In early 1976, a couple of months after the fire, Miller came to me because I was a lawyer and I was beholden to him. Miller needed advice in connection with the fraudulent land deal. Wilhelm had paid out a considerable amount of money, had nothing to show for it, and was pressuring Miller. At first, I didn’t believe Miller and suspected that he was trying to exact more money for burning down the restaurant. I remember that the primary reason for my suspicion and disbelief was that Miller had committed a fraud on a victim (Wilhelm) who knew who he (Miller) was. I couldn’t see how Miller would defraud Wilhelm and leave it at that. At some point Wilhelm would have to realize that he had been defrauded and would have to conclude that his friend Miller had been part of the scam. The other reason that the story was puzzling to me was that Miller spoke to me in terms of his committing the fraud by himself but also made vague references to another person. This other person turned out to be Dedo who posed as Manella.
I advised Miller that because Wilhelm knew who he (Miller) was that Miller’s best chance for a quiet solution was to repay the money to Wilhelm. When I asked Miller if he was in a position to repay the money, Miller said yes. I felt that if Wilhelm were repaid that he would not pursue the matter with the authorities again. I agreed to go to a meeting with Miller and Wilhelm on the understanding that Miller was going to come clean and offer to repay the money immediately.
There were two meetings. The homicide occurred at the end of the second meeting. The first meeting took place on a Sunday afternoon in February, 1976. We met at a McDonald’s Restaurant in downtown Pittsburgh. It was what was said at this first meeting that confirmed my suspicion that another person was involved with Miller in the land fraud. Miller did not do what he had agreed to. Miller said to Wilhelm that he had been unable to contact Manella and that he suspected that Manella had skipped out. When I saw that Miller had not heeded my advice to repay Wilhelm I became very uncomfortable. Miller was bringing up something new and was most likely lying to Wilhelm. If I sat there quietly while Miller lied to Wilhelm, this would be implicitly condoning Miller’s dishonesty. I told them that I had to leave. I had my doubts at this point about whether the whole story was genuine. I was expecting Miller to ask me for money to give to Wilhelm. I suspected that the two of them were trying to pull a scam on me by telling this inconsistent story that did not make sense.
Miller, knowing that I was disgusted with him, left Wilhelm at the table, and walked with me to the outside door of McDonald’s. I told Miller that if he was not going to take my advice that he should not have asked me to help him in the first place. Miller asked me to meet with he and Wilhelm one more time and I agreed.
The second meeting took place the following night. I taught accounting at the University of Pittsburgh so the meeting was scheduled after my class was over. I drove to downtown and parked in an alley near my office building where Miller met me. We walked to the same McDonald’s Restaurant, sat down and had coffee with Wilhelm. As we sat there, Miller and Wilhelm began to talk about the land deal, and it became apparent to Wilhelm that we were going to be talking for awhile. Wilhelm said that he had to move his car because it was parked at a meter.
Miller and I went with Wilhelm to his car. I got in the back seat and Miller got in the front passenger seat. Wilhelm drove the car to a parking garage. As we were driving to the parking garage and then proceeding upward in the garage, Miller finally told Wilhelm in clear terms that he would not get the land. Miller still did not tell the complete truth about his own involvement. He did however, tell Wilhelm that he would make good on returning Wilhelm’s money. Wilhelm became more agitated and asked Miller when his money would be returned. Miller hesitated and told Wilhelm that it would take a while but that all his money would be returned. At this point Wilhelm had driven the car to the top of the parking garage and parked. By now they were yelling or more accurately, Wilhelm was yelling and Miller was trying to placate him. They started to fight in the front seat. After they struggled for a while I saw blood and realized that one of them had been wounded. Wilhelm then got out of the car to try to escape. I was terrified and ran to the exit door that was on the opposite side of the garage roof. Miller chased Wilhelm and kept stabbing at him. Trying to escape his assailant, Wilhelm crawled to a wall and was leaning against and over the rail. Miller pushed Wilhelm over the rail and I heard a thud. I stayed where I was because I was afraid of Miller. Miller had used a weapon on Wilhelm and I wasn’t sure what Miller would do to me because I had witnessed the assault. Miller saw my fear and held his hands out to show me that he no longer had a weapon. I came over, looked over the rail, and saw Wilhelm lying on a ledge on the floor below. Wilhelm did not move and I was sure that he was dead.
I quickly walked away from the area back toward the door. Miller followed me. I just had to get away from the whole thing as fast as possible. I told Miller not to follow me but he did. Miller had a lot of blood on him and he wanted me to take him home. I was upset and scared and not able to think. Miller followed me to my car and got in the front seat with me. I foolishly went along with Miller’s request to take him home and give him an alibi. Not thinking clearly, I agreed to place myself with Miller and Wilhelm at the meeting shortly before the homicide. Even after all these years I have not been able to come to terms with myself over my absurd conduct. The combination of my fear of Miller, witnessing the murder, and wanting him never to mention anything about the fire, led to my agreement to give Miller an alibi.
Wilhelm was still alive when the police found him. He made a dying declaration to an officer stating, “Clarence, Clarence Miller did this to me.”
Wilhelm was taken to a hospital and died a few hours later.
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