San Quentin facts

While investigating facts about San Quentin Death Row and San Quentin Inmates, I found out little known, but curios details like:

Danny Trejo was addicted to Heroin by age 12 and served time in San Quentin prison until he was 25. He's now been over 70 films and has a brand of restaurants, bars, and donuts shops valued around $100 million. All his businesses hire what he calls "second chancers" like he was.

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Robin William's son, Zach Williams, has an MBA from Columbia and uses it to help educate inmates at San Quentin prison about finance

Who is at san quentin?

In my opinion, it is useful to put together a list of the most interesting details from trusted sources that I've come across answering who is on death row at san quentin. Here are 39 of the best facts about San Quentin Death Row Inmates and San Quentin Inmate Search I managed to collect.

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The author Edward Bunker (who played "Mr. Blue" in "Reservoir Dogs") did time in San Quentin with Danny Trejo. Bunker, remembering Trejo's boxing skills, offered Danny $320 per day to train Eric Roberts, for a boxing scene in the 1985 Movie "Runaway Train".
In 1958 Inmate Merle Haggard saw Johnny Cash play San Quentin State Prison. Haggard credits Cash with giving him the inspiration to launch a career after prison that included 38 #1 hits on the country charts
Inmate Merle Haggard was in the audience when Johnny Cash played San Quentin State Prison
Edward Bunker, who played Mr. Blue in Q.Tarantino's Reservoir Dogs. Before becoming an actor, he was convicted of bank robbery, drug dealing, extortion, armed robbery, and forgery, and in 1951 had the dubious honor of being the youngest ever inmate in San Quentin State Prison at age 17.
The picture of Johnny Cash flipping the bird was actually meant for the warden of San Quentin Prison.
Two inmates at San Quentin State Prison in California run a podcast called Ear Hustle alongside an artist who helps with teaching at the prison
While serving time in San Quentin, Danny Trejo became a champion boxer in that prison's lightweight and welterweight divisions.
Danny Trejo returned to San Quentin prison in 1993 after doing time there in the '60s. This time, he was there to play the part of a prisoner in the movie "Blood In, Blood Out"
On 1/1/59, Johnny Cash played a concert for the inmates of San Quentin One of them was 19 yr-old Merle Haggard in the midst of a 15 year sentence (he served 3 years) for grand theft auto and armed robbery. 10 years later, Merle would be a country music star, appearing on Johnny's TV show.
In 1907, Bertha Boronda was charged with "mayhem" and sentenced to 5 years in San Quentin for slashing her husband's penis.

san quentin facts — What is death row like at san quentin?

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You can easily fact check why is san quentin on lockdown by examining the linked well-known sources.

While serving time in San Quentin Prison, Danny Trejo became a champion boxer in that prison's lightweight and welterweight divisions.

President Chester Arthur's grandson Gavin was described as "an Ivy League dropout, an Irish Republican Army activist, an experimental-film actor, a commune leader, a gold prospector, a teacher at San Quentin, and a bisexual sexologist/astrologer." - source

San Quentin State Prison is home to the San Quentin News, one of the few inmate produced newspapers in the world - source

Inmates at San Quentin, California's oldest state prison, run a newspaper, with a production of 30,000 copies a month.

Marin County, California has one of the highest income per capita in the United States and is home to San Quentin Prison as well as George Lucas' Skywalker Ranch - source

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San Quentin prison has its own inmate-produced newspaper. One of the few in the entire world.

How many prisoners in san quentin?

A heroin dealer painted 6 huge murals in the cafeteria of San Quentin State Prison. Upon his release, the artist was a caricaturist at Disneyland and then opened his own art gallery.

A nonprofit organization teaches San Quentin inmates how to code

Merle Haggard planned to escape from San Quentin prison in 1958 with a man named Rabbitt, before his fellow inmates dissuaded him. Rabbit escaped successfully, only to shoot a cop and come back to San Quentin as a death row inmate.

Dr. Leo Stanley conducted a variety of experiments at San Quentin prison on testicular transplantation including between prisoners and from several species of animals into prisoners

About the "Master Outlaw" Charles E. Boles, also known as Black Bart, who had robbed 28 stage coaches in his record. He became relatively famous in his time for leaving two poems/verses at the location of two heists. Eventually caught by Wells Fargo detectives, serving six years in San Quentin.

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Caryl Chessman, a convicted murderer on death row at San Quentin, was issued a stay of execution in 1960, but the judge's secretary misdialed the number after cyanide pellets were dropped and no one could enter the chamber without dying themselves.

Dr. Leo Stanley performed over 600 human to human and animal to human testicle transplants with inmates at San Quentin prison.

Merle Haggard planned to escape from San Quentin prison in 1958 with a man named Rabbitt, before his fellow inmates dissuaded him. Rabbitt escaped successfully, only to shoot a cop and come back to San Quentin as a death row inmate.

The mass-murderer Charles Ng (currently on death row in San Quentin) cost the state of California 20,000,000 USD to ensure he had a fair trial.

How many inmates are on death row in san quentin?

Levi Strauss provided clothes for convicts. From 1875 until 1901, Levi Strauss & Co. had government contracts to supply clothing and dry goods to the California State prisons at San Quentin. In 1898 LS&Co. was the new supplier of striped twill fabric for "convict suits.”

Henry Plummer. Held in San Quentin and later became a sheriff only to be hanged without trial for an accusation that he was leader of a gang of outlaws.

Waiting for Godot was staged in 1957 in a former execution chamber at San Quentin Prison.

Johnny Cash performed several live albums in actual prisons throughout the United States. He wrote the song "San Quentin" for the San Quentin prison which was celebrated by the inmates.

Merle Haggard was invited to escape San Quentin prison with another inmate. Haggard decided not to follow through with it. The other inmate was subsequently captured and executed for the murder of a State Trooper while on the run.

There are prisons in California with garden programs for inmates. San Quentin is one of these prisons.

One of the reasons why steak is no longer served in San Quentin State Prison is because the bones can be sharpened into makeshift knives.

Griffith J. Griffith, the man who bequeathed Griffith Park to Los Angeles and funded the Griffith Observatory, shot and disfigured his wife causing her to lose an eye, and spent two years in San Quentin.

Country legend Merle Haggard was at San Quentin as a prisoner when Johnny Cash performed there in 1958, which encouraged Haggard to turn his life around. (RIP Merle)

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