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Thomas Silverstein | |
Born | February 4, 1952 |
---|---|
Died | (aged 67) Lakewood, Colorado[1] |
Other names | Terrible Tom, Tommy |
Known for | Former leader of the Aryan Brotherhood prison gang |
Criminal status | Deceased |
Parent(s) | Virginia Conway, Thomas Conway |
Criminal charge | Murder, Armed Robbery |
Penalty | Life imprisonment (without parole) |
May 01, 2013 America’s 10 Worst Prisons: ADX. By prison employees about half of the time—more than 200,000 such assaults take place in American penal facilities every year. Oct 22, 2015 Inside South America's most dangerous prisons. By Helena Cavendish de Moura, Special to CNN. Updated 7:59 PM ET, Thu October 22, 2015. Colombia, looks out from behind bars in 2007. The goal of many street gang members is to gain the respect and protection that comes from being in a prison gang. Prison gangs use street gangs members as their power base for which they recruit new members. For many members, reaching prison gang status shows the ultimate commitment to the gang. Aug 10, 2001 Thomas Silverstein is often described by the authorities as America's most dangerous prisoner. In the six years after he was jailed for armed robbery in 1977 he killed two fellow inmates - and stabbed to death prison guard Merle Clutts. He was cleared of a third murder. Apr 05, 2013 One of America's most violent prison gangs, Barrio Azteca is most active in Texas prisons as well as communities in southwestern Texas and southeastern New Mexico. Members are often linked to. It looks like we don't have any AKAs for this title yet. Be the first to contribute! Just click the 'Edit page' button at the bottom of the page or learn more in the AKAs submission guide.
Thomas Edward Silverstein (February 4, 1952 – May 11, 2019) was an American criminal who spent the last 42 years of his life in prison after being convicted of four separate murders while imprisoned for armed robbery, one of which was overturned.[2] Silverstein spent the last 36 years of his life in solitary confinement for killing Corrections Officer Merle Clutts at the Marion Penitentiary in Illinois. Prison authorities described him as a brutal killer and a former leader of the Aryan Brotherhood prison gang. Silverstein maintained that the dehumanizing conditions inside the prison system contributed to the three murders he committed. He was held 'in a specially designed cell' in what is called 'Range 13' at ADX Florence federal penitentiary in Colorado.[3] He was the longest-held prisoner in solitary confinement within the Bureau of Prisons at the time of his death.[4]
Early life[edit]
Thomas Silverstein was born in Long Beach, California, to Virginia Conway. Conway had divorced her first husband in 1952 while pregnant with Silverstein and married Thomas Conway, who Silverstein claimed was his biological father. Four years later, Virginia divorced Conway and married Sid Silverstein, who legally adopted her son.
Silverstein was timid, awkward, shy, and frequently bullied as a child in the middle-class neighborhood where the family lived, in part because his peers mistakenly believed he was Jewish. Virginia Silverstein demanded that her son fight back, telling the boy that if he ever came home again crying because he had been beaten up by a bully, she would be waiting to give him another beating. Silverstein states, 'That's how my mom was. She stood her mud. If someone came at you with a bat, you got your bat and you both went at it.' At age fourteen, Silverstein was sentenced to a California Youth Authority reformatory where, he said, his attitudes about violence were reinforced. 'Anyone not willing to fight was abused.'
In 1971, at age nineteen, Silverstein was sent to San Quentin Prison in California for armed robbery. Four years later, he was paroled, but he was arrested soon after along with his father, Thomas Conway, and his cousin, Gerald Hoff, for three armed robberies. Their take was less than $11,000. In 1977, Silverstein was sentenced to fifteen years for armed robbery, to be served at United States Penitentiary in Leavenworth, Kansas.[2][5]
Murders at USP Marion[edit]
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While at Leavenworth, Silverstein developed ties with the Aryan Brotherhood. In 1980, Silverstein was convicted of the murder of inmate Danny Atwell, who reportedly refused to serve as a mule for heroin being moved through the prison. He was sentenced to life without parole and transferred to the United States Penitentiary in Marion, Illinois (USP Marion), which was then a high security facility.[2] The conviction was overturned in 1985 after it emerged that the jailhouse informants who testified at his trial had perjured themselves on the stand.[6]
At Marion, Silverstein was housed in the 'Control Unit', a virtual solitary confinement regime reserved for extreme 'management problems' (prisoners prone to assaultive and disruptive behavior) in the prison.
