Rabbi Insists He Didn't Kill Wife

April 11 -- Despite his murder conviction and admission to adultery, Fred Neulander insists he was not involved in his wife's slaying and still prefers to be called "rabbi," which means teacher.

"I think 'rabbi,' " Neulander told 20/20's Barbara Walters, when asked how he wanted to be addressed during an interview. "One doesn't 'defrock' a rabbi."

But Neulander, 61, is a rabbi without a congregation, and even lacks the support of his own children. He is serving 30 years to life in prison.

Prosecutors say the rabbi hired two men to kill his wife, Carol, so that he could continue an affair he was having with a Philadelphia radio talk-show host. Last November, thanks to the testimony of the men prosecutors said he hired, Neulander was convicted of capital murder, felony murder and conspiracy to commit murder.

Prosecutors convinced a New Jersey jury that Neulander was determined to continue his passionate affair with Elaine Soncini and promised to pay Len Jenoff, an alcoholic he had once counseled, $30,000 to kill his wife. Jenoff recruited his roommate Paul Daniels, a drug-addicted schizophrenic, to help him commit the crime.

Today, Neulander regrets his affair but says he has no remorse for his wife's slaying — because he didn't do it.

"I can't express remorse for a murder that I did not commit," he told Walters. "I know the result [of the trial] was unfair. Twelve people had no doubt — no 'reasonable' doubt — of my guilt, and I know that's wrong."

Just an Affair

During their 29-year marriage, Fred and Carol Neulander built the large M'kor Shalom congregation in Cherry Hill, N.J. They had three children together, but despite appearances, it was reported that their marriage was troubled.

Carol had started a successful bakery business and she and Fred were spending more time apart. Starting in 1992, Fred Neulander admits, he began having affairs with other women, some of whom were members of his own congregation.

One of Neulander's mistresses was Soncini. The two met when Soncini's husband died and Neulander oversaw the funeral. Soncini, Neulander said, was looking for comfort and he began to counsel her. However, the counseling soon turned into a love affair that included, according to Soncini, passionate love letters, multiple sexual trysts in the rabbi's office before and after temple services, and fantasies of marriage.