Rabbi Insists He Didn't Kill Wife

April 11, 2003 -- 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.

"She was looking for a relationship," Neulander said. "I responded to it, and I shouldn't have."

The relationship between the rabbi and the widow was so intense that Soncini converted to Judaism. By 1994, she wanted a "normal" relationship and she said she told Neulander that she was going to end their affair. Soncini testified that Neulander promised her that they would be together by her birthday, by the end of the year.

However, Neulander said he saw his relationship with Soncini as just an affair and denied promising to leave Carol. Soncini lied at his trial, he said, because she found out about his other affairs. He claims he never promised Soncini that they would have a life together, despite his many passionate phone messages and professions of love.

"It was a passionate, physical relationship," Neulander said. "I simply wanted to extend — let the relationship continue."

Adulterer — and Natural Suspect

But when Carol Neulander was found bludgeoned to death at home in November 1994, police soon found out about Neulander's affairs and focused their investigation on him. Neulander was forced to resign from his temple.

"Once they discovered that I had been unfaithful, they were under an enormous amount of pressure," Neulander said. "And what they did is, they packed the information that they wanted to get in around this emotional issue of my undeniably ugly behavior. And they had — in advance — decided, 'That's the murderer.' "

Neulander told police that he believed Carol was killed during a robbery attempt. The evidence against him was circumstantial and he was not charged with murder until 1998.

Prosecutors' key witness against Neulander turned out to be Jenoff, who initially had supported the rabbi, and Neulander said, offered to investigate Carol's slaying to pay him back for his counseling.

Jenoff told New Jersey prosecutors that Neulander paid him and his roommate Daniels to kill his wife and make it look like a robbery gone wrong. He came forward to relieve his conscience, prosecutors said, and he and Daniels agreed to testify against Neulander in exchange for reduced charges.

Neulander seethes in prison about what he sees as Jenoff's betrayal, and says he is a man without credibility. He suspects Jenoff killed Carol because he knew she sometimes carried thousands of dollars in cash from her bakery in her purse.

"Len Jenoff is an animal," Neulander said. "He is looked on as a 'poor, pathetic pathological liar.' You want to help him. And then, what Len Jenoff does is betray you."

‘I Cry Most About Them’

In a nationally televised trial in 2001, Neulander's sexual affairs and alleged motive for wanting his wife dead were pitted against the credibility of Jenoff and Daniels. Jurors were unable to reach a verdict, and the judge declared a mistrial. However, in his second trial, jurors convicted him after 27 hours of deliberations.

Neulander could have been sent to death row, but his youngest son, Benjamin, a teacher — the only one of his children to speak on his behalf — begged jurors to spare his life.

"He led me down an amazing path," Benjamin told jurors. "And I know he still has that capacity to affect people in a positive way."

Jurors were unable to reach a decision on the death penalty, which led the judge to impose the maximum sentence of 30 years to life. Jenoff and Daniels both face 10- to 30-year prison terms for pleading guilty to aggravated manslaughter.

Neulander is appealing his conviction and says he regrets that prosecutors — and the media — portrayed him as a cold-blooded murderer who referred to his wife as "the body" to police.

"For someone to read into what I did do or what I didn't do, as a sign of love or unlove, is outrageous," Neulander said. "To ascribe to me behavior that should have been done or shouldn't have been done … that's an arrogance and an intrusion into my head and my heart."

Perhaps Neulander most regrets his severed relationship with his children. His older son, Matthew, and daughter, Rebecca, testified against him and they don't want him involved in their lives.

"Of all the innocent victims, I cry most about them," Neulander said. "I would say to them I am innocent, that I could not — would not — and did not, in any way, participate in harming Carol's body. The last thing I would say to them is that I love them."