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: Tony Accardo

date_of_death: May 22, 1992

age: 86

cause_of_death: Respiratory illness and heart disease

claim_to_fame: Crime and their Victims

best_know_for: Tony Accardo was the longest-serving boss of the Chicago Outfit. He worked for Al Capone, then ran the crime group for many decades before his death in 1992. Although he is suspected in participating in over 20 murders, he only spent a single night in jail and died of natural causes - rare for a man in his line of business.

popular name: Angelo Lonardo

date_of_death: March 31, 2006

age: 95

cause_of_death: Natural causes

claim_to_fame: Crime and their Victims

best_know_for: Big Ange, the son of Prohibition mob boss Joseph Lonardo, took control of the Cleveland crime family in 1962. He led the family until 1984 when he was convicted of running a drug ring and was sentenced to life in prison. He then became an informant, making him the highest-ranking Mafia snitch up to that time.