Dangerous Liaisons

Trexler: There was very little for the police to go on—and it seemed like it was one of those cases where it may never be solved.

Jeff Zack’s execution-style murder had faded from the headlines, and a year into their investigation, the detectives were at a dead end. Though they had come to believe that Ed and Cindy George were somehow behind the killing.

Det. Felber: It was frustrating because we knew that somebody had some information.  We knew somebody knew exactly what happened.

Summit County District Attorney Sherri Bevan Walsh felt the same way.

Sherri Bevan Walsh, district attorney: There was certainly a lot of frustration because it was such a public case. So when some of that critical information finally did come in, it was a big sense of relief that finally this investigation is going to really start moving.

The critical information came from this woman. And what she told detectives was about to blow the case wide open.

Det. Felber: She believed that her ex-husband, John Zaffino, was the one who shot Jeff Zack. 

John Zaffino: It was the first time detectives had ever heard the name. He was a 35-year-old truck driver, and his ex-wife, Chris Todaro said he was violent.

Christine Todaro, John Zaffino's ex-wife:  He was a maniac.  He would go from zero to Mach Ten in three seconds.  Anything could set him off, just off the scale is the best way to describe him.

Had the detectives been focusing on the wrong suspects all along? Had they been looking too closely at Ed and Cindy George?  Had there been someone else entirely with a motive to kill Jeff Zack? Todaro says a month before the murder, Zaffino had told her about a man he disliked, and had described him as a tall, white-haired Israeli.

Todaro:  He told me that they had gotten in a fight and that he had beat him up in front of his posse.

Then, when she read about Jeff Zack’s murder and saw his picture in the newspaper, she knew it was too much of a coincidence. So she says she called Zaffino.

Todaro: All I said to him was, “Was that you?”  And he laughed and snickered.  And he said, “Well, let’s just say the guy’s gonna have a hard time parting his hair from now on.”

Detectives wondered if this new mystery man was the same person who’d left that threatening message for Jeff Zack just days before he was killed...

”All right buddy, you’ve got one more out. So you need to start answering your cellphone, okay?”

Detectives played the tape for Todaro. And when she heard it, she knew right away it was John Zaffino.

Todaro: He’s talked to me like that a thousand times.  Millions of times.  It was definitely his voice. 

Next, detectives hatched a plan to catch Zaffino. First, they convinced Todaro to wear a wire, hoping she could get her ex-husband to confess on tape. Then, they planted a story about the murder in the local newspaper, giving Todaro a reason to call.

(recorded call) Todaro: You need to read the paper. 

Zaffino: What’d it say?

Todaro: It’s in there about that guy, that guy you took out.

Zaffino: Chris, how dare you say that… I’d appreciate it if you didn’t talk on the phone about stuff, please.  Ok?

Todaro: Yeah.

Zaffino: Cause, you know, you know they listen.

Although Zaffino never confessed on tape, there are about a dozen recordings in all. He did sound concerned his ex-wife might turn him in.

Zaffino: …the only thing that would ever put me in prison and death is you…

Todaro: …f@&k you, I’m getting out, I don’t like that, no. 

Zaffino: …and maybe the electric chair.

Certainly John Zaffino seemed like a good suspect, and as detectives continued to dig, they began finding witnesses and evidence that pointed to John Zaffino as the triggerman.

A co-worker who sold him two handguns in the weeks before the murder.

A black ninja-type motorcycle with lime green stripes registered in his name, the same kind of bike described by witnesses.

Another ex-wife, who said Zaffino ditched the motorcycle at her house in Pennsylvania, just days after Zack was killed.

Lt. Whiddon:  He had told his ex-wife that this bike was wanted in Ohio.

And she told police the motorcycle’s distinctive stripes were masked, covered with duct tape.  Detectives believe Zaffino had been making an effort to cover up his crime; it was time to make their move.

Lt. Whiddon: We were convinced that John Zaffino committed this murder.

On September 25^th, 2002, a year after the murder, they arrested John Zaffino. He was charged with aggravated murder in the death of Jeff Zack. The announcement came as a surprise to reporter Phil Trexler.

Trexler: His name had never come up in all of the work that we’d done.  It came out of nowhere.

John Zaffino would plead not guilty and the case was once again back in the headlines. And the detectives called Elayne Zack with the news her son’s suspected killer was in custody.

Zack: I couldn’t believe it.  I really was ecstatic that finally some justice was being served.

A few days later, as news of the arrest continued to spread, detectives received a tip that convinced them Zaffino had once before tried to murder Zack.

Lt. Whiddon: I received a phone call from a park ranger that said, you know, we’ve dealt with this guy before, too.  We know about John Zaffino.

Zaffino was stopped and questioned in a park just outside Akron, about a month before the homicide. There was an empty holster in his car. Then, a few days later a loaded handgun was found hidden in the woods, and it matched the description of the gun Zaffino bought from his co-worker.

Lt. Whiddon: And he said that looks exactly like the one I sold him.

Detectives say Zaffino had been in the park waiting for Jeff Zack to show up, but he never did. It was, they say, a botched hit that set in motion the violent Father’s day weekend shooting that stunned so many in Akron.

But there was still one major questioned left unanswered: What was John Zaffino’s connection to Jeff Zack...and why would he want to kill him?

As if this story weren’t tangled enough, there were more complications to come—an explosive piece of information that police say went a long way to explaining Zack’s murder.

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