Springfield's best confession-getter just retired News-Leader Harrison Keegan , HKEEGAN@NEWS-LEADER.COM 2:16 p.m. CT Feb. 26, 2016 (Photo: Nathan Papes/News-Leader) A confession, police say, is the most important piece of evidence in a murder case. Not DNA. Not witnesses. Not the murder weapon. In Springfield, colleagues say there was no one better at drawing out admissions than Sgt. Allen Neal. "He was a chess player, not a checker player," said Maj. Kirk Manlove, who worked with Neal for more than 20 years. "He really was a strategic interviewer. He knew what was needed to determine what took place during a crime."Earlier this month, Neal retired from the Springfield Police Department after 25 years on the force, the last eight of those years as the supervisor of the Violent Crimes Unit. Since 2007, the year Neal took over as supervisor of the homicide squad, Springfield police have cleared 83 percent of th