Between June 21 and July 16, 1978, nine people were killed in two separate events in central Oklahoma. A family of three, on a trip to attend a funeral, died near the town of Purcell. Less than a month later, six people died at a Sirloin Stockade restaurant in Oklahoma City. Roger Dale Stafford was convicted of all nine killings at two trials, in October 1979 and March 1980, and was sentenced to death on every count. His wife Verna and his brother Harold were with him on both occasions. Verna testified against him and pleaded guilty to two counts of second-degree murder; Harold died in a motorcycle crash in Tulsa and was never arrested.
The case is known in Oklahoma by the name of the restaurant, and it still draws public attention. Stafford was executed on July 1, 1995, after a legal fight that ran for more than fifteen years and produced decisions from the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals, a federal district court, the Tenth Circuit and the United States Supreme Court. Verna Stafford, who was 73 in August 2026, remains in prison. That month the state Pardon and Parole Board recommended parole on one of her two life sentences, and the Governor declined it.
Little is known of Stafford's early life. UPI described him in 1984 as a native of Sheffield, Alabama, and in 1995 gave his age at execution as 43. By 1978 he lived in Tulsa with his wife Verna and their three young children. When the Court of Criminal Appeals reviewed the mitigating evidence in 1993, it listed what the record showed about him: money troubles, a transient way of life, three small children, repeated lies by his wife about the offenses, a statement to police that he did not remember the killings and needed psychiatric help, and steady employment. The court gave his age at the time of the Lorenz killings as 28.
His brother Harold appears in the opinions as a participant in both events and as the source of statements later admitted at trial under the rules for co-conspirators. Little else about Harold appears in the court files.
Melvin and Linda Lorenz and their young son Richard were traveling through McClain County in June 1978. According to a 1995 UPI report, the family was heading to a relative's funeral. UPI gave the parents' ages as 38 and 31. Court opinions describe the boy as eleven; UPI in 1984 and News 9 in 2026 gave his age as twelve.
Little more is known of the family beyond the occasion of the trip.
The courts' account of what happened to the Lorenz family is brief and the same in each opinion. On June 21, 1978, according to the Court of Criminal Appeals, Melvin, Linda and Richard Lorenz were killed near Purcell, in McClain County, and the courts found that Roger Stafford killed all three. The Staffords left in the family's vehicle. News 9 and News On 6 give the date as June 22.
No arrest followed, and the Lorenz case stayed open through the summer.
On the night of July 16, 1978, six people were killed at a Sirloin Stockade restaurant in Oklahoma City. The court record says Roger, Verna and Harold Stafford drove from Tulsa to commit a robbery at the restaurant, around 10 p.m.; about $1,290 was taken. All six people present died. Verna testified that Roger made her take part in the killing, and the federal district court repeated that account in 1994.
News 9 named the six in 2026 as Terri Horst, David Salsman, David Lindsey, Anthony Tew, Louis Zacarias and Isaac Freeman. Their ages ranged from 15 to 56. Terri Horst and David Salsman were 15, and David Lindsey and Anthony Tew were 17. UPI noted in 1984 that five of the nine victims across both events were 17 or younger. The spelling of Zacarias varies: the court opinions and News 9 use Zacarias, and UPI in 1995 wrote Zacharias.
At the 2026 parole hearing, relatives spoke for the victims. A woman who was 13 in 1978 said she had been due to go to work with her father, Louis Zacarias, that night. A relative of Anthony Tew traveled from Virginia to speak for him, saying "Tony was priceless," as KJRH reported.
Arthur Linville, an agent of the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation (OSBI) in 1978, was at the FBI National Academy in Virginia when the killings occurred. He told News 9 in August 2026 that he returned to Oklahoma City in the first week of October 1978 and was named agent in charge of an OSBI task force on the Lorenz case and its possible link to the restaurant.
The court opinions name witnesses as the route to Roger Stafford. A woman who had seen a station wagon nearly collide with another car near the restaurant was hypnotized on July 30, 1978, and identified Stafford from a photo lineup on March 11, 1979. In the Lorenz case a man who had seen the driver of the family's vehicle in Stillwater gave a description that produced a composite drawing, and he identified Stafford after hypnosis. The use of hypnosis became a recurring point on appeal.
Stafford testified that in January 1979 he had seen the composite drawings on television and called the police to name Harold and Verna, according to the federal district court's summary of his testimony. Verna gave a recorded statement to OSBI on March 8, 1979, and further statements on March 15 and 24. Harold's wife was interviewed in Illinois on March 9, 1979. News 9 reported Linville's account that investigators found Verna in Chicago.
