Thomas Silverstein
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Thomas Silverstein (1952-) is a convicted American murderer. Originally jailed for armed robbery, he has been in solitary confinement since 1983, when he killed prison guard Merle Clutts at the Marion "supermax" penitentiary. Prison authorities describe him as a brutal killer and a former leader of the Aryan Brotherhood prison gang. Silverstein maintains that the dehumanizing conditions inside the prison system are responsible for the three murders he committed. He is held "in a specially designed cell" at Leavenworth federal penitentiary and is currently the longest held prisoner in total solitary confinement within the Bureau of Prisons.[1]
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[edit] Early life
Silverstein was born in Long Beach, California, to Virginia Silverstein, who had served time in prison herself for robbery as a teenager. She divorced her first husband in 1952 while pregnant with Silverstein and immediately married Thomas Conway, who Silverstein said was his natural father. Four years later, she divorced Conway and married Sid Silverstein, who legally adopted her son. Thomas Silverstein remembered the marriage as rocky, fights as common, and alcohol as a problem.
Silverstein was timid, awkward, shy, and frequently bullied as a child in the tough working-class neighborhood where the family lived. Everyone assumed that he was Jewish, and that too made him an outcast. Virginia Silverstein told her son that if he ever came home again crying because he had been beaten up by a bully, she would be waiting to give him a second licking. Silverstein states, “That’s how my mom was. She stood her mud. If someone came at you with a bat, you got your bat and you both went at it.” At age 14 Silverstein was sentenced to a California reformatory where, he said, his attitudes about violence were reinforced. “Anyone not willing to fight was abused.”
In 1971, at age nineteen, Silverstein was sent to San Quentin for armed robbery. Four years later, he was paroled, but he was arrested soon after along with his father, Thomas Conway, and his uncle for three armed robberies. Their take was less than $1,400. A probation officer later blamed the older men for getting Silverstein, then age twenty-three, involved in the crimes. Silverstein was sentenced to 15 years for armed robbery. [2]
[edit] Murders at Marion Supermax
In 1980, Silverstein was moved to USP Marion, at that time the only “level six” (now called “supermax”) facility in the BOP, after being convicted of the murder of inmate Danny Atwell. This conviction was later overturned as based on false testimony from jailhouse informants. At Marion, Silverstein was housed in the “Control Unit,” a virtual solitary confinement regime reserved for extreme 'management problems' (prisoners prone to assaultive and disruptive behavior) in the prison.
In 1981, Silverstein was accused of the murder of Robert Chappelle, a member of the DC Blacks prison gang. Silverstein was again convicted based on testimony from informants and sentenced to life in prison. Silverstein maintains he is innocent. [3] While Silverstein and Fountain were on trial for Chappelle’s murder the bureau transferred Raymond “Cadillac” Smith, the national leader of the D.C. Blacks prison gang, from another prison into the control unit in Marion and put him in a cell near Silverstein’s. From the moment Smith arrived in the control unit, prison logs show that he began trying to kill Silverstein. [4]
“I tried to tell Cadillac that I didn’t kill Chappelle, but he didn’t believe me and he bragged that he was going to kill me.” Silverstein recalled. “Everyone knew what was going on and no one did anything to keep us apart. The guards wanted one of us to kill the other.” [5] Silverstein and another prisoner killed Smith, and Silverstein received another life sentence.
Ironically, his initial conviction for the murder of Atwell (the reason why he was transferred to USP Marion in the first place) was quashed, as the testimony that convicted him was adjudged perjured.[6].
On October 22, 1983, Silverstein killed guard Merle E. Clutts by stabbing him several dozen times with a shank. Silverstein claims that Clutts was deliberately harassing him. [7] Following the murder of Clutts, Silverstein was transferred to a special ”no human contact” cell in Atlanta, Georgia.
[edit] Riot in the Atlanta penitentiary and transfer to Leavenworth
During the 1987 riot by Cuban detainees at the Atlanta federal penitentiary, the Cubans released Silverstein from his isolation cell. They handed Silverstein over to the Federal Hostage Rescue Team one week later. BOP officials were reputedly afraid that Silverstein would begin killing correctional officers held hostage by the Cubans. BOP negotiators were able to convince the Cuban riot leaders to hand over Silverstein as a gesture of good faith, a relatively easy decision for them, given that Silverstein's status was peripheral to the aims of the Cuban leaders during the riot. [8]
Silverstein was subsequently moved to Leavenworth Penitentiary in Leavenworth, Kansas, with his security recorded as "no human contact." Silverstein was placed in a cell located underground. The lights burned 24 hours a day and he was watched by guards constantly.
In 2005, when USP Leavenworth was designated to become a medium security facility, Silverstein was moved to ADX Florence, a supermax facility in Colorado. His earliest theoretical date of release is November 2, 2095.[9]
[edit] Allegations of torture and injustice
Silverstein claims that "no human contact” status is essentially a form of torture reserved for those who kill correctional officers. "When an inmate kills a guard, he must be punished," a Bureau of Prisoners official told author Pete Earley. "We can’t execute Silverstein, so we have no choice but to make his life a living hell. Otherwise other inmates will kill guards too. There has to be some supreme punishment. Every convict knows what Silverstein is going through. We want them to realize that if they cross the same line that he did, they will pay a heavy price." [10] Ted Sellers, a black former convict who met Silverstein during 25 years spent in jail, said he became a "legend" at Leavenworth. Sellers told BBC News Online "He is not as bad as they portray. Sure he is dangerous if they push him to the wall. But there were some dirty rotten guards at Marion... They would purposely screw you around. You are dealing with a person locked up 23 hours a day. Of course he's got a short fuse." [11]
Silverstein also maintains that, since he was in the Marion supermax on a conviction that was later overturned, he should have been released long before, and would never have killed anyone but for this false conviction and the brutality of the prison system. [12]
[edit] References
- ^ ”America’s Most Dangerous Prisoner?” BBC News August 2001. [1]
- ^ Earley, P: “The Hot House Life Inside Leavenworth Prison”. Bantam Books, 1993
- ^ Earley, P: “The Hot House Life Inside Leavenworth Prison”. Bantam Books, 1993
- ^ Earley, P: “The Hot House Life Inside Leavenworth Prison”. Bantam Books, 1993
- ^ Earley, P: “The Hot House Life Inside Leavenworth Prison”. Bantam Books, 1993
- ^ "UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. CLAYTON FOUNTAIN, THOMAS E. SILVERSTEIN, and RANDY K. GOMETZ, Defendants-Appellants". Project Posner. Retrieved on October 28, 2006.
- ^ Earley, P. The Hot House Life Inside Leavenworth Prison”. Bantam Books, 1993
- ^ Earley, P: “The Hot House Life Inside Leavenworth Prison”. Bantam Books, 1993
- ^ Federal Bureau of Prisons. Retrieved on 2006-12-27.
- ^ Earley, P: “The Hot House Life Inside Leavenworth Prison”. Bantam Books, 1993
- ^ ”America’s Most Dangerous Prisoner?” BBC News August 2001. [2]
- ^ "About Tommy Silverstein", www.tommysilverstein.com, [3]
