Frank J. Coppola

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Frank Joseph Coppola (February 25, 1944 – August 10, 1982) was an American convicted murderer and former police officer from Portsmouth, Virginia who was executed for the 1978 murder of 51-year-old Muriel Hatchell. Hatchell was bound with Venetian blind cords and then had her head slammed repeatedly into the floor until she died. Coppola and his accomplices fled with $3,100 in cash and some rings from the crime scene. On September 26, 1978, Coppola was convicted of capital murder and sentenced to death in Virginia's electric chair. His conviction and death sentence were upheld after an appeal to the Supreme Court of Virginia. Coppola waived his subsequent appeals and was executed via electrocution on August 10, 1982, the first person executed in Virginia since the U.S. Supreme Court reinstituted capital punishment in 1976. He was also the first person executed in Virginia since 1962. He maintained his innocence until his execution. The resulting execution was botched as his head and leg...

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