Dr. Robert Vernon Steagall Jr., 28, and his wife Elizabeth, 25, were found dead together in a hallway of the Downtown Howard Johnson’s Motor Lodge in New Orleans on January 7, 1973. Both were guests at the hotel and were discovered embraced; Robert had been shot in the head and Elizabeth in the eye.

Their deaths were part of a larger killing spree carried out that day by 23-year-old Mark Essex. After setting fires in the building, Essex went to the roof armed with a .44 magnum carbine and fired on people in and around the hotel. The siege lasted hours, during which several others were killed, including hotel assistant manager Frank Schneider and officers Deputy Superintendent Louis Sirgo, Patrolman Paul Persigo, and Philip Coleman. Essex was killed on the roof when police sharpshooters engaged him from a helicopter vantage point.

The attack left nine people dead and many more wounded. Does anyone have memories of the Howard Johnson’s or the victims from that day that could add detail to this account?