Killer Couple’s Murder Spree in California | Cynthia Coffman & James Marlow

The couple that murdered two women for their banking details while on a road trip throughout California in 1986.

James Gregory Marlow’s Early Life

James Marlow was born in 1957 and raised in rural Stearns, Kentucky, alongside his younger sister, Veronica; the siblings lived with their mother, Doris Hill, Marlow’s stepfather, Wendell Hill, and their maternal grandmother, Lena Walls. The accounts of his childhood and life before 1986 come from the mitigation portion of his trial, which is there, in this case, to present all the neglect that Marlow suffered at the hands of his mother. Essentially, the following information was given with Marlow painted as the victim, but it is the most credible account of his early life that I was able to find.

The following portions come from Marlow’s younger sister, Veronica.

Veronica testified memories of Doris and Wendell constantly fighting, often becoming physical with each other. She claimed that Wendell shot Doris, and Doris stabbed Wendell around seven times. To escape the abuse, Doris fled Kentucky with her two children, her mother and an unnamed aunt and uncle with their five children. They ended up in East Los Angeles, California, before moving and living in other Californian towns, El Monte, Azusa…