Playboy rabbi who hired two hitmen to kill his wife so he could pursue an affair with New Jersey radio star is found dead in prison where he was serving life for murder

Fred Neulander, a former senior rabbi at a synagogue in Cherry Hill, New Jersey, has been found dead while serving a life sentence in New Jersey State Prison in Trenton.

Neulander, who was 82, had been in prison since 2002 following the 1994 murder-for-hire of his wife 52-year-old Carol Neulander, at their home.

Two hired killers testified how they beat Carol to death on orders from her husband who had promised to pay them $30,000. 

One said Neulander wanted his wife dead so he could carry on an affair. 

The crime shocked the local community at the time and gained national attention because of the scandalous nature.

Neulander had been in the Trenton prison since 2002. He was found nonresponsive in his cell by correctional officers and was rushed to Capital Health Regional Medical Center, where attempts to revive him were unsuccessful. 

No cause of death has been given.

Neulander's case centered around his desire to pursue an affair with a local radio personality, Elaine Soncini, a DJ who worked at WPEN-FM.

The pair met when Neulander officiated at the 1992 funeral of her husband, Ken Garland. 

It led to Neulander hiring two hitmen, Paul Daniels and Len Jenoff, to kill Carol.

Both hitmen were freed in 2014 having served ten years of a maximum 23-year sentence. 

Daniels even expressed remorse for his role in the crime, highlighting the profound impact it had on him and the victim's family.

The murder of Carol Neulander, who was a beloved figure in South Jersey's Jewish community, was said to have left a lasting impact on those who knew her, reports the Philadelphia Inquirer.

The crime scene was found to have been staged to look like a robbery and immediately raised suspicions among investigators after almost nothing in the house had been touched. 

It ultimately led to Neulander's arrest and subsequent conviction although at his trial the jury could not agree on whether he should receive the death penalty - and so he was sentenced to life imprisonment.

Carol, who was mother to the couple's three children, had been bludgeoned to death with a metal pipe. 

She had been talking on the phone to her adult daughter, Rebecca Neulander Rockoff, when the assailants entered the family's home. 

The case gained further notoriety through media coverage, including true-crime documentaries and even a true-crime musical, A Wicked Soul in Cherry Hill, based on the events.  

More than 2,000 members of the Jewish community together with relatives and friends came to Carol's funeral. 

Despite attempts to overturn his conviction, Neulander remained incarcerated until his death. He would have been due for parole at the age of 90, in eight years from now.

In 2016, a state appeals court rejected a request from Neulander to overturn his murder conviction. 

'The opinion only reaffirms the jury's sound belief in a guilty verdict in this case,' Robert English, a spokesperson for the Camden County Prosecutor's Office, said at the time.

Following Neulander's death, his former congregation, Kol Ami in Cherry Hill, released a statement emphasizing the community's journey towards healing. 

'Fred Neulander's leadership of the congregation ended many years ago under well-publicized circumstances that ran counter to the values our congregation holds dear.

'Rather than dwell on the past, we at Congregation Kol Ami ... choose to focus on our future. We are building a vibrant and inclusive Jewish community guided by shared values and traditions, supporting each other through life's joys and sorrows, and finding purpose and connection through prayer, learning, and acts of compassion and kindness.'