Top 10 Most Dangerous Prisoners In The Midwest United States

10 - Raymond "Shrimp Boy" Chow

Born in Hong Kong, Chow immigrated to San Francisco in 1976 at age 16. He quickly became involved in gang activity, joining the Hop Sing Boys.

In 1977, he was present during the Golden Dragon massacre, a gang-related shooting that killed five people and injured 11 others. Although not charged in that incident, Chow's criminal record began shortly thereafter.

In 1978, Chow was convicted of armed robbery during a Chinatown meeting, resulting in an 11-year sentence, and he later served over seven years for that crime.

In 1986, he was charged with multiple offenses, including assault with a deadly weapon and attempted murder, related to a shooting at the Golden Key Restaurant. He was convicted and served a further three years.

Finally, in 1992, Chow was arrested in a federal racketeering case involving the Wo Hop To gang, facing 48 counts including murder-for-hire and heroin trafficking. He was convicted on firearms charges and sentenced to over 23 years.

After his release in 2003, he engaged in community outreach, speaking to youth about the dangers of gang life, and received recognition from local politicians, including a "Certificate of Honor" from San Francisco Supervisor Fiona Ma and a "Change Agent" award acknowledged by Senator Dianne Feinstein.

Despite his public persona, Chow was arrested in 2014 during an FBI investigation into corruption and organized crime.

He was charged with 162 counts, including racketeering, murder, money laundering, and conspiracy.

Specifically, he was found guilty of ordering the murder of Allen Leung, a rival, to ascend to leadership of the Chee Kung Tong organization.

In 2016, Chow was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole, plus 20 years. The judge described the murder as a calculated move to gain power, highlighting Chow's manipulative nature and lack of remorse.

9 - Michael Finton

Also known as Talib Islam, Michael Curtis Finton was born in 1980 in Visalia, California, and moved with his family to Warren, Michigan, and later to Illinois.

In 1999, he was convicted of aggravated robbery and aggravated battery for a store robbery in Olney, Illinois, during which he injured the clerk. He served six years in prison, from 1999 to 2005.

During his incarceration, Finton converted to Islam and adopted the name Talib Islam.

After his release, Finton occasionally attended services at the Masjid Wali Hasan Islamic Center. He admired Anwar al-Awlaki, a radical cleric linked to al-Qaeda, and quoted him on his MySpace page.

In 2008, Finton traveled to Saudi Arabia, funded by a wire transfer he received, and upon his return, he came under FBI scrutiny. A search of his vehicle in August 2007 uncovered writings expressing his desire to become a martyr.

Finton was introduced to an undercover FBI agent posing as an al-Qaeda operative. Over several months, he discussed plans to attack the federal courthouse in Springfield.

On September 23, 2009, believing he was carrying out the attack, Finton drove a van he thought contained a ton of explosives to the courthouse, parked it, and attempted to detonate it remotely using a cell phone.

The explosives were inert, provided by the FBI as part of a sting operation. He was arrested immediately after attempting to trigger the device.

Finton was charged with attempted murder of federal employees and attempted use of a weapon of mass destruction. He pleaded guilty on May 9, 2011, and was sentenced to 28 years in prison and is currently incarcerated at the FCI Oxford in Wisconsin.

8 - Byron David Smith

A retired U.S. State Department security engineer, Smith was convicted in 2014 for the premeditated murders of two teenagers, Haile Kifer and Nicholas Brady, who broke into his home in Little Falls, Minnesota, on Thanksgiving Day in 2012.

Smith, born in 1948, had experienced multiple burglaries at his residence prior to the incident. In response, he installed surveillance equipment and took measures to secure his home.

On November 22, 2012, he parked his car away from the house to give the appearance that no one was home and waited in his basement with loaded firearms.

Smith shot Brady as he descended into the basement, then shot him again after he fell, approximately ten minutes later, Kifer entered the basement, and Smith shot her multiple times.

Smith was arrested and charged with two counts of first-degree premeditated murder and two counts of second-degree murder.

During the trial, prosecutors presented audio recordings made by Smith that captured the shootings and his comments afterward, including referring to the teens as "vermin."

On April 29, 2014, Smith was sentenced to two consecutive life terms without the possibility of parole. He is currently incarcerated at the Minnesota Correctional Facility in Oak Park Heights.

7 - Mohammed Modin Hasan

In the early hours of April 1, 2010, Hasan and his co-conspirators launched an attack on the USS Nicholas in the Indian Ocean, mistaking it for a merchant vessel.

Hasan operated an attack skiff equipped with an RPG, while his associates carried AK-47 assault rifles. As they approached within 60 feet of the ship, they opened fire.