In 1981, Silverstein was accused of the murder of Robert Chappelle, a member of the D.C. Blacks prison gang. Silverstein and another inmate, Clayton Fountain, were convicted and Silverstein received an additional life sentence. Silverstein maintained his innocence. While Silverstein was on trial for Chappelle's murder, the Bureau of Prisons transferred Raymond 'Cadillac' Smith, the national leader of the D.C. Blacks prison gang, from another prison into the control unit in Marion. From the moment Smith arrived in the control unit, prison logs show that he began trying to kill Silverstein.[2][5]
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'I tried to tell Cadillac that I didn't kill Chappelle, but he didn't believe me and he bragged that he was going to kill me,' Silverstein recalled. 'Everyone knew what was going on and no one did anything to keep us apart. The guards wanted one of us to kill the other.'[5] Silverstein and Clayton Fountain killed Smith with improvised weapons, stabbing him 67 times. After Smith was dead, they dragged his body up and down the catwalk in front of the cells, displaying it to other prisoners.[7] Silverstein received another life sentence.
Murder of Correction Officer Clutts[edit]
Correction Officer Merle Clutts
On October 22, 1983, Silverstein killed Correction Officer Merle Clutts at USP Marion.[8] After being let out of his cell for a shower, Silverstein used a ruse to get Clutts to walk ahead of him and positioned himself between Clutts and other officers. He stopped outside the cell of another inmate, Randy Gometz. Gometz passed a homemade prison knife, known as a shank, to Silverstein and unlocked Silverstein's handcuffs with a homemade key. Silverstein then attacked Clutts, stabbing him several dozen times. Silverstein later claimed that he murdered Clutts in retaliation for Clutts' deliberately harassing him.[5] Among other things, Clutts was accused of destroying paintings by Silverstein.[9]
A few hours later, Silverstein's friend, Clayton Fountain (also an Aryan Brotherhood member) used the same strategy to kill another correction officer, Robert Hoffmann.
USP Marion was subsequently placed on an indefinite lockdown, which ultimately lasted for 23 years. Following the murder of Clutts, Silverstein was transferred to the United States Penitentiary, Atlanta, where he was placed in solitary confinement. His security status was recorded as 'no human contact.'[2] The events surrounding the murders of Correction Officers Clutts and Hoffmann inspired the design of the federal supermax prison, the United States Penitentiary, Florence ADX (USP Florence ADX) in Colorado, which opened in 1994 and was built to house the most dangerous inmates in the federal prison system. Silverstein and Gometz were both held at ADX Florence. Fountain died at the United States Medical Center for Federal Prisoners in Springfield, Missouri in 2004.
