# List of prison deaths

This is a list of notable people who have died in prison, whether in prison or in hospital while still serving a prison sentence. This list does not include inmates who were executed as punishment for their crimes.

## Pre-11th century

| Name | Date of death | Nationality | Cause of death | Known for | Comments |
| Rim-Sîn I | After 1764 BC | Larsa | Unknown | Ruler of Larsa | |
| Vercingetorix | during 46 BC | Gaul (detained by the Roman Republic) | Strangulation | Gaulish leader defeated by Julius Caesar | |
| Gaius Asinius Gallus | 33 | Roman Empire | Starvation | Roman senator | |
| Alexander of Jerusalem | 251 | Roman Empire | Unknown | Martyr and saint | |
| Mani | 274-03-02 or 277-02-26 | Sasanian Empire | Unknown | Prophet and founder of Manichaeism | Manichaeans later depicted his death as a crucifixion in analogy to the crucifixion of Jesus. |
| Hilderic | 530 | Vandal Kingdom | Murder | King of the Vandals and Alans | |
| Al-Abbas ibn al-Walid | 750 | Umayyad Caliphate | Unknown disease | Prince and general | |
| Abu Hanifa | 767-08-15 | Abbasid Caliphate | Unknown | Founder of the Hanafi school of Islamic jurisprudence | His tomb was destroyed by Shah Ismail of the Safavid Empire in 1508, but rebuilt by the Ottomans in 1533. |
| Itakh | 849 | Abbasid Caliphate | Thirst | Commander in the Turkic army of the Abbasid Caliphate | |
| Tughj ibn Juff | 906 | Abbasid Caliphate | Unknown | Turkic military officer | |
| Muhammad ibn Yaqut | 935 | Abbasid Caliphate | Unknown | Official of the Abbasid Caliphate | |

## 11th to 15th century

| Name | Date of death | Nationality | Cause of death | Known for | Comments |
| Abd al-Rahim ibn Ilyas | 1021 | Fatimid Caliphate | Suicide | Heir-apparent of the caliph al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah | According to the official account, he committed suicide by thrusting a fruit knife into his belly, but coeval rumours insisted that he was assassinated. |
| Robert Curthose | 1134 | House of Normandy | Unknown | Duke of Normandy, eldest son of William the Conqueror | Imprisoned by his younger brother Henry I of England. |
| Ibn Barrajan | 1141 | Almoravid dynasty | Unknown | Arab Sufi figure of Al-Andalus | |
| Joscelin II, Count of Edessa | 1159 | County of Edessa (detained by the Zengid State) | Unknown | Last ruling count of Edessa | |
| Daoud ibn al-Adid | 1207/08 | Ayyubid dynasty | Unknown | 25th imam of Hafizi Isma'ilism | |
| Peter II of Courtenay | 1219 | Latin Empire | Unknown | Latin Emperor | |
| Eleanor, Fair Maid of Brittany | 1241-08-10 | House of Plantagenet | Unknown | Princess and potential heiress to her house as granddaughter of Henry II of England | Imprisoned by her uncle King John of England and cousin Henry III of England to prevent her potential claim, without trial or sentence. Unbelievably rumored to be starved by John. |
| Sulayman ibn Daoud | 1248 | Ayyubid dynasty | Unknown | 26th and last imam of Hafizi Isma'ilism | |
| Guy de Montfort, Count of Nola | 1291 | England (detained by Aragon) | Unknown | Son of Simon de Montfort, 6th Earl of Leicester | |
| Sayf al-Din Salar | October 1310 | Mamluk Sultanate | Starvation | Viceroy of the Mamluk sultan al-Nasir Muhammad | |
| Margaret of Villehardouin | February/March 1315 | Barony of Akova | Unknown | Baroness of two thirds of Akova | |
| Pietro d'Abano | 1315 | Abano Bagni (detained by the Papal States) | Unknown | Philosopher, astrologer | |
| Ibn Taymiyya | 1328-09-26 | Mamluk Sultanate | Unknown illness | Sunni Muslimʿālim, muhaddith, judge, proto-Salafist theologian, ascetic, and iconoclastic theologian | |
| Kęstutis | August 1382 | Grand Duchy of Lithuania | Unknown, presumably strangled | Grand Duke of Lithuania, father of Vytautas, uncle of Jogaila | Jogaila claimed that his death was suicide by hanging. Most coeval sources conjecture that Kęstutis was strangled on Jogaila's orders. |
| Nicolò Guarco | c. 1385 | Republic of Genoa | Unknown | 7th doge of the Republic of Genoa | |
| Dionysius, Metropolitan of Kiev | 1385-10-15 | Principality of Moscow | Unknown | Russian Orthodox metropolitan | |
| Guido III da Polenta | 1389 | Ravenna | Unknown | Lord of Ravenna, member of the Da Polenta family | Imprisoned by his sons. |
| Thomas of Woodstock, Duke of Gloucester | 1397-09-08/09 | England | Murder | Youngest child of King Edward III of England | |
| Eleanor, Duchess of Gloucester | 1452-07-07 | England | Unknown | English noblewoman, second wife of Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester | Sentenced to life imprisonment for treasonable necromancy. Her imprisonment and forced divorce was likely politically motivated. |
| Pak Paengnyeon | 1456-06-07 | Joseon | Torture | Scholar-official, one of the six martyred ministers, uncle of Queen Janggyeong | All the males in his family were executed and females were enslaved. |
| Henry VI of England | 1471-05-21 | England | Probably murder | Last King of England of the House of Plantagenet and disputed King of France | |

## 16th century

| Name | Date of death | Nationality | Cause of death | Known for |
| Dmitry Ivanovich | 1509-02-14 | Principality of Moscow | Unknown | Grand Prince of Moscow (co-ruler), grandson of Ivan III |
| Pietro Torrigiano | August 1528 | Florence (detained by Spain) | Natural causes | Italian Renaissance sculptor |
| Yury Ivanovich | 1536-08-03 | Principality of Moscow | Starvation | Son of Ivan III |
| Andrey of Staritsa | 1537-12-11 | Principality of Moscow | Unknown | Youngest son of Ivan III |
| Girolamo Zane | 1572-10-13 | Republic of Venice | Natural causes | Capitano Generale da Mar of the Venetian fleet |
| Eric XIV of Sweden | 1577-02-26 | Sweden | Arsenic poisoning | King of Sweden, brother of John III of Sweden |
| James Hepburn, 4th Earl of Bothwell | 1578-04-14 | Scotland (detained by Denmark) | Unknown | King consort of Scotland in 1567 |
| Ferenc Dávid | 1579-04-14 | Principality of Transylvania | Natural causes | Protestant preacher and theologian, founder of the Unitarian Church of Transylvania |
| Philip Howard, 13th Earl of Arundel | 1595-10-19 | England | Dysentery | Imprisoned in the Tower of London as a Roman Catholic recusant by Elizabeth I of England. Acclaimed a martyr almost immediately and canonised in 1970 as one of the Forty Martyrs of England and Wales. |

## 17th century

| Name | Date of death | Nationality | Cause of death | Known for | Comments |
| Li Zhi | 1602 | China | Suicide by cutting his throat | Philosopher, historian, writer | |
| Simon I of Kartli | 1611 | Kingdom of Kartli (detained by the Ottoman Empire) | Unknown | King of Kartli | |
| Vasili IV of Russia | 1612-09-12 | Russia (detained by Poland-Lithuania) | Unknown | Tsar of Russia | |
| Cesare Corte | 1613 | Republic of Genoa | Unknown | Renaissance painter | |
| Marina Mniszech | 1614-12-24 | Russia | Unknown | Tsaritsa, wife of False Dmitry I and False Dmitry II | |
| Husayn Pasha | 1663 | Ottoman Empire | Murder | Governor of Gaza Sanjak | |
| Marcy Clay | 1665 | England | Suicide by poisoning | English thief and highwayrobber | Sentenced to death by hanging |
| Hardress Waller | 1666-07-30 | England | Unknown | Member of Parliament, regicide of King Charles I of England | |
| Gilbert Millington | 1666 | England | Unknown | Barrister, regicide of King Charles I of England | |
| Henry Smith | 1668 | England | Unknown | Member of Parliament, regicide of King Charles I of England | |
| James Temple | 1680-02-17 | England | Unknown | Soldier, regicide of King Charles I of England | |
| Sarah Osborne | 1692-05-10 | Massachusetts Bay | Unknown | One of the first women to be accused of witchcraft in the Salem witch trials | |
| Giuseppe Francesco Borri | 1695-08-20 | Duchy of Milan (detained by the Papal States) | Malaria | Alchemist, freethinker, physician | |

