List of Prison Deaths

This is a list of notable people who have died in prison. In alphabetical order, this list does not include inmates who were executed as punishment of their crimes.

Name Date of death Cause of death Known for Comments
Abu Abbas 2004 Natural causes Militant
Andreas Baader, Gudrun Ensslin, Ulrike Meinhof, Holger Meins, and Jan Raspe 1974 to 1977 Suicide Members of the Red Army Faction
Susan Atkins 2009 Natural causes Member of the Manson family
Leslie Bailey 1993 Murdered by other prisoners British pedophile and multiple murderer
Steve Biko 1977 Bludgeoned to death by South African police South African anti-apartheid activist
Walter Breen 1993 Cancer American child molester
Jeffrey Dahmer 1994 Beaten to death by a fellow inmate American serial killer
Garry David 1993 Died from wounds caused by self-mutilation Robbery and attempted murder
Byron De La Beckwith 2001 Heart attack American assassin
Anthony Van Egmond 1838 Pneumonia, malnutrition and exposure Dutch war veteran and an early settler in the Huron Tract
Yuri Galanskov 1972 Death from an operation by a former doctor (another inmate) with no surgical qualifications Russian poet, historian, and human rights activist, imprisoned for his writings
John Gotti 2001 Throat cancer American mafia boss
John Geoghan 2003 Homicide Catholic priest and child molester
John Wayne Glover 2005 Suicide (hanging) Sydney Granny Murderer
Ryan Gracie 2007 Brazilian mixed martial artist
Emil Hácha 1945 President of Czechoslovakia, later of the Protectorate Bohemia and Moravia
Hermann Göring 1946 Suicide Nazi
Colin Hatch 2011 Suspected Homicide Notorious murderer and child molester
Rudolf Hess 1987 Suicide Nazi
Myra Hindley 2002 heart attack British serial killer
Ronald Kray 1995 British gangster and murderer, twin brother of Reginald Kray
David Lane 2007 Epilepsy American white nationalist
Richard Loeb 1936 Murdered by fellow inmate American murderer
Andrew Martinez 2006 suicide Nude activist
Slobodan Milošević 2006 Heart attack Serbian and Yugoslav president
Bobby Sands 1981 Hunger strike Irish republican Died along with 9 other Republicans on hunger strike. See 1981 Irish Hunger Strike
Harold Shipman 2004 Suicide British doctor who killed many of his patients
Nikolai Vavilov 1943 Malnutrition Russian botanist and geneticist who was imprisoned for his struggle against pseudoscience
Raoul Wallenberg 1947 or later Extrajudicial punishment in Soviet Lefortovo prison Humanitarian worker, rescued Jews during the Holocaust
Fred West 1995 Suicide by hanging Multiple murders
Graham Young 1990 Heart attack Poisoner Died in Parkhurst prison. Heart attack official cause but there has been speculation that other prisoners may have been responsible.

Famous quotes containing the words list of, list, prison and/or deaths:

    “Thirty—the promise of a decade of loneliness, a thinning list of single men to know, a thinning brief-case of enthusiasm, thinning hair.”
    —F. Scott Fitzgerald (1896–1940)

    “Weigh what loss your honor may sustain
    If with too credent ear you list his songs,
    Or lose your heart, or your chaste treasure open
    To his unmastered importunity.”
    —William Shakespeare (1564–1616)

    “So must pure lovers’ souls descend
    T’affections, and to faculties,
    Which sense may reach and apprehend,
    Else a great Prince in prison lies.”
    —John Donne (c. 1572–1631)

    “There is the guilt all soldiers feel for having broken the taboo against killing, a guilt as old as war itself. Add to this the soldier’s sense of shame for having fought in actions that resulted, indirectly or directly, in the deaths of civilians. Then pile on top of that an attitude of social opprobrium, an attitude that made the fighting man feel personally morally responsible for the war, and you get your proverbial walking time bomb.”
    —Philip Caputo (b. 1941)