was honorably discharged in 1979. Both men's former wives had died under violent circumstances. Matix's wife, Patricia Mary ( Buchanich) Matix, and a female co-worker, Joyce McFadden, both cancer researchers, were found stabbed to death on December 30, 1983, at Riverside Methodist Hospital in Columbus, Ohio, where both women worked. Both were found murdered in the hospital laboratory. They had been bound and gagged with their throats slashed. Matix reportedly told investigators he suspected Platt had carried on an affair with his wife. Matix was a suspect in the murders but was never charged. After his wife's death, Matix moved to Florida at Platt's urging, and the two founded Yankee Clipper Tree Trimming Service, a landscaping and tree removal business. In May 1985, Matix married Christy Lou Horne, who moved out of the house two months later when Matix became enraged after learning she was pregnant. She would give birth to their son after Matix's death. On December 21, 1984, Platt's wife, Regina, whom he had married nine years earlier in 1975, was found dead from a single shotgun blast to the mouth. Her death was ruled a suicide. He married his second wife, Brenda Horne, in January 1985. Before embarking on their crime spree, neither Platt nor Matix had a criminal record. At the time of Platt's killing, his second wife, Brenda, claimed to have had no idea that her husband and his friend were armed robbers. On October 5, 1985, Platt and Matix murdered 25-year-old Emilio Briel while he was target shooting at a rock pit. The pair stole Briel's car and used it to commit several robberies. Briel's remains were found in March 1986 but not identified until May. On October 10, 1985, five days after killing Briel, Platt and Matix attempted to rob a Wells Fargo armored truck that was servicing a Winn-Dixie supermarket. After ordering him to freeze, one of the pair shot a guard in the leg with a shotgun while the other fired a handgun and shoulder weapons from the getaway vehicle. Two other guards returned fire, but neither Platt nor Matix was wounded. No money was taken in the botched robbery, but the injured guard later died from his wound. A few weeks later, on November 8, 1985, the two robbed the Professional Savings Bank in Miami, taking $41,469 in three Wells Fargo Armored Car Company money bags that had been delivered