Richard Tobias Delage was born on August 13, 1944, in Cos Cob, Greenwich, Connecticut, as the eighth of nine children. His father owned a radio and television store. At six months old, Delage contracted scarlet fever but recovered without lasting effects. He was known as a bright and studious child, with interests in astronomy and oceanography. Delage graduated from Greenwich High School and later from the University of Connecticut in 1971. He married and settled in Thompson, Connecticut, working as a television repairman. In December 1960, at age 16, Delage was institutionalized at Fairfield Hills Hospital after shooting a woman in Stamford. He was released in July 1961. There were no reports of neglect or abuse in his upbringing.

On July 29, 1960, 24-year-old Carole Sgritta, a schoolteacher, was found shot four times in the head inside her car near the New Croton Reservoir in New York. A witness described seeing a tall, slender man with dark-rimmed glasses and a cowboy-type hat at the scene. The case remained unsolved for nearly 15 years.

On November 13, 1969, 23-year-old Paget Weatherley, a University of Connecticut student, disappeared. Her body was found days later in Bolton, Connecticut, with three gunshot wounds to the chest. Despite efforts, the case went cold.

On October 3, 1975, Delage was arrested for kidnapping a hitchhiker in Mansfield, Connecticut. While at Norwich State Hospital, he confessed to psychiatrist Dr. Hans Langhammer that he had "done something wrong," leading to his implication in Sgritta's murder. Ballistics linked his revolver to Weatherley's murder and possibly to the unsolved 1970 double homicide of June Eberlin and Mary Lenihan in Pennsylvania.

Delage pleaded guilty to Sgritta's murder in New York, receiving a 20-years-to-life sentence. He also pleaded guilty to manslaughter in Weatherley's case in Connecticut, receiving a 14-to-20-year sentence. He has not been charged in the Pennsylvania case. As of April 2025, Delage remains incarcerated at Franklin Correctional Facility in Malone, New York.