On the evening of May 19, 1978, Robert Brown was at his job as a clerk at a Howard Johnson's motel in Miami, Florida. The 33-year-old man was going about his work when his life was violently and senselessly cut short in an act of brutal indifference. His death would be the first of three murders committed by a man who would later escape prison to kill again.
That night, two men entered the motel with the intent to rob it.
One of them was Edward Dean Kennedy, a man also known as "Sonny," who had a prior criminal record for robbery in Massachusetts. During the robbery, Kennedy and his accomplice, Oliver Cochran, shot and killed Robert Brown. The two men were swiftly apprehended and put on trial for the murder of the working man whose life they had just extinguished.
In court, Kennedy managed to persuade the judge to spare him from a death sentence. He claimed he wanted a chance to do something good for society. The judge sentenced both Kennedy and Cochran to life in prison for the murder of Robert Brown. Kennedy was sent to the Union Correctional Institution to serve his time. For a few years, it seemed that justice, though not absolute, had been served and the chapter on Robert Brown's tragic death was closed.
However, the story took another dark turn on April 11, 1981. Kennedy and two other inmates escaped from the prison. While his fellow escapees were quickly recaptured, Kennedy remained at large. He broke into a nearby home, where he stole several weapons and changed his clothes. The homeowner, Floyd Cone, and his cousin, Florida Highway Patrol Trooper Robert C. McDermon, walked in on Kennedy. A gunfight erupted, and Kennedy shot and killed both men before fleeing to another house on the same block.
After taking the residents of the second home hostage, Kennedy engaged in a standoff with authorities. He demanded media coverage before eventually releasing the hostages and surrendering. This time, there would be no leniency. Kennedy was tried on two counts of first-degree murder for the killings of Trooper McDermon and Floyd Cone. He was convicted and sentenced to death.
Despite multiple appeals, including one in 1984 where he argued his confession was inadmissible, his death sentence was repeatedly upheld. His attorneys fought to the end, describing him as a changed man who had become an accomplished painter and helped fellow inmates. However, the courts did not agree. After surviving three previous death warrants, Edward "Sonny" Kennedy, 47, was executed by electric chair at Florida State Prison on July 21, 1992. His accomplice in Robert Brown's murder, Oliver Cochran, remained in prison until he died in December 2021.
