1) The land fraud wherein George Wilhelm is cheated out of $20,000.00
2) The arson of Goldstein’s Restaurant in Pittsburgh
3) The stabbing murder of George Wilhelm in downtown Pittsburgh
There is no dispute that each of these crimes took place.
The questions are:
Who committed which crime and how are the crimes related to each other?
Zeke’s Statement from 1996: The Land Fraud
In 1973, or early 1974, George Wilhelm, (the murder victim) became interested in acquiring some land in North Carolina where he could mine for semi-precious stones. The land was owned by the federal government.
Miller had been involved in politics as a small time operative of sorts and would help out during campaigns doing errands and odd jobs for candidates. Miller somehow convinced Wilhelm that Miller had a special connection with then Senator Richard Schweiker. I learned from Miller’s testimony that Dedo posed as a man named Ken Manella who worked as an aide to Senator Schweiker. Two secret meetings took place in hotel rooms; one in Washington, D.C. and one in Washington, Pennsylvania. At both of these meetings Wilhelm gave several thousand dollars in cash to Dedo, believing he was Ken Manella. Miller was also present at these meetings. Miller testified at my trial that I was at meetings with Dedo and Miller in Pittsburgh. It turned out that I was out of town for my firm at the time.
After Wilhelm paid out a substantial amount of money, he obviously expected to receive a deed to the property in North Carolina. This did not happen and he became suspicious. While Wilhelm was at the Pittsburgh office of Senator Schweiker, he spoke to the real Ken Manella over the phone who worked in Schweiker’s Washington office as an aide. When Wilhelm asked the real Mr. Manella about the land deal Manella denied any knowledge of such a deal and had no idea what Wilhelm was talking about. As a result of this conversation between Wilhelm and the real Manella, the office of Senator Schweiker put Wilhelm in touch with the FBI in Pittsburgh.
At first, Wilhelm truthfully told the FBI about the land deal as he knew it to be at that time. Miller was drawn into the FBI investigation at this point also. Miller somehow convinced Wilhelm to withdraw his complaint to the FBI on the premise that this would undo the arrangement for Wilhelm to quietly buy the land through Senator Schweiker’s office. Wilhelm, on Miller’s prompting, then went back to the FBI and told them that the complaint was a hoax to embarrass Senator Schweiker. Interestingly, the FBI agent, Gary Boutwell, testified at my trial that he did not believe Wilhelm when the complaint was withdrawn. Boutwell continued to believe that Wilhelm had been defrauded. According to Boutwell’s testimony, the FBI only discontinued further investigation because the United States Attorney for the Western District of Pennsylvania issued a letter of declination. At this point the matter rested because Miller was able to placate Wilhelm until the killing in February, 1976.
Zeke’s Statement from 1996:
The Arson
In early 1975, I arranged for the purchase of the Fifth Avenue Inn Restaurant, located near downtown Pittsburgh. The money for the investment was provided by my parents. They invested nearly $70,0000.00 in the business and additionally assumed a $100,000.00 mortgage on the building. This represented a substantial portion of their savings. The business did not do as well as I had expected. Until the last month or two before the fire, it consistently lost money. I never should have asked my parents to make this investment. I had just graduated from law school, had a full time accounting position, and was teaching accounting part time at the University of Pittsburgh. The restaurant became the straw that broke the camel’s back. There simply weren’t enough hours in each day for me to get everything done. By the fall of 1975, I was completely worn out. I needed to put more time into my career and marriage. Something had to give. Originally I made an attempt to sell the restaurant but nothing developed quickly enough. It would have taken several months to sell the restaurant and I felt so frazzled that I needed to find an immediate solution. I foolishly arranged to have the restaurant burned in late November, 1975. I planned the arson, made the preparations, and hired Clarence Miller to actually set the fire. No one was injured as a result. I never told anyone, family or attorneys, that I had arranged the arson until many years later. By then, my parents had recovered a large part of their investment from insurance proceeds, and were no longer imperiled by the mortgage on the restaurant building. When I decided to have the restaurant burned I did not have my normal judgment. I was worn out and grabbed for instant relief. I rationalized that no one would be hurt and hired Miller because I had no experience.
Zeke’s Statement from 1996: The Homicide
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.
Read more about The Prosecutor’s Theory of the Case…