Riot in Atlanta and transfer to Leavenworth[edit]
During the 1987 Atlanta Prison Riots, Cuban detainees at the Atlanta federal penitentiary released Silverstein from his isolation cell. They handed Silverstein over to the Federal Bureau of Investigation's Hostage Rescue Team one week later. Bureau of Prisons officials were reportedly afraid that Silverstein would begin killing correctional officers held hostage by the Cubans. Before the Cubans released Silverstein to Bureau of Prisons, the Cubans let Silverstein out of his isolation cell and Silverstein was able to roam freely about the prison. One of the prison guards being held hostage had a history of being kind to Silverstein. (When the guard would handcuff Silverstein he would make it a point to ask Silverstein if his handcuffs were too tight). He was confronted by Silverstein and was ultimately spared by him. Bureau of Prisons negotiators were able to convince the Cuban riot leaders to hand over Silverstein as a gesture of good faith, a relatively easy decision for them, given that Silverstein's status was peripheral to the aims of the Cuban leaders during the riot.[5]
Silverstein was subsequently moved back to Leavenworth, where he stayed for the next 18 years.[2]
In 2005, when USP Leavenworth was downgraded to a medium-security facility, Silverstein was moved to ADX Florence, a supermax facility in Colorado. His earliest theoretical date of release was November 2, 2095.[10]
Allegations of torture and injustice[edit]
Silverstein claimed that 'no human contact' status is essentially a form of torture reserved for those who kill correctional officers. 'When an inmate kills a guard, he must be punished,' a Bureau of Prisons official told author Pete Earley. 'We can't execute Silverstein, so we have no choice but to make his life a living hell. Otherwise other inmates will kill guards too. There has to be some supreme punishment. Every convict knows what Silverstein is going through. We want them to realize that if they cross the same line that he did, they will pay a heavy price.'[5] Ted Sellers, a former convict who met Silverstein during 25 years spent in prison, said he became a 'legend' at Leavenworth. Sellers told BBC News Online, 'He is not as bad as they portray. Sure he is dangerous if they push him to the wall. But there were some dirty rotten guards at Marion… They would purposely screw you around. You are dealing with a person locked up 23 hours a day. Of course he's got a short fuse.'[4]
Death[edit]
Silverstein died on May 11, 2019, after spending 36 years in solitary confinement; no cause was given.[1]
References[edit]
- ^ abPrendergast, Alan (May 13, 2019). 'Thomas Silverstein, America's Most Isolated Prisoner, Dead at 67'. Westword.
- ^ abcdefPrendergast, Alan (August 16, 2007). 'The Caged Life'. Denver Westword. Retrieved September 15, 2011.
- ^Supermax: A Clean Version Of Hell - 60 Minutes - CBS News
- ^ ab”America’s Most Dangerous Prisoner?” BBC News August 2001
- ^ abcdefEarley, P: The Hot House Life Inside Leavenworth Prison. Bantam Books, 1993
- ^'UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. CLAYTON FOUNTAIN, THOMAS E. SILVERSTEIN, and RANDY K. GOMETZ, Defendants-Appellants'. Project Posner. Retrieved May 28, 2007.
- ^Peters, Justin (October 23, 2014). 'How a 1983 Murder Created America's Terrible Supermax-Prison Culture'. Slate. Retrieved March 6, 2015.
- ^'Merle E. Clutts'. Office Down Memorial Inc. Retrieved May 29, 2011.
- ^The Hot House, inside Leavenworth. Book.
- ^'Inmate Locator'. Retrieved May 20, 2015.
Retrieved from 'https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Thomas_Silverstein&oldid=941210170'
BBC News Online's Chris Summers investigates the case of Thomas Silverstein, a man considered so dangerous he has been isolated from the outside world for 18 years. Thomas Silverstein is often described by the authorities as America's most dangerous prisoner.
In the six years after he was jailed for armed robbery in 1977 he killed two fellow inmates - and stabbed to death prison guard Merle Clutts. He was cleared of a third murder.
Silverstein's pictures appear on Mr Earley's website |
After the murder of Mr Clutts, in Marion penitentiary in Illinois, he was placed on 'no human contact' status.
Silverstein, now 49, spends his days in a specially-designed cell deep in the bowels of Leavenworth federal penitentiary in Kansas.
The lights are allegedly kept on 24 hours a day for security reasons.
Guards refuse to talk to 'Terrible Tom' out of respect for Mr Clutts.
At the time of Mr Clutts' death, Silverstein was one of the leaders of the Aryan Brotherhood (AB), the most powerful white gang in the US prison system.
27 Sep 1982: Raymond 'Cadillac' Smith, leader of DC Blacks. |
At Marion he was held in his cell for 23 hours a day but he took his one opportunity to kill the guard.
