Thomas Silverstein

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Thomas Silverstein (2011)

Thomas Edward Silverstein (born February 4, 1952 in Long Beach , California - May 11, 2019 ), called Terrible Tom , was an American convict and member of the Aryan Brotherhood (AB) prison gang . He served a life sentence in the maximum security prison ADX Florence for the murder of two inmates and a prison guard . Silverstein claimed that the inhumane conditions of the American prison system were partly responsible for these three murders. Silverstein was constantly from 1983 until his death in solitary confinement held and thus was the most incarcerated end incommunicado longest inmate of a federal prison in the United States.

Childhood and youth

Thomas Silverstein was born in Long Beach, California, in 1952. His mother Virginia divorced her first husband shortly before Thomas was born in 1952 and married Thomas Conway, who, according to Silverstein, was also his biological father. Four years later, she divorced Conway and married Sid Silverstein, who adopted his stepson.

Silverstein was a shy, awkward kid who was constantly bullied in the middle-class neighborhood he grew up in. Many mistakenly assumed that he was of Jewish origin because of his surname. Virginia Silverstein demanded that her son hit back and threatened him if he ever came home crying for being beaten, she would give him another beating. Silverstein reported: “That was my mother. She didn't avoid anger. If someone threatened you with a baseball bat, get yours and off you go. ”When he was 14, he was admitted to a state school where, he said, his positive attitude towards violence was reinforced. "Anyone who didn't want to fight was mistreated."

Crime series

He was arrested for the first time in 1971 for armed robbery and was serving a four-year sentence in San Quentin State Prison . After his release, he committed three more armed robberies with his father Thomas Conway and his cousin Gerald Hoff and was sentenced to 15 years in prison. A probation officer later accused the father of dragging Silverstein into the crimes.

In 1978 he is said to have murdered fellow prisoner Danny Atwell in Leavenworth Federal Prison , because he is said to have refused to smuggle drugs for the Aryan Brotherhood (AB). Silverstein was convicted of murder and transferred to the then safest prison in the United States, Marion Federal Prison.

In Marion, Silverstein was housed in the control unit , in fact under solitary confinement conditions, reserved for problematic prisoners who are prone to violence and unrest.

Although the murder conviction was overturned because two witnesses were unbelievable, Silverstein and Clayton Anthony Fountain murdered the black inmate Robert Chappelle, a member of the rival prisoner gang DC Blacks , on November 22, 1981 , which eventually earned him a life sentence. Again, he was sentenced based on statements from other prisoners. Silverstein continued to claim to be innocent of the murder. During the trial for Chappelle's murder, the responsible federal agency, the Bureau of Prisons (BOP), transferred Raymond Cadillac Smith, the supraregional head of the DC Blacks prison gang, from another prison to the control unit in Marion and put him in a cell in the Near Silversteins. From the moment Smith arrived at the control unit, prison records show that he attempted to kill Silverstein. "I tried to explain to Cadillac that I didn't kill Chappelle, but he didn't believe me, and by so doing, I was boasting that he would kill me," recalled Silverstein. “Everyone knew what was going on and nobody did anything to keep us apart. The guards wanted us to kill each other ”. On September 27, 1982, assisted by Clayton Anthony Fountain, he murdered Raymond Smith in a shower room and dragged his body down the prison corridor past the inmates' cells. Silverstein was again sentenced to life imprisonment for murder.

Murder of Merle E. Clutts

On October 22, 1983, despite being handcuffed and shackled, he managed to murder the prison guard Merle Clutts. Silverstein had been picked up for a shower and was being 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 rushed at lightning speed on Clutts and killed him with several stabs before he could be overwhelmed. Silverstein claimed to have been deliberately harassed by clutts on a regular basis, e.g. B. by destroying his family photos, drawings and personal belongings during frequent cell searches. Clutts was the superior of all the guards in this unit and any complaints Silverstein had against Clutts would have been handled by him himself.

