Richard Wade Cooey was an American murderer. He was executed in Ohio on October 14, 2008, for the 1986 murders of 21-year-old Wendy Offredo and 20-year-old Dawn McCreery in Akron, Ohio.

Cooey, along with an accomplice, Clinton Dickens, was responsible for the abduction, rape, torture, and murder of the two University of Akron students. The crime began when a chunk of concrete thrown from a bridge struck the women's car, forcing them to stop. Cooey and Dickens then kidnapped the women, took them to a field, and brutally murdered them.

His case gained significant attention in the years leading up to his execution due to his argument that his obesity (over 275 pounds) would make lethal injection an inhumane form of execution, as he claimed his veins were too difficult to access. This argument was ultimately rejected by the courts, and he was executed by lethal injection.