Forget about San Quentin. Corcoran State Prison is where California houses the baddest of the bad. It’s the Grand Central Station of serial killers.
So while Death Row inmates pile up at San Quentin, they have the luxury of single cells. No fights over using the toilet, snoring, or who gets the top bunk. Wife and baby killer Scott Peterson is still there. The Night Stalker, Richard Ramirez, and Grim Sleeper prostitute slayer Lonnie Franklin called Death Row home before natural causes claimed their lives.
SATANIST ALLEGEDLY BEHEADED CELLMATE IN CALIFORNIA
But for other murderers who aren’t as famous, there’s a good chance that they end up at Corcoran — a blip on the radar in central Northern California farm country.
On March 9, a self-professed Satanist became the latest celebrity when he decapitated and dissected his cellmate, the Los Angeles Times reported.
Convicted killer Jamie Osuna, 31, had a history of attacking his cellmates, yet he was paired up with Luis Romero, who had also committed murder. Osuna was found wearing a necklace of body parts from Luis Romero.
Corcoran prison has the distinction of being named the Los Angeles Times’s “Most troubled of the 32 state prisons” in 1996. At the time, guards had shot more inmates than any other prison in the nation: 57, with seven fatalities.
Here are the most infamous inmates:
CHARLES MANSON
Although no longer alive, we put Manson at the top of the list as California’s most famous inmate ever. His murder spree in 1969 is the stuff of nightmares.
JOSEPH DeANGELO
As the Golden State Killer, DeAngelo was the focus of an HBO miniseries and a 55-year police hunt. He was convicted of 13 murders and 13 kidnappings across six counties, although police believe he was responsible for many more. DeAngelo pleaded guilty last year to avoid the death penalty.
RODNEY ALCALA
Dubbed the “Dating Game Killer,” for an appearance on that game show, Alcala was sentenced to death for the killings of five females in the 1970s. One was a young girl. Detectives found a cache of photographs and suspect he may have killed more than 100 women.
BINH THAI LUC
He is serving five life sentences for killing his friend and four of the victim’s family members in 2012. The victims were all Chinese immigrants and included an elderly couple.
DANA EWELL
In 1992, he ordered the murder of his parents and sister. Ewell was a businessman who made some bad decisions and killed his parents for their money. He received three life sentences without parole.
JUAN CORONA
In a 1971 crime that shocked the nation, Corona murdered 25 migrant farmworkers and buried their bodies in shallow graves. He died at Corcoran prison in 2019, aged 85.
JOE “PEGLEG” MORGAN
A member of the Mexican Mafia who was chronicled in the movie American Me, Morgan was convicted of murdering his girlfriend’s husband. He is suspected of killing two other Mafia members who served as advisers for the movie, starring Edward James Olmos. Morgan was serving a life sentence without parole when he died in 1993.
SIRHAN SIRHAN
The assassin of Robert F. Kennedy has spent most of his incarceration since 1969 at Corcoran. Now 77, his death sentence was commuted to life without parole during a period when the death penalty law was overturned by the state Supreme Court.
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PHILLIP GARRIDO
While not a killer, Garrido is just as infamous. He kidnapped 11-year-old Jaycee Dugard and held her in his backyard for 18 years. He is eligible for parole in 2034.
MICHAEL MARKHASEV
While just 18 years old, Markhasev shot and killed Ennis Cosby, the son of actor Bill Cosby. His sentence is life without parole.
