Richard Zeitvogel was executed by the State of Missouri for a prison murder
According to court documents Richard Zeitvogel would murder his cellmate Gary Wayne Dew by wrapping wires around his neck and strangling him. When asked why he killed Dew Richard would tell guards he wanted the death penalty so he could share a cell with his former cellmate who he killed another prisoner with
Richard Zeitvogel would be convicted and sentenced to death
Richard Zeitvogel would be executed by lethal injection on December 11 1996
Richard Zeitvogel Case
On March 25, 1984 at the Missouri State Penitentiary in Jefferson City, Missouri between 12:00 p.m. and 1:00 p.m., Richard Zeitvogel strangled his cellmate, Gary Wayne Dew, with red double-strand wire leaving a distinctive pattern around the victim’s neck.
At 4:30 p.m. Zeitvogel called a correctional officer to his cell to report that he had strangled Dew. Department of Corrections investigators found the murder weapon in a book belonging to Zeitvogel. The texture of the red wire matched the injury pattern around the neck of Gary Dew. Investigators were also able to determine that Dew had attempted to remove the wire during the struggle based on marks that were found on his neck.
Zeitvogel later told authorities that he strangled Dew because he wanted to receive a death sentence so that he could room with capital punishment inmate Frank Guinan on death row.
Guinan and Zeitvogel had been co-defendants on a previous murder case which occurred at the Missouri State Penitentiary on January 25, 1981. Zeitvogel was later convicted of this charge and was sentenced to Life (50 years without parole). Guinan was executed at the Potosi Correctional Center on October 6, 1993 for this offense and a second death sentence he received in the murder of another inmate.
The victim in this case, Gary Wayne Dew, was serving a seven year sentence for Burglary First Degree from St. Louis City. He was received in the Missouri Department of Corrections on November 11, 1981.
