Cynthia Coffman and James Marlow are in San Bernardino, California, for the 1986 murder of Corinna Novis. Coffman was the first woman to receive a death sentence in the state since capital punishment was reinstated in 1977.
Coffman first met Marlow in May 1986, just after he was released from prison. Marlow, a career criminal, had been locked up for stealing his sixth wife鈥檚 car. An earlier stint in Folsom prison had earned him the nickname of 鈥淭he Folsom Wolf.鈥 Coffman and Marlow hit it off so fast that within weeks they were traveling the country together.
In late July, Marlow and Coffman were married in Tennessee. As a wedding gift, Coffman received a tattoo on her butt that read 鈥淧roperty of the Folsom Wolf.鈥 The couple moved back West, sponging off relatives until they made it to California in October.
On November 7, 1986, in Redlands, California, Corinna Novis disappeared from an ATM. Just five days later, Lynel Murray was kidnapped from outside the dry cleaners where she worked in Orange County.
On November 11, Novis鈥檚 checkbook was found in a dumpster along with some papers that had Marlow鈥檚 and Coffman鈥檚 names on them. A lodge owner in Big Bear City reported that they had recently checked in. Over 100 men joined a search party that eventually caught the couple while hiking through the mountains in clothes that had been stolen from Murray鈥檚 dry cleaners.
On this day in 1989, Marlow and Coffman were convicted of Novis鈥 murder and sentenced to death; they were later also convicted of Murray鈥檚 murder. Both remain in prison.