Roger Stafford was arrested in Chicago on March 13, 1979, two days after the photo identification, the Court of Criminal Appeals recorded. Verna's statements to the police gave detailed accounts of the events, including a diagram of the restaurant, and were made before any attempt to hypnotize her. A session in late spring 1979 with a doctor lasted under five minutes and was cut short; a detective said she appeared to be making things up. Witnesses testified that no questions or suggestions about the murders were put to her during it, and the court found her trial testimony was not changed by it.
Harold Stafford was not charged. News 9 reported that he died in a motorcycle crash in Tulsa six days after the restaurant killings, and KJRH reported that he died before any arrest. Neither gives the calendar date.
Verna Stafford was the State's principal witness at both trials. The Tenth Circuit noted in 1994 that she was not a neutral witness: she had a cooperation agreement with the prosecutors, and her testimony was inconsistent at points. In 1980 she pleaded guilty to two counts of second-degree murder, those of Linda Lorenz and Terri Horst, as News 9 reported. Her first sentences, concurrent terms, were vacated on appeal in 1990. She was given the chance to withdraw her pleas and did not, and she was then sentenced to two consecutive life terms.
Linville disagreed with the former Oklahoma County district attorney, Andy Coats, who has said her part was minor and her cooperation deserved weight. In News 9's account Linville called her involvement "very significant" and said she told him in interviews during the trials that she took part in the Lorenz killings and in the killing of Terri Horst, which she described as revenge for her husband's infidelity. That is Linville's recollection of interviews decades earlier, and it is reported as his account.
Stafford was tried first for the restaurant killings in Oklahoma County District Court, before Judge Charles L. Owens (case CRF-79-926). His trial lawyer was J. Malone Brewer. The State's main witnesses were Verna and a jail inmate who testified that Stafford had admitted being present and had blamed Verna and Harold for the killings. Stafford's defense was an alibi: he testified he was drunk in Tulsa, and his supervisor testified that time records placed him at work from 3:15 p.m. on July 17 until 1:04 a.m. the next day.
On October 17, 1979, the jury convicted him of six counts of first-degree murder. Judgment and sentence followed on October 23, 1979. The Court of Criminal Appeals later found that the evidence supported three aggravating circumstances: that he knowingly created a great risk of death to more than one person, that he killed to avoid arrest, and that he was a continuing threat, based in part on a threat made against a witness.
About five months later Stafford was tried in Purcell for the Lorenz family. Associate District Judge Kenneth Love presided, according to the Court of Criminal Appeals' 1983 opinion. Venue was contested: his lawyer moved for a change of venue before trial, the judge denied it, and the motion was not renewed at jury selection. The jurors knew of the earlier death sentences.
Verna was again the main witness, and the Tenth Circuit recorded that a witness had overheard her tell Stafford that he had done the killing. Stafford denied involvement and said he was working in Tulsa. The jury deliberated on guilt for about two hours. On March 7, 1980, it convicted him of three counts of first-degree murder, and on March 17, 1980, the trial court imposed death sentences on all three counts on the jury's recommendation. The Court of Criminal Appeals recorded that no evidence was offered at the penalty stage, and the Tenth Circuit later called Brewer's performance there deficient while finding no resulting prejudice.
Stafford's appeals in the two cases ran in parallel for fifteen years. In the restaurant case, his lawyers argued in the Court of Criminal Appeals that the State had not carried the burden on aggravating circumstances, that his trial lawyer had been ineffective, that part of jury selection had not been recorded, that Verna's testimony was protected by spousal privilege, that the trial should have been moved from Oklahoma County, that the State had withheld a 166-page statement by Verna, and that the sentences were disproportionate. The court rejected each point. Among its rulings, conversations held in front of third parties were not confidential for purposes of spousal privilege, and the substance of Verna's changed statement had been put before the jury. It affirmed the judgments and sentences on June 20, 1983.
The Supreme Court then returned the case for reconsideration in light of Strickland v. Washington, which set the standard for judging a lawyer's performance. The Oklahoma court affirmed again on May 13, 1985, and the Supreme Court denied review on October 1, 1985. The state post-conviction route followed. In 1987 the Court of Criminal Appeals issued an order concerning OSBI files and required a judge to review them privately; a district judge then denied relief on the ground that the files had been open to the defense and that nothing in them was material. The Court of Criminal Appeals affirmed that denial (1987 OK CR 7, 731 P.2d 1372), finding the hypnosis claim would not have changed the outcome. The court acknowledged that the witness's identification in the courtroom, made after hypnosis, might have been an error under Oklahoma's rule on such testimony but not one serious enough to justify relief, given the strength of the other evidence.
