“Why wouldn’t any governor be willing to do that?” “The only thing that can help him is if people in this town write the governor and say test the DNA,” McEachern said, handing him a reward flyer. “That’s where he oughta stay.”Īt the liquor store, the owner stared at McEachern blankly as the retiree talked. “He’s been in the pen for 40 years,” the man hissed back, turning away. “He was convicted, but he’s innocent,” McEachern said to a gray-haired man in skin-tight shorts outside the bike shop. “I believe in the system,” said a man at the museum. In this old Southern town of 44,000, few wanted to recall the gory memories or talk about Zeigler. It sells delicate wooden ornaments carved with the town catchphrase: A Charming Little City with a Juicy Past. There’s a boba tea bar and a bright yellow caboose in front of the old Atlantic Coastline Railroad Depot, which is now the Winter Garden Heritage Museum. The train that once chugged through the middle of Winter Garden is long gone. But the town where Zeigler grew up and ran his family’s furniture store is now a tourist attraction, with a quaint, leafy downtown and a clock tower surrounded by hanging baskets of white petunias.
