On December 14, 1984, a tragic and violent event unfolded in the small town of Geronimo, Oklahoma, forever altering the community. Ralph Zeller, a 33-year-old male farmer, was a customer at the First Bank of Chattanooga when he became an innocent victim in a brutal bank robbery that ended in a horrific loss of life.
The perpetrator, 19-year-old Jay Wesley Neill, entered the bank shortly after 1 p.m. and forced the three female bank employees into a back room.
There, he subjected them to a savage attack, stabbing them a total of 75 times. One of the women was six months pregnant. While this gruesome scene was unfolding, Zeller and three other customers, including a 15-year-old and a 20-year-old, entered the bank.
Neill herded the customers into the same back room and shot each of them in the head. Ralph Zeller succumbed to his injuries, becoming the fourth and final murder victim of the day. The other three customers who were shot miraculously survived their wounds. In a final act of cold-bloodedness, Neill attempted to shoot an 18-month-old child who was with one of the customers, but the weapon was out of ammunition.
Three days later, Neill and his lover and co-conspirator, Robert Grady Johnson, were apprehended in San Francisco. Their capture was facilitated by their use of stolen money from the bank to fund a lavish lifestyle of hotel rooms and shopping sprees. Jay Wesley Neill was ultimately convicted of four counts of first-degree murder and was executed by lethal injection on December 12, 2002. Robert Grady Johnson was convicted for his role in the crime and received a sentence of life in prison.
