On the morning of March 25, 1978, at a Shoney’s restaurant in Henrico County, Virginia, three employees were attacked before opening. The assailant locked janitor Franklin Delano Cooley, morning manager Steven Staples, and waitress Agnes Hicks in a walk-in cooler, then shot all three with a .22 caliber pistol. Staples and Hicks were found dead inside the restaurant; Cooley was found alive, taken to a local hospital, and later died without regaining consciousness.

The motive reported was robbery; $4,000 was taken from the restaurant safe and glass at the entrance was shattered. Charles Sylvester Stamper was arrested, tried, and in November 1978 convicted by a jury of three counts of capital murder in the commission of an armed robbery. The jury sentenced him to death; the trial court upheld that sentence after review.

Does anyone have information about Franklin Cooley or memories of the Henrico community in 1978 that could shed light on the case?