After nearly 50 years, Zeigler murders still captivate

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On one side of the small but crowded courtroom — behind Tommy Zeigler and his team of attorneys — sat a cousin of the convicted killer, a Pulitzer-Prize winning journalist, and a woman who has long run a website that claims Zeigler could not have murdered four people on Christmas Eve 1975.

On the other side sat family members of some of those victims. One wiped tears and left the courtroom when gruesome crime scene photos were shown on big screens.

In the hallway, a documentary film crew scurried to capture conversations among attorneys and spectators talking about the horrific killings at the W.T. Zeigler Furniture store in Winter Garden.

For decades, the Zeigler case has fascinated the public and has led to television shows, books, docum