A federal habeas petition was heard in the Western District of Oklahoma. On March 31, 1994, Judge Ralph G. Thompson denied it on all five grounds: the claim that evidence had been withheld, the claim about testimony after hypnosis, ineffective assistance, a conflict of interest said to arise from publication rights to the story, and a challenge to the aggravating circumstance based on the manner of the killings. He found that the Court of Criminal Appeals' reweighing of the sentence had been adequate under federal law (Stafford v. Maynard, 848 F. Supp. 946). The Tenth Circuit was still considering the appeal from that decision when Stafford was executed.
The Lorenz case followed a similar path. The Court of Criminal Appeals affirmed the three death sentences on September 7, 1983 (669 P.2d 285), and rehearing was denied on October 6, 1983. In April 1984 the United States Supreme Court stayed an execution set for the following day, so that it could decide whether to review the case, UPI reported; it then vacated the decision and returned it for consideration of the ineffective-assistance claim, as it had in the restaurant case. The state court affirmed again in 1985 (697 P.2d 165), and the Supreme Court denied review. A state post-conviction application was denied and affirmed in 1985, and a federal habeas petition filed in August 1985 was stayed so that a claim about a witness's hypnosis could be tried in the state courts. Relief was denied there, and the Western District denied habeas relief on November 23, 1987.
In 1989 the Tenth Circuit dismissed the appeal without prejudice so Stafford could challenge, in the state courts, the aggravating circumstance that the killings were especially cruel. The Court of Criminal Appeals affirmed the denial of that claim on September 19, 1989. Then, in 1990, the Supreme Court's decision in Clemons v. Mississippi allowed an appellate court to reweigh a sentence after an invalid aggravator was removed. A federal judge sent the case back, and the Oklahoma court did not learn of the remand until August 1, 1991.
On reconsideration (1992 OK CR 33, 832 P.2d 20), the Court of Criminal Appeals acknowledged that its earlier approval of the manner-of-killing circumstance had been wrong, because under its narrowed reading that circumstance required torture or serious physical abuse before death, and the State had not shown it. It upheld the other circumstances: the great risk of death to more than one person, and the continuing threat, found for all three victims, and the aim of avoiding arrest, found for Linda and Richard Lorenz. After a second federal remand in March 1993, which asked for a fuller account of the mitigating evidence, the court reaffirmed again in 1993 (853 P.2d 223). It said the case "does not present a single close question upon reweighing" and criticized the defense closing argument at trial as an attempt to hide the absence of mitigating evidence.
The Tenth Circuit affirmed the denial of habeas relief on September 12, 1994 (Stafford v. Saffle, 34 F.3d 1557). Its panel of Judges Moore, Logan and Ebel rejected five arguments: that Stafford should be allowed to amend his petition to add a claim of insufficient evidence and of actual innocence; ineffective assistance at the penalty stage; presumed prejudice from the publicity; the effect on the jury of knowing about the restaurant sentences; and the reweighing. On the innocence claim, it found the evidence offered, including unsupported fingerprint material, impeachment material and speculation about hair, too weak. The Supreme Court denied review on May 1, 1995.
Hours after the Supreme Court denied review on May 1, 1995, the Court of Criminal Appeals, at the request of the Attorney General, set the execution for 12:01 a.m. on July 1, 1995. Stafford filed more motions. On June 9, 1995, the Western District refused to reopen the judgment or vacate the date, and the Tenth Circuit affirmed on June 29. On June 27 the McClain County District Court rejected a further post-conviction application. In it Stafford argued that bloody fingerprints from the crime scene were material, which the Oklahoma court noted he had known about since 1988, and that his long years on death row amounted to cruel and unusual punishment. The Court of Criminal Appeals held all grounds procedurally barred because they could have been raised years earlier (1995 OK CR 35) and denied a stay.
UPI reported that the Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board rejected a last-minute clemency plea on the Monday before the execution. Stafford had offered to take a polygraph test in support of his claim of innocence. Attorney General Drew Edmondson argued that he deserved no mercy, and Stafford's third wife spoke to the board.
Roger Dale Stafford was executed at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary in McAlester shortly after midnight on July 1, 1995. UPI gave the time of death as 12:30 a.m. and his age as 43. The Death Penalty Information Center lists him as the 288th execution in the United States since 1976. He was put to death on the Lorenz convictions while his habeas appeal on the restaurant convictions was undecided. UPI and the Tenth Circuit each describe him as having been sentenced to death in both cases.
