Richard "Rich" Ernest Owens (June 19, 1880 – February 26, 1948) was Oklahoma's executioner from 1918 to 1947 at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary. Rich Owens killed 75 men, 65 by electrocution, one by hanging, two with a knife, one with a long-handled shovel and six by shooting. Rich faced murder charges four times in his life, but all four times juries acquitted him. At the age of 13, he killed a horse thief who was riding his father's horse. Owens was also the boss of a prison work crew. He died of liver cancer on February 26, 1948, in North McAlester, Oklahoma.
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