On September 16, 1968, the body of Joseph Zoldman, a White male tavern proprietor, was discovered in Cleveland, Ohio, alongside three other victims. The group had been laid out side-by-side in Rockefeller Park, all slain by multiple gunshots from two different firearms. Zoldman was believed to have been taken hostage during a robbery at his tavern, along with two part-time bartenders and a young female prostitute. Authorities concluded that the victims were transported to the park and executed to eliminate witnesses.
The brutality of the crime shocked the community, and investigators quickly launched a manhunt. Ballistics evidence later linked the weapons used in the Cleveland murders to another violent robbery that occurred on October 20, 1968, in Columbus, Ohio. In that incident, a lone gunman robbed a dairy bar and attempted to murder three employees. Two of the victims, Susan Pack and Jimmy Stevens, were killed, while the third, manager Phyllis Crowe, survived and identified the assailant from a mugshot.
The suspect was Richard Lee Tingler Jr., a White male born in December 1940, with a long history of criminal activity including burglary and parole violations. Tingler was indicted on six counts of murder and added to the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted list on November 8, 1968. By then, he had fled Ohio and was living under the alias “Don Williams” on a farm in Dill City, Oklahoma.
Tingler’s erratic behavior and fondness for firearms eventually drew attention from local residents and law enforcement. On May 19, 1969, federal agents and sheriff’s deputies apprehended him without resistance while he was working in a field. He was tried and convicted for the murders, receiving a death sentence in 1969. However, his sentence was commuted to life in prison in 1972.
