# United States Medical Center for Federal Prisoners

The United States Medical Center for Federal Prisoners (MCFP Springfield) is a United States federal prison in Springfield, Missouri for male offenders. It is operated by the Federal Bureau of Prisons, a division of the United States Department of Justice.

## History

During the Great Depression, the people of Springfield, Missouri, offered 620 acres (250 ha) of land to the federal government to build the prison. Congress authorized the building of the prison in 1930. The prison opened in 1933 as the "United States Hospital for Defective Delinquents", under superintendent Marion R. King. The land surrounding the prison was used by the prisoners for farming until 1966. In 1977, the federal government returned some of the original 620 acres to the city. Prison riots occurred in 1941, 1944 and 1959.
Several political prisoners and spies arrested during World War II were held at MCFP Springfield for medical treatment. Anastasy Vonsyatsky served 3 years of a 5-year sentence there for conspiring to aid Hitler's Germany in violation of the Espionage Act before being released in 1946. Robert Henry Best and Herbert John Burgman, who were sentenced to life in prison for treason in 1948 and 1949 for making propaganda broadcasts for the Nazis, served their sentences at this prison. Best died at MCFP Springfield in 1952, Burgman in 1953.
Several high-profile Mafia bosses received medical treatment at MCFP Springfield, including Joseph Bonanno of the Bonanno crime family, Vito Genovese and Vincent Gigante of the Genovese crime family and John Gotti of the Gambino crime family. Genovese died at MCFP Springfield in 1969, Gotti in 2002, and Gigante in 2005. Other notable inmates held at MCFP Springfield for treatment include Robert Stroud, known as the "Birdman of Alcatraz" who died there in 1963, racecar driver Randy Lanier, drug trafficker Michael Riconosciuto, and "The Toxic Pharmacist" Robert Courtney. Terrorists Omar Abdel Rahman and José Padilla were also held there for brief periods.

## Notable incidents

On January 26, 2010, inmate Victor Castro-Rodriguez, 51, was found dead on the floor of his cell. Castro-Rodriguez originally was convicted of assault and resisting arrest in the U.S. District Court of Southern Florida and was being held at the MCFP because of a mental illness. MCFP inmates Wesley Paul Coonce Jr., 34, and Charles Michael Hall, 43, were charged in connection with his death and on May 7, 2014, were convicted of one count of first-degree murder. Coonce was also found guilty of one count of murder by an inmate serving a life sentence. Both were sentenced to death on June 2, 2014.

## Notable inmates

* The following inmates are currently held at MCFP Springfield or served the majority of their sentence there.
† Inmates who were released from custody prior to 1982 are not listed on the Bureau of Prisons website.

### Living

| Inmate Name | Register Number | Status | Details |
| Juan Matta-Ballesteros | 37671-133 | Serving a life sentence under the name Juan Ramon Matta-Lopez. | Drug kingpin with ties to the Medellin Cartel in Colombia; convicted in 1990 of orchestrating the 1985 kidnapping and murder of Drug Enforcement Administration Agent Enrique Camarena. |
| James Alex Fields Jr. | 22239-084 | Serving a life sentence; currently at USP Allenwood. | White supremacist, pleaded guilty in 2019 of 29 federal hate crime charges using his car to harm counter-protestors during the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, killing 32 year-old Heather Heyer and injuring up to 19 more. Previously held at USP Hazelton and USP Allenwood. |
| Marvin Charles Gabrion | 09184-055 | Serving a life sentence, commuted from the death penalty. Originally sentenced to death on March 16, 2002. | Convicted in 2002 of the 1997 kidnapping and murder of 19-year-old Rachel Timmerman, who had accused Gabrion of rape; Tried federally as victim's body was found on federal land. Gabrion was the first person to receive a federal death sentence in a non-death penalty state since the federal death penalty was reinstated in 1988. Commuted from the death penalty by President Joe Biden on December 23, 2024. |
| Michael Sarno | 01042-424 | Serving a 25-year sentence, scheduled for release in 2031. | Italian-American mobster, who is a powerful captain in the Chicago Outfit who leads the Cicero crew. |
| Walter Myers | 29796-016 | Sentenced to life imprisonment in July 2010. | Convicted of espionage in relation to his spying activities for Cuba while working for the U.S. State Department. |
| Daniel Larson | 12626-511 | Getting a mental health evaluation for competency to stand trial. Known documents state that he is to go through this mental health evaluation for at least 4 months, ending roughly around April 2025. | Internet sensation arrested for the several terroristic threats he had made over the past year. These claims were later backed by documents which, have revealed that Daniel had been charged with seven counts of threats, carrying a maximum sentence of 65 years. |

### Released

| Inmate Name | Register Number | Status | Details |
| Joseph "Joe Bananas" Bonanno | 07255-008 | Released from custody in 1986 after serving 14 months at MCFP Springfield. | Boss of the Bonanno crime family in New York City from 1931 to the mid-1960s; imprisoned for refusing to testify in a federal racketeering trial of the leaders of the five New York Mafia families. |
| Fritz Duquesne | N/A† | Released from custody on compassionate grounds in 1954; served 14 years. | Convicted in 1941 of leading the Duquesne Spy Ring, a group of spies for the Nazis which operated in the US from 1939 to 1941 and aimed to obtain information regarding military and industrial sabotage targets; all ring members were convicted in what was the largest espionage case in US history. |
| Larry Flynt | 78407-012 | Released from custody in 1984; served 6 months at FMC Butner and MCFP Springfield. | Publisher of the pornographic magazine Hustler and the center of several high-profile First Amendment cases; imprisoned for contempt of court for disrespecting a federal judge. |
| Anastasy Vonsyatsky | N/A† | Held at MCFP Springfield from 1942 to 1946 | Russian-born American fascist leader; convicted under the Espionage Act of 1917 for his associations with Nazi sympathisers during World War II; released early. |
| Henri Young | N/A† | Held at MCFP Springfield from 1948 to 1957. | Bank robber and murderer; attempted to escape from Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary in 1939; Young was the subject of the 1995 film Murder in the First. |
| Rosario "Russell" Bufalino | 04891-054 | Held at MCFP Springfield from 1987 to 1989. | An Italian-born American mobster who became the Boss of the Northeastern Pennsylvania crime family known as the Bufalino crime family from 1959 - 1994. He was a cousin of attorney William "Bill" Bufalino, the longtime counsel for Jimmy Hoffa. |