## 18th century

| Name | Date of death | Nationality | Cause of death | Known for | Comments |
| Bartholomew Sharp | 1702-10-29 | England (detained by the Danish West Indies) | Unknown | Buccaneer and privateer | |
| Giovanni Battista Sidotti | 1714-11-27 | Sicily (detained by the Tokugawa shogunate) | Unknown | Priest, missionary of the Propaganda Fide | |
| Alexei Petrovich, Tsarevich of Russia | 1718-06-26 | Russian Empire | Unknown | Tsarevich | Died two days after the senate had condemned him to death. |
| Mary Read | 1721-04-08 | Great Britain (detained by the Colony of Jamaica) | Fever | Pirate | Originally sentenced to hang, she claimed to be pregnant and received a temporary stay of execution. |
| Aaron Margalita | c. 1725 | Poland (detained by Denmark) | Unknown | Rabbi who later converted to Calvinism and Lutheranism | |
| Dmitry Mikhailovich Golitsyn the Elder | 1737-04-14 | Russian Empire | Natural causes | Aristocrat of the Golitsyn family, attempted to turn Russia into a constitutional monarchy | |
| Robert Blackbourn | 1748 | Great Britain | Unknown | Jacobite conspirator | Arrested for his involvement in an assassination plot of 1696 |
| Stepan Fyodorovich Apraksin | 1758-08-17 | Russian Empire | Unknown | Commander during the Seven Years' War | |
| Tarakanova | 1775-12-15 | Russian Empire | Tuberculosis | Pretender to the Russian throne | |
| Lord George Gordon | 1793-11-01 | Great Britain | Typhoid fever | British politician | |
| Louis XVII | 1795-06-08 | France | Scrofula | Dauphin of France | |
| Franz Gotthardi | 1795 | Holy Roman Empire | Unknown | Hungarian-born businessman and senior police officer | |
| Wolfe Tone | 1798-11-19 | Ireland (detained by Great Britain) | Suicide | Leader of the 1798 Irish Rebellion against Great Britain | Sentenced to death by hanging; committed suicide because he wanted to die by firing squad (a soldier's death, rather than a criminal's) instead. |

## 19th century

| Name | Date of death | Nationality | Cause of death | Known for | Comments |
| Darya Nikolayevna Saltykova | 1801-12-09 | Russian Empire | Natural causes | Noblewoman from the Saltykov family, serial killer | |
| Toussaint Louverture | 1804-04-07 | Haiti (detained by France) | Natural causes | Leader of the Haitian Revolution who was imprisoned for launching a rebellion against France | |
| Erminio Criscione | 1807-12-07 | Republic of Haiti | Suicide or killed by Alexandre Pétion | Haitian Independence hero | |
| Pedro Carujo | 1836-01-31 | Venezuela | Battle wounds | Military officer, one of the leaders in the Revolution of the Reforms | |
| Solomon Dodashvili | 1836-08-20 | Russian Empire | Tuberculosis | Georgian philosopher, journalist, historian, grammarian, belletrist and enlightener | |
| Anthony Van Egmond | 1838-01-05 | Netherlands (detained by Upper Canada) | Pneumonia, malnutrition and exposure | Dutch war veteran and an early settler in the Huron Tract | |
| Osceola | 1838-01-30 | Seminole (detained by the United States) | Peritonsillar abscess caused by tonsillitis | Leader of the Seminole | |
| Wilhelm Küchelbecker | 1846-08-23 | Russian Empire | Tuberculosis | Romantic poet, Decembrist revolutionary | |
| Mullá ʻAlíy-i-Bastámí | 1846 | Qajar Iran (detained by the Ottoman Empire) | Unknown | 2nd Letter of the Living in the Bábí movement | |
| Rrapo Hekali | December 1847 | Ottoman Empire | Unknown | Albanian revolutionary | |
| Ion Negulici | 1851-04-05 | Wallachia | Tuberculosis | Painter, participant in the Wallachian Revolution of 1848 | |
| Chui A-poo | 1851 | British Hong Kong | Suicide by hanging | Pirate | One of the two most notorious South China Sea pirates of the era |
| Matilde Malenchini | 1858-09-08 | Grand Duchy of Tuscany | Unknown | Academic painter | Accused of pushing one of her maids out of a window when the maid was caught stealing. |
| Dimitar Miladinov | January 1862 | Ottoman Empire | Typhus | Bulgarian poet, folklorist, and activist | |
| Konstantin Miladinov | January 1862 | Ottoman Empire | Typhus | Bulgarian poet, folklorist, and activist | |
| James Henry Gooding | 1864-07-19 | United States (detained by the Confederate States) | Unknown | Corporal in the 54th Massachusetts Infantry Regiment | |
| Lorenzo Denning | 1865-02-08 | United States (detained by the Confederate States) | Unknown | Soldier, awarded with the Medal of Honor | |
| Walerian Łukasiński | 1868-01-27 | Russian Empire | Natural causes | Polish officer and political activist, symbol of the Polish struggle for independence | |
| Stanislav Dospevski | 1878-01-06 | Ottoman Empire | Unknown | Bulgarian painter, nephew of Zahari Zograf | |
| Sándor Rózsa | 1878-11-22 | Austria-Hungary | Tuberculosis | Outlaw, best-known Hungarian highwayman | |
| Grigory Goldenberg | July 1880 | Russian Empire | Suicide | Revolutionary, member of Narodnaya Volya | |
| Hesya Helfman | 1882-02-01 | Russian Empire | Peritonitis | Belarusian-Jewish revolutionary, member of Narodnaya Volya | |
| Nikolai Kletochnikov | 1883-07-13 | Russian Empire | Hunger strike | Revolutionary, joined the police to act as a source of inside information | |
| Alexander Dmitrievich Mikhailov | 1884-03-30 | Russian Empire | Unknown | Revolutionary, one of the founders of Zemlya i Volya and Narodnaya Volya | |
| Alexander Dolgushin | 1885-06-30 | Russian Empire | Tuberculosis | Populist | |
| Maria Kutitonskaya | 1887-05-04 | Russian Empire | Tuberculosis | Ukrainian Narodnik revolutionary, attempted to assassinate the military governor Luka Illyashevich | |
| Aizik Aronchik | 1888-04-02 | Russian Empire | Unknown | Russian revolutionary, attempted to assassinate Tsar Alexander II | |
| Maria Kalyuzhnaya | 1889-11-07 | Russian Empire | Suicide by poisoning | Ukrainian Narodnik revolutionary | |
| Nadia Smyrnytska | 1889-11-07 | Russian Empire | Suicide by poisoning | Ukrainian Narodnik revolutionary | |
| Nadezhda Sigida | 1889-11-08 | Russian Empire | Suicide by poisoning | Revolutionary | |
| Maria Kovalevska | 1889-11-19 | Russian Empire | Suicide by poisoning | Ukrainian Narodnik revolutionary | |
| Mariia Vetrova | 1897-02-24 | Russian Empire | Self-immolation | Ukrainian teacher and revolutionary | |
| Dervish Cara | Late 19th century | Ottoman Empire | Unknown | Albanian revolutionary leader | |

## 1900-1939

| Name | Date of death | Nationality | Cause of death | Known for | Comments |
| Gaetano Bresci | 1901-05-22 | Italy | Suicide by hanging | Anarchist, assassinated King Umberto I of Italy | |
| Nikola Aslanov | 1905-09-24 | Ottoman Empire | Unknown | Bulgarian revolutionary, worker of the IMARO | |
| Marko Boshnakov | 1908-02-15 | Ottoman Empire | Unknown | Bulgarian anarchist, member of the Gemidziite | |
| Milan Arsov | 1908-06-08 | Ottoman Empire | Unknown | Bulgarian anarchist, member of the Gemidziite | |
| Muhammad al-Kattani | 1909-05-04 | Morocco | Died after being mutilated and beaten | Sufi faqih | |
| Giovanni Passannante | 1910-02-14 | Italy | Unknown | Anarchist, attempted to assassinate King Umberto I of Italy | |
| Luigi Lucheni | 1910-10-19 | Italy (detained by Switzerland) | Suicide by hanging | Anarchist, assassinated Empress Elisabeth of Austria | |
| Igor Sazonov | 1910-12-10 | Russian Empire | Suicide by poisoning or self-immolation | Revolutionary, member of the SR Combat Organization | |
| Hristo Batandzhiev | 1913-07-18 | Greece | Murder | Macedonian Bulgarian revolutionary, one of the founders of the Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization | |
| Dmytro Yaremko | 1916-10-03 | Russian Empire | Unknown | Ukrainian Catholic Archeparchy of Lviv and titular bishop of Ostroh | |
| Nikolay Radkevich | Autumn 1916 | Russian Empire | Killed by fellow inmates | Serial killer | |
| Gennaro Rubino | 1918-03-14 | Italy (detained by Belgium) | Unknown | Anarchist, tried to assassinate King Leopold II of Belgium | |
| Frans Koskinen | 1918-04-26 | Finland | Unknown | Journalist and politician | Imprisoned for having sided with the Reds during the Finnish Civil War. |
| Gavrilo Princip | 1918-04-28 | Austria-Hungary | Malnutrition and skeletal tuberculosis | Serbian assassin | Assassinated Archduke Franz Ferdinand, beginning World War I |
| Efraim Kronqvist | 1918-05-22 | Finland | Unknown | House painter and politician | Imprisoned for having sided with the Reds during the Finnish Civil War. |
| Albin Valjakka | 1918-06-29 | Finland | Unknown | Journalist and politician | Imprisoned for having sided with the Reds during the Finnish Civil War. |
| Julius Nurminen | 1918-07-24 | Finland | Unknown | Journalist and politician | Imprisoned for having sided with the Reds during the Finnish Civil War. |
| Pavel Spiridonovich Medvedev | 1919-03-12 | Soviet Union | Typhus | Bolshevik revolutionary, participant in the execution of the Romanov family | |
| Jussi Kujala | 1919-07-01 | Finland | Suicide | Journalist and former member of the Parliament of Finland | |
| Gaki Sherocho | 1919 | Kingdom of Kaffa (detained by Ethiopia) | Unknown | Last King of Kaffa | |
| Aleksandr Vladimirovich Razvozov | 1920-06-14 | Soviet Union | Infection after an appendectomy | Rear admiral, first commander of the Soviet Baltic Fleet | |
| Ivan Kalmykov | September 1920 | Soviet Union (detained by China) | Shot during an escape attempt | Ataman of the Ussuri Cossacks | |
| Michael Fitzgerald | 1920-10-17 | United Kingdom | Hunger strike | Officer Commanding of the Irish Republican Army | |
| Terence MacSwiney | 1920-10-25 | United Kingdom | Hunger strike | Irish playwright, author and politician, Lord Mayor of Cork | |
| Joe Murphy | 1920-10-25 | United Kingdom | Hunger strike | Officer in the Irish Republican Army | |
| Joseph Whitty | 1923-08-02 | Irish Free State | Hunger strike | Volunteer in the Irish Republican Army | |
| Denny Barry | 1923-08-02 | Irish Free State | Hunger strike | Irish Republican | |
| Yrjö Mäkelin | 1923-09-18 | Finland | Suicide | Socialist, journalist and former member of parliament | |
| Andy O'Sullivan | 1923-11-22 | Irish Free State | Hunger strike | Intelligence Officer and regional leader in the Irish Republican Army | |
| Krishna Lal Adhikari | 1923-12-09 | Nepal | Tuberculosis | Author of the now lost work Makaiko Kheti | |
| Leung Ying | 1928-10-22 | China (detained by the United States) | Suicide by hanging | Mass murderer | The worst case of mass murder in California history at the time |
| Dagmar Overbye | 1929-05-06 | Denmark | Unknown | Serial killer | |
| Uļi Kīnkamäg | 1932-06-01 | Latvia | Unknown | Livonian nationalist, "King of Livs" | |
| Ajvaagiin Danzan | 1932 | Mongolia | Unknown | Chairman of the MPRP | |
| Richard Loeb | 1936-01-28 | United States | Murdered by fellow inmate | American murderer | |
| Zmicier Zhylunovich | 1937-04-11 | Soviet Union | Suicide | Belarusian Poet, journalist and political leader | Arrested during the Great Purge as an "enemy of the Belarusian people" |
| Antonio Gramsci | 1937-04-27 | Italy | combination of arteriosclerosis, pulmonary tuberculosis, high blood pressure, angina, gout and acute gastric disorders | Marxist philosopher, linguist, journalist, writer, and politician | Arrested by the OVRA |

