Inmate Murray Hooper executed more than 40 years after murders connected to the Mafia

FLORENCE, AZ (3TV/CBS 5) - Florence inmate Murray Hooper was declared dead after execution at 10:34 a.m. Wednesday morning.

He was on death row for nearly 40 years after being convicted of an execution-style multiple murder alongside two other men in Phoenix on New Year’s Eve in 1980, killing Pat Redmond and his mother-in-law Helen Phelps. The three attempted to kill Pat’s wife Marilyn too, but she survived a bullet to the head.

Media witnesses said this execution seemed to be as quick and peaceful as it could be once the injection was administered to him. They said Hooper didn’t seem scared but instead laughed at times and almost appeared to be mocking the process, making faces as his death warrant was read.

Hooper’s final words were as follows:

Witnesses said the process lasted for 12 minutes. No one from Hooper’s family was at the execution Wednesday, but his children from his first marriage sent a long written statement.

Pat Redmond’s family was absent from the execution but said in writing that Redmond was killed before he could see his daughters get married or his grandkids born. The family said that their lives were forever changed that New Year’s Eve. Redmond’s children said they opposed any kind of mercy for Hooper, “It is just a shame that Hooper can’t experience a death like that. He will get a nice, easy one. Just like putting a dog down.”

Arizona’s Family learned that Hooper was part of a street gang in Chicago and was hired on by a man connected to the Mafia to kill Redmond and his family after Pat refused to sell his Phoenix printing business. The Mafia wanted the businesses in order to launder money out of it for Vegas casinos. The other two convicted murderers died on death row, leaving Hooper as the last hitman involved in the crime to be executed.

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