### Died at MCFP Springfield

| Inmate Name | Register Number | Status | Details |
| Robert Henry Best | N/A† | Died in 1952 while serving a life sentence | American Nazi collaborator and radio broadcaster of Nazi propaganda |
| Herbert John Burgman | N/A† | Died in 1953 | American Nazi collaborator and radio broadcaster of Nazi propaganda |
| Anthony "Tony Ducks" Corallo | 08341-016 | Died in 2000. | The Boss of the Lucchese Crime Family From 1973 - 1986. in 1986 sentenced to 100 years along with then Underboss Salvatore "Tom-Mix" Santoro and then Consigliere Christopher "Christie Tick" Funari. |
| Clayton Fountain | 89129-132 | Died in 2004 while serving a life sentence. | Member of the Aryan Brotherhood prison gang; murdered Correction Officer Robert Hoffman at the United States Penitentiary, Marion in 1983; held in solitary confinement until his death. The incident resulted in a 23-year lockdown at Marion, and contributed to the creation of the federal supermax prison, Florence ADX. |
| John Gotti | 18261-053 | Died in 2002. | John "The Teflon Don" Gotti was head of New York's Gambino crime family. One of the most powerful and dangerous crime bosses in the world, Gotti was charged with five counts of murder, conspiracy to commit murder, loansharking, illegal gambling, obstruction of justice, bribery and tax evasion. Convicted on all counts, he was sentenced to life imprisonment without possibility of parole and a $250,000 fine. |
| Kareem Ibrahim | 64657-053 | Died in 2016 while serving a life sentence | Convicted in 2012 for conspiracy to commit a terrorist attack at JFK Airport died in 2016 from Heart Failure |
| Hemant Lakhani | 25753-050 | Died in 2013 while serving a 47-year sentence. | British businessman; convicted in 2005 of providing material support for terrorism and other charges for attempting to sell shoulder-fired missiles to what he thought was a terrorist group intent on shooting down US airliners. |
| Gennaro "Gerry Lang" Langella | 10405-054 | Died in 2013. | Was the Acting Boss Of the Colombo Crime Family During the '80s most notable for being a defendant in the Windows Trial in 1987 and being convicted and sentenced to 40+ years. |
| Anthony "Fat Tony" Salerno | 12812-054 | Died in 1992. | Was the Front Boss for the Genovese Crime Family from 1981 - 1986 after being convicted in the Windows Trial and being sentenced to 100 years. |
| Garrett Brock Trapnell | 72021-158 | Died in 1993 while serving a life sentence; served the majority of his sentence at USP Marion. | Serial bank robber; convicted in 1973 of aircraft hijacking and in 1974 of armed robbery and conspiracy to commit kidnapping. |
| Frank "Cadillac Frank" Salemme | 24914-013 | Died on 20 December 2022 Serving a life sentence | Boston mobster who became a hitman and eventually the boss of the Patriarca crime family from 1991 - 1996. |
| Robert Spangler | 29442-013 | Died of cancer on August 5, 2001, while serving a life sentence. | Serial killer who murdered his first wife and two children in 1978 in Littleton, Colorado and his third wife at the Grand Canyon in Arizona in 1993. Pleaded guilty in October 2000 to murder on federal land of third wife. Sentenced to life imprisonment. |
| David Waters | 95107-080 | Died in 2003 from lung cancer | Known for his role in the kidnapping, robbery and murder of the famed atheist Madalyn Murray O'Hair, her son Jon Garth and granddaughter Robyn in 1995. |
| Robert Franklin Stroud | | Died November 21, 1963 | The "Birdman of Alcatraz" |
| Gary Lee Sampson | 23976-038 | Died on December 21, 2021. | Carjacked and murdered three people in 2001. Sentenced to death on December 23, 2003, and resentenced to death on January 9, 2017. |
| Clarence Carnes | 61805-132 | Died on October 3, 1988 | Murdered a man in Oklahoma, and later participated in the Battle of Alcatraz. Carnes was the only participating inmate to neither be killed nor executed afterwards. |

## In popular culture

John Sacrimoni, boss of the fictional Lupertazzi crime family in the hit HBO television series The Sopranos, dies at MCFP Springfield in the season 6 episode entitled "Stage 5".
Ercole "Eckley" DiMeo of the fictional Soprano crime family in the hit HBO television series The Sopranos is only seen in the many Saints of Newark and is the boss of the Soprano crime family and it is mentioned in season one that he is incarcerated here.
The American crime drama limited series Black Bird follows the true story of James Keene during his time at MCFP Springfield. The series is based on the 2010 autobiographical novel In with the Devil: a Fallen Hero, a Serial Killer, and a Dangerous Bargain for Redemption by James Keene and Hillel Levin.

## Gallery

* The entrance to the medical center in August 2006.
* Aerial view of the medical center in October 2003.