## 1940s

| Name | Date of death | Nationality | Cause of death | Known for | Comments |
| Albert Richter | 1940-01-02 | Germany | Unknown | Cyclist and World amateur sprint champion | His death was successively ruled as a skii accident, being beaten by rival smugglers, suicide by hanging, suicide by shooting and having fallen at the Eastern Front. Richter was presumably killed by the Gestapo. |
| Tony D'Arcy | 1940-04-16 | Ireland | Hunger strike | Senior leader in the Irish Republican Army | |
| Jack McNeela | 1940-04-19 | Ireland | Hunger strike | Officer Commanding of all IRA forces in England | |
| Walter Kraemer | 1941-11-16 | Germany | Murder | Politician of the KPD and member of the resistance against Nazism | Became known as the "Doctor of Buchenwald" for medically helping other prisoners. |
| Daniil Kharms | 1942-02-02 | Soviet Union | Starvation | Avant-gardist and absurdist poet, writer and dramatist | Arrested as a member of "a group of anti-Soviet children's writers". He was later exonerated in 1960. |
| Heinz Hitler | 1942-02-21 | Germany (detained by the Soviet Union) | Unknown | Half-nephew of Adolf Hitler and half-brother of William Stuart-Houston | Died at the age of 21 in the Butyrka prison in Moscow. |
| Prince Amedeo, Duke of Aosta | 1942-03-03 | Italy (detained by the United Kingdom) | Tuberculosis, malaria | Duke of Aosta, Viceroy of Italian East Africa | |
| Miguel Hernández | 1942-03-28 | Spain | Tuberculosis | Poet and playwright | |
| Ernst Heilborn | 1942-05-16 | Germany | Unknown | Writer, critic and journalist | |
| Francesco Fantin | 1942-11-16 | Italy (detained by Australia) | Injuries caused by the attack of another inmate | Anti-fascist activist | Detained in Loveday Camp 14 because he was mistaken for a fascist. |
| Jan Ankerman | 1942-12-27 | Netherlands (detained by Japan) | Unknown | Field hockey player, won the Silver medal at the 1928 Summer Olympics | |
| Nikolai Vavilov | 1943-01-26 | Soviet Union | Malnutrition | Russian botanist and geneticist who was imprisoned for his attempts to oppose pseudoscience |
| Yakov Dzhugashvili | 1943-04-14 | Soviet Union (detained by Germany) | Unknown | Eldest son of Joseph Stalin | Died at Sachsenhausen concentration camp, Stalin refused a prisoner exchange between him and Heinz Hitler. |
| Ru van der Haar | 1943-05-15 | Netherlands (detained by Japan) | Unknown | Field hockey player, won the Bronze medal at the 1936 Summer Olympics | |
| Henri Baaij | 1943-05-31 | Netherlands (detained by Japan) | Unknown | Footballer | |
| Hans Fokker | 1943-07-02 | Netherlands (detained by Japan) | Tropical disease | Sailor, participant in the 1928 Summer Olympics | |
| Vito Cascio Ferro | 1943-09-20 | Italy | Natural causes or bombing of his prison | Mafioso of the Sicilian Mafia | |
| Albert Love | 1943-11-08 | United Kingdom (detained by Japan) | Unknown | Welsh boxer, competed for England in the 1930 British Empire Games | |
| Umberto di Giorgio | 1943-11-30 | Italy (detained by Germany) | Heart attack | Lieutenant general, in charge of the territorial defense of Rome | |
| Kasturba Gandhi | 1944-02-22 | India | Natural causes | Indian political activist and the wife of Mahatma Gandhi | Imprisoned in a detention camp in Pune for protesting and participating in the Quit India Movement. |
| Armellini Chiappi | 1944-11-04 | Italy (detained by Germany) | Illness | Lieutenant general, in charge of the territorial defense of Florence | |
| Ralph Shields | 1944-11-21 | United Kingdom (detained by Japan) | Malnutrition, beriberi | Footballer | |
| Rodolfo Torresan | 1944-11-22 | Italy (detained by Germany) | Illness | Major general, served in four wars | |
| Johannes van der Vegte | 1945-03-15 | Netherlands (detained by Japan) | Unknown | Rower, participant in the 1920 Summer Olympics | |
| Ettore Deltetto | 1945-04-18 | Italy | Gastrointestinal perforation | Major general | Was sentenced to 20 years for "abandonment of command" on 24 December 1944. The sentenced was overturned two years later. |
| Viktors Eglītis | 1945-04-20 | Soviet Union | Unknown | Leading figure in the Latvian decadent movement and an introducer of modernist poetics | Accused of being a fascist collaborator during the Soviet era. |
| August Kop | 1945-04-30 | Netherlands (detained by Japan) | Unknown | Field hockey player, won the Silver medal at the 1928 Summer Olympics | |
| Frederik Lamp | 1945-05-27 | Netherlands (detained by Japan) | Unknown | Sprinter, participant in the 1924 Summer Olympics | |
| Emil Hácha | 1945-06-27 | Czechoslovakia | Unknown | 3rd President of Czechoslovakia, later of the Protectorate Bohemia and Moravia | |
| Robert A. Jaffray | 1945-07-29 | Canada (detained by Japan) | Malnutrition, illness | Evangelical Missionary in China and Indonesia | |
| Robert Ley | 1945-10-25 | Germany (detained by the Allied Powers) | Suicide by hanging | Nazi war criminal | |
| Damase Pierre-Louis | 1945 | Haiti | Unknown | Historian, author, diplomat | |
| Tito Agosti | 1946-01-27 | Italy (detained by the Allied Powers) | Suicide | Major general, served in four wars | |
| Seán McCaughey | 1946-05-11 | Ireland | Hunger strike | Officer Commanding of the IRA Northern Command | |
| Hermann Göring | 1946-10-15 | Germany (detained by the Allied Powers) | Suicide by poison | Nazi war criminal | |
| Ioannis Rallis | 1946-10-26 | Greece | Natural causes | Prime Minister of Greece during the Axis occupation | |
| Victor Lustig | 1947-03-11 | Czechoslovakia | Pneumonia | Con artist, sold the Eiffel Tower | |
| Giovanni Battista Caneva | 1947-02-12 | Italy | Injuries caused by his detainees | federal secretary of the Republican Fascist Party, head of the province of Reggio Emilia | |
| Walter Nicolai | 1947-05-04 | Germany (detained by the Soviet Union) | Heart attack | Head of Abteilung III b in World War I | |
| Frits Clausen | 1947-12-05 | Denmark | Heart attack | Leader of the DNSAP | |
| Raoul Wallenberg | 1947 or later | Sweden (believed to have been detained by the Soviet Union) | Unknown (debated) | Diplomat, rescued Jews during the Holocaust | Extrajudicial punishment in Soviet Lefortovo prison |
| Georgios Tsolakoglou | 1948-05-22 | Greece | Leukemia | Prime Minister of Greece during the Axis occupation | |

