Most of them were murderers who were sentenced to life in prison for their crimes.
Some managed to get out but not until after spending decades behind bars.
What is the longest time anyone has actually spent serving a sentence in prison?
5.
Johnson Van Dyke Grigsby
In 1907, an African-American man named Johnson Van Dyke Grigsby and a white man named James
Brown were playing five card stud poker in an Indiana saloon.
According to the trial transcript, the game ended when a fight broke out between the two
men.
“Curses and racial slurs were uttered, and Mr. Brown pulled a knife on Van.”
Grigsby walked away but only to get his own knife and resume his fight with Brown.
He stabbed Brown to death with the knife.
According to genealogist Reginald Pitts, Grigsby received a life sentence after agreeing to
plead guilty to second degree murder.
At Indiana State Penitentiary in Michigan City, Grigsby kept to himself and stayed out
of trouble.
Historian Mike Dash notes that Grigsby spent a lot of time in prison reading three books:
the Bible, an encyclopedia, and a dictionary.
Despite his good behaviour, he was denied parole again and again.
Grigsby attracted attention mainly because of how long he was in prison.
After being denied parole 33 times, he was finally released from prison in 1974.
This meant Grigsby served 66 years and 123 days in prison.
Grigsby gained some celebrity status for this feat.
One source reports that “Grigsby was named by the Guinness Book of World Records as the
longest serving inmate in the country.”
Grigsby was also the inspiration of Johnny Cash’s 1976 song, “Michigan City, Howdy
Do,” and Cash even gave Grigsby a colour television as a gift.
It is strange to think that when Grigsby entered prison in 1908, televisions were not even
invented yet, and he was transported to prison in a horse pulled cart.
Given Grigsby’s circumstances, it is understandable that he initially struggled to adjust to life
outside of prison.
He even voluntarily returned to prison at one point but finally left for good in 1976.
He lived many more years, passing away in 1987 at the age of 101.
4.
John Phillips One prisoner who has already served more time
than Grigsby is John Phillips.
Phillips is currently serving a life sentence at Randolph Correctional Center, a minimum
security prison near Asheboro, North Carolina.
A 1995 Wilmington Morning Star article describes Phillips as “poor, mentally retarded and
black.”
He was initially charged with the first-degree rape of a 5-year-old African-American girl,
but Phillips agreed to a plea bargain that reduced the charge to accessory before the
fact of rape.
This lesser charge and Phillips’ “mental condition” are what saved him from going
to the gas chamber.
Phillips was just 17 years old when he began serving his sentence on July 17, 1952.
He has been eligible for parole since 1962.
He probably could have been released years ago if he made more of an effort to seek parole,
but Phillips does not want to leave.
In a 1995 interview, he said, “This is where my home is at.
I’m going to be here until I die.”
Phillips’ case manager at the time, Irma Timberlake, said he also does not want to
be placed in a nursing home outside of prison: “He feels that people that go to nursing
homes die, and he feels that would happen to him.”
It is difficult to determine if his attitude has changed over time because his story has
not received much publicity in recent years.
Phillips is now 85 years old.
On July 17, 2019, he will have served 67 years in prison.
If he remains in prison over the next few years, he will surpass the time served by
the next prisoner on our list, Paul Geidel.
3.
Paul Geidel
Paul Geidel and Johnson Van Dyke Grigsby were contemporaries and were convicted of their
crimes within just a few years of each other.
On July 26, 1911, Geidel murdered and robbed a guest staying at an upscale New York apartment
hotel called the Iroquois.
Geidel once worked as a bellhop there, and he targeted the guest, a 73-year-old widower
named William Jackson, because of rumors that Jackson kept a lot of cash in his room.
The rumors turned out to be false.
After bashing Jackson in the head and suffocating him with a chloroform-soaked cloth, he found
only a few dollars, a watch, and a stickpin.
He pawned the items to buy a new suit, which he was wearing when the police arrested him.
Geidel faced serious consequences for his failed and brutal get-rich-quick scheme.
District attorney Charles Whitman, who happened to be next door to Jackson’s room at the
time of the crime, pushed for the death penalty.
Geidel probably would have been executed if it were not for the mercy of the jury.
