Richard Wade Cooey II was born on June 9, 1967, in Akron, Ohio. He grew up in Stow, Ohio, with his parents until they divorced when he was 11 years old. After the divorce, Richard split his time between living with his father in Stow and living with his paternal grandmother in Akron.

He attended junior high and high school during these years. Richard graduated from Stow High School in 1985. After finishing school, he decided to enlist in the U.S. Army. The following summer, he returned home on leave.

Early on the morning of September 1, 1986, Richard Wade Cooey II, Clinton Dickens, and Kenneth Horonetz Jr. were involved in a violent crime in Akron, Ohio. They were throwing chunks of concrete off the Stoner Street Bridge onto U.S. Interstate 77. One of the chunks thrown by Dickens struck a car that was carrying two University of Akron students, 21-year-old Wendy Offredo and 20-year-old Dawn McCreery.

The three men pretended to rescue the women, but they actually kidnapped them. Cooey, who was 19 years old at the time, and Dickens, who was 17, took the victims to a field behind the Rolling Acres Mall. There, they raped, stabbed, and tortured Offredo and McCreery for three and a half hours. They eventually choked and bludgeoned them to death and abandoned their bodies. While committing these crimes, they carved X's into the victims' abdomens.

After the murders, Cooey bragged about what he had done to his friends. This eventually led to him being turned in to the police. He was convicted on November 14, 1986, and sentenced to death. Dickens, being a minor, could not receive the death penalty under Ohio’s laws and was serving a life sentence as of 2024. Horonetz, who had left the car before the violence started, and another man named Terry Grant were charged with obstruction of justice for their parts in destroying evidence. Grant received two years' probation, while Horonetz was released on parole after serving one year for felonious assault.

Cooey later denied killing or beating anyone. He admitted to raping the women but claimed it was "rape under duress". He stated that he was under the influence of alcohol and drugs like cocaine and opium during the crimes.

Cooey was held at the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility. He was originally scheduled to be executed on July 24, 2003. However, that execution was delayed for further investigation. In February 2005, Cooey attempted to escape from prison.

Cooey argued that his obesity made lethal injection an inhumane method of execution. He claimed that his clogged veins would prevent the first drug used in the execution from working properly. He also stated that prison food contributed to his obesity. This argument was rejected. 

On October 14, 2008, after more than 22 years on death row, Richard Wade Cooey II was executed by lethal injection at the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility. Witnesses reported that he appeared calm as he delivered his final statement to prison officials. The procedure began at 10:28 a.m., and he was pronounced dead at 10:38 a.m.