Timothy O'Bryan

popular name: Antonio Lombardo

date_of_death: September 7, 1928

age: 37

cause_of_death: Murdered - mob hit

claim_to_fame: Crime and their Victims

best_know_for: Antonio "Tony the Scourge" Lombardo was a prominent Italian-American mobster in Chicago during the Prohibition era. Born in Sicily in 1891, he immigrated to the United States and quickly rose through the ranks of organized crime. Lombardo became a close associate of Al Capone and served as a key political advisor and intermediary between the Chicago Outfit and the Italian-American community. He was appointed head of the Unione Siciliana, a powerful Sicilian-American fraternal organization that Capone sought to control for political influence. Known for his diplomatic skills and efforts to broker peace among rival gangs, Lombardo's leadership drew both respect and resentment. His assassination in 1928 was orchestrated by an alliance of the Joe Aiello Gang and the North Side Gang, with George "Bugs" Moran reportedly ordering the hit. His death further destabilized the already volatile power dynamics within the city's criminal underworld which resulted in the St. Valentine's Day Massacre as revenge. The grave of mobster Antonio Lombardo (along with dozens of other mob associates) can be found at Mt. Carmel Cemetery in Cicero, Illinois (just outside Chicago).

popular name: Ernest Haywood

date_of_death: December 14, 1946

age: 86

cause_of_death: Natural causes

claim_to_fame: Crime and their Victims

best_know_for: The Haywood family was a politically and socially influential white family in Raleigh, North Carolina during with 1800s through the early 1900s with plantations dependent on slave labor in North Carolina as well as Alabama. Ernest Haywood was an attorney practicing in Raleigh where he specialized in commercial, insurance, corporation, and real estate law. On February 21, 1903, Saturday afternoon, the young lawyer Haywood met Ludlow Skinner, his mistress's brother-in-law, on the steps of the Fayetteville Street Post Office. After a brief argument Haywood pulled out a pistol and shot at Skinner one time and missed. He then chased Skinner briefly and shot him dead in the street with 100 witness. The murder and subsequent trial achieved nationwide attention and rocked the foundations of turn-of-the-century Raleigh society. As a lawyer and founding member of the Raleigh Bar Association, he was found innocent by a jury of his peers after only 15 minutes of deliberation.

popular name: Dr. Sam Sheppard

date_of_death: April 6, 1970

age: 46

cause_of_death: Wernicke's encephalopathy and liver failure

claim_to_fame: Crime and their Victims

best_know_for: Dr. Sam Sheppard was an attractive and well-liked doctor who tended to hundreds of patients throughout his career at Bay View Hospital in Ohio. In the early morning hours of July 4, 1954 the nightmare began for the Sheppard family when Sam's wife, Marilyn, was discovered brutally murdered. Mrs. Sheppard was found lying on her bed in their master bedroom in a provocative manner. She had been “chopped 25 times in the head and chest.” There was never any hard evidence found that directly tied Dr. Sam Sheppard to the death of his wife, Marilyn. Nonetheless he was found guilty of second degree murder at his first trial. After over a decade in prison the murder conviction was overturned on June 6, 1966 due to a lack of evidence. Dr. Sam Sheppard was a free man from that time until he passed away in 1970. His experience inspired the hit TV show and movie The Fugitive.