List of prison deaths
This is a list of notable people who have died in prison, whether actually in prison or in hospital while still serving a prison sentence. In alphabetical order, this list does not include inmates who were executed as punishment for their crimes. Most of them died from suicide.
| Name | Date of death | Cause of death | Known for | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Abu Abbas | 2004 | Natural causes | Militant | |
| Omar Abdel-Rahman | 2017 | Coronary arterial disease | Terrorist | |
| Jesse Anderson | 1994 | Beaten to death by fellow inmate Christopher Scarver | American murderer | |
| Susan Atkins | 2009 | Brain tumor | Member of the Manson family | |
| Andreas Baader | 1977 | Alleged suicide | Member of the Red Army Faction | |
| Josef Bachmann | 1970 | Suicide | Attempt to assassinate APO student leader Rudi Dutschke | |
| Klaus Barbie | 1991 | Leukemia | Nazi war criminal | |
| Steve Biko | 1977 | Bludgeoned to death by South African police[1] | South African anti-apartheid activist | |
| Sandra Bland | 2015 | Alleged suicide | American protester | |
| Heinrich Boere | 2013 | Natural causes | Nazi war criminal | |
| Samuel Bowers | 2006 | Cardio-pulmonary arrest | American white supremacist | |
| Ian Brady | 2017 | Cancer | British serial killer | |
| Walter Breen | 1993 | Cancer | American child molester | |
| Ariel Castro | 2013 | Suicide | Kidnapped and raped three American women for over a decade. | |
| Richard Chase | 1980 | Suicide | American serial killer | |
| Jeffrey Dahmer | 1994 | Beaten to death by fellow inmate Christopher Scarver[2] | American serial killer and cannibal | |
| Garry David | 1993 | Died from wounds caused by self-mutilation | Robbery and attempted murder | |
| Byron De La Beckwith | 2001 | Heart attack[3] | American assassin | |
| Sigurd Debus | 1981 | Hungerstrike | Alleged member of the Red Army Faction | |
| Albert DeSalvo | 1973 | Murdered | The Boston Strangler | |
| Antonie Dixon | 2009 | Suicide | New Zealand thief and murderer | |
| Edarem | 2012 | Lung Cancer | American Internet personality | |
| Gudrun Ensslin | 1977 | Alleged suicide | Member of the Red Army Faction | |
| Clayton Fountain | 2004 | Heart attack | Member of the Aryan Brotherhood | |
| Yuri Galanskov | 1972 | Death from an operation by ao surgical qualifications | Russian poet, historian, and human rights activist, imprisoned for his writing | |
| Kasturba Gandhi | 1944 | Natural causes | ||
| Hermann Göring | 1946 | Suicide | Nazi war criminal | |
| John Gotti | 2002 | Throat cancer | American Mafia boss | |
| Ryan Gracie | 2007 | Died as a result of brain injury | Brazilian mixed martial artist | |
| Emil Hácha | 1945 | Unknown | President of Czechoslovakia, later of the Protectorate Bohemia and Moravia | |
| Katharina Hammerschmidt | 1975 | Untreated cancer | Member of the Red Army Faction | |
| Donald Harvey | 2017 | Killed by fellow inmate | Serial killer | |
| Colin Hatch | 2011 | Suspected homicide | Notorious murderer and child molester | |
| Siegfried Hausner | 1975 | Severe burns untreated in custody | Member of the Red Army Faction | |
| Aaron Hernandez | 2017 | Suicide | Former tight-end for NFL team New England Patriots, murderer of Odin Lloyd | Found not guilty of the 2012 double homicide of Daniel de Abreu and Safiro Furtado just 5 days before he was found dead |
| Rudolf Hess | 1987 | Suicide | Nazi war criminal | |
| Myra Hindley | 2002 | Died in hospital after heart attack in prison | British serial killer | |
| Colin Ireland | 2012 | Died as a result of hip injury.[4] | British serial killer of gay men | |
| Ilse Koch | 1967 | Suicide by hanging | Commandant of Buchenwald concentration camp | |
| Ronald Kray | 1995 | Heart attack | British gangster and murderer, twin brother of Reginald Kray | |
| David Lane | 2007 | Epilepsy | American white nationalist | |
| Ervil LeBaron | 1981 | Natural causes | American Mormon fundamentalist | |
| Robert Ley | 1945 | Suicide by hanging | Nazi war criminal | |
| Liu Xiaobo | 2017 | Liver cancer | Prisoner of conscience | Nobel Peace Prize laureate (2010) |
| Richard Loeb | 1936 | Murdered by fellow inmate[5] | American murderer | |
| Charles Manson | 2017 | Natural causes | Leader of the Manson Family | |
| Philip Markoff | 2010 | Suicide | American murderer | Known as the "Craigslist killer" |
| Andrew Martinez | 2006 | Suicide | Nude activist | |
| Ulrike Meinhof | 1976 | Alleged suicide | Member of the Red Army Faction | |
