The news cycle features a steady rotation of celebs who've somehow accrued DUIs, drug
charges, and much more. But while it seems their crimes usually result in a memorable
mug shot and little more, these are the celebs who have spent real time in the slammer.
Wesley Snipes made a big name for himself in the '90s, but the U.S. government eventually
realized it wasn't getting enough of that sweet Hollywood moola from the actor. He was
charged with income tax evasion in 2006, allegedly owing the IRS $23.5 million in back taxes
since 2001.
CNN reported that Snipes was convicted on three misdemeanor counts of failing to file
tax returns in 2008, for which he received a three-year prison sentence. In April 2013,
Snipes was released from Pennsylvania's McKean Federal Correctional Institution after serving
two years and four months, after which he spent another three months on house arrest,
according to TMZ.
By 2014, Snipes was already staging his comeback with a role in The Expendables 3. Speaking
with The Telegraph, the action star commented on how he thinks he was treated by the justice
system, claiming,
"I think there are people out there who feel it was overkill, overzealous, overreaching.
But again, that was then, this is now. And they ain't seen nothing yet. I'm just getting
started."
"Jing-a-ling. Jing-a-ling, jing-a-ling."
Home Improvement star Tim Allen needed life improvement back in the '70s, when he was
busted on some serious felony drug charges. According to CBS News, in 1978, Allen got
caught at an airport in Michigan with about a pound and a half of cocaine. He entered
a guilty plea to a charge of drug trafficking, and, facing a life sentence, he worked out
a deal with prosecutors: three to seven years in prison in exchange for providing the names
of other drug dealers with whom he had associated. Of that reduced term, Allen served two years
and four months in a Minnesota prison before getting paroled, at which point he turned
things around by becoming a comedian.
"I said to myself, 'I don't wanna do this again. I wanna pay my mom back. I put her
through hell."
The experience was obviously life-altering for Allen. He told Closer Weekly,
"It put me in a position of great humility, and I was able to make amends to friends and
family and refocus my life on setting and achieving goals."
In his decades-long career as a boxing promoter, Don King has been involved with everyone who's
anyone in the fighting world. But it turns out, he has a violent history, himself. In
fact, King has allegedly killed two people. In 1954, he reportedly shot and killed a man
at a gambling joint in Cleveland. And according to the Independent,
"King said it was self-defence. The court called it justifiable homicide."
Then the New York Times book review of Jack Newfield's Only in America: The Life and Crimes
of Don King claimed the money man also fatally beat a man in Cleveland, in front of a crowd
of people. King received a manslaughter conviction and spent 3 years and 11 months in the pen,
before receiving a pardon from the governor of Ohio. A 77-year-old King told The Independent
in 2009,
"I recognized my sins, brother! I am confessed. But God didn't come to save the righteous.
He came to save the sinners."
"Would you ever take a contract out on him?"
"No. What for? If I wanted to do something, I'd do it myself."
Richard Hatch is best known as the winner of the first season of Survivor. Unfortunately
for him, the million dollar prize ended up becoming something of a burden, as Hatch was
sent to jail for nine months in 2011 when a judge found him guilty of not paying taxes
on his winnings. That sentence was on top of the three years Hatch had already spent
in prison for tax evasion between 2006 and 2009.
"I never did anything deserving of prison time. I've never not paid, or not filed, any
tax returns my entire life."
According to Forbes, Richard survived a total of 51 months, on charges that also included,
quote, "violating prison media-access rules," when he did an NBC interview shortly after
his second release from prison. This resulted in a third incarceration and solitary confinement.
If all that sounds complicated, that's because it is. But, of course, when it comes to the
eyes of the court, he could have just paid his taxes.
Former NFL running back O.J. Simpson spent some time in the slammer during his 1995 double-murder
trial, before he was found not-guilty of killing his ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her
friend, Ron Goldman. But he later spent nearly nine years in jail on charges related to an
armed robbery in Las Vegas in 2007.
Simpson faced nine to 33 years in prison for the robbery conviction, but according to CNN,
he received preferential treatment due to his notoriety, and even cleaned up in the
jail's fantasy football league. Simpson was paroled in July 2017 and officially released
in October of that same year, with plans to transfer his parole to the Florida Department
of Corrections. That idea went up in smoke when the state's attorney general at the time
wrote,
"There is no justification under these circumstances for asking the taxpayers of Florida to foot
the bill for hosting Mr. Simpson's parole, especially in light of the added dangers that
his relocation would pose to our citizens."
"I've done my time. You know, I've done it as well and as respectfully as I think anybody
can."
On Halloween in 2007, rapper Da Brat reportedly got into a heated argument with a waitress
at an Atlanta, Georgia nightclub, and hit her in the face with a bottle of rum. Da Brat
pled guilty to felony aggravated assault and was sentenced to three years in prison, seven
years of probation, and 200 hours of community service. She served the time, and then in
2014, a judge ruled that she also had to pay the victim, who sustained permanent scarring
to her face, $6.4 million. Later speaking with BDO about her incarceration, the rapper
said,
"I think God does everything for a reason and it was meant for me to sit down and regroup
and think things over and realize I shouldn't take anything for granted. I have to be very
careful about my actions and what I say to people and how I react. I think I am a better
person, a wiser person, a smarter person who is not going to take anything for granted
anymore."
"You live and you learn, and you don't ever wanna come back to this place."
