A few! One of my first assignments on the job at Auburn Prison (NY) in Sept. of 1980, I was covering the wire gate, which was the check-in point for inmates heading up to the Admin Building for work, callouts or medical treatment. This light-skinned guy with a wild Afro stops at the gate, shows me his pass, and says he's headed up to work. I let him pass, but knew I had seen him somewhere before, but I can't remember where.
Shortly after I learned his name: Winston Moseley. I then remembered where I had seen him. He had been interviewed on 60 minutes or one of those other news programs. That was either 1979 or early 1980, just before I took the job. Moseley was convicted of killing Kitty Genovese in New York City back in 1964. It was a well-known murder because Moseley had attacked her, repeatedly stabbed her, and left the scene only to return twice more to make sure he had killed her. And although neighbors had heard the murder taking place and yelled out of their windows for him to leave her alone, no one had called the police. They even made a movie about it: A Cry in the Night. Raoul Julia played the police detective investigating the case.
Anyway, a day or two later I was back on duty at the wire gate and Moseley comes through again. He looks at my name tag and asks me: "What does the K (my first name initial) stand for?" Had I been quicker on my feet, I should have said "Kitty." But instead I told him that my first name was none of his business and to be on his way. The guy was a serial rapist and murderer. He was at Attica during the riot of '71 and escaped custody in 1968 while being transported to the hospital. He overpowered a male officer and stole his gun. Not long afterwards he took five people hostage and repeatedly raped a woman in front of her husband. He was eventually recaptured. While I was at Auburn (1980-83), I was told that the woman he raped visited him regularly.
Here's a link to a lengthy story about Kitty Genovese's murder:
While at Auburn, we also had Ron DeFeo as an inmate. He's the one who killed his whole family in Amityville, New York. He used to be on the garbage crew while I was there.
We also had some other characters whose lives and crimes were written about in books. Murderers, rapists, you name it. I've met them all. To tell you the truth, the only time I was apprehensive about the job was in April of 1981 after a female officer with only 3 months on the job was murdered in a facility downstate by an inmate doing two life sentences. Fortunately I got over any misgivings I had for taking the job and finished off my career with retirement.
Wow. Those are some stories.
Re the female officer - was this crime solved by looking at the perp's teeth/bite marks on the victim? I think saw a show about this as the first use of forensic dentistry.
It was a sad story because she was so new to the job, but I had to think, why would they put women guards w/such rough guys? You'd think they'd use them in women's prisons.