Fred Neulander Cherry Hill Rabbi Dies In Prison

Neulander, 82, was observed unresponsive by correctional officers inside a prison infirmary unit on Wednesday, April 17, according to NBCPhiladelphia.com and The Philadelphia Inquirer.

Prison officials have not released a cause of death, however, he was listed as "deceased" on the state's Department of Corrections website.

Neulander — the founding rabbi of Congregation M’kor Shalom of Cherry Hill, a Reform Jewish synagogue — had been serving a life sentence since his 2002 conviction.

A graduate of Trinity College in Hartford, CT, the rabbi paid two men $30,000 in 1994 to kill his wife Carol Neulander, the mother of the couple's three children. Carol was bludgeoned to death with a lead pipe by the hitmen in the home she and her husband shared in Cherry Hill.

During the murder trial, one of the hitmen testified that Neulander wanted his wife dead so he could carry on an affair with Philadelphia radio personality Elaine Soncini. Sonici issued an on-air apology calling her two-year affair with the rabbi a mistake, adding that the relationship filled a void in the wake of her husband's death.

The case was made into a true-crime musical called "A Wicked Soul in Cherry Hill," written by Matt Schatz, a former Cherry Hill resident.

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