Fred Neulander

Fred Neulander Full Name: Frederick J. Neulander Alias: Fred Neulander Origin: Cherry Hill, New Jersey, U.S. Occupation: Rabbi Goals: Avoid divorcing his wife (succeeded) Get away with murder (failed) Crimes: Murder Type of Villain: Murderer

Fred J. Neulander (born 14 August 1941) is an American Rabbi convicted of ordering the murder of his wife Carol. He had reportedly ordered her death in order to avoid the aggravation of a divorce and the exposure of his affair with another woman.

Biography

Neulander was born in Cherry Hill, New Jersey, in 1941. He was the founder of the Congregation M'Kor Shalom Reform Temple in Cherry Hill in 1974.

On 1 November 1994 Neulander called the police and reported that he had returned home to find his wife Carol beaten to death on the floor. A police investigation named Neulander as the lead suspect because he had been having an affair with local radio personality Elaine Soncini, which he had lied about during the investigation. Soncini herself initially denied the affair but admitted to it after being falsely told that Neulander had other mistresses, telling police that Neulander had wanted to leave his wife to be with her but refused to seek a divorce because of Jewish law. She also claimed that Neulander had told her he "dreamed" of finding his wife dead. However, Neulander had been seen at a synagogue at the time of the murder. Police assumed he had hired someone to kill Carol for him.

In 1998, Neulander was indicted for murder. The evidence against him was entirely circumstantial, but police hoped that prosecuting Neulander would enable them to find evidence against whoever he paid to kill Carol. Two years later, in April 2000, Len Jenoff, a private investigator hired by Neulander to investigate Carol's death, confessed that Neulander had paid him and another man named Paul Daniels $18,000 to kill his wife. According to Jenoff, he had entered the Neulander home under the pretext of using the bathroom and had later entered again with Daniels to deliver a parcel and beaten Carol Neulander to death. Jenoff and Daniels were both indicted alongside Neulander.

Neulander's defence attempted to cast doubt on Jenoff's claims by drawing attention to his history of lying about his past, but his story was corroborated by Neulander's children, who remembered the "bathroom man" entering the house and identified him as Jenoff. Neulander's daughter also remembered that during a phone call just before she was murdered, Carol Neulander had mentioned that the "bathroom man" was with her delivering a parcel that her husband had told her to expect. Neulander's son Matthew Neulander testified at trial that two days before the murder Neulander had argued with Carol about the state of their marriage and told her "It's over".

Neulander's trial ended in a mistrial after the jury deadlocked 9 - 3 in favour of conviction. Neulander was given a second trial in 2003, at which he was convicted. He was sentenced to serve 30 years to life at the Trenton State Prison. A 2006 appeal against Neulander's conviction alleging court error was denied.