Jeffrey Epstein joins list of infamous inmates who died behind bars
Attorney General William Barr on the death of Jeffrey Epstein and the future of the sex trafficking case.
Attorney General William Barr said he’s “appalled” and “angry” after Jeffrey Epstein died of an apparent suicide in a Manhattan jail over the weekend, but promised victims in the case will still get the justice they deserve.
“We are now learning of serious irregularities at this facility that are deeply concerning and demand a thorough investigation,” Barr said. “The FBI and the Office of Inspector General are doing just that. We will get to the bottom of what happened and there will be accountability.”
Epstein was found dead in his cell early Saturday at Metropolitan Correctional Center in New York, where he’d reportedly previously been cellmates with a former police officer charged with four deaths.
Union representatives for the guards blamed Epstein’s death on understaffing, telling Fox News it’s a “system-wide crisis in our prison system.” They said one staff member assigned to the Special Housing Unit where Epstein was locked up had been forced to work overtime and another who volunteered had been working an 80-hour week.
Despite the authorities’ best efforts to make criminals face justice, deaths do sometimes happen behind bars. Epstein isn’t the first big name to die while locked up, either. Here are some other famous inmates who died in prison:
Jeffrey Dahmer
MILWAUKEE, WI - AUGUST 6: Suspected serial killer Jeffrey L. Dahmer enters the courtroom of judge Jeffrey A. Wagner 06 August 1991. Dahmer has been charged with eight additional counts of first-degree murder, bringing the number of homicides he is ch …
Police arrested Dahmer in 1991 after finding human heads and other body parts in his apartment. He confessed to killing 17 boys and men, and gained infamy as a serial killer for storing some of the victims’ remains in his refrigerator and eating part of at least one of them.
Dahmer was serving multiple life prison sentences when fellow inmate Christopher Scarver beat him to death in 1994.
Years later, Scarver told the New York Post he’d killed Dahmer because the serial killer would make severed limbs out of his food, using ketchup to simulate blood, and leave them around to mess with other inmates.
Whitey Bulger
James 'Whitey' Bulger mugshot in 2011. (Photo courtesy Bureau of Prisons/Getty Images)
A jury found the Boston gangster guilty in 2013, linking him to 11 of the 19 murders he’s been accused of playing a role in, plus other crimes like racketeering, money laundering and firearms violations.
Bulger had played both sides during his career in crime. He was reportedly an informant for the FBI from 1975 to 1994. He then fled Boston. In 2011, authorities found Bulger in California with a stash of guns and more than $800,000 in cash.
He was beaten to death in a federal prison in 2018. Authorities haven’t charged anyone in Bulger’s death.
Aaron Hernandez
NORTH ATTLEBORO, MA - AUGUST 22: Aaron Hernandez sits in the courtroom of the Attleboro District Court during his hearing on August 22, 2013 in North Attleboro, Massachusetts. Former New England Patriot Aaron Hernandez has been indicted on a first-de …
The New England Patriots star was in the midst of a five-year, $40 million contract when his friend, Odin Lloyd, was found dead about a mile from Hernandez’s mansion in North Attleborough, Massachusetts.
Hernandez was eventually convicted of murdering Lloyd and sentenced to life in prison. He was also accused in a 2012 double murder, but was acquitted in that case.
Just days after the acquittal in the second case, prison officials found Hernandez dead of an apparent suicide.
Ariel Castro
CLEVELAND, OH - AUGUST 1: Ariel Castro pleads to Judge Michael Russo during his sentencing on August 1, 2013 in Cleveland, Ohio. Castro sentenced to life without parole plus one thousand years for abducting three women between 2002 and 2004 when they …
The Cleveland resident kidnapped and raped three women. In 2013, they escaped after years in captivity — Castro admitted to kidnapping them in 2002, 2003 and 2004. He ended up pleading guilty to 937 charges including kidnapping, rape and aggravated murder.
About a month after Castro was sentenced to life in prison plus 1,000 years with no chance of parole, he was found dead of an apparent suicide in his cell, where he’d been held in protective custody.