| Holger Meins | 1974 | Hunger strike | Member of the Red Army Faction | |
| Slobodan Milošević | 2006 | Heart attack | Serbian and Yugoslav president | |
| Tjostolv Moland | 2013 | Suicide | Sentenced to death for murder, and espionage for Norway | Died in Congolese custody[6] |
| Joe "Pegleg" Morgan | 1993 | Liver cancer | Mexican Mafia leader | |
| Dennis Nilsen | 2018 | Pulmonary embolism | British serial killer | |
| Lou Pearlman | 2016 | Cardiac arrest | Manager of Backstreet Boys and *NSYNC | |
| Lawrence Phillips | 2016 | Suicide | American football player | |
| Gavrilo Princip | 1918 | Malnutrition and skeletal tuberculosis | Yugoslav terrorist | Assassinated Archduke Franz Ferdinand, beginning World War I |
| Richard Ramirez | 2013 | Cancer | American serial killer | |
| Jan-Carl Raspe | 1977 | Alleged suicide | Member of the Red Army Faction | |
| James Earl Ray | 1998 | Hepatitis C | Accused assassin of Martin Luther King, Jr. | |
| Jack Ruby | 1967 | Pulmonary embolism | American nightclub owner |
Murdered Lee Harvey Oswald |
| Bobby Sands | 1981 | Hunger strike | Irish republican | Died along with 9 other Republicans on hunger strike. See 1981 Irish Hunger Strike |
| Ingrid Schubert | 1977 | Alleged suicide | Member of the Red Army Faction | |
| Harold Shipman | 2004 | Suicide by hanging | British doctor who killed many of his patients | |
| Liu Shaoqi | 1969 | unknown | President of the People's Republic of China | Wrongly named a traitor during the Cultural Revolution |
| Richard Speck | 1991 | Heart attack | American mass murderer | |
| John Straffen | 2007 | Natural causes | British serial killer | Longest-serving prisoner in British legal history, was in prison for 55 years until his death |
| Robert Stroud | 1963 | Natural causes | The Birdman of Alcatraz | |
| Wolfe Tone | 1798 | Suicide | Leader of the 1798 Irish Rebellion against Great Britain | |
| Toussaint Louverture | 1804 | Natural causes | Leader of the Haitian Revolution who was imprisoned for launching a rebellion against France | |
| Anthony Van Egmond | 1838 | Pneumonia, malnutrition and exposure | Dutch war veteran and an early settler in the Huron Tract | |
| Nikolai Vavilov | 1943 | Malnutrition | Russian botanist and geneticist who was imprisoned for his struggle against pseudoscience | |
| Vercingetorix | 46 BC | Strangulation | Gaulish leader defeated by Julius Caesar | |
| John Anthony Walker | 2014 | Unknown | United States Navy Chief Warrant Officer convicted of spying for the Soviet Union from 1968 to 1985 | |
| Raoul Wallenberg | 1947 or later | Extrajudicial punishment in Soviet Lefortovo prison | Diplomat, rescued Jews during the Holocaust | |
| Fred West | 1995 | Suicide by hanging[7] | Multiple murders; was on remand awaiting trial | |
| Carl Williams | 2010 | Bludgeoned to death | Australian crime boss | Murdered by fellow inmate while serving sentence |
| Yip Kai Foon | 2017 | Lung cancer[8] | Hong Kong armed robber with AK-47 | |
| Graham Young | 1990 | Heart attack | Poisoner | Died in Parkhurst prison. Heart attack is the official cause of death but there has been speculation that other prisoners may have been responsible.[citation needed] |
| Sergei Magnitsky | 2009 | Closed cerebral cranial injury | Russian tax accountant who specialized in anti-corruption activities | Magnitsky alleged there had been large-scale theft from the Russian state, sanctioned and carried out by Russian officials. He was arrested and eventually died in prison. |
References
- ^ Pillay, Verashni (2007-09-12). "Keeping Steve Biko alive". News24. Archived from the original on 2007-10-17. Retrieved 2009-01-31.
{{cite web}}: Unknown parameter|deadurl=ignored (|url-status=suggested) (help) - ^ Serial killer's property set to go on the auction block." CNN.com. May 8, 1996.
- ^ Stout, David (2001-01-23). "Byron De La Beckwith Dies; Killer of Medgar Evers Was 80". New York Times. Retrieved 2009-01-31.
- ^ Pink News: Exercise yard fall contributed to death of Gay Slayer.
- ^ The Leopold and Loeb Trial:A Brief Account Archived 2007-03-15 at the Wayback Machine by Douglas O. Linder. 1997. Retrieved 11 April 2007.
- ^ Rydland, Julie (29 August 2013). "Congo: Prisoner took his own life". The Norway Post. Aftenposten. Retrieved 11 October 2013.
- ^ Steven Morris (2007-09-20). "Serial Murder and the Psychology of a Sexual Sadist: Frederick West". New Criminologist. Retrieved 2009-01-18.
- ^ "'King of Robbery' Yip Kai-foon dies of cancer". Radio Hong Kong. 19 April 2017.