Virgie Langford was ready for retirement.
For five decades, the 70-year-old ran a mom-and-pop grocery store in Palmetto along Florida’s Gulf Coast. The neighborhood had gotten dangerous, Langford got tired, and her four children convinced her it was time to enjoy retirement and her new house in the suburbs.
But she hadn’t quite closed up shop yet. On June 16, 1986, Langford was selling some of the last of her inventory when a crack addict named Melvin Trotter walked into Langford’s Grocery Store and started stealing from the cash register. Soon after, he stabbed Langford seven times with a butcher knife that had a nearly foot-long blade, according to archived news reports…