Silas Jayne

popular name: Nicole Brown Simpson

date_of_death: June 12, 1994

age: 35

cause_of_death: Stabbed seven times in the neck and scalp; 5.5 inch slit across her throat which severed both carotid arteries and breached her jugular veins

claim_to_fame: Crime and their Victims

best_know_for: Nicole Brown Simpson was the ex-wife of former professional football player and occasional actor O. J. Simpson, to whom she was married from 1985 to 1992, and the mother of their two children, Sydney and Justin. She was killed in front of her condo in Los Angeles, California, on June 12, 1994, along with her friend, restaurant waiter Ron Goldman. Simpson, who had a legal history of physically abusing, stalking and making death threats toward Brown, was arrested and charged with both killings. Despite a controversial and highly publicized criminal trial with both circumstantial and physical evidence that linked Simpson to the killings, Simpson was acquitted of all charges, though he was later found liable for both deaths in a civil lawsuit in 1997.

popular name: Angelo Bruno

date_of_death: March 21, 1980

age: 69

cause_of_death: Shotgun blast to the head

claim_to_fame: Crime and their Victims

best_know_for: Known as the “Docile Don,” his time at the top of Philadelphia’s criminal hierarchy was marked by a relative lack of violence, and like Bufalino, he kept a low profile. His organization ran gambling and loan sharking enterprises, and owned stakes in multiple legitimate businesses including an extermination company in New Jersey, an aluminum products company in Florida and a share in the Plaza Hotel in Havana, Cuba. Bruno was a powerful figure, and was reportedly a member of the mob’s all-powerful national commission. But he was considered something of an old-fashioned don and riled his underlings by refusing to allow them to be directly involved in drug trafficking and the considerable profits that accompanied it. This old-fashioned approach worked—the FBI didn’t make the Philadelphia mafia a priority during Bruno’s reign. But it also may have cost the crime lord his life. “He wasn't making any new members,” one investigator told the New York Times in 1982. “They say he was 'the gentle don.' That's bull. But he was conservative. He was cautious. He was old, and he didn't want to go to jail. These young guys were getting restless because they weren't making any money.” He prohibited his family’s involvement in narcotics trafficking and focused on traditional Costa Nostra operations like bookmaking and loan sharking. Some family members were discontent with this decision and suspected Bruno of profiting from the narcotics business secretly. This will ultimately lead to his murder. Upon his death, he was interred at Holy Cross Cemetery in Yeadon, PA.

popular name: Salvatore Testa

date_of_death: September 14, 1984

age: 28

cause_of_death: Murdered - mob hit

claim_to_fame: Crime and their Victims

best_know_for: Salvatore "Salvie" Testa, nicknamed "The Crowned Prince of the Philadelphia Mob", was an Italian-American mobster who served as a caporegime and later acting underboss for the Philadelphia crime family. Testa made his reputation as a hitman for the Philadelphia family during a period of internal gang conflict. The son of former boss Philip “The Chicken Man” Testa, Salvatore Testa was an emerging figure in the mob until he was killed on the orders of Philadelphia crime family mob boss Nicky Scarfo. Mobster-turned-informant Thomas DelGiorno said close friend and associate of Testa, Joseph Pungitore, reluctantly agreed to join the plot to kill Testa during the summer of 1984. Scarfo was worried that Testa was forming his own crew and began gaining too much power. Scarfo was also angry when Salvie broke his engagement with the daughter of a high-ranking mob official. Testa was lured to a sweet shop in South Philadelphia where Salvatore 'Wayne' Grande shot him twice in the head. Testa's body was dumped in a ditch in then rural southern New Jersey. As a result of the slaying Joseph Grande, Charles Iannece and Nicholas 'Nicky Crow' Caramandi were initiated into the mob. But don't let the "Prince" moniker - Salvie Testa was a violent psychopath who enjoyed killing, even once ordering the hit on a rival including the children in the family. It has been reported that he was directly responsible for the murder of, at a minimum, 15 people. Upon his death, he was interred at Holy Cross Cemetery, Yeadon, PA.