## 1950s

| Name | Date of death | Nationality | Cause of death | Known for | Comments |
| Grigory Gukovsky | 1950-04-02 | Soviet Union | Heart attack | Literary historian, rediscovered 18th-century Russian literature | |
| Peter Novopashenny | October 1950 | Soviet Union | Unknown | Marine Officer, cryptanalyst | |
| Rafael Simón Urbina | 1950-11-13 | Venezuela | Murder | Rebel | |
| Patrick James Byrne | 1950-11-25 | United States | Pneumonia | Catholic missionary and bishop | |
| Werner Haase | 1950-11-30 | Germany (detained by the Soviet Union) | Tuberculosis | SS member and one of Adolf Hitler's personal physicians | Likely died in Butyrka prison |
| Terry Waters | 1951-04-22 | United Kingdom (detained by North Korea) | Unknown | Soldier, awarded with the George Cross | Captured at the Battle of the Imjin River during the Korean War |
| Gaspare Pisciotta | 1954-02-09 | Italy | Strychnine poisoning | Companion of Salvatore Giuliano | |
| Rudolf Beran | 1954-04-23 | Czechoslovakia | Natural causes | Prime minister of Czechoslovakia and the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia | |
| Muhammad Zarqtuni | 1954-06-18 | Morocco | Suicide by poisoning | Moroccan nationalist | |
| Jaroslav Krejčí | 1956-05-18 | Czechoslovakia | Natural causes | Prime minister of the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia | |
| Dominik Trčka | 1959-03-23 | Czechoslovakia | Pneumonia | Redemptorist priest | Regarded as a martyr of the Catholic Church. He was later beatified in 2001. |
| Karl Jäger | 1959-06-22 | West Germany | Suicide by hanging | Nazi war criminal | |
| Ion Gigurtu | 1959-11-24 | Romania | Unknown illness | Romanian politician, Foreign Minister and Prime Minister of Romania | Rehabilitated by the Romanian Supreme Court in 1999. |

## 1960s

| Name | Date of death | Nationality | Cause of death | Known for | Comments |
| Nepomuceno Matallana | 1960-01-24 | Colombia | Bronchitis with heart failure | Murderer and suspected serial killer | |
| Pavel Peter Gojdič | 1960-07-17 | Czechoslovakia | Terminal cancer | Eparch of the Slovak Greek Catholic Eparchy of Prešov | Imprisoned by the StB because the Communist government outlawed the Greek Catholic Church. He was later beatified in 2001 and recognised as Righteous Among the Nations in 2007. |
| Ajax Delgado | 1960-09-05 | Nicaragua | Murder | Coffee grower, political activist | |
| Guido Zingerle | 1962-08-09 | Italy | Liver cancer | Serial killer and rapist, "The Monster of Tyrol" | |
| Robert Stroud | 1963-11-21 | United States | Natural causes | The Birdman of Alcatraz | |
| Fabricio Ojeda | 1966-06-21 | Venezuela | Suicide by hanging | Guerrilla leader, politician and journalist | |
| Jack Ruby | 1967-01-03 | United States | Pulmonary embolism | American nightclub owner | Murdered Lee Harvey Oswald. |
| Ilse Koch | 1967-09-01 | West Germany | Suicide by hanging | Wife of the Commandant of Buchenwald concentration camp | |
| Vito Genovese | 1969-02-14 | Italy  United States | Heart attack | Italian-American mobster, leader of the Genovese crime family | |
| Bonifacio Ondó Edú | 1969-03-05 | Equatorial Guinea | Official version: suicide | Former Prime Minister of Spanish Guinea | According to one account, Ondó Edú was tortured in Black Beach prison for ten days by Mariano Mdemendongo, a member of the national guard, before finally being executed. |
| Don Drummond | 1969-05-06 | Jamaica | Official version: natural causes | Ska trombonist, composer | Convicted of murdering his lover Anita Mahfood, the official cause of death is disputed |
| Liu Shaoqi | 1969-11-12 | China | Pneumonia / unknown illness | Former Chairman of the People's Republic of China | Died of mistreatment as a result of political persecution during the Cultural Revolution |

## 1970s

| Name | Date of death | Nationality | Cause of Death | Known for | Comments |
| Josef Bachmann | 1970-02-24 | West Germany | Suicide | Attempt to assassinate APO student leader Rudi Dutschke | |
| Mahmud al-Muntasir | 1970-09-28 | Libya | Unknown | 1st Prime Minister of Libya | |
| Leopold Takawira | 1970 | Southern Rhodesia | Neglect of his diabetes by the prison authorities | Vice-president of the Zimbabwe African National Union | |
| George Jackson | 1971-08-21 | United States | Shot to death during an escape attempt | Co-founder of the Black Guerrilla Family and one of the Soledad Brothers | |
| Mack Ray Edwards | 1971-10-30 | United States | Suicide by hanging | Child molester and serial killer | |
| Franco Serantini | 1972-05-07 | Italy | Coma | Anarchist | |
| Pedro Luis Boitel | 1972-05-25 | Cuba | Hunger strike | Poet and dissident | |
| Lee Roy Martin | 1972-05-31 | United States | Stabbed by fellow inmate | Serial killer | |
| Yuri Galanskov | 1972-11-04 | Soviet Union | Death from an operation by a former doctor (another inmate) without surgical qualifications | Russian poet, historian, and human rights activist, imprisoned for his writings | |
| Yoro Diakité | 1973-06-13 | Mali | Unknown | Prime Minister of Mali, Head of the Provisional Government, first Vice President of Mali | |
| Albert DeSalvo | 1973-11-25 | United States | Murder | The Boston Strangler | |
| Michael Gaughan | 1974-06-03 | Ireland (detained by the United Kingdom) | Hunger strike | Member of the Official Irish Republican Army | |
| Holger Meins | 1974-11-09 | West Germany | Hunger strike | Member of the Red Army Faction | |
| Charles Schmid | 1975-03-30 | United States | Stabbed by two fellow inmates | Serial killer | |
| Siegfried Hausner | 1975-05-05 | West Germany | Severe burns untreated in custody | Member of the Red Army Faction | |
| Katharina Hammerschmidt | 1975-06-29 | West Germany | Untreated cancer | Member of the Red Army Faction | |
| Vladimir Herzog | 1975-10-25 | Yugoslavia  Brazil | Suicide by hanging | Journalist, university professor and playwright | According to opposition, he was murdered by the DOI-CODI officers |
| Frank Stagg | 1976-02-12 | Ireland (detained by the United Kingdom) | Hunger strike | Volunteer in the Provisional Irish Republican Army | |
| Ulrike Meinhof | 1976-05-09 | West Germany | Suicide by hanging | Founding member of the Red Army Faction | |
| Alioune Dramé | 1977-03-01 | Guinea | Unknown | Economist and politician, ambassador to Ivory Coast | |
| Claudio Camaso | 1977-09-16 | Italy | Suicide by hanging | Actor, brother of Gian Maria Volonté | Imprisoned for the murder of Vincenzo Mazza. |
| Steve Biko | 1977-10-18 | South Africa | Bludgeoned to death by South African police | South African anti-Apartheid activist | Forty-sixth political detainee to die during interrogation since the government introduced laws permitting imprisonment without trial in 1963. |
| Andreas Baader | 1977-10-18 | West Germany | Suicide by shooting | Leader of the Red Army Faction | |
| Gudrun Ensslin | 1977-10-18 | West Germany | Suicide by hanging | Founding member of the Red Army Faction | |
| Jan-Carl Raspe | 1977-10-18 | West Germany | Suicide by shooting | Member of the Red Army Faction | |
| Ingrid Schubert | 1977-11-12 | West Germany | Suicide by hanging | Member of the Red Army Faction | |
| Joseph Kotalla | 1979-07-31 | Germany (detained by the Netherlands) | Natural causes | SS soldier, head of the administration of Kamp Amersfoort concentration camp | |
| Haregot Abbai | 1979 | Ethiopia | Murder | Businessman, politician | |