The USS Nicholas returned fire, and after a brief exchange, the attackers attempted to flee. The U.S. Navy pursued and apprehended all five individuals.

Following a nine-day trial, the jury convicted all five men on November 24, 2010. On March 14, 2011, they were each sentenced to life imprisonment plus 80 years.

The life sentence was mandated by the piracy conviction, while the additional 80 years resulted from firearms offenses, including the use of an RPG during the attack.

Hasan and his co-defendants appealed their convictions, arguing that their actions did not constitute piracy under U.S. law. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit rejected these arguments and upheld the convictions and sentences.

As of October 2023, Hasan remains incarcerated. His second motion for compassionate release was denied by the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, a decision affirmed by the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals.

6 - Carlos Almonte

Born in the Dominican Republic in 1983 or 1984, Almonte immigrated to the United States with his family at the age of five, settling in Elmwood Park, New Jersey.

He graduated from Elmwood Park Memorial High School in 2005. During his high school years, Almonte encountered legal issues, including arrests for aggravated assault and weapons possession.

In 2004, he converted to Islam, adopting the name "Omar," and began attending mosques in Paterson and Union City, New Jersey. He met Mohamed Mahmood Alessa in 2005, and the two developed a shared interest in extremist ideologies.

In 2007, they traveled to Jordan in an unsuccessful attempt to enter Iraq and join insurgent groups. They also engaged in physical training, including paintball exercises, to prepare for jihadist activities.

On June 5, 2010, as part of a covert FBI operation named "Operation Arabian Knight," Almonte and Alessa were arrested at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York while attempting to board separate flights to Egypt.

Their ultimate goal was to reach Somalia and join al-Shabaab, an al-Qaeda-affiliated terrorist group. Both men were charged with conspiring to murder persons outside the United States on behalf of a designated foreign terrorist organization.

In March 2011, Almonte and Alessa pleaded guilty to the charges in federal court in Newark, New Jersey. On April 15, 2013, Almonte was sentenced to 20 years in prison, while Alessa received a 22-year sentence.

The sentences were imposed by U.S. District Judge Dickinson R. Debevoise and both men have been in continuous custody since their arrests in 2010.

5 - Patrick Franklin Andrews

Born in 1980 in Washington, D.C., Andrews became involved in violent crime at a young age. His first known homicide occurred when he was just 17 years old.

On August 4th, 1997, Andrews fatally shot 18-year-old Robert Ward during a personal dispute, then on July 2nd, 2000, Andrews and accomplice Randall C. Mack murdered Deyon Rivers following an altercation involving a friend of Andrews.

On October 7, 2007, while incarcerated at United States Penitentiary Hazelton in West Virginia, Andrews and fellow inmate Kevin Bellinger ambushed and fatally stabbed Jesse Harris 20 times with a shank.

In October 2012, Andrews and Bellinger were indicted for second-degree murder and murder by a federal prisoner serving a life sentence.

The government initially sought the death penalty against Andrews. However, on April 13, 2015, he pleaded guilty to avoid a potential death sentence and was sentenced to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole.

Transferred to United States Penitentiary Beaumont in Texas, where he remains in custody, Andrews has also spent time at the United States Penitentiary Florence High in Colorado.

4 - William Clyde Gibson

Gibson was the youngest of four children. His family moved to New Albany, Indiana, during his early childhood. He reported a relatively stable upbringing, though his father struggled with alcoholism.

Gibson exhibited social difficulties and academic struggles from a young age, preferring isolation and displaying early signs of behavioral issues. He had prior convictions for theft and auto-related crimes before escalating to more violent offenses.

In October 2002, Gibson murdered 44-year-old Karen Sue Hodella. Her body was discovered in early 2003 near the Ohio River in Clarksville, Indiana. This case remained unsolved until Gibson's confession in 2012.

In March 2012, Gibson invited 35-year-old Stephanie Kirk to his home in New Albany, Indiana before attacking and murdering her.

In April 2012, Gibson murdered 75-year-old Christine Whitis, a family friend who visited to offer condolences after his mother's death.

Gibson was arrested on April 19, 2012, following the discovery of Whitis's body, and, during interrogation, he confessed to all three murders.

Gibson pleaded guilty to one murder in March 2014 and was sentenced to 65 years in prison, he then pleaded guilty in June 2014 to the murder of Kirk and received a death sentence followed by a second death sentence in the case of the Whitis murder.

The Indiana Supreme Court upheld both death sentences in 2016, rejecting appeals that cited ineffective assistance of counsel and other procedural issues.

