Curtis Chillingworth
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Curtis Eugene Chillingworth (October 24, 1896 to presumably June 15, 1955) was a Florida attorney and state judge who disappeared from his Manapalan, Florida home, and was later believed (together with his wife, Marjorie Chillingworth) to have become the victim of homicide.
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[edit] The disappearance
[edit] Leaving a dinner party
Chillingworth and his wife were last seen at a dinner in West Palm Beach, Florida on the evening June 14, 1955. They left the dinner about 10 PM for their Manapalan home. They went to bed expecting a carpenter to arrive in the morning of June 15 to build a playground for their grandchildren.
The carpenter arrived at 8 a.m. (which was the appropriate time), but when he got to the Chillingworth's home, he noticed that the door had been left open and that their home appeared to be empty. Later that same day, Judge Chillingworth failed to appear at a previously scheduled 10 a.m. hearing at the courthouse in West Palm Beach.
[edit] The police investigation
When the police began their investigation, they arrived at the Chillingworth's home and found a shattered porch light, drops of blood on the walkway to the beach, and two used spools of adhesive tape (one in the sand and one in the living room).
An accidental drowning during a morning swim was quickly ruled out, and $40 found to be in Marjorie's pocketbook ruled out robbery. The keys were still in the ignition of Chillingworth's Plymouth. No further clues were obtained and (at that point) the case went cold. Later, in 1957, Curtis and Marjorie Chillingworth were declared legally dead.
[edit] The Peel Murder-for-hire theory
[edit] Former associate Joseph Peel
While no bodies were ever recovered (and so definitive proof of the couple's death was never found), the most dominant theory about what happened to the Chillingworths begins with Judge Chillingworth's known previous association with a Florida municipal court judge named Joseph Peel. Peel, the theory proceeds, was protecting bolita operators and moonshiners. In 1953, Peel represented both sides in a divorce (something that was unethical by conventional legal standards of conduct). His superior at that time (Judge Curtis Eugene Chillingworth), gave him only a reprimand, with the warning that this was his last chance. This so angered Peel that he arranged for the Chillingworths to be killed.
[edit] Hired murderers
By early June 1955, Peel was in a panic. He believed that his ethical lapses were about to be exposed by Judge Chillingworth (which would probably result in ending Peel's legal career). Peel then hired "Lucky" Holzapfel (a known criminal and a carpenter's apprentice) to murder the Chillingworths. On the night of June 14, Holzapfel (and an accomplice named Bobby Lincoln) went to Manalapan and landed on the beach behind the Chillingworth's house around 1 a.m. Bobby Lincoln crouched in the bushes as Lucky knocked on the door. The judge answered in his pajamas. Lucky pulled a pistol from under his shirt and forced the Judge and his wife into the boat. After the boat drifted for about an hour, the couple were thrown overboard with lead weights strapped to their legs. This is the theory, however, in truth, Peel did not hire Holzapfel or Lincoln to murder Chillingworth, they committed these murders in the hope that their illegal activities with Peel would be allowed to continue.
[edit] Pleading guilty to a double murder
On December 12, Lucky pleaded guilty to both murders and was sent to Death Row. On March 30, 1961, Peel was found guilty of accessory to murder. He received two life sentences. The accomplice to the murder, Bobby Lincoln, finished his federal prison term in Michigan in 1962. Lucky died in prison in 1996.