## 1980s

| Name | Date of death | Nationality | Cause of death | Known for | Comments |
| Pat Hare | 1980-09-26 | United States | Lung cancer | American electric blues guitarist and singer | |
| Richard Chase | 1980-12-26 | United States | Suicide | Serial killer, cannibal and necrophile; also known as "The Vampire of Sacramento" | |
| James Mitose | 1981-03-26 | United States | Diabetes | Martial artist, brought the art of Kenpo to the United States | |
| Thor Christiansen | 1981-03-30 | United States | Stabbed by an unknown killer | Serial killer and necrophile | |
| Sigurd Debus | 1981-04-16 | West Germany | Hunger strike | Alleged member of the Red Army Faction | |
| Bobby Sands | 1981-05-05 | United Kingdom | Hunger strike | Irish republican, member of the Provisional Irish Republican Army | Died along with 9 other Republicans on hunger strike. See 1981 Irish Hunger Strike |
| Francis Hughes | 1981-05-12 | United Kingdom | Hunger strike | Volunteer in the Provisional Irish Republican Army | Died along with 9 other Republicans on hunger strike. See 1981 Irish Hunger Strike |
| Raymond McCreesh | 1981-05-21 | United Kingdom | Hunger strike | Volunteer in the South Armagh Brigade of the Provisional Irish Republican Army | Died along with 9 other Republicans on hunger strike. See 1981 Irish Hunger Strike |
| Patsy O'Hara | 1981-05-21 | United Kingdom | Hunger strike | Member of the Irish National Liberation Army | Died along with 9 other Republicans on hunger strike. See 1981 Irish Hunger Strike |
| Joe McDonnell | 1981-07-08 | United Kingdom | Hunger strike | Volunteer in the Provisional Irish Republican Army | Died along with 9 other Republicans on hunger strike. See 1981 Irish Hunger Strike |
| Martin Hurson | 1981-07-13 | United Kingdom | Hunger strike | Volunteer in the East Tyrone Brigade of the Provisional Irish Republican Army | Died along with 9 other Republicans on hunger strike. See 1981 Irish Hunger Strike |
| Kevin Lynch | 1981-08-01 | United Kingdom | Hunger strike | Member of the Irish National Liberation Army | Died along with 9 other Republicans on hunger strike. See 1981 Irish Hunger Strike |
| Kieran Doherty | 1981-08-02 | United Kingdom | Hunger strike | Volunteer in the Belfast Brigade of the Provisional Irish Republican Army | Died along with 9 other Republicans on hunger strike. See 1981 Irish Hunger Strike |
| Thomas McElwee | 1981-08-08 | United Kingdom | Hunger strike | Volunteer in the Provisional Irish Republican Army | Died along with 9 other Republicans on hunger strike. See 1981 Irish Hunger Strike |
| Ervil LeBaron | 1981-08-15 | United States | Natural causes | American Mormon fundamentalist | |
| Michael Devine | 1981-08-20 | United Kingdom | Hunger strike | Volunteer in the Irish National Liberation Army | Died along with 9 other Republicans on hunger strike. See 1981 Irish Hunger Strike |
| Umar Muhayshi | c. January 1984 | Libya | Torture | Army officer and member of the Libyan Revolutionary Command Council | |
| Michele Sindona | 1986-03-22 | Italy | Cyanide poisoning (likely suicide) | Banker for the Sicilian Mafia and the Vatican | |
| Odysseas Angelis | 1987-03-22 | Greece | Suicide | Military officer, Chief of the Hellenic Armed Forces, Vice President of Greece | |
| Tsai Chen-chou | 1987-05-14 | Taiwan | Liver disease | Politician and businessman | |
| Rudolf Hess | 1987-08-14 | Germany (held by the Four-Power Authorities) | Suicide | Nazi war criminal | Was the sole inmate in Spandau Prison from 1966 until his death. The prison was demolished afterwards. |
| Roberto Succo | 1988-05-23 | Italy | Suicide by suffocating | Serial killer | |
| Roy Buchanan | 1988-08-01 | United States | Suicide by hanging | American guitarist | His death is still the subject of fierce debate. |
| Abdulwahid AlAbduljabbar | 1989 | Saudi Arabia | Severe hemorrhage caused by torture | Political activist | |

## 1990s

| Name | Date of death | Nationality | Cause of death | Known for | Comments |
| Michael Tan Teow | 1990-05-08 | Singapore | Suicide by pill overdose | Convicted murderer and former actor | Died in a solitary confinement cell at Changi Prison's death row section. Found guilty in 1985 of murdering a landlady and her two children, and sentenced to hang. His accomplice Lim Beng Hai, also on death row, was put to death five months later on 5 October 1990 |
| Graham Young | 1990-08-01 | United Kingdom | Heart attack | Poisoner | Died in Parkhurst prison. Heart attack is the official cause of death, but there has been speculation that other prisoners may have been responsible. |
| Klaus Barbie | 1991-09-25 | Germany (detained by France) | Leukemia | Nazi war criminal | |
| Richard Speck | 1991-12-05 | United States | Heart attack | American mass murderer | |
| Robert Berdella | 1992-10-08 | United States | Heart attack | Serial killer | |
| Orton Chirwa | 1992-10-20 | Malawi | Unknown | Lawyer and political leader | |
| Robert Biehler | 1993-01-10 | United States | Cancer | Serial killer | |
| Jeffrey Feltner | 1993-03-17 | United States | AIDS | Serial killer | |
| Kurt-Werner Wichmann | 1993-04-25 | Germany | Suicide by hanging | Serial killer | He hanged himself only 10 days after his arrest. The Netflix miniseries Dig Deeper: The Disappearance of Birgit Meier concentrates on his case. |
| Walter Breen | 1993-04-27 | United States | Cancer | American child molester | |
| Garry David | 1993-07-11 | Australia | Died from wounds caused by self-mutilation | Robbery and attempted murder | |
| Liow Han Heng | 1993-08-10 | Singapore | Heart attack | Convicted murderer and former goldsmith shop worker | Died in a solitary confinement cell at Changi Prison's death row section. Found guilty in 1992 of kidnapping and murdering his former employer, and sentenced to hang. His accomplice Ibrahim Masod, also on death row, was put to death 11 months later on 29 July 1994 |
| Joe "Pegleg" Morgan | 1993-11-08 | Mexico (detained by the United States) | Liver cancer | Mexican Mafia leader | |
| Luciano Leggio | 1993-11-15 | Italy | Heart attack | Mafioso, head of the Corleonesi | Succeeded by Salvatore Riina |
| Jack Unterweger | 1994-06-29 | Austria | Suicide | Serial killer with estimated 12-15 victims | |
| Michele Zaza | 1994-07-18 | Italy | Heart attack | Mafioso, head of the Camorra clan | Succeeded by his nephew Ciro Mazzarella. |
| Daniel Camargo Barbosa | 1994-11-13 | Colombia (detained by Ecuador) | Stabbed to death by Geovanny Noguera, a nephew of one of his victims | Serial killer and rapist | |
| Jeffrey Dahmer | 1994-11-28 | United States | Beaten to death by fellow inmate Christopher Scarver | American serial killer and cannibal | |
| Jesse Anderson | 1994-11-30 | United States | Beaten to death by fellow inmate Christopher Scarver | American murderer | |
| Fred West | 1995-01-01 | United Kingdom | Suicide by hanging | Multiple murders; was on remand awaiting trial | |
| Michael Lupo | 1995-02-12 | Italy (detained by the United Kingdom) | AIDS | Serial killer | |
| Edwin Kaprat | 1995-04-19 | United States | Stabbed by two inmates | Serial killer | |
| Sadibou Hydara | 1995-06-06 | Gambia | Murder | Military and political leader | |
| Kenneth Michael Trentadue | 1995-08-21 | United States | Suicide by hanging | Arrested during the investigation of the Oklahoma City bombing | Trentadue's family maintains that he was murdered by members of the FBI |
| Ronald Kray | 1995-09-07 | United Kingdom | Heart attack | British gangster and murderer, twin brother of Reginald Kray | |
| Robert Wayne Danielson | 1995-09-07 | United States | Suicide by hanging | Serial killer | |
| Gerard John Schaefer | 1995-12-03 | United States | Stabbed to death | American murderer | |
| Alfons Noviks | 1996-03-12 | Latvia | Unknown | Politician | Charged with a life sentence for signing orders for the Soviet deportations from Latvia |
| Ottis Toole | 1996-09-15 | United States | Cirrhosis | Serial killer | |
| Giuseppe Giacomo Gambino | 1996-11-30 | Italy | Suicide | Mafioso, deputy of Totò Riina | |
| James Earl Ray | 1998-04-23 | United States | Hepatitis C | Convicted for assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. | |
| Moshood Abiola | 1998-07-07 | Nigeria | Heart attack | Honorary supreme military commander of the Oyo Empire | His death is disputed, with some believing he was poisoned or beaten to death. |
| Kaya | 1999-02-21 | Mauritius | Unknown | Musician, creator of Seggae | Arrested for smoking marijuana during one of his concerts |
| Aleksandr Komin | 1999-06-15 | Russia | Suicide by cutting | Enslaver, serial killer | Kept six people as prisoners in a 9-meter-deep bunker under his garage and killed four of them. |
| Saeed Emami | 1999-06-19 | Iran | Suicide | Deputy minister of intelligence under Ali Fallahian | His death was officially ruled as a suicide, although this is disputed by Iranian dissidents who believe he was murdered in order to prevent him leaking sensitive information. |
| Georgios Papadopoulos | 1999-06-27 | Greece | ALS, bladder cancer | Military dictator of the Greek junta | |
| Frank Valdes | 1999-07-17 | United States | Beaten to death by correctional officers | Murderer | |
| Salvatore Greco | 1999 | Italy | Cancer | Mafioso, brother of Michele Greco | |

