History Notable People Who Died in Prison  

Notable Famous Deaths
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Here is a list of famous prisoners who died in jail. This is a list of famous people who died in jail, not those who were executed. Some of these convicts were victims of jail murders. These criminals had death from various causes like suicide in jail, or were victims of jail murders, or natural death in prison cell. Here is a list of all prison deaths that is worth remembering. This list includes all deaths and causes of these prison deaths.

What are some of most famous prison deaths? Take a look at the people on here, who were probably murdered in prison, and you'll realize that they became celebrities in their own right, for better or worse.

Ariel Castro is listed (or ranked) 1 on the list Notable People Who Died in Prison
Dec. at 53 (1960-2013) Suicide Ariel Castro has been charged with kidnapping and rape for allegedly abducting Amanda Berry, Georgina DeJesus, and Michelle Knight.

Jeffrey Dahmer is listed (or ranked) 2 on the list Notable People Who Died in Prison
Dec. at 34 (1960-1994) Beaten to death by a fellow inmate Jeffrey Lionel Dahmer, also known as the Milwaukee Cannibal, was an American serial killer and sex offender, who committed the rape, murder and dismemberment of seventeen men and boys between ...more

Andreas Baader is listed (or ranked) 3 on the list Notable People Who Died in Prison
Dec. at 34 (1943-1977) 1974 to 1977 Berndt Andreas Baader was one of the first leaders of the German left-wing militant organization Red Army Faction, also commonly known as the Baader-Meinhof Gang.

Gudrun Ensslin is listed (or ranked) 4 on the list Notable People Who Died in Prison
Dec. at 37 (1940-1977) 1974 to 1977 Gudrun Ensslin was a founder of the German urban guerilla group Red Army Faction. After becoming involved with co-founder Andreas Baader, Ensslin was influential in the politicization of ...more

Yuri Galanskov is listed (or ranked) 5 on the list Notable People Who Died in Prison
Dec. at 33 (1939-1972) Death from an operation by a former doctor(another inmate) with no surgical qualifications Yuri Timofeyevich Galanskov Russian: Юрий Тимофеевич Галансков was a Russian poet, historian, human rights activist and dissident. For his political activities, such as founding and editing ...more

Ulrike Meinhof is listed (or ranked) 6 on the list Notable People Who Died in Prison
Dec. at 42 (1934-1976) 1974 to 1977 Ulrike Marie Meinhof was a German left-wing militant. She co-founded the Red Army Faction in 1970 after having previously worked as a journalist for the monthly left-wing magazine konkret. She ...more

Holger Meins is listed (or ranked) 7 on the list Notable People Who Died in Prison
Holger Meins Dec. at 33 (1941-1974) 1974 to 1977 Holger Klaus Meins was a German cinematography student who joined the Red Army Faction in the early 1970s and died on hunger strike in prison.

Jan-Carl Raspe is listed (or ranked) 8 on the list Notable People Who Died in Prison
Dec. at 33 (1944-1977) 1974 to 1977 Jan-Carl Raspe was a member of the German militant group, the Red Army Faction.

Leslie Bailey is listed (or ranked) 9 on the list Notable People Who Died in Prison
Dec. at 40 (1953-1993) Murdered by other prisoners

Steve Biko is listed (or ranked) 10 on the list Notable People Who Died in Prison
Dec. at 31 (1946-1977) Bludgeoned to death by South African police Stephen Bantu Biko was an anti-apartheid activist in South Africa in the 1960s and 1970s. A student leader, he later founded the Black Consciousness Movement which would empower and mobilize ...more

Walter H. Breen is listed (or ranked) 11 on the list Notable People Who Died in Prison
Walter H. Breen Dec. at 65 (1928-1993) Cancer Walter H. Breen was an American writer and convicted child sex offender. He is known among coin collectors for writing Walter Breen's Complete Encyclopedia of U.S. and Colonial Coins. ...more

Garry David is listed (or ranked) 12 on the list Notable People Who Died in Prison
Dec. at 39 (1954-1993) Died from wounds caused by self-mutilation Garry David, also known as Garry Webb, was an Australian criminal born on 20 November 1954 to Rupert and Betty David.

Byron De La Beckwith is listed (or ranked) 13 on the list Notable People Who Died in Prison
Dec. at 81 (1920-2001) Heart attack Byron De La Beckwith, Jr. was an American white supremacist and Klansman from Greenwood, Mississippi, who in 1994 was convicted of assassinating civil rights leader Medgar Evers June 12, 1963. ...more

Anthony Van Egmond is listed (or ranked) 14 on the list Notable People Who Died in Prison
Anthony Van Egmond Dec. at 60 (1778-1838) 1838 Anthony Van Egmond, born Antonij Jacobi Willem Gijben before coming to North America, was purportedly a Dutch Napoleonic War veteran. He became one of the first settlers and business people in ...more

John Gotti is listed (or ranked) 15 on the list Notable People Who Died in Prison
Dec. at 62 (1940-2002) Throat cancer John Joseph Gotti, Jr. was an American mobster who became the boss of the Gambino crime family in New York City. Gotti and his brothers grew up in poverty and turned to a life of crime at an ...more

John Geoghan is listed (or ranked) 16 on the list Notable People Who Died in Prison
Dec. at 68 (1935-2003) Homicide John J. Geoghan was an American Roman Catholic priest who had numerous accusations of sex abuse made against him while he was assigned to parishes in the Boston Archdiocese of Massachusetts. He ...more

Muhammad Zaidan is listed (or ranked) 17 on the list Notable People Who Died in Prison
Dec. at 56 (1948-2004) Natural causes Muhammad Zaidan also known as Abū 'Abbās or Muhammad ‘Abbās, was the founder and a leader of the Palestine Liberation Front Organization.

