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I woke up a little nostalgic for my super weird South Florida childhood, so today's #MurderMonday is an old school throwback to a dark-and-twisty scandal that's had implications for decades since. Welcome to Manalapan, my friends. Meet the Chillingworths.
Manalapan is an island south of Palm Beach. It's home to staggering mansions with the Intracaostal in the backyard and the Atlantic Ocean in the front. If you'd like to visit, there's a Ritz Carlton that'd be happy to accommodate you.
Last I heard, the nearby (in Lantana) AG Holley women's prison/tuberculosis sanatarium was being converted into condos if that's your jam.
Judge Curtis Chillingworth was West Palm Beach born-and-bred to a prominent local family. He was a graduate of the University of Florida and the US Naval Academy. He was a decorated war hero who served in both WW1 and WW2.
Chillingworth was elected to the circuit bench in 1923. He married Marjorie McKinley, who was the daughter of a family friend. She was pretty accomplished in her own right, having graduated from Cornell University in a day and age when women didn't often go to college.
By all accounts, Chillingworth is a total Boy Scout on the bench: he had a solid reputation for being fair, while also being an absolute stickler for punctuality in court.
On June 15, 1955, the Judge doesn't show up for his 8 AMs and everyone's surprised. By 10 AM, there's no sign of the judge and folks know something's wrong.
Meanwhile, two carpenters the Chillingworths had hired to do some work at the house arrive to see the door open and the house vacant.
The carpenters decide to take the footpath down to the beach and maybe take a swim. They spot blood on the footpath, head back to the house, and notice the floodlight's shattered. Then they call the authorities.
Police waste no time showing up, but don't have a lot to work with when they arrive. There are glass shards from the broken floodlight, a couple of empty spools of tape — one in the living room and one in the sand, weird footprints in the sand and then the blood.
Police learn that the couple attended a dinner the evening of June 14, leaving around 10 p.m. Nothing notable happened at the dinner. Their slept-in bed indicated they made it home. There's no sign of robbery. Both his wallet and her purse still had cash in them.
The car was in the garage and had the keys in the ignition.
Police rule out accidental drowning because the couple's swimsuits were hanging dry in the house. Also? No bodies had surfaced.
Police rule out accidental drowning because the couple's swimsuits were hanging dry in the house. Also? No bodies had surfaced.
The only things missing from the house were missing were a pair of men’s pajamas, a ladies’ nightgown, and two pairs of slippers.
The case goes cold, even with substantial offers of reward money from both the family and the community. In 1957, the judge and his wife are declared legally dead. Police pore over old cases, trying to find anything resembling a lead, and nothing comes to fruition until 1959.
In 1959, Floyd "Lucky" Holzapfel, a former paratrooper who'd earned a Purple Heart in the Battle of the Bulge before switching careers to bootlegging and bookmaking, bragged to a friend that he knew who had killed the judge.
Lucky Holzapfel was a garbage human. After the war, he served time for bookmaking and armed robbery. He'd also been arrested for attempted rape. One of his three former wives claimed he'd beaten badly enough to land her in the hospital for five days.
The friend, James Yenzer, and an ex-cop named Jim Wilber lured Lucky to a hotel in Melbourne. When Lucky got drunk enough, he spilled details about the Chillingworth disappearances. A nearby sheriff recorded the conversation from the next room.
Lucky says he was hired by Joseph Peel to murder Curtis and Marjorie Chillingworth. Lucky hired an accomplice named George “Bobby” Lincoln. On the night of the murder, Holzapfel and Lincoln go to the Manalapan home on a skiff.
Pretending to be stranded boaters, Lucky and Bobby knock on the Chillngworths' door at 1 AM. The judge answers the door in his pajamas. Lucky and Bobby hold the judge at gunpoint. They put nooses around the judge and Marjorie's necks, tying their hands behind their backs.
Lucky and Bobby and force the judge and his wife on the sand. Marjorie screams and one of the perps hits her with the pistol, cutting her head and causing the blood spatter.
Judge Chillingworth offers the perps $200,000 to let him and his wife go. Lucky and Bobby gag the couple with adhesive tape, hustle them onto the boat and take them out to sea. After drifting for about an hour, Lucky and Bobby strap lead weights to the Chillingworths’ legs.
Lucky picks up Marjorie and throws her overboard, joking "Ladies first!"
