Tommy Zeigler case

The Tommy Zeigler case refers to the murders of four people in Winter Garden, Florida, United States on December 24, 1975.

Thirty-year-old Tommy Zeigler was charged for the quadruple murder of his wife, her parents, and another man at his family-owned furniture store.

On December 24, 1975, at Zeigler’s furniture store in Winter Garden, Florida, somebody fired approximately 30 bullets.

Prosecutors later theorized he shot himself in an attempt to make it look like Mays and two other men (Edward Williams and Felton Thomas) committed the murders while robbing the furniture store.

On the night of the murders, he attempted to rob a gas station across the street from the Zeigler Furniture Store.

Zeigler's lawyers, Harold Vernon Davids and Ralph Vincent "Terry" Hadley, III rejected the two attempted executions.

[8] In 2005, Zeigler's request for a new trial was denied after DNA tests failed to conclude that Charlie Mays was the perpetrator.

[18] On January 26, 2025, Zeigler’s attorneys filed a 64-page ruling requesting a new trial, claiming that the DNA results prove their client's innocence.

[21] A documentary entitled "A Question of Innocence" was released in 2014 about Zeigler's case, and the death penalty in the United States.

[22] In 1992, a book was released by Phillip Finch on Zeigler's case, entitled Fatal Flaw: A True Story of Malice and Murder in a Small Southern Town.