Deleting "Deleted Users" in OS X

[BartholomewHigglebottoms]

How does one go about getting rid of user accounts that are no longer needed? When I put a user icon/profile into Trash, it only creates a Deleted Users folder - without even deleting the user! I can delete the contents of the Deleted Users folder but the folder itself and the user account in question apparently "belongs to root" and cannot be deleted.