Roger Dale Stafford (November 4, 1951 – July 1, 1995) was a convicted

serial killer A serial killer is typically a person who murders three or more persons,A * * * * with the murders taking place over more than a month and including a significant period of time between them. While most authorities set a threshold of three ...

executed Capital punishment, also known as the death penalty, is the state-sanctioned practice of deliberately killing a person as a punishment for an actual or supposed crime, usually following an authorized, rule-governed process to conclude that t ...

for the 1978 murders of the Lorenz Family and six employees of a

Sirloin Stockade Sirloin Stockade is an American family-style all-you-can-eat buffet steakhouse, restaurant chain and franchisor that was founded in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma in 1966. In June 2016, the parent company, Stockade Companies, operated over 80 restaurants ...

restaurant in Oklahoma. Stafford never acknowledged his guilt, but Stafford's wife, Verna, implicated him in a total of 34 murders in seven different states.

Crimes

Stafford began his killing spree on January 12, 1974 by killing 21-year-old Jimmy Earl Berry, a student at the

University of North Alabama The University of North Alabama (UNA) is a public university in Florence, Alabama. It is the state's oldest public university. Occupying a campus in a residential section of Florence, UNA is located within a four-city area that also includes ...

, working as an assistant manager at a

McDonald's McDonald's Corporation is an American Multinational corporation, multinational fast food chain store, chain, founded in 1940 as a restaurant operated by Richard and Maurice McDonald, in San Bernardino, California, United States. They rechri ...

restaurant in

Muscle Shoals, Alabama Muscle Shoals is the largest city in Colbert County, Alabama, Colbert County, Alabama, United States. It is located along the Tennessee River in the northern part of the state and, as of the 2010 United States Census, 2010 census, the populati ...

. Berry was shot four times and the perpetrator robbed the restaurant of

US$ The United States dollar (symbol: $; code: USD; also abbreviated US$ or U.S. Dollar, to distinguish it from other dollar-denominated currencies; referred to as the dollar, U.S. dollar, American dollar, or colloquially buck) is the official ...

1,390.00. This crime remained unsolved until four years after the incident, when Stafford and his brother Harold were implicated by Dale's wife, Verna. Stafford was never prosecuted for Berry's murder because of the Oklahoma murder convictions. He continued on with his murder spree along with his wife, Verna, and brother, Harold, on June 22, 1978. His wife flagged down the Lorenz family on the side of Interstate 35 near

Purcell, Oklahoma Purcell is a city in and the county seat of McClain County, Oklahoma, United States. As of the 2020 census, the city population was 6,651. Founded in 1887, Purcell was a railroad town named after Edward B. Purcell, who was an official with th ...

, when Melvin Lorenz, 38, his wife, Linda, 31, and their son Richard, 12, were traveling to

North Dakota North Dakota () is a U.S. state in the Upper Midwest, named after the Native Americans in the United States, indigenous Dakota people, Dakota Sioux. North Dakota is bordered by the Canadian provinces of Saskatchewan and Manitoba to the north a ...

for the funeral of Melvin Lorenz's mother. After the Lorenz family stopped to help, Stafford then robbed and murdered the entire family. Three weeks later, he murdered six employees at a Sirloin Stockade restaurant in

Oklahoma City Oklahoma City (), officially the City of Oklahoma City, and often shortened to OKC, is the capital and largest city of the U.S. state of Oklahoma. The county seat of Oklahoma County, it ranks 20th among United States cities in population, a ...

during a robbery.

Capture and trial

Six days after the Sirloin Stockade robbery, Harold Stafford died in a

motorcycle A motorcycle (motorbike, bike, or trike (if three-wheeled)) is a two or three-wheeled motor vehicle steered by a handlebar. Motorcycle design varies greatly to suit a range of different purposes: long-distance travel, commuting, cruising ...

accident in

Tulsa, Oklahoma Tulsa () is the second-largest city in the state of Oklahoma and 47th-most populous city in the United States. The population was 413,066 as of the 2020 census. It is the principal municipality of the Tulsa Metropolitan Area, a region with ...

. Police traced a woman who went to see his body at a local funeral home to

Chicago, Illinois (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

, where they found and arrested Verna Stafford. They soon apprehended Roger Stafford as well. On Oct. 17, 1979, he was convicted of all nine murders, and sentenced to death. His wife Verna testified against him, and

divorce Divorce (also known as dissolution of marriage) is the process of terminating a marriage or marital union. Divorce usually entails the canceling or reorganizing of the legal duties and responsibilities of marriage, thus dissolving the ...

d him while he was on

death row Death row, also known as condemned row, is a place in a prison that houses inmates awaiting Capital punishment, execution after being convicted of a capital crime and sentenced to death. The term is also used figuratively to describe the state of ...

(she was sentenced to two life terms for her part in the crimes). Stafford married again—twice—while awaiting execution.

Execution

Stafford was executed in

Oklahoma Oklahoma (; Choctaw language, Choctaw: ; chr, ᎣᎧᎳᎰᎹ, ''Okalahoma'' ) is a U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States, bordered by Texas on the south and west, Kansas on the nor ...

lethal injection Lethal injection is the practice of injecting one or more drugs into a person (typically a barbiturate, paralytic, and potassium solution) for the express purpose of causing rapid death. The main application for this procedure is capital puni ...

on July 1, 1995. In his final moments, Stafford reportedly spoke in tongues to his third wife. Less than two weeks later, Assistant Attorney General Sandy Howard received a $5 Sirloin Stockade gift certificate with the message "Hey, you got away with it. I am murder nowiki/>sic.html"_;"title="sic.html"_;"title="nowiki/>sic">nowiki/>sic">sic.html"_;"title="nowiki/>sic">nowiki/>sicand_you_help_[sic.html" ;"title="sic">nowiki/>sic.html" ;"title="sic.html" ;"title="nowiki/>sic">nowiki/>sic">sic.html" ;"title="nowiki/>sic">nowiki/>sicand you help [sic">sic">nowiki/>sic.html" ;"title="sic.html" ;"title="nowiki/>sic">nowiki/>sic">sic.html" ;"title="nowiki/>sic">nowiki/>sicand you help [sicdo it! I am innocent and you know it" written on the back and signed "Roger Dale Stafford 103767". Investigators traced the certificate's origin to a Sirloin Stockade restaurant in El Reno, Oklahoma, and determined that it had been mailed from McAlester, Oklahoma (where Stafford was imprisoned) on July 3, two days after Stafford's execution.

References

External links

Roger Dale Stafford at Find A Grave
{{DEFAULTSORT:Stafford, Roger Dale 1951 births 1974 murders in the United States 1978 murders in the United States 1995 deaths 20th-century executions by Oklahoma 20th-century executions of American people American mass murderers American murderers of children American people convicted of murder American spree killers Executed American serial killers Executed mass murderers Executed spree killers Male serial killers People convicted of murder by Oklahoma People executed by Oklahoma by lethal injection People executed for murder

Crimes

Capture and trial

Execution

See also

References

External links