Richard Cooey
Executed murderer (1967–2008)
Richard Wade Cooey II (June 9, 1967 – October 14, 2008) was an American murderer. With Clinton Dickens, he was responsible for the murders of 21-year-old Wendy Offredo and 20-year-old Dawn McCreery in Akron, Ohio, on September 1, 1986. He became notable for his argument that, with his weight of over 275 lb (125 kg), he was too obese to be executed – an argument ultimately rejected by the courts.
Youth
Cooey was born in Akron, Ohio. He lived in Stow with his parents until they divorced when he was 11. He spent his junior high years and high school years between Stow, with his father, and Akron, with his paternal grandmother. Cooey graduated from Stow High School in 1985 and enlisted in the U.S. Army. The following summer, he returned on leave.
Case
Early on the morning of September 1, 1986, Cooey, Dickens and Kenneth Horonetz Jr. were throwing chunks of concrete off the Stoner Street Bridge onto U.S. Interstate 77 in Akron.
The public source identifies “Richard Cooey” as executed murderer (1967–2008). This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Richard, Cooey and Executed.
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Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Mar 14, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q7324868. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1967, 2008, 1986 and 1985.
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This entry incorporates text from “Richard Cooey” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.