The Orchid Murder

Book excerpt: May 1973, Minneapolis florist Bob Nachtsheim was murdered by shotgun blast. The assailant left behind an overturned flat of orchids and a spreading pool of blood. Twin Cities media dubbed it the Orchid Murder, but the crime was never solved. Years later, Norm Wartnick, Nachtsheim's former employer, found himself sued by the victim's widow. His attorney made egregious errors in Wartnick's defense, and in 1986 Wartnick heard a jury declare him responsible for the wrongful death of Nachtsheim. The three-million-dollar civil judgment against the hard-working family man forced him to sell his family business and branded him a murderer. Jerry Snider and Joe Friedberg, two of Minnesota's top trial attorneys, were incensed by Wartnick's plight. Knowing they would battle enormous peer pressure and even greater odds, Snider and Friedberg placed their careers on the line in a six-year struggle against a judicial system determined to justify an attorney's betrayal of his client. In 2007, Ray decided he wanted his story told by someone he could talk with eye-to-eye. Delving into Ray's story, Snider and Friedberg's passionate pursuit of justice was understandable, for also involved were two families: the Nachtsheims and the Wartnicks-one splintered by bitter greed, the other strengthened through adversity. The Orchid Murder, for the first time, tells of Snider and Friedberg's determination to resolve a life-destroying judgment against an innocent man, and how one family's belief in each other and in the truth preserved hope during desperate times.