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Justice sometimes takes an unexpected turn behind bars. Join us as we explore the fate of notorious murderers who met violent ends while serving time for their heinous crimes. Our countdown includes the Boston Strangler, the I-5 Strangler, Jeffrey Dahmer, and other infamous killers whose lives were cut short by fellow inmates seeking their own form of retribution.
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00:00Many saying that today, 30 years after he was sentenced, Donald Harvey was judged.
00:06Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we're taking a look at the serial killers who were brought to justice by murder in prison.
00:13This story of Picton is really a story of egregious police errors and public indifference.
00:22Thor Nis Christensen.
00:23Thor Christensen terrified a town.
00:25No conscience whatsoever. Zero.
00:27Born in Denmark, Thor Nis Christensen was brought to the U.S. by his parents at the age of five.
00:33Although a bright student in high school, Christensen later lost interest in his studies and dropped out to work at a gas station.
00:39Around this time, he began harboring despicable thoughts, which he then made a reality after stealing a pistol from a friend.
00:46He was responsible for the deaths of four women, but his murderous spree came to an end when his intended fifth victim survived the ordeal and led the police to him months later.
00:56This guy thinks what he did was all right.
00:58While serving a life sentence at Folsom State Prison, Christensen was wounded in the exercise yard by an unidentified prisoner and later succumbed to his injuries.
01:07Roger Kibbe.
01:08Dubbed the I-5 Strangler, Roger Kibbe was responsible for the assault and deaths of at least eight women.
01:14His killing spree mostly occurred around Sacramento, California between 1977 and 1987, and he would hunt for his victims along the interstate highway, hence the nickname.
01:26He was eventually arrested in 1988 and received an initial prison sentence of 25 years to life.
01:32For each victim, Kibbe responded in a hoarse, raspy voice saying guilty, guilty six times.
01:37In the following years, more life sentences were added to this as further evidence of his other murders was discovered.
01:44On February 28, 2021, while at the Mule Creek State Prison in California, the I-5 Strangler was strangled to death by his cellmate, Jason Boudreau, who reportedly did it in retribution for his crimes.
01:57Shock from victims' families tonight, guys, those who were directly impacted by Roger Kibbe and his serial slayings.
02:04But some of these families tonight are saying his death comes 35 years too late.
02:10Robert Pickton.
02:11She was told another inmate with a history of assaults had been in segregation, but was released into Pickton's unit, and that's where the serial killer was speared in the head.
02:20One of the most notorious serial killers in Canadian history, Robert Pickton was convicted of murdering six people, although he was charged with 21 and later confessed to 49.
02:29He mostly targeted sex workers in downtown Vancouver, picking them up and taking them to his pig farm, where he would kill and dispose of them.
02:37I would wake up in the middle of the night, you know, with a certain face or picture of a girl that I hadn't seen for a while.
02:43Or then somebody, you know, the next day would mention to me that we haven't seen so-and-so for a while.
02:47He was sentenced to life in prison and served his time in Quebec's Port Cartier Institution.
02:52On May 19, 2024, Pickton was reportedly stabbed in the head with a broken broom handle by prisoner Martin Charest.
02:58He was rushed to the hospital and put on life support, but he died of his injuries 12 days later.
03:03While Pickton's death may provide peace for some, it also leaves questions unanswered.
03:09Were others involved in the murders? Who else did he kill?
03:13Daniel Camargo Barbosa. Born in Colombia in 1930, Daniel Camargo Barbosa had a pretty troubling childhood.
03:21Prevented from furthering his education by financial constraints, Barbosa eventually fell into a life of crime.
03:27He began with petty thefts before escalating into abducting, assaulting and murdering young girls.
03:33Barbosa first went to prison in Colombia, where it is believed that he claimed the lives of more than 80 girls.
03:39He escaped from prison and fled to Ecuador, where he continued his despicable actions, later owning up to 72 murders in the country.
03:47Barbosa was incarcerated for 16 years, but his sentence was cut short just five years in, when he was killed by another inmate, who happened to be one of his victim's nephews.
03:58José Antonio Rodríguez Vega
04:00Dubbed El Matabejas, which translates to the old lady killer in English, José Antonio Rodríguez Vega reigned terror on elderly women in Cantabria, an autonomous community in Spain.
04:12In the span of just eight months, Rodríguez Vega wormed his way into the hearts and homes of several women in the area and took the lives of at least 16 of them.
04:21Upon his arrest, Rodríguez Vega confessed to the crimes, but later recanted his confession during his trial.
04:27Regardless, he was found guilty and sentenced to 440 years in prison.
04:33After serving only a fraction of his sentence, Rodríguez Vega met his end at the hands of two inmates at his prison in Salamanca, who brutally attacked him in the common area.
04:43Leopold Zion
04:44The crimes of Leopold Zion are pretty tragic.
04:47Not only because they involve the deaths of four people and the assault of many others, but because a large number of them could have been prevented.
04:54Zion had been convicted twice of crimes involving assault, but in both cases, he was released early by a parole board.
05:02He later succeeded in cutting short the lives of four young boys before he was arrested again, this time for good.
05:08Zion was convicted of just one murder and received the death penalty, although this was later commuted to a life sentence.
05:15He was attacked and killed in prison by a fellow inmate, who was acquitted of the crime on the basis of insanity.
