5 Killers Who Murdered Behind Bars — Prison Couldn’t Stop Them

They were already in prison for murder. Then they killed again. In 1994, Jeffrey Dahmer was killed during a cleaning shift inside a Wisconsin prison. Nine years later, a former priest was murdered inside a Massachusetts unit built to protect him. This Cellblock Dossier investigation follows five men who were already serving time for taking a life, and who killed again behind bars: a work detail in Wisconsin, a protective unit in Massachusetts, a corrections officer who vanished during her shift in New York, a plot from outside the walls that reached death row in South Carolina, and a Virginia prisoner who told a court he would keep killing. Every case is built from court records. The cases are numbered for navigation, not ranked. Where a motive comes only from the killer's own words, it is presented as his claim. ⏱ TIMELINE 0:00 Already in prison, then killed again 0:48 Case 1 · Columbia Correctional Institution, Wisconsin (1994) 4:20 Case 2 · Souza-Baranowski, Massachusetts (2003) 7:49 Case 3 · Green Haven, New York (1981) 11:10 Case 4 · Death row, South Carolina (1982) 13:48 Case 5 · Wallens Ridge and Red Onion, Virginia (2009–2010) 16:28 What the five cases show 📂 SOURCES – COURT RECORDS • Scarver v. Litscher, 434 F.3d 972 (7th Cir. 2006) • WTMJ, Inc. v. Sullivan, 204 Wis. 2d 452 (Wis. Ct. App. 1996) • Commonwealth v. Druce, 453 Mass. 686 (2009); Commonwealth v. Smiledge, 419 Mass. 156 (1994) • People v. Smith, 63 N.Y.2d 41 (1984); People v. Smith, 59 N.Y.2d 156 (1983); Smith v. Coughlin, 748 F.2d 783 (2d Cir. 1984) • State v. Gaskins, 284 S.C. 105 (1985); Gaskins v. McKellar, 916 F.2d 941 (4th Cir. 1990); Fields v. Martin (D.S.C. 1974) • Gleason v. Commonwealth (Supreme Court of Virginia, 2012); Strickland v. Halsey, No. 14-6229 (4th Cir. 2015) • NIST IR 8352, Bitemark Analysis: A NIST Scientific Foundation Review (2023) 📰 SOURCES – REPORTING • Associated Press (1994–1995); The Washington Post (1994); TODAY/NBC (2022) • CBS News (2006); Officer Down Memorial Page (Donna Payant) • The State, Columbia S.C.; UPI (1991, 2013) ⚖️ NOTE The 2015 civil case in Case 5 concerns allegations, reviewed at that stage in the family's favour; they are not findings that any officer did anything wrong. The 2023 NIST review is a general scientific review and does not decide any individual case. Generic footage is illustrative and does not show the people or prisons in these cases. 📷 CREDITS Photographs (Wikimedia Commons): Corey Coyle (CC BY 3.0); Dual Freq (CC BY-SA 3.0); Praiawart (CC BY 4.0); Hunter Desportes (CC BY 2.0); Famartin (CC BY-SA 4.0); Sargeant Studios, 1932 (CC0); historical postcards c.1910 (public domain); Jeffrey Dahmer, Revere High School yearbook, 1978 (public domain). Aerial imagery: USGS The National Map (public domain). Stock footage: Pexels. Music: "Mysterious Dark Background" and "Ambient Soundscape for Noir and Suspense" by Megalix; "Dark Mysterious Soundscape" by Universfield (Pixabay). Map data: Natural Earth. 🔔 Subscribe to Cellblock Dossier for true crime built from the record. #CellblockDossier #TrueCrime #PrisonDocumentary #TheDossier #JeffreyDahmer #PeeWeeGaskins #CourtRecords #CrimeDocumentary #PrisonHistory #DeathRow