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1982: Frank James Coppola, “further incarceration can only lead to my being stripped of all personal dignity”

August 10th, 2020 Headsman

Former Portsmouth, Virginia, cop Frank James Coppola was electrocuted on this date in 1982.

Coppola dropped appeals and “adamantly” volunteered for the mercy seat after being condemned for the 1978 home invasion robbery-murder of Muriel Hatchell. With a co-conspirator who lured her to open the door with a sham flower delivery, Coppola tied up Hatchell with Venetian blind cords, and bashed her head into the floor repeatedly to force her to yield up the hiding-places of her valuables. In the end, the felons escaped the house with $3,100 in cash plus some jewelry, and Muriel Hatchell died of her injuries.

Coppola continued to claim his innocence but he wasn’t into fighting about it. As Time magazine reported Coppola just wanted to skip to the end.

“Further incarceration,” he said, “can only lead to my being stripped of all personal dignity.” His one request: a summer date, to minimize the taunts to his two school-age sons.

On this day..

• 1970: Dan Mitrione, an American torturer in Uruguay - 2019
• 1918: Boris Donskoy, Left SR assassin - 2018
• 1966: James French, fried - 2017
• 1916: Nazario Sauro, Italian patriot - 2016
• 1284: Tekuder, Mongol sultan - 2015
• 1792: William Winter, Elsdon Moor gibbet habitue - 2014
• 1949: John George Haigh, the Acid Bath Murderer - 2013
• 1932: Richard Johnson, great-grandfather of Craig Watkins - 2012
• 1888: Hugh Mottram Brooks, for the Trunk Murder - 2011
• Themed Set: Branded - 2011
• 1858: James Seale, on the heath with Thomas Hardy - 2010
• 1922: Joseph O'Sullivan and Reginald Dunne, helping spark the Irish Civil War - 2009
• 1862: Nueces Massacre - 2008

Entry Filed under: 20th Century,Capital Punishment,Common Criminals,Crime,Death Penalty,Electrocuted,Execution,Murder,Theft,USA,Virginia,Volunteers

Tags: 1980s, 1982, august 10, frank coppola