Edgar Smith
| Edgar Smith | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1934 (age 82–83) United States |
| Status | Incarcerated |
| Criminal charge | Murder, kidnapping, attempted murder, attempt to rob |
| Criminal penalty | Life in prison |
| Imprisoned at | California Medical Facility, Vacaville, California |
Edgar Smith (born 1934) is an American convicted murderer, who was once on Death Row for the 1957 murder of fifteen-year-old honor student and cheerleader Victoria Ann Zielinski. Vigorously contesting his conviction through the courts and in the media, Smith became a celebrity, and his case was argued in public most notably by William F. Buckley, Jr. Smith eventually succeeded in winning a retrial and negotiating a reduced sentence. Smith was released only to be incarcerated for a second time for the kidnapping and attempted murder of Lefteriya Ozbun in 1976.
On the evening of March 4, 1957 shortly after 8:30 pm, 15-year-old Victoria Ann Zielinski of Ramsey, New Jersey, disappeared during a walk home from a friend's house. One of the girl's shoes, a black penny loafer, was discovered the following morning on the side of Fardale Avenue, a residential side street close to the victim's home and to the home of her friend Barbara Nixon, with whom she was visiting immediately prior to her disappearance the evening before. The discovery was made by Victoria's parents who had been driving around an approximate two mile radius from where their daughter had last been seen, searching for the missing teenager. Mr. and Mrs. Zielinski also noticed a blood-matted head scarf in the vicinity of the loafer. While Mr. Zielinski, the girl's father, continued searching on foot, Mrs. Zielinski went to the nearest residence and contacted the police. Mr. Zielinski, after observing a pair of red woolen and leather gloves lying in the dirt of a sand pit located a few hundred yards away, just beyond the intersection of Fardale Avenue and Chapel Road, returned to his wife and together they waited outside their vehicle, which they had stopped at the scene of their discovery for the police. The police arrived a short time later and while Mrs. Zielinski stayed with the car, Mr. Zielinski together with the Mahwah Police Department's Captain Ed Wickham, resumed the search for Victoria.
A couple of hundred feet from where the Zielinski's car was stopped close to where the loafer and scarf were found, beyond the point where Fardale Avenue and Chapel Road intersect, there was a short dirt road leading into a gravel pit area. The two men noticed fresh tire tracks in the dirt of the road as they searched for the missing teenager. Beyond the road's end, a large amount of excavated earth was bulldozed into a 6- or 7-foot mound that formed a bank. Victoria Ann Zielinski's body was discovered on the north side of that bank which obstructed a view of her battered remains from passing traffic along the two intersecting streets nearby.
...
Wikipedia