## 2000s

| Name | Date of death | Nationality | Cause of death | Known for | Comments |
| Harry Riccobene | 2000-06-19 | Italy  United States | Sepsis | Mobster of the Philadelphia crime family | |
| Oleg Kuznetsov | 2000-08-04 | Russia | Heart failure | Serial killer, rapist | Killed 10 girls and women between 1991 and 1992. |
| Ruslan Alikhadzhiyev | 2000 | Russia | Torture or heart attack | Parliamentary speaker of Chechenia | Disappeared in 2000, his death was reported as a prison death by Chechenpress and AFP; the FSB denied that |
| Byron De La Beckwith | 2001-01-21 | United States | Heart attack | American white supremacist | Klansman from Greenwood, Mississippi who assassinated civil rights leader Medgar Evers on June 12, 1963. |
| Henry Lee Lucas | 2001-03-12 | United States | Heart failure | "The Confession Killer" | |
| Shankar Suppiahmaniam | 2001-08-10 | Singapore | Murdered by his fellow cellmate Kanesan Ratnam, who was later sentenced to death for murdering him | Charged with raping and abducting two young girls, and also his murder | Scheduled to stand trial on 13 August 2001, but died three days before the trial was to begin |
| Thomas Schleicher | 2001-11-02 | Austria | Suicide | Judoka and participant of the 1996 Summer Olympics | Convicted for drug trafficking |
| Evison Matafale | 2001-11-27 | Malawi | Pneumonia | Reggae musician | |
| Iván Urdinola Grajales | 2002-02-02 | Colombia | Heart attack | leader of the Norte del Valle Cartel, "El enano" | |
| John Gotti | 2002-06-10 | United States | Throat cancer | American mafia boss | |
| Turpal-Ali Atgeriyev | 2002-08-18 | Russia | Official version: inner bleedings caused by leukemia | National security minister of Chechnya | His relatives claimed he was tortured to death. |
| Myra Hindley | 2002-11-15 | United Kingdom | Died in hospital after heart attack in prison | British serial killer | |
| Habibullah | 2002-12-04 | Afghanistan (detained by the United States) | Pulmonary embolism due to blunt force injury to the legs | Mullah, brother of a Taliban leader | His death was initially attributed to "natural causes" by the military. The autopsy later classified Habibullah's death as homicide. |
| Dilawar | 2002-12-10 | Afghanistan (detained by the United States) | "Blunt-force injuries to lower extremities complicating coronary artery disease" caused from torture | Farmer and taxi driver | The documentary film Taxi to the Dark Side (2007) focuses on his death. |
| Salman Raduyev | 2002-12-14 | Russia | Official version: "Serious and protracted diseases" | Chechen military commander, responsible for the Kizlyar hostage taking raid | His family and others claim that he was murdered by the authorities in prison. |
| Fesshaye Yohannes | 2002-2007 | Eritrea | Unknown | Journalist | |
| John Geoghan | 2003-08-23 | United States | Murdered by fellow inmate Joseph Druce | Catholic priest and child molester | |
| Hassan Evan Naseem | 2003-09-19 | Maldives | Beaten to death by the NSS personnel during a riot | His death lead to the 2003 Maldives civil unrest | |
| Md. Yakub Ali | 2003-10-17 | Bangladesh | Unknown | Bangladesh Nationalist Party activist | |
| Jahangir Hossain | 2003-10-17 | Bangladesh | Unknown | Bangladesh Nationalist Party activist | |
| Manadel al-Jamadi | 2003-11-04 | Iraq (detained by the United States) | Died from torture during a CIA interrogation | Suspect in a bomb attack, also known as "The Iceman", "Mr. Frosty" and "Bernie" | His death was a trigger of the 2003-2004 Abu Ghraib torture and prisoner abuse scandal |
| Abed Hamed Mowhoush | 2003-11-26 | Iraq (detained by the United States) | Died from torture during a CIA interrogation | Air vice-marshal of the Iraqi Air Force | His death was initially attributed to "natural causes" by the CIA. After the Abu Ghraib torture and prisoner abuse scandal erupted, the Pentagon acknowledged that the cause of death was "asphyxia due to smothering and chest compression", and that his body showed "evidence of blunt force trauma to the chest and legs". |
| Harold Shipman | 2004-01-13 | United Kingdom | Suicide by hanging | British doctor who killed many of his patients | |
| Abu Abbas | 2004-03-08 | Palestine (detained by the United States in Iraq) | Natural causes | Terrorist | |
| Gaetano Badalamenti | 2004-04-29 | Italy (detained by the United States) | Heart failure | Mafioso, head of the Sicilian Mafia Commission, leader in the "Pizza Connection" | |
| Clayton Fountain | 2004-07-12 | United States | Natural causes | Member of the Aryan Brotherhood | |
| Victor Kaliadin | 2004-09-16 | Russia | Heart attack | CEO of the company Elers Electron | |
| John Wayne Glover | 2005-09-09 | Australia | Suicide by hanging | Sydney Granny Murderer | |
| Vincent Gigante | 2005-12-19 | United States | Oxygen deprivation | American Mafia boss | Boss of Genovese crime family |
| Stuart Alexander | 2005-12-27 | United States | Pulmonary embolism | Businessman and murderer | Also known as "The Sausage King" because he was recognized and renowned for making linguiça sausage. |
| Slobodan Milošević | 2006-03-11 | Serbia and Montenegro | Heart attack | Serbian and Yugoslav president | |
| Domenico Libri | 2006-05-01 | Italy | Unknown | Member of the 'Ndrangheta | |
| Andrew Martinez | 2006-05-18 | United States | Suicide | Nude activist | |
| Samuel Bowers | 2006-05-18 | United States | Cardiopulmonary arrest | American white supremacist | Co-founded the White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan and convicted of bombing death of civil rights leader Vernon Dahmer. |
| Ogulsapar Muradova | August/September 2006 | Turkmenistan | Official version: Natural causes | Human rights activist, journalist | The official cause of death is disputed by her children. |
| Ron Porambo | 2006-10-22 | United States | Choking on an orange | Journalist who covered the 1967 Newark riots | Charged with 30 years for felony murder, conspiracy to commit robbery, two counts of armed robbery, burglary, and possession of a firearm for an unlawful purpose. |
| Samuel Hinga Norman | 2007-02-22 | Sierra Leone | Natural causes | Founder and leader of the Civil Defence Forces | |
| Charles Harrelson | 2007-03-15 | United States | Heart attack | Hitman, convicted of murdering U.S. Federal judge John H. Wood Jr. | Father of actor Woody Harrelson. |
| David Lane | 2007-03-28 | United States | Epilepsy | American white nationalist | |
| Stanley Rice | 2007-11-03 | United States | Natural causes | Serial killer, sex offender | |
| Sergei Ryakhovsky | 2007-11-12 | Russia | Tuberculosis | Serial killer | |
| John Straffen | 2007-11-19 | United Kingdom | Natural causes | British serial killer | Longest-serving prisoner in British legal history, was in prison for 55 years until his death |
| Ryan Gracie | 2007-12-15 | Brazil | Died as a result of brain injury | Brazilian mixed martial artist | |
| Michele Greco | 2008-02-13 | Italy | Lung cancer | Mafioso, head of the Sicilian Mafia Commission | |
| Germano Nati | 2008-03-17 | Eritrea | Bladder and kidney infections | Politician of the EPLF | |
| Vlado Taneski | 2008-06-23 | Republic of Macedonia | Suicide by drowning in a plastic bucket of water | Serial killer | |
| Dinko Šakić | 2008-07-20 | Croatia | Heart problems | Commander of the Jasenovac concentration camp | |
| Johnny "J" | 2008-10-03 | Mexico / United States | Suicide | Songwriter, music producer and rapper | Charged with driving while intoxicated |
| Arthur Shawcross | 2008-11-10 | United States | Cardiac arrest | Serial killer | |
| Son Jong-nam | 2008-12-07 | North Korea | Unknown (probably torture) | North Korean defector and Christian missionary | |
| Antonie Dixon | 2009-02-04 | New Zealand | Suicide | New Zealand thief and murderer | |
| Omid Reza Mir Sayafi | 2009-03-18 | Iran | Unknown | Blogger and journalist | Arrested for allegedly insulting religious leaders and engaging in propaganda against the Islamic Republic of Iran. |
| Maxim Bazylev | 2009-03-27 | Russia | Suicide by cutting the veins on his forearms and neck | Russian nationalist, last leader of the NSO | |
| Toi Aukuso Cain | 2009-04-18 | Samoa | Liver cancer | Politician | Arrested for the murder of Luagalau Leva'ula Kamu |
| Ibn al-Shaykh al-Libi | 2009-05-10 | Libya | Torture | Leader of the Khalden training camp | His death was officially ruled as suicide by hanging. |
| Fathi Eljahmi | 2009-05-21 | Libya | Unknown | Politic dissident | |
| Christopher Lunz | 2009-09-22 | United States | Suicide | Serial killer | |
| Susan Atkins | 2009-09-24 | United States | Brain tumor | Member of the Manson family | |
| John Evander Couey | 2009-09-30 | United States | Cancer | Sex offender convicted of murdering Jessica Lunsford | |
| Sergei Magnitsky | 2009-11-16 | Russia | Closed cerebral cranial injury | Russian tax accountant who specialized in anti-corruption activities | Magnitsky alleged there had been large-scale theft from the Russian state, sanctioned and carried out by Russian officials. He was arrested and eventually died in prison. The documentary The Magnitsky Act – Behind the Scenes concentrates on his case. |

