Zeigler: evil killer or parent-to-be? Something has been bothering me immensely in the Zeigler case. I know, many things bother me in this case! But this is something I have not blogged about before. It is about the life term insurance policies and Zeigler’s bank accounts.
It has been stated over and over again that taking out two life term insurance policies on Eunice were clearly the premeditated actions of a man planning to get rid of his wife and then to collect the dough.
Wrong.
The life term policies were bought because the others in place were insufficient. The new life term insurances were effective Sept 11, 1975 and the other on Oct 7, 1975. I know that this is shortly before the massacre but it also coincided with the Zeiglers’ decision to expand their family by adopting children. A huge fuss was made out of Zeigler buying a bigger car and a pool to be installed at the house. Was Zeigler anticipating “the big life” after he’d be conveniently widowed or, was he just planning to accommodate his newly enlarged family?
According to the court records his cash flow was pretty low. His checking account around December 22, 1975 was just $480 dollars. That is not a lot of money for a millionaire, right? Here you can see that despite being a successfull business man Zeigler had not thought through all his finances and what he might need. All his assets were investments (furniture store, stock and apartment buildings) and from the bank accounts it appears that there were no additional saving accounts (aside from the checking account) to use as “ready cash flow” in cases of emergency.
Eunice had stopped teaching. She took care of her father, her father-in-law, and the household. As a mother-to-be, she would be around the kids all day. If anything happened to her Tommy would need help. If Eunice would become ill for a prolonged period of time, Tommy would need to hire help for the household and possibly a nanny. Since there was no ready cash flow, he was probably advised to make sure something was at hand hence the life term insurance policies.
I often wonder how this man keeps his sanity after he lost so much. His parents passed away, his parents-in-law slain, his wealth and freedom gone but most importantly, his beloved wife … gone. Sue Carney wrote an excellent post about this.
Nobody has been digging into Florida adoption rules for 1975. Were there any rules that dictated that a couple needed to be financially insured in a specific manner before they’d be eligible to adopt? I’d like to know.
You see, if you start from the premise that Zeigler was an evil killer all his actions can be seen as a man preparing for life after he got rid of his wife. This is what the state likes you to believe.
However, if you listen to Zeigler and heard what he said about not having been able to have children and their decision to adopt, his actions make sense.
He was acting like a father-to-be.