John Wayne Glover is listed (or ranked) 18 on the list Notable People Who Died in Prison
Dec. at 73 (1932-2005) Suicide (hanging) John Wayne Glover was an English-born Australian serial killer convicted for the murders of six elderly women on Sydney's North Shore. Over a fourteen-month period in 1989/90, Glover killed six ...more

Ryan Gracie is listed (or ranked) 19 on the list Notable People Who Died in Prison
Dec. at 33 (1974-2007) 2007 Ryan Gracie was a Brazilian mixed martial artist with a black belt in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. He was a member of the Gracie family, and the grandson of Carlos Gracie, one of the founders of ...more

Emil Hácha is listed (or ranked) 20 on the list Notable People Who Died in Prison
Emil Hácha Dec. at 73 (1872-1945) 1945 Emil Hácha was a Czech lawyer, the third President of Czechoslovakia from 1938 to 1939. From March 1939, his country was under the control of the Germans and was known as the Protectorate ...more

Rudolf Hess is listed (or ranked) 21 on the list Notable People Who Died in Prison
Died at 93 (1894-1987) Suicide Rudolf Walter Richard Heß, also spelled Hess, was a prominent politician in Nazi Germany. Appointed Deputy Führer to Adolf Hitler in 1933, he served in this position until 1941, when ...more

Myra Hindley is listed (or ranked) 22 on the list Notable People Who Died in Prison
Dec. at 60 (1942-2002) heart attack

Ronald Kray is listed (or ranked) 23 on the list Notable People Who Died in Prison
1995

David Lane is listed (or ranked) 24 on the list Notable People Who Died in Prison
Dec. at 69 (1938-2007) Epilepsy David Eden Lane was an American white nationalist leader and convicted felon. A founding member of The Order, he died while serving a 190-year prison sentence in the Federal Correctional Complex ...more

Richard Loeb is listed (or ranked) 25 on the list Notable People Who Died in Prison
Richard Loeb Murdered by fellow inmate

Andrew Martinez is listed (or ranked) 26 on the list Notable People Who Died in Prison
Dec. at 34 (1972-2006) suicide Luis Andrew Martinez commonly known as Andrew Martinez, was an activist who was known at the University of California, Berkeley as the Naked Guy.

Slobodan Milošević is listed (or ranked) 27 on the list Notable People Who Died in Prison
Dec. at 65 (1941-2006) Heart attack Slobodan Milošević was a Serbian and Yugoslav politician who was the President of Serbia from 1989 to 1997 and President of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia from 1997 to 2000. Among his ...more

Bobby Sands is listed (or ranked) 28 on the list Notable People Who Died in Prison
Dec. at 27 (1954-1981) Hunger strike Robert Gerard "Bobby" Sands was a member of the Provisional Irish Republican Army who died on hunger strike while imprisoned at HM Prison Maze. He was the leader of the 1981 hunger ...more

Harold Shipman is listed (or ranked) 29 on the list Notable People Who Died in Prison
Dec. at 58 (1946-2004) Suicide Harold Frederick Shipman was a British doctor and one of the most prolific serial killers in recorded history. On 31 January 2000, a jury found Shipman guilty of 15 murders. He was sentenced to ...more

Nikolai Vavilov is listed (or ranked) 30 on the list Notable People Who Died in Prison
Nikolai Vavilov Dec. at 56 (1887-1943) Malnutrition Nikolai Ivanovich Vavilov ForMemRS was a prominent Russian and Soviet botanist and geneticist best known for having identified the centres of origin of cultivated plants. He devoted his life to ...more

Raoul Wallenberg is listed (or ranked) 31 on the list Notable People Who Died in Prison
Dec. at 35 (1912-1947) Extrajudicial punishment in Soviet Lefortovo prison Raoul Gustaf Wallenberg was a Swedish architect, businessman, diplomat and humanitarian. He is widely celebrated for saving tens of thousands of Jews in Nazi-occupied Hungary during the ...more

Fred West is listed (or ranked) 32 on the list Notable People Who Died in Prison
Dec. at 54 (1941-1995) Suicide by hanging Frederick Walter Stephen "Fred" West was an English serial killer. Between 1967 and 1987, West – alone and later with his second wife, serial killer Rosemary West – tortured and raped ...more

Graham Young is listed (or ranked) 33 on the list Notable People Who Died in Prison
Dec. at 43 (1947-1990) Heart attack Graham Frederick Young was an English serial killer who used poison to kill his victims. He was sent to Broadmoor Hospital in 1962 after poisoning several members of his family, killing his ...more