## 2010s

| Name | Date of death | Nationality | Cause of death | Known for | Comments |
| Orlando Zapata | 2010-02-23 | Cuba | Hunger strike | Political activist | |
| Carlo Cicuttini | 2010-02-24 | Italy | Lung cancer | Neofascist terrorist | |
| Germain Cyrille Ngota Ngota | 2010-04-22 | Cameroon | HIV | Editor for the Cameroun Express | Charged with falsifying a government document, the first journalist to die in the line of duty in Cameroon since 1992 |
| Sipho Jele | 2010-05-04 | Swaziland | Suicide by hanging | Member of the banned party People's United Democratic Movement | |
| Wallace Souza | 2010-07-27 | Brazil | Heart attack due to Budd–Chiari syndrome | Television presenter and politician | |
| Philip Markoff | 2010-08-15 | United States | Suicide | American murderer | Known as the "Craigslist killer" |
| Dimitrios Ioannidis | 2010-08-16 | Greece | Respiratory problems | Military dictator of the Greek junta | |
| Terry Peder Rasmussen | 2010-12-28 | United States | lung cancer, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and pneumonia | Serial killer with six known victims. on December 28, 2010. | |
| Edwin Valero | 2010-04-19 | Venezuela | Suicide | Professional boxer | |
| Carl Williams | 2010-04-19 | Australia | Bludgeoned to death | Australian crime boss | Murdered by fellow inmate while serving sentence |
| Fawza Falih | 2010 | Saudi Arabia | Official version: Choking on her food | Condemned to death for practicing witchcraft | |
| Akrom Yoʻldoshev | 2010/11 | Uzbekistan | Tuberculosis | Founder of Akromiya | |
| Colin Hatch | February 2011 | United Kingdom | Suspected homicide | Notorious murderer and child molester | |
| Dorothea Puente | 2011-03-27 | United States | Natural causes | Serial killer | |
| Lee Bradley Brown | 2011-04-12 | United Kingdom (detained by the United Arab Emirates) | Unknown | Tourist, his cause of death is still disputed | |
| Edarem | 2012-01-08 | United States | Lung cancer | American Internet personality | |
| Colin Ireland | 2012-02-21 | United Kingdom | Died as a result of hip injury. | British serial killer of gay men | |
| Miguel Abia Biteo Boricó | 2012-12-06 | Equatorial Guinea | Cardiac arrest | Former Prime Minister of Equatorial Guinea | |
| Richard Ramirez | 2013-06-07 | United States | Cancer | American serial killer | |
| Tjostolv Moland | 2013-08-18 | Norway (detained by the Democratic Republic of the Congo) | Suicide | Sentenced to death for murder, and espionage for Norway | Died in Congolese custody |
| Anatoly Onoprienko | 2013-08-27 | Ukraine | Heart attack | Serial killer and mass murderer | |
| Ariel Castro | 2013-09-03 | United States | Suicide or accidental strangulation | Kidnapped and raped three American women for over a decade. | |
| Heinrich Boere | 2013-12-01 | Germany | Natural causes | Nazi war criminal | |
| John Anthony Walker | 2014-08-28 | United States | Unknown | United States Navy Chief Warrant Officer convicted of spying for the Soviet Union from 1968 to 1985 | |
| Anushervon Rakhmanov | 2015-04-02 | Tajikistan  Russia | Suicide by hanging | Suspected serial killer | |
| Sandra Bland | 2015-07-13 | United States | Suicide (allegedly) | American motorist | Arrested for traffic violation on July 10 by State Trooper Brian Encinia. Encinia was indicted for perjury for making false statements about the circumstances of Bland's arrest. Waller County jail failed to follow required policies and procedures. |
| Manuel Contreras | 2015-08-07 | Chile | Unspecified kidney problems | Army officer, former head of the National Intelligence Directorate | He was serving 59 unappealable sentences totaling 529 years in prison at the time of his death. |
| Marcelo Moren Brito | 2015-09-11 | Chile | Multiple organ failure | Retired Army colonel and former agent of the Dirección de Inteligencia Nacional | He was sentenced to more than 300 years in prison. |
| Sarah Reed | 2016-01-11 | United Kingdom | Suicide/accidental death | On remand awaiting possible trial pending psychiatric reports | Charged with GBH with intent |
| Lawrence Phillips | 2016-01-13 | United States | Suicide | American football player | Phillips was facing the death penalty in the alleged murder of his former cellmate in April 2015. |
| Jacques Bihozagara | 2016-03-30 | Rwanda (detained by Burundi) | Unknown (probably assassination) | Rwandan ambassador to France and Belgium | Arrested on suspicion of espionage, died only minutes after arriving at the prison infirmary. |
| Vladimir Dolgopolov | 2016-06-12 | Russia | Stroke | Soccer player, won a Master of Sports of the USSR award | Was found guilty of negligent homicide and sentenced to 10 years of imprisonment in January 2016 |
| Bernardo Provenzano | 2016-07-13 | Italy | Bladder cancer | Mafioso, chief of the Corleonesi | |
| Lou Pearlman | 2016-08-19 | United States | Cardiac arrest | Manager of Backstreet Boys and *NSYNC | |
| Gennadiy Tsypkalov | 2016-09-24 | Ukraine | Unknown (official version: Suicide) | politician of the Luhansk People's Republic | |
| Omar Abdel-Rahman | 2017-02-18 | Egypt (detained by the United States) | Coronary arterial disease | Terrorist | |
| Lawrence Horn | February 2017 | United States | Unknown | Musician, record producer | Arrested for hiring a hit man to murder his ex-wife, Mildred Horn, their disabled son Trevor, and nurse Janice Saunders. |
| Donald Harvey | 2017-03-30 | United States | Killed by fellow inmate | Serial killer | |
| Aaron Hernandez | 2017-04-19 | United States | Suicide | Former tight-end for NFL team New England Patriots, later convicted of murdering Odin Lloyd | Found not guilty of the 2012 double homicide of Daniel de Abreu and Safiro Furtado just 5 days before he was found dead. |
| Yip Kai Foon | 2017-04-19 | Hong Kong | Lung cancer | Hong Kong armed robber with AK-47 | |
| Ian Brady | 2017-05-15 | United Kingdom | Cancer | British serial killer | |
| Manuel Noriega | 2017-05-29 | Panama | Issues after a brain hemorrhage | Military dictator of Panama 1983-1989 | |
| Liu Xiaobo | 2017-07-13 | China | Liver cancer | Prisoner of conscience | Nobel Peace Prize laureate (2010) |
| Carlos Andrés García | 2017-09-17 | Venezuela | Debated | Politician, councilman at the time of dearth | García suffered a stroke in detention. Security officials reportedly refused to give medical attention to García, ignored the orders to transfer him to a health center and did not give him medicines sent by his relatives. He was transferred to a hospital days afterwards. |
| Salvatore Riina | 2017-11-17 | Italy | Unknown | Mafioso, chief of the Sicilian Mafia | |
| Charles Manson | 2017-11-19 | United States | Natural causes | Leader of the Manson Family | |
| Nelson Martínez | 2017-12-12 | Venezuela | Health complications | Minister of Petroleum and President of Petróleos de Venezuela | |
| Ernst-Dieter Beck | 2018-04-29 | Germany | Unknown | Serial killer | He was the first person accused of murder in German legal history, on whom a chromosome test was applied. |
| Dennis Nilsen | 2018-05-12 | United Kingdom | Pulmonary embolism | British serial killer | |
| Brian Lawler | 2018-07-29 | United States | Suicide by hanging | Professional wrestler | |
| Fernando Albán | 2018-10-08 | Venezuela | Body fell from a tenth-floor of the headquarters of the Bolivarian Intelligence Service (SEBIN). Unofficially, Albán died before his fall and the autopsy revealed that water was found in his lungs. | Politician, councilman at the time of death | Initially ruled officially as a suicide, a version heavily disputed, authorities later admitted that Albán was killed during his detention. |
| Whitey Bulger | 2018-10-30 | United States | Killed by prison inmates | American mobster | |
| Andrew Urdiales | 2018-11-02 | United States | Suicide by hanging | Serial killer | |
| Serhiy Tkach | 2018-11-04 | Ukraine | Heart failure | Serial killer | |
| Carmine Persico | 2019-03-07 | United States | Natural causes | Boss of the Colombo crime family | |
| Mohamed Morsi | 2019-06-17 | Egypt | Egyptian state television announced on 17 June 2019 that Mohamed Morsi had collapsed during a court hearing on espionage charges at Cairo's Tora prison complex, and later died suddenly, reportedly of a heart attack. | Former President of Egypt | |
| Rafael Acosta Arévalo | 2019-06-29 | Venezuela | Widespread polytrauma, torture | Military officer with the rank of corvette captain | Died shortly after attending to a court hearing, arriving in a wheelchair and with serious indications of torture. |
| Dawid Kostecki | 2019-08-02 | Poland | Suicide by hanging | Light heavyweight boxer | Convicted for drug trafficking, car theft, running a prostitution escort ring, and income tax evasion. |
| Jeffrey Epstein | 2019-08-10 | United States | Suicide | American financier and convicted sex offender | Death of Jeffrey Epstein |
| Richard Huckle | 2019-10-13 | United Kingdom | Stabbed to death | British serial sex offender and paedophile | |
| Anthony McKnight | 2019-10-17 | United States | Unknown | Serial killer and rapist | |
| Ivan Milat | 2019-10-27 | Australia | Natural causes | Serial killer | |
| Lawrence Bittaker | 2019-12-13 | United States | Natural causes | Serial killer and rapist, one of the "Tool Box Killers" | |
| Phillip Carl Jablonski | 2019-12-27 | United States | Unknown | Serial killer | |