3 - Lawrence "Larry" Ray

Born Lawrence Grecco in 1959, Lawrence "Larry" Ray is an American criminal convicted of orchestrating a decade-long campaign of psychological manipulation, abuse, and exploitation targeting students at Sarah Lawrence College in New York.

Larry Ray was born in Brooklyn, New York, and had a history of involvement in criminal activities, including securities fraud. In 2003, he pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit securities fraud and was sentenced to probation and home confinement.

In late 2010, after his release from prison, Ray moved into his daughter Talia Ray's on-campus housing at Sarah Lawrence College in Bronxville, New York.

Presenting himself as a fatherly figure and life coach, he ingratiated himself with her roommates and friends, eventually exerting control over them through psychological manipulation, physical abuse, and coercion.

Ray's tactics included isolating victims from their families, controlling their diets and sleep, and subjecting them to interrogations and false confessions.

He coerced some victims into forced labor and prostitution, collecting substantial sums of money through extortion. The abuse continued for nearly a decade, affecting multiple individuals.

The extent of Ray's abuses came to light following a 2019 New York Magazine article, leading to a federal investigation. In February 2020, Ray was arrested and charged with multiple offenses.

These included racketeering conspiracy, violent crime in aid of racketeering, extortion, sex trafficking, forced labor, tax evasion and money laundering.

In April 2022, after a trial in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, Ray was convicted on all counts. On January 20, 2023, he was sentenced to 60 years in prison and a lifetime of supervised release by Judge Lewis J. Liman, who described Ray's conduct as "sadism, pure and simple."

Ray is currently incarcerated at the United States Penitentiary in Terre Haute, Indiana. His projected release date is March 29, 2071, effectively a life sentence given his age at sentencing.

2 - Chevie Kehoe

Kehoe was the eldest of eight sons in a family that moved frequently, eventually settling near Deep Lake in Stevens County, Washington.

Initially an honor student with aspirations to join the Air Force, Kehoe's trajectory changed when his parents, Kirby and Gloria Kehoe, withdrew him from public school in 1988 to home-school him.

The family espoused increasingly extreme anti-government and white supremacist beliefs, which heavily influenced Kehoe's worldview. He later formed plans to overthrow the U.S. government and establish a white ethno-state.

In June 1995, Kehoe and an accomplice kidnapped and robbed Malcolm and Jill Friedman, a couple believed to be Jewish, who owned a store where Kehoe had previously worked. This act was part of Kehoe's broader plan to fund his white supremacist activities.

On January 11, 1996, Kehoe and accomplice Daniel Lewis Lee traveled to the home of William Mueller, a gun dealer in Tilly, Arkansas. Dressed as FBI agents, they overpowered Mueller, his wife Nancy, and her 8-year-old daughter Sarah Powell, later murdering them.

On February 15, 1997, Kehoe and his brother Cheyne were involved in a shootout with Ohio State Highway Patrol officers during a traffic stop in Wilmington, Ohio.

The incident, which was captured on dashcam video, resulted in injuries but no fatalities. The footage was widely broadcast, bringing national attention to the Kehoe brothers.

Following the Ohio shootout, Kehoe went into hiding but was eventually arrested on June 17, 1997, at a ranch in Utah. In 1999, he was convicted in federal court of multiple charges, including three murder counts, conspiracy to commit racketeering and robbery.

Kehoe has been incarcerated in several high-security federal prisons, including USP Florence ADX in Colorado and USP McCreary in Kentucky with the jury at trial opting not to impose the death penalty.

As of 2022, he is held at United States Penitentiary, Terre Haute, under Federal Bureau of Prisons register number 21300-009.

1 - Robert Gregory Bowers

Responsible for the deadliest antisemitic attack in U.S. history, on October 27, 2018, Bowers opened fire at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, killing 11 worshippers and injuring six others, including four police officers.

Armed with a Colt AR-15 rifle and three Glock .357 handguns. He targeted three congregations. the Tree of Life, Dor Hadash, and New Light.

Bowers was apprehended at the scene after being shot by police officers. During his arrest, he reportedly expressed hatred toward Jews, stating that "these people are committing genocide on my people".

Following the attack, Bowers faced 63 federal charges, including 11 counts of hate crimes resulting in death. In June 2023, a jury convicted him on all counts.

During the penalty phase, the jury unanimously recommended the death sentence, agreeing with all five aggravating factors presented by the prosecution.

On August 3, 2023, U.S. District Judge Robert Colville formally imposed the death sentence after hearing victim impact statements from survivors and family members.

Bowers is currently incarcerated at the United States Penitentiary in Terre Haute, Indiana, awaiting his execution, however, his case remains under federal jurisdiction, and appeals are ongoing.

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