WHOSE BULLET...........

 

 

 

WHOSE BULLET

 for the

 PROSECUTOR'S WIFE?

 

 

 

It was a one-man war against law and order in

Gainesville, Florida — and who was that man?

 

By L E. Stapleton

 

Special Investigator for ACTUAL DETECTIVE STORIES

 

 

 

SOMEONE had killed the prose-

cuting attorney's wife.

That was the incredible news

phoned in to the sheriff's office in

Gainesville, Florida, very early — Just

after midnight — the morning of August

24. Someone had shot down lovely,

prominent Marilyn Fagan and left her

lying in her own blood on her own front

porch and only a few feet from her un-

suspecting children.

 

What was this? The first step in an

all-out gangland war against law and

authority? Personal vengeance on the

part of some criminal Prosecutor Osee

Fagan had sent to prison? Or something

else, something even darker and more

mysterious?

 

Osee, in his mld-30's. was the Alachua

County prosecutor He was a tall, dis-

tinguished-looking man whose hair was

turning prematurely gray As a prose-

cutor, he'd waged a vigorous campaign

against crime and corruption in the

area. Bollta operators and bootleggers

were his prime target. And he'd done a

good job So good that he had been

unopposed in the primary the previous

May. Osee Fagan was looked upon as a

comer in state politics.

 

Marilyn Fagan. an extremely pretty

woman, was considered a perfect wife

for the young prosecutor. She and Osee

had met in college and married when he

finished law school. She was In her

early 30's. dark-haired and statuesque.

 

Active In church and community af-

fairs, she was considered the perfect

hostess. Maybe lust right for the gover-

nor's mansion

 

The up-and-coming young prosecutor

and his pretty, charming wife and three

children were well respected In the

community. It was a happy marriage.

 

That evening Osee had gone to choir

practice. He returned before midnight,

trying to be extra quiet. He walked

through the kitchen into the living

room. Six-year-old Lynn.-thelr oldest,

was asleep on the couch, with the tele-

vision going. He carried her up to her

room and went back downstairs. Some-

thing was peculiar about Marilyn let-

ting her stay up so late, he thought.

 

He noticed the front door standing

open and went out to the porch. He

went back to the house, dazed, and to

the telephone to call the sheriff.

At breakfast, Governor Leroy Collins

 

read about the slaying of the Alachua

County prosecutor's wife on page one of

the local morning newspaper. He was

shocked. The governor sent a telegram

to the Gainesville police expressing hope

for a speedy solution to the case.

 

The story was on page one of news-

papers throughout the state: the kill-

ing became the number one topic of

conversation. Members of the Eighth

Judicial Bar Association posted a $1,500

reward for the slayer's arrest and con-

viction. The Gainesville Sun contrib-

uted an additional $500.

 

All this put Chief Deputy Lu Hindery

and Lieutenant Bob Angel, conducting

the investigation for the Gainesville

police department, on the spot.

 

Their preliminary investigation at

the scene of the crime the previous

night revealed that Marilyn Fagan was

killed by a .32 -caliber bullet which

went through the left arm into her

heart, causing almost instant death.

ScufT marks were found at the side of

the house near a window. Robbery was

eliminated as a motive since nothing

was missing from the house and an ex-

pensive engagement ring and gold

wedding band were still on the victim's

finger.

 

Lynn, the little girl, had heard the

front doorbell ring at about ten. Ab-

sorbed in the program she was watch-

ing, she'd thought it was a neighbor at

the door She hadn't heard a shot, and

she hadn't seen her mother afterward.

 

A neighbor had seen a stocky man of

medium height and wearing a check-

ered shirt in the neighborhood earlier

in the evening. Another neighbor, a

woman, had seen a blue convertible

parked near the Fagan home about

10:30 that evening. She'd been closing

her window blinds and she saw a couple

get in the car and drive off hurriedly.

When the car passed under a street

light, she noticed that it had white -wall

tires and a "Vote for Collins" sticker on

the rear bumper.

