Arthur Shapiro was in trouble. The shy, secretive lawyer—a partner in the Columbus, Ohio firm of Schwartz, Shapiro, Kelm & Warren—was under investigation by the Internal Revenue Service for failing to file income tax returns for seven years and for possible investments in shady tax shelters. In March 1985, Shapiro was due to testify before a grand jury over his tax dodging—and whether anyone had helped him hide money. What he might reveal, no one knew, but he and his firm had several high-profile clients and a long history in Columbus.

But Arthur Shapiro never made it to the stand. A day before his scheduled testimony, someone fired two bullets point-blank into his head as he fled from a secretive breakfast meeting—held in his red BMW—at a Columbus cemetery.

The mob-style murder has never been solved.