People Who Outlived Insane Prison Sentences

Most people find it hard being locked indoors for a few weeks. Imagine what decades of incarceration can do to you. There are cases where people who were practically kids got released as elders into a world that was vastly different to the one they left when they were imprisoned. Let’s take a look at some people who have outlived the most insane prison sentences ever given.

Thomas Trantino

By his own admission, Thomas Trantino was a very sick and dangerous person. Born in 1938, he’d become a serious substance abuser at just 14 years old and had already spent 6 years behind bars by the age of 20. On one terrible night in August 1963, while heavily intoxicated, he took part in an altercation that ended in the demise of two policemen at Trantino’s hand.

Trantino turned himself in after 66 hours on the run, but claimed he didn’t commit the crimes he’d been accused of. However, with all the evidence pointing to the contrary, he was soon convicted of his alleged crimes. Not only that; the jury decided he deserved the death penalty!

After being committed in 1963, he sat on death row until 1971 when New Jersey abolished the death penalty. His sentence was then altered to life with eligibility for parole after 25 years. But being on death row turned this broken man into something of a writer and an artist, and saw him write and illustrate two books from behind bars. That’s one way to pass the time!

In 2002, Trantino’s parole was finally granted, after he’d spent over 38 years total in the hole, making him the longest-serving prisoner in the state of New Jersey!

Ricky Jackson

Could you imagine losing nearly 40 years of your life to a crime you didn’t commit? Unbelievably, that nightmare became Ricky Jackson’s reality back in 1975. At just 19 years old, Jackson and his friends Wiley and Ronnie Bridgeman were convicted for a fatal attack on salesman Harry Franks.

The entire case hinged on the witness statement of a 13-year-old named Eddie Vernon, who claimed he saw the boys commit the heinous crime. Aside from that one witness, there was no other physical evidence to suggest Jackson or the Bridgeman brothers were there.

Jackson was initially given the death sentence, but luckily, several appeals and mistakes in paperwork spared him from capital punishment. And thank god it did, because in 2013, the star witness broke down in court and claimed the police had coerced him into falsely testifying!

It turned out, Vernon never actually saw the attack; in fact, he was on a school bus a mile away when it all happened! The shocking turn of events saw Jackson exonerated in 2014, along with Wiley Bridgeman. They’d each spent 39 years waiting for justice, alongside Ronnie Bridgeman who had been released in 2003. The three are due to receive a pay-out of $18 million in compensation for the decades they spent behind bars.

Jackon, Bridgeman released by News 5 Cleveland

Otis Johnson

The saying ‘wrong place, wrong time’ is one that former convict Otis Johnson knows all too well. Back in 1975, Johnson was arrested for a crime he claims he never committed.

On May 5th, as he was walking down the street, Johnson was stopped and searched by officers in Harlem, New York. The officers alleged Otis fit the description of a man involved in a nearby shooting of a police officer. The description only said the man was wearing a tan jacket, but that was enough to convince the officers of Johnson’s guilt.

Somehow, despite a glaring lack of evidence or credible eyewitnesses, Johnson was sentenced to 25 years to life for the attack he was accused of. He got through the decades of incarceration by drawing on his previous training as a monk in Hong Kong.

He set up various programs to teach meditation skills to other inmates inside New York’s Green Haven Prison, and even helped out doing secretarial work. His good behavior made him eligible for parole 9 times, and during several of his parole hearings he was told that if he just confessed, he could walk free. Johnson clearly had a backbone made out of pure steel, because each time, he refused to confess to a crime he hadn’t committed.

Fortunately, his 9th parole hearing, in 2014, was positive, and he was finally released. When you do the math, that means he had been imprisoned for almost 40 years, and all because he was wearing a tan jacket. Seems like New York needs to upgrade its fashion police!

My Life After 44 Years In Prison by Al Jazeera English

Søren Mathiasen

Denmark is famous for its bicycle culture, its colorful houses, and, of course, LEGO. But it’s also the home of one of the longest, oldest, and strangest jail sentences in the world! Say hello to Søren Mathiasen.

All the way back in 1876, this plump fellow engaged in the services of horse dealer Niels Bøgelund. He wanted to borrow money, and also asked for his help finding a wealthy wife to marry. But the wife Søren ended up with clearly didn’t come with a lot of cash, because when Bøgelund came to collect the money he’d lent out, Søren couldn’t pay. With substantial debts and no way to pay them, Søren decided his only way out was to eliminate Bøgelund, which was his biggest mistake by far.