Later that day, after Silverstein was secured and the unit returned to normal, Clayton Anthony Fountain also killed a guard. With this action, the AB wanted to convey the message that really nobody was safe from it. 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 sentenced to life imprisonment for the murder and was initially transferred to a solitary cell (isolation cell) in Atlanta Federal Prison , Georgia. He was given “no human contact” status by the prison authorities.

Atlanta uprising and transfer to Leavenworth

In 1987 there was a prison riot in Atlanta by Cuban prisoners who took several guards hostage and freed Silverstein from his isolation cell. During the week-long uprising, he was able to move freely in prison before, after tough negotiations, he was handed over to the security forces by the Cubans, who feared he might harm the hostages. One of the guards held hostage had always been kind to Silverstein, asking when he handcuffed Silverstein if they were not too tight either. Silverstein visited the prisoner guard and made sure that he was treated well by the Cubans. He asked if the handcuffs were OK and brought fresh fruit to the guards. BOP negotiators convinced the Cubans to hand Silverstein over to the agency as a gesture of goodwill. A relatively easy decision for this, as Silverstein's status did not play a role in the goals of the Cubans during the uprising. He was immediately transferred back to Leavenworth Federal Prison and placed in a special, soundproofed cell in the prison basement, where he was monitored 24 hours a day under “no human contact” status.

When Leavenworth was downgraded to medium security in 2005, the BOP transferred Silverstein to ADX Florence Federal Prison, where he served his life sentence. Silverstein sat there for the first two and a half years in the Z-Unit , which apart from him only housed one other prisoner. Before Silverstein's arrival, a wall was built so that the two of them couldn't understand each other. Since 2007 he was housed in the D-Unit , still in isolation cells, but he was now allowed to train for one hour a day in the vicinity of other prisoners, where everyone had to stay in their own cage.

Accusation of torture and injustice

Silverstein complained that the human-contact status was actually a form of torture reserved for those who killed a guard. "If an inmate kills a guard, he must be punished," a BOP officer told author Pete Earley . “We can't execute Silverstein, so we have no choice but to make his life hell. Otherwise, other inmates would also kill guards. There has to be a special form of punishment. Every prisoner knows what Silverstein has to endure. We want them to be aware that when they cross the same line they are paying a high price. "

Ted Sellers, a former inmate who met Silverstein during his 25 years in prison, said he had become a legend in Leavenworth. Sellers told BBC News Online, “He's not as bad as he's portrayed. Of course he is dangerous if they have his back against the wall. But there were some filthy, lousy guards in Marion […] who deliberately grinded you. It's about a person who is locked up 23 hours a day. Of course, his fuse easily blows ”.

Silverstein continued to claim that he should have been released long ago, as the conviction for which he had served in Marion was later overturned. Without this false conviction and the brutality of the prison system, he would never have killed anyone.

Since 2007, Silverstein's constitutional lawsuit, led by Denver University Law School, has been pending against the BOP and various employees of that agency on charges of torture and inappropriately cruel punishment. The lawsuit was admitted in 2010 on several counts in the first instance. In the decision it can be read that Silverstein has been judged by prison psychologists as merely "slightly dangerous" for over ten years.

After almost 36 years in solitary confinement, Silverstein died on May 11, 2019 at the age of 67.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b C. Summers: Americs's most dangerous prisoner? As of March 22, 2011.
  2. ↑ a b c d e f Pete Earley: The Hot House Life Inside Leavenworth Prison. Bantam Books, 1993.
  3. ↑ J. Ridgeway, J. Casella: Fortresses of solitude . As of March 22, 2011.
  4. ↑ United States District Court Colorado: Super Max Case .
personal data
SURNAME Silverstein, Thomas
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Silverstein, Thomas Edward; Terrible Tom
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American convict and serial killer
DATE OF BIRTH 4th February 1952
PLACE OF BIRTH Long Beach , California
DATE OF DEATH May 11, 2019