis etc lived and you came in contact from time to time....how would you feel? How would you treat them?

We had a fella here- can't remember his name but I remember the case well. He was the manager of a local building supply store( a local chain). One night he and his wife( a well known, well liked, bank employee) were going out to dinner and her told her they needed to go by the store first. It was dark. WHile they were there they were robbed...she was shot fatally , he got a superficial wound...description of the assailant who got away-balck male( sound familiar????)

there were all sorts of rumors of a marriage in trouble, his infidelity,it was staged and he did it, etc. he was arrested, tried, convicted, sent to prison. Got a new trial and got off. This was the late 80s, don't remember the details)So he comes home to start a new life, starts a new life, new wife, begins a group to help the wrongfully convicted get new trials.

Sooo... one night it was dark, out in the middle of nowhere and my car quits on me. There are my mother and me walking along the dark dark road....and along comes a guy in a truck and offers us a ride. It turns out this is the best friend of the guy tried for murdering his wife, and he testified for him at his trial. this was all fresh back then. we were scared but we took the ride cause we were scared not to. Guy was very nice and took us to my house...

guess I am just having wandering thoughts today. And I suppose the guy has lived a quiet life all these years. Did he kill his wife? I don't know. They never had another suspect or caught anyone. Her murder still remains unsolved. He protested long and hard of his innocence, and was quite vocal on helping the wrongfully convicted when he first got out of prison..now he seems to have faded out of sight.

maybe he was innocent, maybe not. All the circumstantial evidence sure pointed to him.....but I suppose dealing with these people in public settings I would treat them like I would anyone else, but I sure wouldn't have anykind of other relationship/friendship with them because there is always that doubt in the back of the mind.

I'm pretty much a homebound person, so I wouldn't see much of or associate with anyone like Chad Noe (yuck) or any suspected criminal.

[Killarney Rose]

Originally Posted by 1990 UM fan

I'm pretty much a homebound person, so I wouldn't see much of or associate with anyone like Chad Noe (yuck) or any suspected criminal.

I didn't mean you would associate with them on purpose- just come in contact with them as you go about your business. Goodness, who would want to associate with the likes of them?

[1990 UM fan]

Originally Posted by Killarney Rose

I didn't mean you would associate with them on purpose- just come in contact with them as you go about your business. Goodness, who would want to associate with the likes of them?

I wouldn't give them a passing glance. I can't do anything about their alleged crimes anyways (speaking in a sense if I came across anyone suspected of a horrendous crime).

[RobinW]

Ironically, I watched a TV special about the Orange Sock Murders not too long ago that had a recent interview with Jeff Oberholtzer, one of the suspects spouses on UM who actually DID turn out to be innocent. He said that after being suspected of the murders, people in the community suddenly didn't want anything to do with him. Even though Jeff seems like a very nice and likable guy who was a lot more sincere and believable than most of the other suspects on UM, even people who knew him personally didn't hesitate to turn on him.

I guess it shouldn't be surprising that a smaller community would automatically shun a murder suspect, even if they haven't been proven guilty and the evidence isn't that strong. Even though Jeff was still walking the streets, I'm sure they felt a lot more comfortable believing it was him because they would at least know who the killer is and didn't have to worry about unknown assailant striking again. I can see why the people in Tommy Zeigler's hometown would feel a whole lot better thinking the right man is in prison.

That said, I actually do take some comfort in knowing that guilty suspects such as Chad Noe, Judy Groezinger and Mark Nichols have probably dealt with a lot of their fellow residents treating them like crap in their hometowns.