NOTORIOUS MURDERS > DEATH IN THE FAMILY

A Million Dollar Murder

By David Krajicek

Introduction

A ringing phone roused Dr. John Handwerker at 4:45 a.m. on June 29, 1964.

An answering service informed the physician of a medical emergency at the home of a millionaire neighbor in the diamond-dusted island enclave of Key Biscayne, Fla. Handwerker pulled on trousers and rushed to the home of Jacques Mossler, 69. The doctor might well have stayed in bed.

 

He found Mossler, the shrewd ruler of a $33 million financial empire, lying splayed on the living room floor, surrounded by an aura of crimson blood. Dr. Handwerker found no pulse, no heartbeat. There was nothing he could do because Mossler's murderer had done his work so thoroughly. The victim's chest had been all but shredded by knifework.

Later that day, Dr. Joseph Davis, the Dade County medical examiner, catalogued Mossler's fatal injuries. He had been clubbed on the head at least twice, probably with an oversized soda bottle and a sculptured glass swan found in the apartment. He had then been stabbed. The murderer appeared to have been intent on a sure-thing kill with a direct pricking of the heart.

Dr. Davis counted 17 entry wounds on the left side of Mossler's chest. Two more thrusts penetrated his breastbone at the center of the chest, and six others were found on the left side of the body near his heart. In all, the pathologist found 39 knife wounds, and more than a few found their target of the millionaire's heart.

 

The autopsy also numerous defense-style cuts on Mossler's hands and arms. He had died fighting. The question was: with whom?

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1. Introduction
2. Sanctioned Loansharking
3. Repo Man
4. Candy Strikes Gold
5. A Nephew Moves In
6. A Kinky Kind of Love
7. Midnight Migraines
8. A Crime of Passion?
9. Candy's Turn
10. Circus Trial, Circa '66
11. Disparaging the Victim
12. 'Humanity at Its Worst'
13. Brief Defense, Long Summary
14. Inside the Jury Room
15. Life Goes On
16. Bibliography