 

Only the day before. Hindery had re-

ceived a telephone call from Detective

Captain Emmet t Lee of the Jacksonville

police about a young couple that had

burglarized a number of the more ex-

pensive homes in the Avondale and

Springfield sections of that city. They

were driving a blue 1955 Plymouth con-

vertible with white -wall tires.

 

In the Fagan neighborhood a number

of officers had searched the fields, back

yards and trash cans for the murder

gun. Arrangements were also made for

the public works department to search

the sewers. A house-to-house canvass

of the entire northwest section was

made.

 

Nothing had been discovered.

 

In the morning Hindery and Angel

went through court records in hopes of

finding someone who might have had it

in for Fagan.

 

They came up with only two possibles.

One, a man named Sam Boxer, had

threatened the young prosecutor at the

conclusion of his trial for assault.

 

"I remember him," said Angel. "He's

got a nasty temper."

 

"According to the records, he was re-

leased from Raiford three weeks ago."

Hindery said.

 

The other one was Billy Bond, who

in the county jail had told one of the

trusties that he was going to get Fagan.

Bond had been out of prison for more

than four months.

 

"He doesn't seem too hot." Angel said.

"But let's look him up anyway. There's

only one other angle. Somebody in the

country -club section was shooting off a

rifle last night and a bullet went into

a woman's house. Maybe we have one

of those crazy snipers around here."

 

Billy Bond was serving time in Duval

County for breaking and entering and

could not have had anything to do with

the murder. Sam Boxer was picked up

late that afternoon by Deputy Sheriff

Roland Johnson.

 

Miami when we found him." ex-

plained the deputy.

 

"Why were you leaving town?" Hin-

dery asked the man.

 

"Why do you think?" snapped Boxer.

"I got word that you were looking for

me, that's why."

"Where were you last night?"

Boxer denied that he'd had anything

to do with Mrs. Fagan's murder and

claimed he was playing cards with some

friends when the crime was committed.

A quick phone call revealed that he was

telling the truth. When the witness who

had seen a man across the street from

the Fagan home failed to identify him.

he was released.

"How about talking with the woman

who says a sniper shot at her last

night?" suggested Angel. "It's about

the only lead left."

 

They drove to the country-club sec-

tion, where they found the woman on

her patio.

 

After they were seated, Hindery said,

"I'd appreciate it if you'd tell me what

happened last night, ma'am."

 

"I thought I told everything to the

police." she said. "Do I have to go

through it again?"

 

"If you don't mind. You might re-

member something you didn't think of

last night."

 

She shrugged. "It was around a quar-

ter after nine when the doorbell rang.

I went to the door and looked out. but

nobody was there. So I turned away and

I heard the rifle shot and the bullet hit

the wall a few inches from my head.

That's all."

 

The doorbell had rung at Mrs. Fa-

gan's home, too. a few minutes before

she was shot.

 

Angel dug this bullet out of the wall.

It was apparently a .32 caliber — the

same size as the bullet that had killed

Mrs. Fagan.

 

"Do you have any idea who it was?"

he asked the woman.

 

She hesitated. "My husband had

some trouble with one of his employees

awhile back, a deaf mute named Phil

Singer. I don't want to get anyone in

trouble, but it could have been him. He's

got quite a temper, and he's always car-

rying a rifle around."

 

Asked to explain, the woman said that

Singer had been fired from his job in

March because of inefficiency. He had

pestered her husband almost daily aft-

erward to give him his job back. The

whole thing came to a head on April 10,

when Singer created a disturbance at

a Rotary meeting. He was arrested on a

trespassing charge and sentenced to the

city stockade for fifteen days.

 

Fagan. the officers knew, would have

prosecuted such a case.

 

"Do you have Singer's address?"

asked Hindery.

 

"He's got a bungalow on Twelfth Ter-

race."

 

BACK at headquarters, Hindery had a

phone call waiting from Sheriff P. D.

Reddish of Starke, a town about 25

miles northeast.