Soon after the deed was done, he was caught, and ended up serving a life sentence of over 49 years with hard labor at the Horsens State Prison. The years of grueling work took their toll, but he did somehow manage to keep the pounds packed on! This devious Dane was eventually released on parole in 1925, and hopefully he steered clear of horse dealers and bargain wives for the rest of his days!

Betty Smithey

Women are just as capable as men, and that includes being horrendous criminals. For proof, look no further than the case of Betty Smithey, America’s longest-serving female inmate. In 1963, Smithey was convicted of taking the life of a minor, and was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

In her early years as an inmate, she managed to escape four times from three different prisons. So, either she was a regular Houdini, or those female penitentiaries were more insecure than your Facebook data! Nevertheless, over the years Betty stopped trying to escape from prison and started trying to better herself. She enrolled in self-improvement courses, got her General Education certificates, and even wrote a little poetry.

But because Smithey was sentenced before 1973, the laws at the time dictated she could only become eligible for parole if the governor granted her clemency. For those of us that don’t speak jail, that means extending mercy in the form of a sentence change.

She applied in 2003 unsuccessfully, but in 2012 another appeal was granted, and her sentence was cut to 49 years, making her a free woman at 69 years old! It may be a little late to start really living life with something fun like skydiving, but at least she has 5 decades of great TV to catch up on!

AZ inmate Betty Smithey, served 49 years for murder released by ABC15 Arizona

John Franzese

In 1950, John Franzese was inducted into the Columbo crime family of New York City and quickly gained a terrifying reputation as one of the mafia’s most fearsome thugs. But despite claiming to have flatlined almost 50 people, he was only convicted in 1967 of masterminding a series of bank robberies across the country. I guess the police were willing to take whatever they could get by that point!

He was charged with a 50-year sentence, but was released on parole in 1978, though on at least six occasions, he returned to prison for parole violations. Then in 2011, and at the grand old age of 93, this granddaddy of crime was sentenced to a further 8 years in prison for extortion and loansharking!

He hit the ripe old age of 100 in 2017 and, wrapping up his 8-year prison term, he was released from jail. In total, this mobster spent more than 40 years behind bars throughout his life, meaning he basically lived half-a-life of crime, and half-a-life of jail-time!

Sheldry Topp

In 1958, and at just 13 years old, Sheldry Topp was involuntarily committed to a state hospital for some seriously destructive mental issues. He was treated with electroshock therapy, which even at the time was considered inhumane and tortuous, so it’s hardly surprising that, in 1962, Topp ran away.

But in his frenzied state, he wound up responsible for the death of an attorney in Oakland County, Michigan. At just 17 years old, Topp was sentenced to life in prison without parole. Despite being clinically diagnosed as a sociopath, Sheldry was held in a minimum-security prison, which housed only the best-behaved inmates. Despite this, he never attempted to escape; instead, he completed rehabilitation programs and multiple academic courses, all from behind bars.

The years passed Sheldry by without hope of freedom, until 2012, when the Supreme Court decided sentencing a minor to life in prison without parole was unconstitutional. Sheldry was given a revised sentence with a 40-year minimum in 2019, and seeing as he’d already served a staggering 56 years, it meant he was immediately eligible for freedom.

Oldest juvenile lifer in Michigan released from Muskegon Co. prison by WOOD TV8

Gaining the title of ‘oldest juvenile prisoner serving a life sentence in Michigan’, he walked free at the age of 74, having traded in his handcuffs for a walker!

Howard Christensen

Back in 1937, 16-year-old Howard Christensen was involved in a crime-spree-turned-sour that resulted in the demise of schoolteacher Ada Carey. Christensen’s acts shocked the state of South Dakota, and after Howard received a life sentence, 3,000 people signed a petition demanding that the boy never be pardoned.

The years behind bars brought out Christensen’s crazy side, and he ended up spending 30 years on-and-off inside Yankton state mental facility. In the 1970s, his sentence was revised, making him eligible for parole, then in 1995, due to his age and failing health, he was transferred to a nursing home. He died in 1999, aged 79, having been institutionalized for just over 58 years before his final few years of freedom!

