Barney Michael Rycyk, a 56-year-old white man, was murdered during a robbery at the Durands Motel in Union Park, Florida, on November 14, 1973. Rycyk had recently moved from Pennsylvania and invested his life savings in the motel business with his brother Stanley. He was bludgeoned 66 times with a claw hammer by two intruders who stole $20 and tried to flee.

Stanley Rycyk returned from shopping to find the suspects leaving; they told him Barney was showing them a room. Stanley insisted on checking with his brother, and as he turned the men fled. Stanley found Barney’s body in the office bathroom and gave police a description and the vehicle license plate, details that were important to investigators.

Two men, 36-year-old Thomas Mattingly and Cecil Henry Floyd, were arrested and charged in connection with the killing. Mattingly was convicted in March 1975 and given life imprisonment after the jury recommended against the death penalty. Floyd pleaded guilty in January 1975 and received multiple life sentences; he died in prison on June 17, 2011.