 

"One of my deputies just picked up a

couple in a motel outside town," Red-

dish said. "They were driving a blue

fifty -five Plymouth convertible, and

they admit being on Eleventh Road in

Gainesville last night around ten

o'clock. They were calling on some

friends who weren't home, they say."

"Any guns?"

"Nope."

 

"I'll check their story and call you

back." said Hindery. "What's the name

of the friends?"

 

The chief deputy needed only ten

minutes to learn that the couple had

been telling the truth. He immediately

relayed the information to Sheriff Red-

dish and the couple was released.

 

Meanwhile the lab reported that a

ballistics test of the bullet which killed

Mrs. Fagan and the one that narrowly

had missed the housewife in the coun-

try-club area proved they were both

fired from the same gun.

 

"Let's go talk with Phil Singer." Hin-

dery said.

 

When they arrived at the house, they

learned that the Singers had moved.

"They left a couple of months ago." the

new resident said. "I understand that

the woman next door knew them very

well."

 

She did indeed. "Susan Singer di-

vorced Phil and went back to her

parents in Cleveland while he was in

the stockade," she said. "She stood his

temper tantrums as long as she could,

and I don't blame her. Phil stayed

around town, though. I saw him just

a couple of days ago."

 

"How was he dressed?" Hindery

asked.

 

"Let me see." she said. "Oh. yes. He

was wearing slacks and a checkered

sports shirt."

 

The officers notified Cleveland police

to talk with Mrs. Singer's parents. Fa-

gan, County Judge H. H. McDonald,

who had sentenced Singer, and Sheriff

J. M. Crevasse, who had arrested him.

were given police protection. New York

police were asked to put a 24-hour

watch on the home of Singer's mother.

An a 11 -points bulletin describing the

suspect was broadcast. It said that he

was armed and dangerous.

 

A look into Singer's background dis-

closed that he had been in trouble with

police since he was sixteen and had

spent time in New York, Atlanta and

Miami jails.

 

Cleveland police reported that Singer

had shown up at his in-laws' five days

after being released from the Gaines-

ville stockade and had left again.

 

And there the investigation hit a

snag. Deaf mutes were picked up, ques-

tioned and released. The FBI entered

the case on the premise that Singer had

crossed a state line to avoid prosecution.

Thousands of flyers were distributed.

 

Pressure on the local police was

mounting. Osee Fagan called Hindery

and Angel several times a day to see

how they were doing. A second telegram

from the governor arrived. The news-

papers kept the case alive with constant

stories. Hindery sent the FBI flyer to

every deaf-mute periodical in the coun-

try and Canada.

 

And still he was not found . . .

 

JAMES SMITH finished his lobster

trick as a linotype operator on the

Winnipeg Star and decided to go to the

deaf-mute society on his way home. He

was a vice president of the organization.

 

On the bus he glanced through a pe-

riodical for deaf mutes. There he saw

a picture of Henry Miller, one of the

newer members. Only the caption called

him Phil Singer and said he was a fugi-

tive from justice.

 

Smith jumped off the bus and took a

cab to police headquarters.

 

He wrote a note to the desk lieuten-

ant, pointing to the picture in the paper.

He also jotted down Miller's address and

offered to take the police there.

 

At the boarding house Inspector

James Toal found Singer in bed. fast

asleep. A .32-caliber revolver with two

empty chambers was in a drawer.

 

Singer was arraigned in Winnipeg

Magistrate's Court the next day and

charged with having an unregistered

revolver in his possession. Sixteen days

later, on November 26. he was turned

over to the FBI office In Grand Forks,

North Dakota.

 

On March 5, 1957, Circuit Court

Judge John A. H. Murphree in Gaines-

ville sentenced Singer to die in the elec-

tric chair in Raiford State Prison.

Singer's attorney, Hollis Knight, ap-

pealed the case to the Florida Supreme

Court. A retrial was ordered, and on

June 25, 1959, Singer again was found

guilty, but this time with a recommen-

dation for mercy. Accordingly, he was

sentenced to life imprisonment.