8 Criminals Who Committed Murder in Prison

8 Criminals Who Committed Murder in Prison

Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we’re breaking down cases in which dangerous criminals proved lethal — even behind bars.

Thomas Eugene Creech

Even incarceration couldn’t contain Thomas Eugene Creech. By the early 1980s, he was already serving time in Idaho after convictions for multiple murders, including killings committed in more than one state. But Creech was far from finished, even while housed at the Idaho State Correctional Institution. In 1981, he attacked fellow inmate David Dale Jensen, fatally beating him with a sock weighted with batteries. The homicide occurred inside the institution and led to a first-degree murder charge. Creech pleaded guilty and received a death sentence specifically for the prison killing. Decades later, he remains a stark example of the grim reality that some inmates pose an extreme risk even in maximum-security confinement.

Donald Henry Gaskins

Few prison murders exposed institutional vulnerability as starkly as the one committed by Donald Henry Gaskins. Already incarcerated in South Carolina’s high-security unit for murder, Gaskins somehow managed to carry out a killing inside the prison itself. In September 1982, he murdered fellow death-row inmate Rudolph Tyner using an improvised explosive concealed inside a radio, detonated within the secure housing unit. Gaskins later admitted responsibility, was convicted for the prison killing, and received an additional death sentence. The case stands as one of the most extreme examples of how even condemned inmates can exploit security gaps to deadly effect.

Robert Maudsley

Infamy followed Robert Maudsley long before he became one of the most securely isolated prisoners in British history. Born in Liverpool, Maudsley’s violence began with the killing of a man who had shown him material depicting the exploitation of minors. While confined at Broadmoor Hospital, he murdered a convicted abuser, then at Wakefield Prison in 1978 he killed two fellow inmates in a single day — garroting one and stabbing another with a makeshift weapon. Sensationalist claims that he ate a victim’s brain were debunked by post-mortem reports, yet the press still dubbed him “Hannibal the Cannibal.” From that day forward, authorities kept him in near-total solitary confinement, escorting him only under heavy security during rare permitted movements.

Carl Panzram

A lifelong offender who claimed responsibility for numerous murders, Carl Panzram saw prison not as punishment, but as another battleground. While serving time at Leavenworth Penitentiary, his hatred of authority boiled over. In 1922, he murdered prison employee Robert Warnke, a laundry foreman, an act that ultimately sealed his fate. Unlike inmates whose prison killings stemmed from impulse or circumstance, Panzram’s actions were consistent with his own written confessions, which openly celebrated cruelty, domination, and destruction. The Leavenworth killing led to his conviction and execution by hanging in 1930. Panzram reportedly expressed satisfaction with his sentence, remaining defiant to the end.

Christopher Scarver

Scarver’s name is forever tied to one of the most pored-over prison murders of the 1990s. Already serving life for a 1990 murder, he was assigned to a work detail at Wisconsin’s Columbia Correctional Institution in 1994 with fellow inmates Jesse Anderson and — maybe you’ve heard of him — Jeffrey Dahmer. Unsupervised in the prison gym, Scarver retrieved a hidden metal bar and bludgeoned Dahmer in a staff locker room, fatally wounding him, then attacked Anderson. Dahmer died at a hospital about an hour later; Anderson succumbed days afterward. Scarver was convicted on the additional counts and received two more life sentences.

Thomas Silverstein

In the crucible of maximum-security prison violence, there aren’t many who loom as large as Thomas Silverstein. Already serving time for armed robbery, he killed fellow inmate Danny Atwell at USP Leavenworth before being transferred to the more restrictive USP Marion. There, alongside another inmate, Silverstein stabbed Raymond Lee “Cadillac” Smith to death in 1981 amid escalating gang tensions. The violence culminated in 1983 when Silverstein murdered correctional officer Merle Clutts during a brief lapse in restraints. Clutts’ killing triggered sweeping changes within the federal prison system, and is widely regarded as a key catalyst in the development of the modern supermax prison model.

Lemuel Smith

When Lemuel Smith murdered a corrections officer in 1981, the case drew intense scrutiny over prison security and inmate supervision. Smith was already serving a life sentence at Green Haven Correctional Facility for multiple violent crimes when he murdered Officer Donna Payant while she was on duty. The killing occurred inside the prison and led to Smith’s conviction for murder. He became a particularly notorious example of an inmate killing staff while incarcerated. The case prompted heightened examination of security protocols within New York State’s prison system, hitting home a sobering lesson: that confinement alone can’t neutralize every threat.

Robert Stroud

The curious lore surrounding Robert Stroud — colloquially known as the “Birdman of Alcatraz” — often centers on birds and solitary confinement. But behind the myth was a deadly reality. Convicted of murder in 1909, Stroud’s violence didn’t end once he entered federal custody. In 1916, while incarcerated at Leavenworth Penitentiary, he stabbed Corrections Officer Andrew Turner through the heart in broad daylight after being reprimanded. The killing led to a first-degree murder conviction and a death sentence, later commuted to life imprisonment. Turner’s murder permanently altered how authorities handled Stroud, consigning him to decades of extreme isolation and cementing the conditions that would define his infamy.

Which murderer on our list shocked you the most? Are there any we missed? Be sure to let us know in the comments below!