From cannibal killer bludgeoned with crowbar to ‘hit’ on infamous Strangler…sick murderers who died by ‘prison justice’
THEY were monsters who committed unspeakable crimes – murderers, rapists, and serial killers whose names became synonymous with evil.
But for these notorious criminals, justice didn’t end with a life sentence.
Instead, they met their own brutal fates at the hands of fellow inmates.
On Sunday, murderer John Mansfield, 63, was discovered dead after a fellow inmate at HMP Whitemoor attacked him.
Mansfield was sentenced to life behind bars for a string of offences – the most vile was the killing of his neighbour, Ann Alfanso, in August 2006.
Ann, who suffered from mobility issues, was found by her carer lying in a pool of blood at her home in Whalley Range, Manchester.
She had been stabbed around 20 times in the head and neck in the frenzied attack.
While incarcerated at HMP Full Sutton near York, Mansfield was handed a second life sentence for stabbing another prisoner with a broken plate.
After Mansfield’s death, cops confirmed that a 44-year-old fellow inmate had been arrested in the murder investigation.
Here, we look at other chilling stories of killers who were themselves killed behind bars.
Subhan Anwar
Subhan Anwar’s crime shook the nation. In 2008, the 25-year-old tortured and murdered his girlfriend’s two-year-old daughter, Sanam Navsarka.
The child was locked in a cupboard for days, beaten with belts and subjected to brutal acts that left her with over 100 injuries.
Anwar’s actions were so vile that even hardened criminals in prison couldn’t stomach it.
He was sentenced to life imprisonment in 2009 but his life behind bars was short-lived.
While at HMP Long Lartin in Worcestershire, two fellow inmates took matters into their own hands. In February 2013, Anwar was found dead in his cell after being bound with bedsheets and strangled.
The attackers, Gary Smith and Lee Newell, were both serving life sentences themselves.
Stephen Strutt
Stephen Strutt’s life sentence stemmed from a horrific revenge attack that left Warren Glover, 33, dead.
In 2020, Glover was viciously beaten by a group that included Strutt and the victim’s ex-girlfriend. The chillingly calculated attack was revenge for text messages that Glover had sent his former lover.
Strutt was convicted and handed a life sentence in 2021.
Strutt was incarcerated at HMP Dovegate in Staffordshire, where, in July 2024, just three years into his sentence, he was fatally attacked by a fellow prisoner.
The inmate approached him in the yard and stabbed him multiple times. Strutt was rushed to the hospital, but his injuries were fatal.
His killer was arrested and held in custody, though the full motives behind the murder are still under investigation.
Sidonio Teixeira
Sidonio Teixeira’s crime was as harrowing as it was unforgivable.
In 2008, he was sentenced to life imprisonment for the brutal murder of his three-year-old daughter and the attempted murder of his nine-year-old son.
Teixeira was serving his sentence at the notorious HMP Long Lartin in when he became the target of another inmate’s wrath.
Victor Castigador, a fellow prisoner, launched a brutal attack on Teixeira in the prison workshop in 2016. Using a sock filled with a stone, which he stole from the prison aquarium, Castigador delivered crushing blows to Teixeira’s skull.
The attack left Teixeira with catastrophic head injuries and he died shortly after the assault.
Castigadortold detectives “I’m wrong to kill somebody, but it’s my job” adding that “you have to punish evil.”
The killer, who was already serving life for burning two security guards to death in 1989, was given a whole life sentence for Teixeira’s murder.
Jeffrey Dahmer
Jeffrey Dahmer’s name will forever be associated with some of the most depraved crimes in modern history.
Known as the “Milwaukee Cannibal,” Dahmer was responsible for the brutal murders of 17 young men and boys, many of whom he dismembered, sexually assaulted, and in some cases, cannibalised.
His case shocked the world, turning him into a household name synonymous with pure evil. In 1992, Dahmer was convicted and sentenced to 15 consecutive life terms in prison.
In November 1994, just two years after his sentencing, Dahmer was attacked by fellow inmate Christopher Scarver at Columbia Correctional Institution in Wisconsin.
Dahmer was left unsupervised while he, Scarver, and Jesse Anderson, convicted for killing his wife, were cleaning the bathrooms.
Armed with a metal bar, Scarver bludgeoned Dahmer and Anderson to death. Scarver later claimed that he was acting on the orders of God, believing Dahmer was an “abomination.”
In the attack, Scarver, who was already serving life for a 1990 murder, received two additional life sentences.
Another inmate, Osvaldo Durruthy had tried to kill Dahmer by slashing his throat five months before the fatal attack.
Donald Harvey
Donald Harvey, the self-proclaimed “Angel of Death,” was responsible for one of the most chilling series of murders in American medical history.
