Bernie Madoff’s 150-year sentence handed down this week was probably a life sentence. (There is no parole for federal prisoners who committed their crimes after November 1, 1987.)
But Madoff’s sentence is not, by any stretch of the imagination, the longest sentence handed down by an American court. That distinction may belong to convicted murderer Dudley Wayne Kyzer who is serving a 10,000 year sentence at the St. Clair prison in Alabama.
80-year old William George Heirens, the ‘Lipstick Killer’, appears to win the award for the person who is alive and who has actually spent the most time in an American prison. Since confessing to three murders in 1946, he has spent the last 63 years as a guest of the Illinois Department of Corrections. He is currently at the Dixon Correctional Center.
If Heirens stays put for another 13 months, he’ll surpass the record set by Richard Honeck. Honeck was jailed in November 1899 for the murder of a former school friend. He was a guest of the state until his parole in December 1963. He died 13 years later in Oregon.
Before Madoff, the longest sentence for a white collar crime was 845 years handed down to Shalom Weiss (also spelled Sholam Weiss) in connection with charges relating to the collapse of National Heritage Life Insurance. The Federal Bureau of Prisons reports he is currently a guest of the federal penitentiary in Waymart, Pennsylvania. It shows his release date as 11-23-2754.
By the way, the Federal Bureau of Prisons shows that Bernie is still in the Metropolitan Correctional Center in New York City. [Update: Madoff was moved on 14 Jul 2009 to the Butner Federal Correctional Complex about 40 miles northwest of Raleigh, NC.] His release date is listed as November 14, 2139.
Finally, just in case you’re ever playing Trivial Pursuit and the question is about the longest sentence ever asked for anywhere in the world…
That is probably the 384,912 year sentence Spanish prosecutors sought in 1972 against postman Gabriel Grandos of Palma de Mallorca for failing to deliver 42,768 letters. Before you grab your calculator – that’s 9 years for each undelivered letter. (His actual sentence was only 7,109 years – about 2 months a letter.)
P.S. I wouldn’t give too much credence to the related articles listed below. I don’t think the computer knows quite what to do with this article.
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This reminds of the defendant who was sentenced to serve 100 years in prison and protested to the judge, saying “I’m already 80 years old. I’ll never live long enough to serve out this sentence.” The wise old judge replied, “Do your best.”
Bernie Madoff has already done his worst. I’m betting that his “best” isn’t much more than a year.
Berkowitz got 350 years. I believe Manson got similar. The bottom line is that all of them will die in prison as they should. [Posted on The Official Brigham Young University Alumni Network at LinkedIn.com]
Without having more facts I have a real hard time saying they SHOULD die in prison. I wish there were some way someone like Madoff could pay for his crime, pay back what he owes the people he took advantage of and pay back society. I feel like those he took advantage of might feel a little better, but not fully. I wish there was a better answer. [Posted on The Official Brigham Young University Alumni Network at LinkedIn.com]
If the goal is for them to rot in jail, why then not execute them and free the tax burden for society. I don’t understand life sentences. I know the penal system is a flawed system as it was initially intended to give prisoners an opportunity to change. Prison now seems to create monsters who you’d really never want out on the streets again anyway. I just have a hard time having the taxpayer shoulder the burden of convicts the courts never want to see again. That doesn’t seem like an answer and it’s a mixed message. If we did as the generals in the book of mormon did and execute those we couldn’t maintain, maybe the message would get out of obedience to the laws of the land, or significant consequences… Food for thought. [Posted on The Official Brigham Young University Alumni Network on LinkedIn.com]
Perhaps he will use the “Ken Lay” (Enron Chairman, if you remember) method of avoiding imprisonment, or at least a way of shortening the sentence duration.
For those who may not remember…
On May 25, 2006, Mr. Lay was convicted of 10 counts of securities fraud and related charges; the judge dismissed an 11th count. He was to be sentenced on October 23rd. Unlike Bernie Madoff, the court let him out on bond after he was convicted. Lay was vacationing in Snowmass, Colorado when, on July 5th he died of an apparent heart attack. On October 17th the Court vacated his conviction. For more details, check out the Wikipedia article on him.