FREED DRUG-CASE KILLER GUNNED DOWN CONVICTED OF 1977 SLAYING OF SPORTS HEIR

Miami Herald, The (FL) - September 13, 1986

Author: ARNOLD MARKOWITZ Herald Staff Writer
Readability: 6-8 grade level (Lexile: 1030)

Barry Adler, who served seven years of a sentence of life plus 99 years for killing and robbing a cocaine customer, has been murdered
himself four months and two weeks after getting out of prison, North Miami police said Friday.
Adler, 27, the son of a wealthy insurance agency owner, was found dead at 8:30 p.m. Thursday in his car, parked outside a Lum's
restaurant at 550 NE 125th St.
"He was the apparent victim of multiple gunshot wounds. Basically that's all we have now," said Sgt. Tom Hood. "We have no idea what
the motive was, and no idea at this time who was involved.
"To the best of our knowledge, he had not been in Lum's," Hood said. "According to one of the detectives who was at the autopsy, he had
been dead probably not more than an hour."
Hood said Adler was shot "in the upper body, the head area" with a pistol, but he would not say how many times. He said police have no
witnesses. Adler lived with his parents, Charles and Marilyn Adler, in a Cricket Club apartment, 1800 NE 114th St., since his release from
prison on April 29. He had a job in his father's insurance agency, Adler and Adler, in North Miami Beach.
His car, a gold-colored $25,000 Datsun 300ZX Turbo with a telephone, was brand new.
"There was very low mileage on it," Hood said. "I don't know when he bought it or where."
Sgt. Dick Carver said Adler was wearing a Rolex wristwatch and a gold chain, and had money in his pocket. For those reasons, police
assume the motive for the murder was not robbery.
A briefcase was in the trunk of the car. Carver said police had not opened it Friday evening because they were still working on the car's
exterior, looking for fingerprints.
Police said they plan to review facts of the 1977 murder case that sent Adler to prison, but emphasized they have no evidence that Adler's
death is connected to it.
Miami police who investigated that case learned that Adler, though he had no prior criminal record, had been selling cocaine for some
while -- on at least nine occasions to Robert Reid Topping, to whose murder he pleaded guilty in 1978.
Topping, 20, was heir to a professional sports fortune. He was the son of the late Dan Topping, a co-owner of the New York Yankees
baseball team from 1949-64. In 1976 his mother, Charlotte Topping, married Rankin M. Smith Sr., who owns the Atlanta Falcons football
team.
According to police, Topping flew to Miami on Aug. 16, 1977, from Atlanta, where he was a college student. He was carrying $47,000 to
buy cocaine from Adler.
Adler and Andrew Schell, 19, picked up Topping at Miami International Airport. As they drove away, with Topping a passenger in the front
seat, he was stabbed from behind 33 times and his throat was slit. The body was dumped in the road at Northeast 83rd Street and Fourth
Place.
Adler and Schell were arrested two days later. Each claimed the other had killed Topping. Schell, who passed two lie detector tests, was
believed. Adler, who refused a test, was not.
Adler eventually pleaded guilty to charges of second-degree murder, robbery and kidnapping. On the basis of an exceptional prison
record, the Florida Parole and Probation Commission let him go on April 29, on lifetime probation.
Melvyn Kessler, a Miami lawyer who negotiated Adler's guilty plea, learned of his murder Friday afternoon.
"Wow. That's heavy-duty stuff," he said. "You never know
from one day to the next what's going to happen. I talked with him the day he got out or the day after, but not since then. He just called to
say hello. He sounded happy. Nice. Pleasant. I'm shocked."
Kessler said he remembers Adler having a Rolex watch and other expensive jewelry before he went to prison.

Steve Szelwach, a state probation officer who has checked up on Adler twice at home and weekly at work, does not think the expensive
car and jewelry signify Adler's return to a life of crime.
"He was living with his parents, and his salary of $900 a month easily afforded meeting the $350-a-month payment on the car," Szelwach
said.
Szelwach said he last saw Adler Friday. "He said he wanted to take classes at FIU and Miami-Dade, to study insurance, but he was a
week late," Szelwach said. "I don't know if he followed through. He wanted to prove himself and go to school."
Szelwach said he was convinced that Adler was working hard as an account supervisor and general office worker at his father's insurance
agency, and staying out of trouble:
"He was always working hard, doing very well. He knew that if he was arrested for anything he'd be sent back to state prison. He was too
afraid to get involved in anything."
Caption: photo: Barry ADLER
Edition: FINAL Section: LOCAL Page number: 1B Record: 8603120382 Index terms: ADLER MURDER SHOOTING MD NM Copyright:
Copyright (c) 1986 The Miami Herald