The Great Prevaricator  Oct 9, 2009 - by - 1 Comment  Edgar
Smith  Edgar Smith  Edgar Smith, with William F. Buckley Jr.
blithely playing his stooge, wrote his way to freedom from the
Death House in Trenton State Prison in 1971, becoming the most
famous death-row prisoner of his time. Fourteen and-a-half years
earlier, Smith -- at age 23 -- had bludgeoned to death 15-year-
old Vickie Zielinski in Mahwah, N.J. Less than five years after
his release from prison, Smith kidnapped a petite but scrappy
young mother who miraculously managed to escape from Smith's car
with a knife stuck in her side.  by Lona Manning  Sixty-nine
year-old Edgar Smith lives an anonymous existence as one of
almost 160,000 inmates in the California penal system. At one
time, however, he was the most famous prisoner in the United
States. His story begins on the other side of the country and
almost half a century ago, in the peaceful town of Mahwah, N.J.
In 1957, Smith was sentenced to die in the electric chair for
the murder of Vickie Zieli