Jimmie Ferrara
James Joseph "Jimmie" Ferrara was an actor in Westerns during the 1940's, known for appearing on the TV series Gunsmoke and films such as Tombstone: The Town Too Tough To Die and Dark Passage under the screen name Craig Lawrence.[1] Ferrara was murdered in his home in Yuma, Arizona in September, 1985, by his wife Delma Troy, her lover Rick Kosterow, and Kosterow's friend Donald White.
Early life
Jimmie Ferrara was born on May 11, 1920 in Endicott, New York to Sicilian immigrants Salvator and Laura Ferrara. The family eventually moved to California and after High School, Ferrara joined the United States Coast Guard where he served as a coxswain. After his service, Ferrara moved to Los Angeles to pursue an acting career.
Hollywood career and personal life
Ferrara was active in Hollywood from the 1940s to the 1960s, mostly working in Westerns, many of which were produced by Republic Pictures.[2][citation needed]
While working in Hollywood, he was reported to have dated Rita Hayworth. [citation needed] He married actress Kathleen Cartmill in 1942. [citation needed] They divorced, and in 1946, Ferrara married another actress named Carole Gallagher, though they would also divorce. [citation needed]
Ferrara married Margaret Bartlett in 1954, but they divorced in 1955 [citation needed] and Ferrara married a woman named Leona [citation needed] who he would stay with for 19 years. They never had children and divorced in 1976.
Later life and murder
After retiring from Hollywood, Ferrara moved to Yuma, Arizona where he invested in real-estate and purchased a nightclub and bar called Panama Red's.
Shortly after his divorce from Leona, Ferrara met Delma Troy while on vacation in Reno, Nevada. Troy was 32 years his junior. They married in 1981 and Troy moved to Yuma with Ferrara.
Just after midnight on September 30, 1981, a neighbor discovered Ferrara had been shot at close range in the face and chest in his own home with a .22 caliber weapon.
The case remained open until 2005 when an anonymous tip led police to question a Marine named Donald White. Donald White told police he had helped his friend and fellow Marine Rick Kosterow kill Ferrara at the request of Troy.[3][4]
All three were eventually convicted of the murder. Troy and Kosterow died in prison. White was released in 2018.[5][6]
The case was profiled in an episode of Snapped (Season 29, Episode 24 "Delma Troy") and Unusual Suspects (Season 8, Episode 7 "The Last Curtain Call").
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- ↑ "Craig Lawrence | Actor". IMDb. Retrieved 2025-07-16.
- ↑ "Ancestry Library Edition". ancestrylibrary.proquest.com. Retrieved 2025-07-16.
- ↑ "'I Really Wish He Was Dead': Was The Wife Behind A Western Film Star's Murder?". Oxygen. 2021-09-20. Retrieved 2025-07-16.
- ↑ Encinas, Ciara (2019-11-21). "Cracking the Case: How law enforcement solves cold cases". KYMA. Retrieved 2025-07-16.
- ↑ Press, The Associated Press | The Associated (2007-12-13). "Washington state man convicted of 1985 Yuma murder". The Denver Post. Retrieved 2025-07-16.
- ↑ ncs-import. "Fallon woman charged in 21-year-old Arizona murder case". www.nevadaappeal.com. Retrieved 2025-07-16.