Former heavyweight champion boxer Mike Tyson is, in a word, terrifying. On top of erratic
and violent behavior, both in and out of the ring, he has also spent a significant amount
of time in prison.
In 1992, Tyson was convicted of assault, and received a six-year sentence. He ended up
serving three years. In his autobiography, Undisputed Truth, the boxer claims he started
a consensual relationship with a female drug counselor and was allegedly getting so much
action, that he said,
"[I] was too tired to even go to the gym and work out…[I'd] just stay in my cell all
day."
Tyson has since stayed out of prison and kept his nose clean, converting to Islam and starting
up a career in entertainment with the cartoon series The Mike Tyson Mysteries and a memorable
cameo in The Hangover.
"I'm old great, you're new great, it's all about now. All about the future now."
We can all probably agree that disgraced record producer Phil Spector's mug shot is probably
one of the creepiest of all time, but of course, even worse, is the fact that in 2009, he was
found guilty of killing actress Lana Clarkson. He allegedly shot Clarkson in his California
mansion in 2003, though he maintained his innocence throughout the trial. The conviction
came with a jail sentence of 19 years to life, which Spector has reportedly been serving
in Stockton, California.
"He played Russian roulette with women's lives. The first five got the empty chamber, Lana
Clarkson got the bullet."
According to Page Six, Spector will be up for parole in 2028, at age 88, but in the
meantime, he hasn't just been loafing around. According to The Blast, he's been spending
time bitterly battling his ex-wife, Rachelle, over spousal support payments, successfully
negotiating them down from a total of over $50,000 per month, to roughly $39,000 a month.
They eventually settled their division of assets in 2018, with the outlet reporting
that Spector would get to keep items including,
"[A] framed and signed letter to Spector from Richard Nixon [and a] backyard statue of Snow
White and the Seven Dwarfs."
The Godfather of Soul, Mr. Dynamite, the hardest working man in show business, regardless of
how you know and remember the late singer today, James Brown was once known as inmate
Number 155413 at South Carolina's State Park Correctional Center, where he served three
years out of a six-year sentence, for brandishing a gun at an insurance company and then leading
cops on a car chase in 1987. According to The New York Times, Brown was found guilty
of carrying a deadly weapon at a public gathering, attempting to flee a police officer, and driving
under the influence of drugs.
"I feel good. Jam."
He got out in 1991, but Brown essentially went on to reenact his original crime. According
to Time, he led police on another car chase in South Carolina after discharging a rifle
at his home in 1998. This time, Brown managed to avoid round two in the slammer, and was
sentenced to a drug rehab program instead.
Actor Danny Trejo often plays tough guys onscreen, and he certainly has the real life story to
back up that persona. According to FOX News, a young Trejo spent 11 years in and out of
jail for various crimes, but he reached a turning point in 1968, when he and others
were accused of starting a prison riot that injured guards. He told the Hollywood Reporter,
"We went to the hole and were facing the gas chamber. And I remember asking God, 'Let me
die with dignity. Just let me say goodbye. And if you do, I will say your name every
day, and I will do whatever I can for my fellow man.'"
When Trejo was released the following year, he remembered his spiritual promise, embracing
a life of sobriety and helping at-risk youth.
All the stars of Bravo's Real Housewives series are wealthy pillars of their communities,
which is why a glimpse into their private lives is so alluring for fans. But few cast
members are as famous as Real Housewives of New Jersey's Teresa Giudice and her husband,
Joe, but that's probably because they've both graced the news so many times over the years
for the fallout surrounding a series of financial crimes. According to Us Weekly, the Giudices
were indicted on 39 counts in 2013, including:
"Conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud, bank fraud, making false statements on loan
applications, [and] bankruptcy fraud."
Joe was also charged with not filing tax returns for a five-year period during which he earned
about $1 million. The Daily News reported that the reality stars worked together to
lie on various financial documents, to fool banks into giving them loads of money to support
their lavish lifestyle, and in 2014, both entered guilty pleas.
"I thought when you go to prison, you don't need any money. Hello, you need a lot, you
need money when you're in prison."
According to People magazine, Teresa spent just about a year in the Federal Correctional
Institution in Connecticut, while in 2019, Joe completed a much longer 41-month sentence
at Allenwood Low Federal Correctional Institution in Pennsylvania. But he wasn't going to go
completely free, in 2018, a judge ordered his deportation back to his birth country
of Italy upon completion of his sentence. He went while his family appealed that ruling,
according to Bravo, which was denied in 2019 and again in 2020.
After debuting with the Notorious B.I.G.'s Junior M.A.F.I.A., Lil' Kim struck out on
her own with her double-platinum solo debut, Hard Core, while spitting provocative verses
on smash hit, high-profile collabs in the late '90s and early 2000s, including "Lady
Marmalade," "Crush on You," and "Not Tonight."
"It was just like, however I gotta get it, I'm gonna get it, and I'm not gonna stop until
I get it."
But in February 2001, New York radio station Hot 97 became the site of a shootout, for
which Lil' Kim was reportedly present, according to MTV. When police questioned the rapper,
she claimed to have no idea why shots were fired that day, which police believe originated
over a feud between Lil' Kim and rapper Foxy Brown. Allegedly, the two rappers' entourages
exchanged heated words before guns went off.
Lil' Kim was ultimately indicted and convicted on one count of conspiracy and three counts
of perjury for lying to authorities. She was sentenced to 366 days in prison, but was released
after serving about nine months in the Philadelphia Federal Detention Center.
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