Former Air Force fighter pilot Todd Winkler was accused of brutally murdering his petite wife Rachel, stabbing her to death with a pair of scissors in their home. He says it was self-defense. “She’s in much better shape than me,” Winkler said of the mother of his three small children, including seven-month old Alex. Prosecutors said “blood evidence indicated that Todd Winkler took Alex from Rachel Winkler’s arms as she cowered in the corner of a bedroom, put the infant in a crib and then finished killing his wife.” Rachel Winkler was his third wife.
[Todd Winkler’s Second Wife Catherine Died Driving Him to Hospital]
During the murder trial, Todd Winkler started to act strangely. He slapped his head repeatedly and spoke, as if in tongues, in a threatening way to the prosecutor — “you do not speak truth. You only want destroy.” The prosecutor said it was an act, and that Winkler had killed before. Winkler’s second wife, Catherine Winkler, died in a 1999 car crash in Georgia. Todd Winkler received nearly $1.2 million from the insurance policy. 48 Hours will air Richard Schlesigner’s investigative report on Saturday, December 12 at 10pm on CBS.