As he returned, handcuffed, from the shower block Silverstein walked over to chat to an AB friend, Randy Gometz.
Gometz suddenly produced a stolen key and unlocked Silverstein's cuffs.
Silverstein leaned through the bars and pulled a shank (improvised knife) from Gometz's waistband before stabbing Mr Clutts 20 times.
After the murder he was moved to a special cell in Atlanta, Georgia, but was freed by a gang of Cubans during a riot in 1987. He was recaptured - traded in by the Cubans - and moved to Leavenworth.
Silverstein says the Bureau of Prisons is being vindictive |
![America America](/uploads/1/2/5/3/125384706/280102106.jpg)
But is the treatment meted out to Silverstein 'cruel and unusual punishment' as forbidden by the eighth amendment of the US constitution?
Author Pete Earley, who wrote a book about Leavenworth called The Hot House, was given special permission to visit Silverstein in 1987.
Silverstein, who was originally jailed for armed robbery, told him he had been brutalised by his years in prison and said: 'I didn't come in here a killer, but in here you learn hate.'
He told the author: 'The insanity in here is cultivated by the guards. They feed the beast that lingers within us all.'
Mr Earley has corresponded with Silverstein over the last 14 years and told BBC News Online: 'We've become friends. I'm not saying he's innocent, but he's smart, articulate and has some interesting views.'
It has reached the point where the (white) inmates consider him a saint, on a par with Nelson Mandela, while the guards consider him to be the devil incarnate. |
He said it was difficult for the federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) to reduce security around Silverstein because it would be seen by prisoners as a 'climbdown'.
Incentive to behave
He said views of Silverstein have polarised: 'It has reached the point where the (white) inmates consider him a saint or a martyr, on a par with Nelson Mandela, while the guards consider him to be the devil incarnate.
'What the BOP should do is move him to a supermax, such as the one in Florence, Colorado, and give him an incentive to behave. They need to make him less famous.'
But Mr Earley believes it is unlikely Silverstein will be released into the wider prison population and says: 'I'm convinced he's going to die in that cell.'
They have become pen pals and she says: 'At the end of the day he is a human being. He is a victim of a system which brutalises people.'
Ted Sellers, a black former convict who met Silverstein during 25 years spent in jail, said he became a 'legend' at Leavenworth.
Sellers, speaking from his home near Detroit, told BBC News Online: 'He is not as bad as they portray.
'Sure he is dangerous if they push him to the wall. But there were some dirty rotten guards at Marion.
'They would purposely screw you around. You are dealing with a person locked up 23 hours a day. Of course he's got a short fuse.'
Leavenworth factfile |
Apache Indian chief Geronimo held at nearby Fort Leavenworth after his capture in 1886. The first federal penitentiary was opened on the site in 1906. William Stroud, the man on whom the film Birdman of Alcatraz was based, held between 1916 and 1942. Homosexual serial killer Carl Panzram hanged there in 1930 for killing a guard. In 1987 about 700 Cuban criminals, part of the 1980 Mariel boatlift, were moved to Leavenworth after rioting in a Louisiana camp. |
Mac os x el capitan download. He denied that Silverstein was held under 'no human contact' status and said he would see prison guards, medical staff and chaplains.
But Mr Chester said: 'If there is no previous established relationship between an individual and a potential visitor our policy precludes visiting.'
He denied the lights were kept on 24 hours a day and said: 'Lighting is always appropriate.'
Kara Gotsch, of the American Civil Liberties Union's National Prison Project, said she was not aware of Silverstein's case but was litigating on behalf of two other prisoners who were held in 'supermax' jails.
His circumstances and conditions are a result of his prior crimes and behaviour. |
Claude Chester, executive assistant, Leavenworth |
Ms Gotsch said they maintained that such a level of isolation was 'cruel and unusual punishment' which is forbidden by the US constitution.
She said Silverstein may be a multiple murderer but said: 'He is still entitled to protection by the constitution'.
But she said being 'tough' on prisoners was currently very popular among US politicians.