According to the New York Daily News, the “jury, citing Geidel's age, surprised everyone
by convicting him of second-degree murder,” and “he was sentenced to life, with a 20-year
minimum.”
Like Phillips, Geidel was just 17 years old when he entered prison in September 1911.
He was troubled by mental illness while behind bars.
After spending some time in the infamous Sing Sing Correctional Facility, he was declared
legally insane in 1926 and sent to Dannemora State Hospital for the Criminal Insane.
He remained there until 1972.
He was then transferred to a multi-security level prison called Fishkill Correctional
Facility.
Shortly after transferring to Fishkill, his story and long prison sentence caught the
attention of the press.
While Geidel did not like the press coverage, it probably helped persuade prison officials
to grant him parole in 1974.
However, Geidel did not want to leave.
Accustomed to life as an inmate, he chose to stay in prison another 6 years before finally
leaving Fishkill on May 7, 1980.
At the time of his release, Geidel was 86 years old.
He broke Grigsby’s record for the longest time served by spending 68 years and 245 days
in prison.
Outside of prison, he lived 7 more years in a nursing home until his death in 1987.
For many years, Geidel held the title of “longest-serving prison inmate in the United States” until
another American prisoner surpassed his time in prison.
2.
Francis Clifford Smith
Francis Clifford Smith is currently locked up at Osborn Correctional Institute in Somers,
Connecticut.
Racking up a criminal record since the age of 13, he was 24 years old when he was convicted
of the murder of a 68-year-old night watchman named Grover Hart at the Indian Harbor Yacht
Club in 1949.
The events that occurred during and after Smith’s trial were like something out of
a movie.
According to a Greenwich Times article, one of his partners in crime, George Lowden, initially
testified against Smith but then “recanted his story on the witness stand, saying he
had been forced into it by law enforcement authorities.”
After being sent to prison on June 7, 1950, Smith “spent four years on death row after
his conviction, narrowly averting execution on seven different occasions.”
In 1954, he was literally within hours of being executed when he received a last-minute
reprieve from an unexpected source.
Another petty criminal named David Blumetti “claimed he was the other accomplice”
in Hart’s murder.
Blumetti’s confession was enough to get Smith’s sentence commuted to 25 years to
life in prison.
More dramatic events followed.
Disappointed he could not get a new trial, Smith escaped from prison in 1967 and committed
a robbery while on the run that added 3-7 years to his sentence.
In the 1970s, his parole was cut short after a parole violation sent him back to prison.
Age did not interfere with his ability to break prison rules.
Even at age 66, he had the strength to assault another inmate in 1990.
However, it was his last infraction requiring disciplinary action.
Smith will celebrate his 95th birthday on September 1, 2019.
Like Phillips, he has lost interest in leaving prison.
One parole official says that he has even “waived application for parole.”
On June 7, 2019, he will have served 69 years in prison.
Smith is now thought to be the longest-serving prisoner in the United States and the oldest
prisoner in the United States.
If he stays in prison, he could break the record for longest prison sentence ever served,
which is held by the final prisoner on our list.
1.
Charles Fossard
Like Johnson Van Dyke Grigsby, Charles Fossard was a young man at the beginning of the 20th
century.
Historian Mike Dash describes him as a “former sailor who had jumped ship at Sydney” in
1900, and various sources indicate he was originally from France.
Fossard’s spontaneous move to Australia left him broke and homeless.
He was a vagabond when he encountered an old man named William Ford in Skye, Australia.
According to Dash, Fossard murdered Ford “after Ford turned him away from his home” on June
28, 1903.
Two weeks later, the police apprehended Fossard with his victim’s boots on his feet.
Fossard was judged to be insane, so he was sent to a prison asylum called the Ararat
Lunatic Asylum on August 21, 1903.
He stayed in its infamous J Ward for the rest of his life.
According to Goldfields Guide, “some of the most dangerous and deranged men in the
state were housed here in horrific conditions.”
Despite the bad environment, Fossard kept on living decade after decade after decade.
When Fossard finally died in 1974, he was 92 years old and had spent 70 years and 303
days in prison.
Should there be a maximum amount of time someone can spend in prison?
Let us know in the comments!
Also, be sure to check out our other video Prisoner Spends 46 Years In Solitary Confinement!
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