02/23/2025
On October 21st, 1979, Marion Vera Bresette and her partner, Jesse Eugene Taylor, took her children to grocery shop at Whittaker's Foods in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma when the couple were both killed in a sniper-style shooting. No one has ever been convicted in their murders, despite having a strong suspect.
That Sunday, chaos erupted when, in a crowded parking lot outside of Whittaker's Foods at 2941 NW 10th, two people were shot with a high-powered rifle near their car just before 5 pm. Inside the car, three terrified children watched as their mother and her partner were shot. Jesse was shot first, once in the chest, and once in the abdomen. The children said Jesse's blood splashed across the windshield, which actually blocked their view of their mother being shot. When Jesse was shot Marion screamed and ran towards the car with the children in it. That's when the sniper shot her. Marion was shot in the torso once. The couple both died in the parking lot from their injuries. Witnesses described the shots sounding as if a car had backfired but by the 3rd shot people started running and hiding. Five shots total were fired.
Detectives shared that they believe the killer was "well-versed" in using a high-powered rifle. He fired the shots from a hiding place in the tangle of trees on the northside of the Oklahoma State Fairgrounds, about 75-100 yards away. Detectives searched the area and found shell casings. In the parking lot three projectiles were discovered. Witnesses reported seeing a blond man leaving that specific area in a dark sedan. That description matches that of suspect and avowed racist Joseph Paul Franklin. Franklin, then in the middle of his three-year crime spree, did admit to being in OKC at the time but that he moved on because there weren't enough Jews to shoot. He then traveled to Missouri, where he killed Gerald Gordon at a bar mitzvah. (and the only murder he received the death penalty for) Franklin was also later convicted of killing: an in*******al couple in Wisconsin in 1977, a black man in Tennessee in 1978, two black joggers in Salt Lake City in 1980 and two black teens in Cincinnati in 1980. Frankin also confessed to the shooting of Larry Flynt because he was mad that Hustler magazine shared a picture of an in*******al couple. He was caught and arrested in 1980.
Soon after he was arrested Franklin's cellmate came forward and shared that Franklin had confessed to murdering an in*******al couple in Oklahoma City. However, charges were dropped against Franklin after it was discovered the witness had been previously paid $15,000 in reward money in a different case. The DA said it made him an unreliable witness. Franklin was executed in 2013, leaving this case never to be solved. No one else has ever been charged in the murders of Marion and Jesse.
Marion's three children were all traumatized after the shooting. The youngest, Doug, committed su***de in 1995. He was 8 at the time of the murder. Richard also struggled afterward and tried to commit su***de. He had nightmares of being shot for years. Candy began coping with the violent murder with drugs at the tender age of 12, just after the shooting. She has also shared that for a time she even hated white people because of the shooting. Though it's widely believed that Franklin was reponsible for the double murder, and despite his ex*****on, justice has not been done in this case. Marion and Jesse's murders remain unsolved.
Black Oklahomans accounted for about 34% of homicides in the state in 2011, despite the fact that they make up only 7.4% of the state's population. This made Oklahoma the fifth highest state in the country for Black homicide victimization at the time. In Oklahoma in 2022, Black males aged 15–34 were 12 times more likely to be victims of gun homicide than white males. Black males in this age group made up 16% of gun homicides, despite making up only 1% of the population. Black children in Oklahoma are more than 18 times more likely to be killed in a gun homicide than white children.
If you have any information in the murders of Marion Vera Bresette, 31, and Jesse Eugene Taylor, 42, please call the OKC Crime Stoppers at (405) 235-7300. You can remain anonymous.