For perspective, he’d spent almost 3 times as long on the inside than he had on the outside. That’s almost as much time as a World of Warcraft international champion spends in his mom’s basement, only with less Cheetos and Mountain Dew!

Bill Wallace

All the way back in 1926, an Australian man named Bill Wallace was deemed criminally insane for a truly bizarre reason. He was never formally convicted of anything, though it was heavily implied that he shot a man over an argument about a cigarette. Reportedly, and this isn’t a joke, he really, really hated smoking!

But when asked about the crime, he point-blank refused to answer a single question. This led to 2 doctors deeming him criminally insane and unfit to stand trial. Instead, he was to be held indefinitely at Victoria’s Ararat Lunatic Asylum. This meant he would only be released once the governor was convinced he was cured.

But Wallace continued refusing to speak to the doctors about his crime. He remained in the institute for a staggering 63 years until he passed away there just a few days before his 108th birthday. Despite being there for the bulk of his life, technically, he was never sentenced for his alleged crimes! That’s one bizarre way to beat the system.

Charles Edret Ford

In 1952, Charles Edret Ford faced a trial that was stacked against him from the start. His trial, in which he was accused of a fatal shooting, involved an all-white jury in Maryland, 12 years before racial segregation in America ended. During his trial, neither of his alibi witnesses were called to testify, both of whom could vouch that Ford was never at the scene of the crime. Two witnesses that testified against Ford contradicted each other, but the attorney he was given wasn’t even a trial lawyer, making him unable to adequately defend his client.

With those factors combined, Ford ended up receiving a life sentence. After his unfair trial, Charles maintained his innocence, but ended up serving over 64 years in prison before his case was seriously reviewed in 2015. With the evidence finally re-examined, his sentence was vacated, meaning the verdict of his first trial was overruled, having been deemed a miscarriage of justice.

That said, he wasn’t let completely off the hook, as his innocence couldn’t be entirely proved beyond doubt. So, instead of total freedom, he was transferred to a health center in Baltimore in 2016, having reached the impressive age of 86! 64 years is certainly a long time to wait for only partial freedom. But, judging by the tears of joy he reportedly shed upon learning of his transfer, Ford was just happy to have his case reassessed in a fairer light.

Richard Honeck

In 1976, America celebrated it’s bicentennial. The 200th anniversary of the nation saw much celebration, but it was also the year that Richard Honeck passed away at the age of 97. Honeck had served what was, at the time, the longest prison sentence ever to end in a prisoner’s release. He was jailed in 1899 for his role in the demise of Walter Koeller, which happened so long ago that they didn’t print his photo in the paper, they used a drawing!

Honeck spent the first 12 years of his life sentence at Joliet Correctional Centre in Illinois, but that changed after he attacked a deputy warden with a D.I.Y. shiv. He received 20 days in solitary confinement, before being moved to Menard Penitentiary, where he peacefully spent the final 35 years of his sentence, swapping shivs for baking gloves, as he worked in prison’s bakery! He spent a grand total of 64 years incarcerated before he was granted parole in 1963.

Paul Geidel Jr

When the aforementioned Richard Honeck was released from prison in 1963, Paul Geidel Junior was more than 50 years into his life sentence for similarly-violent crimes. And when Geidel Junior was released in 1980, he surpassed Honeck’s record by serving 68 years and eight months in the can!

At just 17 years old, Geidel attempted to rob an old man, but "accidentally" suffocated him with the chloroform rag he’d intended to knock him out with! When caught, Geidel Junior was sentenced to life in prison, with a 20-year minimum.

Although he became eligible for parole in 1931, Geidel saw through the 1940’s, 50’s, 60’s, and even the 1970’s behind bars. He was finally offered parole in 1974, but having spent more of his life in prison than outside it, he declined. Prison had, sadly, become his entire world. The outside world was alien and unfamiliar to him now, especially considering his old age.

But before he could see the rest of his life pass by from inside of his cage, he was convinced to accept freedom in 1980. By that point, Geidel was 86 years old! He’d spent the best part of seven decades paying for his mistake, and he lived out his final days at a nursing home.

