Timothy O'Bryan

popular name: Julius and Ethel Rosenberg

date_of_death: June 19, 1953

age:

cause_of_death: Execution by electric chair

claim_to_fame: Crime and their Victims

best_know_for: It was a case that mesmerized the country and the world. On June 19, 1953, at the height of the Cold War, New York City–born Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were put to death in the electric chair. Convicted of conspiring to pass atomic bomb secrets to the Soviet Union, they were the first civilians to be executed by the United States on espionage charges. Their conviction of spying for the Soviet Union included providing top-secret information about American radar, sonar, jet propulsion engines, and nuclear weapon designs. Convicted of espionage in 1951, they were executed in 1953 at Sing Sing in Ossining, New York. For decades, many people, including the Rosenberg's sons (Michael and Robert Meeropol), maintained that Julius and Ethel were innocent of spying on their country and were victims of Cold War paranoia. Several years after their execution, top nuclear scientist Boris V. Brokhovich stated the Soviets had developed their own bomb by trial and error. "You sat the Rosenbergs in the electric chair for nothing", he said. "We got nothing from the Rosenbergs." The notes allegedly typed by Ethel Rosenberg as dictated by her husband apparently contained little that was directly used in the Soviet atomic bomb project. According to Julius's contact Feklisov, the Rosenbergs did not provide the Soviet Union with any useful material about the atomic bomb: "He [Julius] didn't understand anything about the atomic bomb and he couldn't help us."

popular name: Joseph Giunta

date_of_death: May 7, 1929

age: 42

cause_of_death: Homicide - gunshot wounds

claim_to_fame: Crime and their Victims

best_know_for: Joseph Giunta was an Italian-American mobster, President of Unione Siciliana and confidant of Al Capone's rival Joe Aiello. He was a lead conspirator in an attempt to overthrow Al Capone’s criminal empire. When Frank Rio (Capone's bodyguard) got wind of the plot, according to legend Giunta and his associates Albert Anselmi and John Scalise were beaten and shot to death by Capone at a party. Their bodies were found the next day in Hammond, Indiana.

popular name: Tommy Gagliano

date_of_death: February 16, 1951

age: 67

cause_of_death: Heart disease

claim_to_fame: Crime and their Victims

best_know_for: Tommy Gagliano (born Tommaso Gagliano) was an Italian-born American mobster and boss of what U.S. federal authorities would later designate as the Lucchese crime family, one of the "Five Families" of New York City. He was a low-profile boss for over two decades. His successor was his longtime loyalist and underboss, Tommy Lucchese.