Elena Semander

popular name: Marilyn Sheppard

date_of_death: July 4, 1954

age: 28

cause_of_death: Homicide - blunt force trauma

claim_to_fame: Crime and their Victims

best_know_for: Marilyn Sheppard was violently murdered in her home of Bay Village, Ohio on July 4, 1954. Her husband Dr. Samuel Sheppard was the primary suspect and convicted of her murder, but after 10 years in prison he was acquitted in 1966 at a second trial. The case was controversial from the beginning, with extensive and prolonged nationwide media coverage. The U.S. Supreme Court determined that the "carnival atmosphere" surrounding Sheppard's first trial had made due process impossible.

popular name: Michael Maggio

date_of_death: March 14, 1959

age: 69

cause_of_death: Natural causes

claim_to_fame: Crime and their Victims

best_know_for: Michael Maggio was one of the original Philadelphia organized crime figures beginning in the 1910s. The leader of "the Greaser Gang" in south Philadelphia, he quickly ascended to a leadership role in the Philly crime family. Known in the city as a wealthy cheese importer, manufacture and businessman, we was also a leader in the criminal underworld who did not hesitate to use violence as a means to the end. In his early 60s. Due to health reasons, he turned the family operations over to his son Peter. He sponsored future Philadelphia Organized Crime Boss Angelo Bruno for membership into the Philadelphia Family during the 1930s who gradually ascended to the role of mafia Don. Michael died of natural causes in Miami, Florida at age 69. After mobster Michael Maggio died in March 1959 his protege Angelo Bruno used the Maggio Cheese Company on 11th and Washington Streets in Philadelphia, PA as headquarters from which the mob boss then ran his numbers racket. Upon his death, he was interred at Holy Cross Cemetery in Yeadon, PA.

popular name: Kitty Menéndez

date_of_death: August 20, 1989,

age: 47

cause_of_death: Homicide - gunshot wounds

claim_to_fame: Crime and their Victims

best_know_for: Kitty Menendez was a former beauty queen, school teacher and mid-level Beverly Hills socialite who was married to entertainment executive Jose Menendez. Sadly Kitty and Jose will always be remembered as the murder victims of their two sons - Erik and Lyle. In August of 1989 the couple’s two sons, Lyle and Erik, drove a small white hatchback up to the house, got their weapons from the trunk and entered the house via the French doors. The first shot from a .12 gauge shotgun hit José in the back of the head and killed him instantly. They continued with two more shots, tearing open both arms. Kitty was not so lucky as they pumped 10 shots as she tried to crawl away with the final shotgun blast to the face. Lyle dialed the fake 911 call and told police they had arrived home after a movie to the grisly discovery as smoke from the gunshots still loomed in the air. But as the months passed after the execution-style deaths, police were struck by the sons’ lavish spending sprees: buying Rolex watches, private tennis lessons, expensive clothing, jewelry, a Porsche, and even a chicken wings restaurant. After two hung juries, a third trial found them guilty of murder and sentenced the two sons to life without parole.