Dennis Whitney

In 1972, Whitney's sentences were reversed after Furman v. Georgia ruled that the death penalty was unconstitutional, and he was resentenced to life imprisonment. On April 24, 2005 Whitney died in Union Correctional Facility from unspecified causes. At the time of his death, he had been incarcerated 44 years, which at the time was one of the longest sentences to ever be served.

On February 12, 1960 Whitney entered a gas station in his home town of Victorville. After a brief holdup with an attendant named Jim Ryan, he shot the man to death and netted $30. Whitney then progressed his way to Phoenix, Arizona, where on February 20, he shot to death 55-year-old Ira Lee Hardison and 40-year-old Spencer Frazier hours apart from one another. Whitney stole Frazier's car and drove until it broke down the next day in Tucson.

Whitney was charged with two murders, those being the ones of Arthur Keeler and Virginia Shelby. First spared of the death penalty for the murder of Shelby, On June 28, 1960, Whitney was sentenced to death for killing Keeler. After the verdict was announced at the sentencing, Whitney appeared dazed in his seat, and his defense attorneys later reveled to the public that they were surprised that the jury held up the verdict unanimously.

Dennis Manaford Whitney (August 15, 1942 – April 24, 2005) was an American robber and spree killer who shot and killed seven people between February 12 and March 5, 1960. At the time of the killings, he was only 17 years old, with most of his victims being middle-aged men he shot during holdups. Whitney died in a Florida prison, where he had been serving a life sentence, on April 24, 2005. At the time of his death, he had been incarcerated 44 years.