As a hospital orderly, Harvey was able to carry out his killings under the guise of mercy, poisoning or suffocating at least 37 patients between 1970 and 1987.
Some estimates claim the true number of his victims was closer to 87.
UK Prison Brides
- Tracey Bottomley married double murderer Ernest Otto Smith in the US after meeting through a prison pen pal initiative. Tracey, from West Yorks, knew he had been given a life sentence with no possibility of parole
- Rebecca Short, from Oxfordshire, told her family she was on holiday in the US in 2022. Little did they know she was marrying double murderer Manuel Ovate Jr, who was on death row
- Paula Williamson, an actress who appeared on Hollyoaks and Emmerdale, married the infamous Charles Bronson in 2017 after they became penpals
- Karen Charves married Kenny Richey while he was on death row in 2014. He had been convicted for starting a fire in 1986 that killed his ex-girlfriend’s daughter, aged two. Karen and Kenny’s union did not last and she claimed he was abusive.
- Naomi Wise, from Essex, married Victor Oquendo, nicknamed Animal, while he was serving a 24-year prison term in a US jail. They split up in 2022 but have now rekindled their romance
His crimes were discovered when he was caught attempting to murder a patient in 1987 and he was sentenced to life in prison for his heinous actions.
While incarcerated at Toledo Correctional Institution, another inmate, James Elliott, attacked Harvey in his cell, beating him to death with a blunt instrument in March 2017.
Harvey succumbed to his injuries two days later.
Elliott, who had a history of violent behaviour, was later charged with murder and sentenced to 25 years in prison after pleading guilty.
James “Whitey” Bulger
James “Whitey” Bulger’s life behind bars was as dangerous as the criminal empire he built.
As one of the most notorious mobsters in Boston’s history, Bulger’s rise to power was swift and brutal.
He was responsible for 11 murders and dozens of other criminal activities. Bulger was sentenced to life in prison for his crimes and transferred to the high-security USP Hazelton in West Virginia in 2018.
The 89-year-old was brutally beaten by fellow inmates Fotios “Freddy” Geas and Paul DeCologero just hours after arriving at the facility.
The attack was so savage that Bulger, 89, was left unrecognisable. His eyes had been gouged out.
The murder was attributed to Bulger’s role as a “rat” – informing the FBI against fellow mobsters.
Geas, a former hitman, was already serving a life sentence, while DeCologero had a history of violent crimes.
The two inmates were later charged, with Geas receiving an additional 25 years for his role in the murder.
Albert DeSalvo
Albert DeSalvo is forever linked to the infamous Boston Strangler case, though his exact role remains a subject of intense debate.
DeSalvo confessed to the murders of 13 women in the early 1960s, but many questions remain about the veracity of his confessions.
Despite the lack of concrete evidence linking him to all of the killings, DeSalvo was convicted of other crimes, including a string of sexual assaults, and sentenced to life in prison in 1967.
DeSalvo’s life came to a brutal end in 1973 when he was found stabbed to death in the prison infirmary at MCI Walpole.
His murder remains unsolved, but many speculated that it was a targeted hit by fellow inmates who wanted to silence him.
In 2013, 50 years after the Boston Strangler’s crimes, DNA evidence linked DeSalvo to his last alleged victim, 19-year-old Mary Sullivan.
Laron Williams
Laron Williams’ violent past caught up with him before he could face execution.
Convicted of the murders of a police officer and a priest, Williams was sentenced to death in Tennessee in the mid-1980s.
His crimes were heinous and his time on death row was marked by growing animosity from fellow inmates who despised him for his actions.
In 1985, Williams was beaten to death by other prisoners before he could be executed.
The attack was brutal and swift and his death underscored the dangerous and unpredictable nature of life on death row.
It was not the first time he had been attacked behind bars – he was set upon by a group of inmates in July 1985. Although the fight was broken up quickly, he sustained serious injuries.
Billy Chemirmir
Billy Chemirmir was convicted of the murders of two elderly women, in Dallas, Texas, though he is suspected of killing up to 20 others.
Chemirmir’s method involved smothering his victims with pillows before stealing their valuables.
He would often gain access to his victims’ homes by pretending to be a healthcare worker or maintenance person, only to overpower and suffocate them.
The Kenyan‘s killing spree came to an end in 2018 when he was caught trying to smother a 93-year-old woman who managed to escape and alert authorities.
Chemirmir was convicted in 2021 and sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
However, just two years into his sentence, on September 19, 2023, he was found dead in his cell at the Texas State Prison.
He had been stabbed and beaten by his cellmate, Wyatt Busby, who was serving a 50-year sentence for the 2016 murder of a Houston man.
Before Chemirmir’s death, he had allegedly made sexual comments about Busby’s children.