28 Leavenworth Federal Penitentiary
No, we didn’t visit the Pen. They say it’s easy to get in to but hard to get out of. We used to have a joke we did when I played Rub Board with our band. Terry would say, “Hey, didn’t you play Rub Board with the Penn State marching Band?” And I’d answer, “No, no, Terry, I said the Sate Pen Marching Band!” Silly but somehow seems appropriate here?
Leavenworth
The Federal Penitentiary at Leavenworth has a long history and has house some pretty tough characters.
Notable prisoners, thanks to wikipedia
- John “Sonny” Franzese- A legendary New York gangster and a high ranking member of the Colombo crime family.
- Samuel R. Caldwell– First man in America to be arrested for selling marijuana
- “Boss” Tom Pendergast, political boss of Kansas City who handpicked Harry Truman for the U.S. Senate
- George “Bugs” Moran, Irish gangster who battled Al Capone for the control of Chicago’s criminal underworld
- Lawrence “Larry” Bilello, NYPD officer convicted of murdering a fellow police officer and Lucchese crime family mob associate
- Jimmy Burke who was sent to the prison for the first time at the age of eighteen in 1949 and once again in 1972 for extortion
- James J. Bulger, Irish-American gangster sent to Leavenworth for hijacking and bank robbing. He was shipped to Leavenworth out of Alcatraz.
- Fritz Joubert Duquesne – Nazi spy and leader of the Duquesne Spy Ring, the largest convicted espionage case in United States history.
- Victor Feguer – last federal fugitive executed before Timothy McVeigh
- Gus Hall – former leader of the Communist Party USA, indicted under the Smith Act
- Thomas James Holden – murderer and escapee, FBI Ten Most Wanted Fugitive #1, 1950
- Orba Elmer Jackson – escapee and post office robber, FBI Ten Most Wanted Fugitive #7, 1950
- George “Machine Gun” Kelly – Depression era gangster.
- Randy Lanier – 1986 Indy 500 rookie of the year.
- Felix Mitchell – notorious drug kingpin from Oakland, California. Stabbed to death in 1986, just months into his prison term
- Byron “Bam” Morris – former NFL player, played in Super Bowl XXX
- Richard Case Nagell – the so-called “Man Who Knew Too Much”
- Carl Panzram – serial killer
- John Paul, Sr.– racecar driver, released in 1999
- Leonard Peltier – American Indian Movement leader, convicted of murdering two FBI agents, FBI Ten Most Wanted Fugitive #335, 1975
- Leslie Isben Rogge – Bank robber, FBI Ten Most Wanted Fugitive #430, 1990
- Robert Stroud – became famous as the “Bird Man of Alcatraz”
- Thomas Silverstein – Regarded as one of the prison Bureau’s most dangerous prisoners; was held in Leavenworth’s basement in a “No Human Contact” Status
- Michael Vick – NFL quarterback formerly with the Atlanta Falcons, pleaded guilty to operating an unlawful six-year-long interstate dog fighting venture known as “Bad Newz Kennels“.[12]
- Frankie Cavanaugh – Irish-American gangster sent to Leavenworth for a 20 year sentence for murder. Released in 2007
- Ricardo Flores Magón– Mexican anarcho-syndicalist intellectual who was in the US during the Mexican Revolution. He became equally at odds with US authorities and eventually died in Leavenworth in 1922, probably dying from long-standing health impairments.
- Frederick Cook – Famous explorer whose claims to be the first to reach the summit of Mt. McKinley and the North Pole turned out to be fraudulent. In 1922, plead guilty to mail fraud and imprisoned until 1930.
- Antonio Fernandez aka King Tone – Current Inca of the Latin Kings (gang).[citation needed]
- Brandon Morris- murderer of Maryland Correctional Officer Jeffery Wroten.[citation needed]
- Charles B. Younger Jr. – Bank Robber and general maniac[citation needed]
- Russell Dan Smith – Founder, Just Detention International
- Da’ Unda’ Dogg – Bank Robber & Rapper from Vallejo, Ca