The judge puts up a fight. Instead of allowing himself to be thrown overboard, he jumps into the water himself. The judge then treads water like a champ, even with his wrists bound and weights tied to his legs.
Bobby gets impatient waiting for the judge to just die already, so he hits Chillingworth over the head with a shotgun. He apparently hit the judge hard enough to break the butt of the gun.
To make certain the judge doesn't find some way to resurface, Lucky and Bobby drag Judge Chillingworth back onto the boat, fasten an anchor around his neck, throw him back in the water, and watch him sink.
Who is Joe Peel and why'd he want the Chillingworths dead, you ask?
Joe Peel was also a judge in Palm Beach County. Peel grew with Curtis and Marjorie Chillingworth. He got his law license in 1949 and in 1952, was named a municipal judge. This is where the similarities come to an end.
Chillingworth caught Peel representing a husband and wife in a divorce suit, which is right up there on the short list of ethical violations for attorneys. Peel also ran a protection racket, signing warrants and orders for the police and then giving the criminals a heads-up.
Criminals paid handsomely for Peel's services. Before long, Peel was making his annual $3,000 judge’s salary in a week. He might have gotten away with it all, but, hubris has a way of spoiling the party every time.
Peel screws up again, representing to his client that he'd filed all necessary paperwork on her behalf and she was divorced. She remarries and has a baby. Then she learns she's a bigamist. Peel's scheduled to go before Judge Chillingworth, and knows he's getting disbarred.
Facing financial ruin and public disgrace, Peel starts plotting the murders in June of 1955.
On October 1, 1960, Lucky Holzapfel gets arrested. On December 12, 1960, he pleads guilty to both murders and is sentenced to death. He died in prison in 1996.
Bobby Lincoln's already in federal prison for a moonshine-related conviction. He cuts a deal with prosecutors who, need eyewitness testimony since there are still no bodies. Lincoln testifies against Holzapfel and Peel in exchange for immunity.
He finishes his federal sentence in Michigan and moves to Chicago in 1962. In Chicago, he converts to Islam and changes his name to David Karrim. He later returns to Florida and dies at St. Mary's Hospital in 2004. He never served a day in prison for his part in the murders.
What about Joe Peel, you ask?
When Joe Peel learns about Lucky's arrest, he flees the jurisdiction. He eventually gets apprehended in Chattanooga, Tennessee. He tries to have Lucky killed twice while awaiting trial, and also gets caught planning a failed attempt at a jail escape.
On March 30, 1961, jurors take less than six hours to find Joe Peel guilty of accessory to murder. He gets two life sentences, and spends 18 years at the FL State Prison in Raiford. He's paroled in 1979 to begin serving an 18-year federal sentence for mail fraud in Missouri.
He serves only three years of that sentence before he's paroled and returns to Florida. His wife had divorced him and married another well-respected attorney in West Palm Beach, who adopted her son and changed the child's name. Nine days after he was paroled, Peel died.
But surely there's more to the story about Peel's ex wife and son, right?
South Florida is nothing if not FULL OF SECRETS.
Joe Peel's ex wife married Al Cone, who was a pillar of the legal community in West Palm Beach and an icon among trial lawyers. Cone died in 2008 at age 87, after a tremendous career and legacy in civic life.
Three years after Al Cone's death, Alexander Clark Cone, the famed attorney's adopted son, winds up in big trouble with the law.
A. Clark Cone, the adopted son of Al Cone, had also become an attorney. Like both his adoptive AND biological fathers.
Clark Cone got disbarred after he pocketed more than $600,000 in settlement funds instead of dispersing the funds to his clients. When the Florida Bar subpoenaed completed its investigation, it handed everything over to prosecutors in Palm Beach County for criminal proceedings.
In June of 2011, the 55 year old adopted son of Al Cone and biological son of Joe Peel was sentenced to five years in prison after pleading guilty to grand theft and an organized scheme to defraud. You can read details here: https://www.bizjournals.com/southflorida/news/2011/06/07/disbarred-west-palm-beach-lawyer-gets.html
The case made national news in law circles, and reopened old wounds from the Chillingworth era. You can read about it here: https://www.abajournal.com/news/article/ex-lawyer_of_well-known_palm_beach_family_to_plead_guilty_in_600k_client_th
And so, as they say, the circle does go 'round.
