Clayton Anthony Fountain

Clayton "Clay" Anthony Fountain (born September 12, 1955 in Fort Benning , Georgia , † July 11, 2004 in Springfield , Missouri ) was an American prisoner and serial killer. He was one of the most dangerous convicts in US history. He served several life sentences in maximum security prisons for the murder of a superior, three fellow inmates and a prison guard.

biography

Clayton Fountain was born on an Army base, convicted of armed robbery as a youth, and joined the United States Marine Corps at the age of 17 . He was sentenced to life imprisonment and assigned to Fort Leavenworth Military Prison for the murder of a superior sergeant in 1974 in the Philippines . There he was able to seize a firearm, take a hostage and try to escape, but was overpowered by a SWAT team.

Because of his violence, he was transferred to a civilian penitentiary at Fort Leavenworth , the staff of which were more experienced in dealing with dangerous and suspicious inmates. Because of prison incidents there, however, he was finally admitted to the maximum security prison Marion , where he joined the Aryan Brotherhood .

On October 1, 1979, he and Hugh Colomb murdered fellow inmate Charles Stewart with a self-made stabbing weapon when they were let out of their cells for their daily leisure hour. Stewart tried in vain to escape his attackers and died from more than 50 stitches in the head, neck and upper body. Fountain and Colomb then handed their weapons over to the guards and were arrested. Fountain pleaded self-defense in court, but was convicted of willful manslaughter.

On November 22, 1981, about an hour after dinner, Fountain and Thomas Silverstein strangled Robert Chappelle's black inmate in his cell when he fell asleep with his head to the bars. The act is said to have been a contract killing because Chappelle belonged to the warring prison gang DC Blacks and had insulted a member of the Mexican Mafia , which is allied with the Aryan Brotherhood . Fountain was again sentenced to life imprisonment. The national leader of the DC Blacks, Raymond Smith, had in the meantime also been transferred to Marion and threatened Fountain and Silverstein with death.

On September 27, 1982, Fountain and Silverstein asked to be allowed to train together and were led into a leisure area secured only with fly screens. There they sawed the grating with a smuggled saw blade and broke into the shower room where Raymond Smith was. In a fierce fight in which Fountain was also injured, the two Raymond Smith wrestled to the ground and killed him with almost 70 stitches. Then they dragged the body down the hallway on the floor.

Fountain, like Silverstein, was locked away in a solitary cell for 23 hours a day. They were handcuffed and ankle cuffs for shower or courtyard walks and were each accompanied by three guards. On October 22, 1983, Silverstein was picked up for a shower and led away by three guards with handcuffs and ankle cuffs when he suddenly stuck his hands in the cell of a fellow inmate who opened his handcuffs in a few seconds and handed him a stabbing weapon. Silverstein lunged at lightning speed on the supervisor Merle Clutts and killed him with several stabs before he could be overwhelmed.

Later that same day, when Fountain was handcuffed and led back to his cell by three guards from his free time, he also put his hands in the cell of a fellow inmate, who quickly opened the handcuffs for him. Then Fountain pounced on the overseers and overpowered all three with a self-made stabbing weapon; the supervisor Robert Hoffman died from numerous stab wounds, while the supervisors Jerry Powles and Roger Ditterline survived with very serious injuries. However, Ditterline was permanently unable to work due to his injuries. With this action, the Aryan Brotherhood wanted to convey the message that really nobody was safe from them.

Due to the two guards murders, the ADX Florence federal prison was built by 1994 - the safest prison in the world according to the Guinness Book of Records. Silverstein was one of the first inmates of this new facility in the Supermax standard. Clayton Fountain was transferred to the United States Medical Center for Federal Prisoners in Springfield, Missouri, where he died of a heart attack on July 11, 2004 , due to his deteriorating health .

Web links

personal data
SURNAME	Fountain, Clayton Anthony
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Fountain, Clay (nickname)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	American convict and serial killer
DATE OF BIRTH	September 12, 1955
PLACE OF BIRTH	Fort Benning , Georgia
DATE OF DEATH	July 11, 2004
Place of death	Springfield , Missouri