## 2020s

| Name | Date of death | Nationality | Cause of death | Known for | Comments |
| Roy Norris | 2020-02-24 | United States | Natural causes | Serial killer and rapist, one of the "Tool Box Killers" | |
| Lonnie David Franklin Jr. | 2020-03-28 | United States | Unknown | Serial killer, better known as the "Grim Sleeper" | |
| Shady Habash | 2020-05-01 | Egypt | Alcohol poisoning | Filmmaker | Was imprisoned without trial for making a music video for the exiled Egyptian rock musician Ramy Essam, that mocked Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi. |
| Carlos Ernesto Escobar Mejía | 2020-05-06 | El Salvador (detained by United States) | COVID-19 | The first immigrant to die from COVID-19 in the custody of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement | |
| David Owen Brooks | 2020-05-28 | United States | COVID-19 | Murderer | |
| Eddie Mosley | 2020-05-28 | United States | COVID-19 | Serial killer and rapist | |
| Rocky Beamon | 2020-06-10 | United States | Suicide | Murderer | |
| Mário Calixto Filho | 2020-06-17 | Brazil | COVID-19 | Politician, journalist and businessman | Convicted of government procurement fraud |
| Manuel Machado Alvarez | 2020-07-03 | Cuba (detained by United States) | COVID-19 | Murderer | |
| Scott Erskine | 2020-07-03 | United States | COVID-19 | Serial killer and rapist | |
| Mahendra Yadav | 2020-07-05 | India | COVID-19 | Politician | |
| Andrey Yezhov | 2020-07-06 | Russia | Suicide by hanging | Serial killer and rapist | |
| Chua Ser Lien | 2020-07-08 | Singapore | Suicide | Former cleaning company director and convicted kidnapper | Sentenced to life imprisonment and three strokes of the cane in 2004. Suffered from bipolar disorder, which worsened during his final years before he died. Found eligible for parole in 2023 |
| Nelson Meurer | 2020-07-12 | Brazil | COVID-19 | Politician, mayor of Francisco Beltrão | Convicted on corruption and money laundering charges |
| Moussa Benhamadi | 2020-07-17 | Algeria | COVID-19 | Politician and researcher | |
| David Romero Ellner | 2020-07-18 | Honduras | COVID-19 | Journalist and lawyer, Liberal party congressman and former mayor of Tegucigalpa | |
| Jaybee Sebastian | 2020-07-18 | Philippines | COVID-19 | Kidnapper and carjacker | |
| Jorge Villavicencio | 2020-07-20 | Guatemala | COVID-19 | Former Guatemalan Minister of Public Health and Social Assistance | Was arrested over corruption accusations. |
| Azimzhan Askarov | 2020-07-25 | Kyrgyzstan | Pneumonia | Human rights activist, investigator of police brutality | Arrested and prosecuted on charges of creating mass disturbances, incitement of ethnic hatred, and complicity in murder. |
| Essam el-Erian | 2020-08-13 | Egypt | COVID-19 | Vice Chairman of the Freedom and Justice Party | Arrested during the 2011 Egyptian revolution |
| Édouard Karemera | 2020-08-31 | Rwanda (detained by Senegal) | COVID-19 | Politician convicted of genocide | |
| Maxim Martsinkevich | 2020-09-16 | Russia | Official version: Suicide | Neo-Nazi activist and vlogger | |
| Horst David | 2020-11-08 | Germany | Unknown | Serial killer | The investigation of his murder of the prostitute Fatima Grossart is considered a milestone in German criminal history because it was the first time that a crime that had occurred almost 20 years ago could be solved with the help of the automated fingerprint identification system. |
| Peter Sutcliffe | 2020-11-13 | United Kingdom | Complications from diabetes, hypertension and COVID-19 infection | Serial killer | |
| Anthony Hardy | 2020-11-25 | United Kingdom | COVID-19 | Serial killer, the "Camden Ripper" | |
| Anthony Casso | 2020-12-15 | United States | COVID-19 | Underboss of the Lucchese crime family | |
| Donato Bilancia | 2020-12-17 | Italy | COVID-19 | Serial killer | |
| Romell Broom | 2020-12-28 | United States | COVID-19 | Murder of Tryna Middleton. | |
| Sofia Zhukova | 2020-12-29 | Russia | COVID-19 | Serial killer | Being 80 years old at the time of her last murder, she was the oldest serial killer in the history of Russia and the Soviet Union. |
| Salvador Franco | 2021-01-03 | Venezuela | Tuberculosis and malnourishment. | Pemon political prisoner | Franco had COVID-19 and that for months suffered from gastrointestinal diseases related to the insalubrity of his penitentiary center, losing a large amount of weight in detention. There was a court order for his transfer to a health center, but it was ultimately ignored. |
| Phil Spector | 2021-01-16 | United States | Complications from COVID-19 | American music producer | Was convicted of the 2003 murder of actress Lana Clarkson and was serving a 19 years to life prison sentence at the time of his death. |
| Nathaniel Burkett | 2021-01-19 | United States | COVID-19 | Serial killer | |
| Daniela Figueredo | 2021-03-13 | Venezuela | Gunshot | Young detainee | Shot in the face by a police officer and killed at the age of nineteen. Human rights activists declared that the incident occurred when the officer tried to sexually abuse her. |
| Antonio Sanchez | 2021-03-27 | Philippines | Unknown | Politician, mayor of Calauan | |
| Bernie Madoff | 2021-04-14 | United States | Chronic kidney disease | Fraudster | |
| Vitold Ashurak | 2021-05-21 | Belarus | Official version: Cardiac arrest | Political and ecological activist | Sentenced to five years for his role in the 2020–2021 Belarusian protests, died four months after his imprisonment, the official cause of death is disputed |
| John McAfee | 2021-06-23 | United Kingdom | “Everything points to death by suicide,” according to the Guardian, except a previous statement: 'If I suicide myself, I didn't.' | Founded the software company McAfee Associates in 1987. | |
| Nyan Win | 2021-07-20 | Myanmar | COVID-19 | Member-elect of Pyithu Hluttaw and Aung San Suu Kyi's personal attorney | |
| Yevgen Sotnikov | 2021-08-06 | Ukraine | Murder | Judoka | Imprisoned for killing an 18-year old. |
| Robert Martin Gumbura | 2021-08-07 | Zimbabwe | COVID-19 | Pastor | Was convicted with four counts of rape and possession of illegal pornographic material and sentenced to 40 years in prison. |
| Hugo Salas Wenzel | 2021-08-11 | Chile | Unknown | General of the Chilean Army | Was sentenced to life for human rights violations in the 1980s. |
| Hissène Habré | 2021-08-24 | Chad | COVID-19 | 5th president and dictator of Chad | |
| Abimael Guzmán | 2021-09-11 | Peru | Suicide by starvation | Maoist guerrilla leader and terrorist | |
| Raúl Baduel | 2021-10-12 | Venezuela | Official version: cardiorespiratory arrest caused by COVID-19 | Venezuelan general and former defense minister | The official cause of death is disputed by his family |
| Gilbert Dragon | 2021-11-17 | Haiti | COVID-19 | Police chief and commander in the National Revolutionary Front for the Liberation and Reconstruction of Haiti | |
| Hamdi Hassan | 2021-11-25 | Egypt | Unknown | Member of the House of Representatives of Egypt and the Muslim Brotherhood | |
| Stephen Bouquet | 2022-01-05 | United Kingdom | COVID-19 | Killed nine cats | |
| Robert Durst | 2022-01-10 | United States | COVID-19 | Murderer | |
| Stephen Kovacs | 2022-01-12 | United States | Suicide by hanging | Saber fencer and fencing coach | Charged with multiple counts of sexual assault, endangering the welfare of a child and false swearing. |
| Hugo Torres Jiménez | 2022-02-11 | Nicaragua | Natural causes | Sandinista guerrilla, brigadier general in the Nicaraguan Armed Forces | |
| Soumeylou Boubèye Maïga | 2022-03-21 | Mali | Unknown | Former Prime Minister and Foreign Minister of Mali | |
| Dmitry Kolker | 2022-07-02 | Russia | Unknown | Physicist, head of the Laboratory of Quantum Optical Technologies of Novosibirsk State University | Arrested on suspicion of state treason in June 2022. |
| Robert Hanssen | 2023-06-05 | United States | Colon cancer | FBI agent | Charged with selling U.S. intelligence documents to the Soviet Union and Russia over 22 years. |
| Ted Kaczynski | 2023-06-10 | United States | Suicide by hanging | Eco-terrorist, the "Unabomber" | |
| Ales Pushkin | 2023-07-11 | Belarus | Unknown | Artist and painter, awarded with the Belarusian Democratic Republic 100th Jubilee Medal | |
| Gennady Lopyrev | 2023-08-16 | Russia | Official version: Leukemia | Former lieutenant-general in the FSO and overseer of various construction projects, including Putin's palace at Gelendzhik | Imprisoned in the IK-3 prison in 2017 for taking bribes, the official cause of death is disputed |
| Anthony Sully | 2023-09-08 | United States | Natural causes | Serial killer and police officer | |
| Doug Clark | 2023-10-11 | United States | Natural causes | Serial killer | |
| Alejandro Muyshondt | 2024-02-07 | El Salvador | Official version: Pulmonary edema | Politician | The official version is disputed and his family believes that he died from torture. |
| Alexei Navalny | 2024-02-16 | Russia | Official version: Blood clot detachment | Russian opposition politician | Death of Alexei Navalny |
| Ihar Lednik | 2024-02-20 | Belarus | Issues after an operation of the gastrointestinal tract | Belarusian opposition activist | Sentenced to three years for the "defamation" of Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, in prison he was routinely abused by the jailers |
| Victor Farrant | 2024-05-03 | United Kingdom | Unknown | Murderer and rapist | |