On a summer evening in Oklahoma City, what began as a routine closing shift at the Sirloin Stockade restaurant turned into a scene of unimaginable horror. Anthony R Tew, a 17-year-old male employee, was among six workers present on July 16, 1978, when a robbery escalated into a brutal mass murder. The tranquility of the night was shattered when Roger Dale Stafford, his wife Verna, and his brother Harold, forced their way into the restaurant with the intent to rob it.
The trio herded
Anthony and his five coworkers, ranging in age from 15 to 56, into a walk-in freezer. Inside the cold confines of the freezer, the victims were mercilessly shot. While one of the victims initially survived the shooting, she tragically succumbed to her injuries on the way to the hospital. The perpetrators fled the scene with approximately $1,200, leaving a devastating scene that would become known as the Sirloin Stockade murders.
The investigation into the shocking crime was extensive, involving multiple law enforcement agencies. A crucial breakthrough came from an unexpected source: a drunken, anonymous phone call made by Roger Dale Stafford himself, in which he implicated his wife and brother. This, combined with Verna Stafford's eventual testimony against her husband, unraveled the case. Prior to the Sirloin Stockade massacre, the trio had also been responsible for the murders of a family of three they had robbed after feigning car trouble on the interstate.
The pursuit of justice saw Roger Dale Stafford and his wife, Verna, arrested in Chicago. Harold Stafford was never brought to trial, as he died in a motorcycle accident shortly after the murders. Roger Dale Stafford was convicted of the six murders at the Sirloin Stockade, as well as the three earlier murders, and was sentenced to death. He was executed by lethal injection on July 1, 1995, maintaining his innocence to the end. Verna Stafford received two life sentences for her role in the crimes.