Johnson Van Dyke Grigsby

When Johnson Van Dyke Grigsby started his prison sentence in 1908, Theodore Roosevelt was the president, cellophane had just been invented, and the first ever Model T car was recently made. By the time Grigsby was released, email was being developed, Motorola was selling the world’s first mobile phones, and the floppy disk had been invented! That’s a huge chunk of history to have missed out on.

But for the crime of fatally injuring a man over a card game in a saloon, Grigsby pled guilty to second-degree murder to avoid the death penalty. He proceeded to serve a hefty 66 years in the Indiana State Prison. He appealed for clemency from the board a grand total of 33 times, but was denied every last request.

Although he reportedly seemed elated to be transferred to a nursing home in 1974, his almost 90-year-old smile was hiding decades of institutionalization. He’d become completely reliant on the routine and systems of the prison, and after spending time in that Michigan nursing home, he voluntarily returned to prison in 1976!

Joseph Ligon

What do you think most 15-year olds spend their time doing these days? Playing Fortnite and making TikToks? Well, that’s a world apart from what Joseph Ligon was doing at that age. Back in 1953, this juvenile delinquent was busy being sentenced to life in prison without parole! He and five of his friends had gotten drunk and decided to commit a series of robberies, in a crime spree that left eight men injured, two of them fatally.

Ligon pleaded guilty to his crime spree in Pennsylvania, one of only six states where life sentences for this type of crime are imposed without the possibility for parole. At the time, that meant the 15-year-old was essentially sentenced to die in prison. The years passed without any light at the end of the tunnel for Ligon. But between 2012 and 2016, new laws dictated that mandatory life sentences without parole for juveniles was unconstitutional.

Ligon was offered parole in 2017, but just like Paul Geidel Jr., he declined! He rejected the proposed offer of supervised probation, asserting that, if he couldn’t be completely free of the justice system, he may as well stay in jail! By that point, Ligon had become the world’s oldest juvenile to serve life without parole. He was finally released in 2021, after serving 67 years and 54 days in prison!

Rene Lima

At just 19 years old, Rene Lima-Marin was heading down a dangerous path. In an attempt to make a quick buck, he and his friend Michael Clifton robbed 2 video stores at gunpoint in 1998. After their getaway car’s license plate number and their descriptions were given to the police, the two were arrested.

Lima was sentenced to a staggering total of 98 years in prison. That’s a huge amount of time seeing as no one was injured, let alone fatally. It turns out the prosecutor had dissected the robberies into a series of different actions, including kidnapping, as the pair had forced employees to move from one room to another! Added all together, the sentencing structure could have resulted in a 300-year sentence, so if anything, these guys got lucky!

Even so, Lima was looking at a life behind bars. That was, until 2008, when he was released on parole! A clerical error in his paperwork listed him as serving his sentences concurrently, all at the same time, not consecutively, meaning he could be released 9 decades early. Determined not to make the same mistake twice, Lima worked hard, started a family, and became a model citizen. But in 2014 the mistake was finally caught by the courts, and Lima was re-arrested.

Fortunately, the judge in charge of his case saw the re-incarceration as unjust, the ruling was overturned, and Rene was released for good in 2017. Proving how far he’d come; he even took steps to apologize face to face with one of the store clerks from that fateful night twenty years before!

Chamoy Thipyaso

Can you guess how many years the longest prison sentence ever handed out was? 200 years? 1,000 years? 2,000 years? Try 141,078 years! It may sound insane, but that was the final number handed down to Chamoy back in 1989. She was the wife of a high-ranking member of the Royal Thai Air Force and an employee of the Petroleum Authority for Thailand.

For a sentence so severe, you can’t help but imagine what unbelievable atrocities this woman must have committed. Did she blow up a skyscraper full of orphans? Was she responsible for the extinction of the dinosaurs? Did she kill Harambe? Not even close.

The crime she found herself wrapped up in was fraud! She was the head of a pyramid scheme that defrauded over 16,000 people and netted her more than $204 million. This hefty scheme threatened to undermine the entire Thai banking system, leading to the hundred-thousand-year sentencing.

However, the Thai laws of the time specified that those convicted of fraud could not serve more than 20 years in prison, rendering the sentencing unlawful. She was given a revised sentence, and was released after only 8 years! Now that’s what you call a lucky escape!

If you were amazed at these stories of people who outlived insane prison sentences, you might want to read about the strangest last meal requests. Thanks for reading!