On July 7, 1995, the Tenth Circuit dismissed the restaurant-case appeal as moot, because Stafford had died before it could be decided (Stafford v. Maynard, 60 F.3d 837).
Verna Stafford has been in prison since 1980, as News 9 reported in 2026. Her original concurrent sentences were vacated on appeal in 1990 and replaced by two consecutive life terms. Her first life sentence became eligible for parole on March 1, 1995 and her second on June 1, 2026. In June 2026 her request on the first sentence passed the initial file review of the state's two-stage process, which surprised prosecutors, KJRH reported. The Senate President Pro Tempore, Lonnie Paxton, wrote to the board that considering parole for her was "an injustice to the victims and their families." Linville said he strongly opposed it.
At the second stage on August 10, 2026, relatives of the victims asked the board to deny parole. Verna Stafford spoke from prison on August 11 and said she was very sorry for what had happened. The board voted 3-2 to recommend parole on her first life sentence. A board member said the board was not talking about releasing her, and because of the second life sentence she would remain in prison in any case. The board stated that recommending her release would be neither legally permissible nor consistent with its intentions. The news release dated August 11, 2026, said she would be ineligible for consideration on the next life sentence for 15 years.
Governor Kevin Stitt denied the parole, according to a House member's statement and a News On 6 report on September 9, 2026. The statement said the board could reconsider in three years. Approval would have ended her first life sentence and started the second consecutive one; she would not have been released in either case. Representative Robert Manger, chair of the House Judiciary and Public Safety Oversight Committee, said Oklahoma does not take "crimes of this magnitude lightly."
Stafford denied the killings. At trial in both cases he offered an alibi in Tulsa; before his execution he offered to take a polygraph test. The courts rejected the alibi and the later innocence arguments. The Tenth Circuit in 1994 considered the fingerprint, impeachment and hair material and found it too weak to support an innocence claim, and in 1995 the Court of Criminal Appeals held the fingerprint claim barred because he had known of the prints since 1988.
The extent of Verna's participation is disputed. Former district attorney Andy Coats has said her involvement was minimal, while Linville described it as "very significant." The courts treated her as an accomplice whose testimony the jury had to weigh; in both trials she testified under agreements with prosecutors.
Reports differ on some basic details. The courts date the Lorenz killings to June 21, 1978; News 9 and News On 6 give June 22. The Lorenz boy is eleven in the court opinions and twelve in UPI and News 9. A 1984 UPI item gave the restaurant date as June 16; the court opinions, News 9 and every other report give July 16.
June 21, 1978: Melvin, Linda and Richard Lorenz are killed near Purcell, Oklahoma (June 22 in news reports).
July 16, 1978: six people are killed at a Sirloin Stockade restaurant in Oklahoma City.
Six days after the restaurant killings, according to News 9: Harold Stafford dies in a motorcycle crash in Tulsa.
October 1978: an OSBI task force is formed on the Lorenz case.
March 8, 1979: Verna Stafford gives a recorded statement to OSBI.
March 11, 1979: a witness identifies Roger Stafford from photographs.
March 13, 1979: he is arrested in Chicago.
October 17, 1979: convicted of six counts of first-degree murder in Oklahoma County; sentenced to death on October 23.
March 7, 1980: convicted of three counts of first-degree murder in McClain County; sentenced to death on March 17.
1980: Verna Stafford pleads guilty to two counts of second-degree murder.
June 20, 1983: restaurant-case convictions affirmed. September 7, 1983: Lorenz-case sentences affirmed.
April 1984: the Supreme Court stays an execution date.
1985: both convictions affirmed again after remand; review denied.
November 23, 1987: federal habeas relief denied in the Lorenz case.
1990: Verna Stafford's first sentences are vacated; she is resentenced to two consecutive life terms.
1992 and 1993: the Court of Criminal Appeals reweighs the Lorenz sentences twice and reaffirms.
March 31, 1994: federal district court denies habeas relief in the restaurant case.
September 12, 1994: Tenth Circuit affirms denial in the Lorenz case.
May 1, 1995: Supreme Court denies review; execution date set for July 1.
July 1, 1995: executed at McAlester.
July 7, 1995: Tenth Circuit dismisses the restaurant-case appeal as moot.
June 2026: Verna Stafford passes the first stage of parole review.
August 11, 2026: the Pardon and Parole Board votes 3-2 to recommend parole on her first life sentence.
September 9, 2026: the Governor's denial is reported.