05:22Leroy Martin
05:23Born and raised in Gaffney, South Carolina, Leroy Martin lived a seemingly normal life.
05:28He worked in a textile mill and had a wife and three children.
05:32Behind that facade, though, was a maniac who reigned terror on women in the area and was responsible for the deaths of four people.
05:39And I was getting a little eerie feeling as we got deeper in the woods, and finally one of the deputies said,
05:45here she is, and she was covered up with some brush.
05:48After placing two calls himself to a newspaper editor, Martin was spotted close to a crime scene by two local residents,
05:55and was later arrested by police.
05:57You tell the sheriff his boys better catch me real soon, or I'm gonna take me another one.
06:02Why don't you just turn yourself in?
06:04Nah, y'all gonna have to hunt me down and shoot me dead like the dog I am.
06:09He was sentenced to four consecutive life terms, but only served about four years before he was put out of his misery by another inmate
06:16at the Central Correctional Institution in South Carolina.
06:19Part of him wanted to be caught.
06:21I think another part of him enjoyed the publicity.
06:24He would get up every morning and go down to a local cafe and get copies of all the papers and read and talk about the strangler.
06:33Donald Harvey.
06:34While working as a hospital orderly in Ohio and Kentucky,
06:38Donald Harvey was responsible for the deaths of a self-proclaimed 87 people.
06:42He was quite bizarre, and on certain levels, raised some doubts as to whether or not this guy was reciting some sort of fantasy.
06:52Harvey employed several methods in what he deemed as a mercy killing of his patients,
06:57including the use of poisons, suffocation, and withholding essential medications.
07:01They do narrow the list to 10 possible victims.
07:05All died of illnesses that could be a cover for poisons like arsenic.
07:09A substance found in large quantities at Harvey's apartment.
07:14He pleaded guilty to 37 murders to avoid the death penalty and was sentenced to life imprisonment.
07:19But when you describe yourself as an angel of death, chances are you're bound to get a taste of your own medicine at some point.
07:26This came in the form of James Elliott, a fellow inmate at the Toledo Correctional Institution in Ohio,
07:32who descended upon Harvey being familiar with his crimes.
07:36He placed himself in that position. I really don't have much compassion for him.
07:41He's, um, I said back then, and I'd say today, if he ever had gotten out, he would have continued to kill people.
07:50Albert DeSalvo.
07:51They were young and old, black and white.
07:54As the number of victims grew, police became more and more frustrated.
07:581960s Boston, Massachusetts was terrorized by two criminals.
08:03One dubbed the Boston Strangler, who killed 13 women,
08:06and the Green Man, who broke into women's homes and assaulted them.
08:10The grisly headline-grabbing crimes had some comparing the Boston Strangler to Jack the Ripper.
08:16As police launched an investigation into the Green Man's activities,
08:19they were pointed towards Albert DeSalvo, whom they arrested and charged with the crimes.
08:23While in custody, DeSalvo confessed to also being the Boston Strangler.
08:28But, due to a lack of physical evidence, he was only tried for the Green Man allegations.
08:33DeSalvo was serving a life sentence when he died,
08:35after being wounded by another inmate in the prison infirmary.
08:39Decades later, DNA evidence obtained from one of the victims would prove that DeSalvo was, in fact, the Boston Strangler.
08:46It would appear to definitively determine, in fact, that Albert DeSalvo was the killer of Mary Sullivan.
09:09Jeffrey Dahmer
09:10Jeffrey Dahmer was responsible for killing more than a dozen people.
09:14The majority of those murders happened in an apartment near the Marquette campus.
09:19One of the most infamous serial killers to ever walk the earth,
09:22Jeffrey Dahmer was responsible for the deaths of 17 young men.
09:26His spree came to an end in July 1991,
09:29when an intended victim escaped from Dahmer's apartment and led the police back to him.
09:34He pleaded guilty to all the charges leveled against him,
09:37and received 15 consecutive life sentences in Wisconsin,
09:41and an additional one in Ohio.
09:43In prison, Dahmer was reportedly unremorseful for his crimes,
09:47which reportedly infuriated his fellow inmate Christopher Scarver,
09:51resulting in an attack in the prison gym that left Dahmer dead.
09:55To many, including Dahmer's own attorney, it comes as little surprise.
09:59I wasn't shocked because I thought that Jeffrey Dahmer would end up this way.
10:04Scarver also killed Jesse Anderson, another convicted murderer,
10:08who just happened to be in the gym at the same time.
10:11At his first court appearance, Scarver entered the courtroom singing.
10:15Rain or shine, sharing your dreams.
10:21Do you feel as though justice was served appropriately in these situations?
10:25Let us know in the comments.
10:26I know my time in prison will be terrible,
10:29but I deserve whatever I get because of what I have done.
10:31I know my time in prison.
10:36I know my time in prison.
10:38I know my time in prison.
10:40I know my time in prison.
10:41I know my time in prison.
10:42I know my time in prison.
10:43I know my time in prison.
10:44I know my time in prison.
10:45I know my time in prison.
10:46I know my time in prison.
10:47I know my time in prison.
10:48I know my time in prison.
10:49I know my time in prison.
10:50I know my time in prison.
10:51I know my time in prison.
10:52I know my time in prison.
10:53I know my time in prison.
10:54I know my time in prison.
10:55I know my time in prison.
10:56I know my time in prison.
10:57I know my time in prison.
10:58I know my time in prison.
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