Correctional Officer Samuel Reed

Samuel Reed

Correctional Officer Samuel Reed was stabbed to death by an inmate at the Iowa State Penitentiary in Fort Madison.

The inmate, 31, had been sentenced to prison in 1960 for 25 years for a robbery conviction. In 1965 he received an additional 40 years for stabbing a fellow inmate to death. An additional life term was added on April 24th, 1970, when he was convicted of Officer Reed's murder. In 1981 during a prison riot, he took a dozen staff members hostage, but none were killed. He was considered the most dangerous inmate in the Iowa prison system.

Officer Reed was a United States Navy WWII veteran and had served with the Iowa Department of Corrections for 15 years. He was survived by a daughter.