The concept of the inmate killed in jail may already be familiar to you if you read the third book from the Trigger Locked series, The Virtual Mass Murder.

In the book, the Public Security Bureau managed to arrest Natsuo Terashima, the key figure behind the supply chain for the illegal drugs.

What makes his arrest a big deal to the Bureau is that Natsuo Terashima is a bigwig in a yakuza group, Yamabu-kai.

But here’s the fun part.

Rather than denying his wrongdoing, he insisted that they locked him in the prison with the tightest security instead.

The reason behind that?

He fears that a group of contract killers, Hanabi, will come after him. And yes, they can kill him while he’s in prison.

I won’t spoil you with what happened to him in the end. But suffice it to say, we see plenty of situations like this in many TV series and movies.

And that brings us to this question. How true it is for the inmate killed in jail situation to happen in real life?

Does it happen for real? Or is it merely created to heighten the story even further?

Not surprisingly, many of us seem to think that a scene like that is only there to make the story interesting, nothing else.

My first exposure to the concept of inmate killed in jail in fiction

I won’t deny that it was the TV series, Proven Innocent, that exposed me to the concept of the inmate killed in jail.

I doubt that I would know about it if it’s not because of Proven Innocent.

In Episode 7 of Proven Innocent, the defense lawyer, Madeline Scott, was trying to prove that Davon Watkins wasn’t the one who killed the police officer.

The accusation puts Davon on death row for a crime that he never committed.

After doing as much investigation as she could, Madeline was able to find the key witness who can prove Davon’s innocence.

And the key witness happened to be an inmate.

Here’s where things get icky.

While he agreed to testify in court, he ended up dead a day before he had to testify in court. Someone already killed him before he could do anything.

And the kicker? The person who killed him happened to be one of the inmates.

There’s not much information about the man who killed the key witness. It can be that the man is also an inmate but got paid to assassinate the key witness on the culprit’s behalf.

Or it can also be someone who sneaked in as an inmate to kill the key witness.

Regardless of the man’s identity, it’s clear that the true culprit wants the key witness dead. And I bet that he will still kill the key witness even if he didn’t agree to testify in court.

There’s too much risk in letting this poor guy alive.

Can something like this happen in real life as well?

Sad to say, this kind of situation does happen in real life. And it’s a common one too.

Google inmates killed in jail and you’ll see plenty of news that talks about inmates killed while they’re in prison.

While that can be true for the inmates in general, what about those who are high-profile criminals?

Do they get killed even while they’re in prison too?

Believe it or not, high-profile criminals can still die in prison even in a prison with the tightest security.

In fact, they’re more likely to get murdered as opposed to criminals with petty crimes.

One of the people that I can think of is Richard Kuklinski. He’s also known as The Iceman by the police.

While the rest of the thing that I’m about to say is a spoiler to those who have yet to read the book, The Iceman, or watch the documentary, I do recommend you to have a look at it.

Just to let you know that one of the characters in The Virtual Mass Murder is loosely based on Richard Kuklinski.

Which character I’m referring to? Well, you have to read the book to find out.

In case you’re wondering, everything depicted in The Iceman is true since the author of the book, Philip Carlo did meet and talk to Richard who was already in prison by the time he writes the book.

What happened to Richard Kuklinski while he was in prison

During the last few months leading up to Richard’s death, Phillip Carlo recalled what Richard said to him before his passing.

According to him, Richard called him, insisting that someone was poisoning him and wanted him to call the media.

At first, he thought that Richard was being delusional considering that his health condition has been deteriorating for the last couple of months.

But despite that, he told Richard that he tried to do what he could for him.

Here’s where things get dicey.

Not only Richard’s health was getting worst, he even developed dementia out of a sudden. He couldn’t even remember his wife’s, Barbara, phone number considering how Richard has a good memory with numbers.

On top of that, Richard didn’t even call his family during the holidays, Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year at all. He always did it during that time of the year before that.

When Barbara and Richard’s second daughter, Chris, visited him in the hospital, he still insisted that someone was trying to murder him, saying if they didn’t see him leaving the hospital, it means that someone already murdered him.

Of course, Barbara felt that it was impossible for someone to kill him, especially with the police guarding the room outside.

With Richard’s health getting worst day by day, the doctor who had been treating him pronounced him dead not long after that.

And the timing of his death wasn’t a mere coincidence either.

The day after Richard’s passing, The Bergen County Prosecutor’s Office had to drop a charge against Sammy “the Bull” Gravano for his involvement in the murder of NYPD Detective Peter Calabro.

They had no way of proving his involvement with the murder since Richard who was the key witness was already dead.

Whether Richard’s death has something to do with Sammy isn’t clear. But it’s not surprising at all if he did.

That sounds like something you’ve seen in Proven Innocent, right?

It’s not entirely a work of fiction

It doesn’t matter whether we’re talking about TV series, Hollywood movies, anime, manga, video games, or light novels.

It’s worth mentioning here that what you see in those media isn’t entirely work of fiction.

The story can be based on a true event or a true person. If it’s not based on anything, it can still be based on something else such as people’s experiences related to the event.

And the idea of the story being not entirely a work of fiction isn’t just applicable to TV series and Hollywood movies.

You can say the same for anime, manga, video games, and light novels as well.

And yes, I should add my books into the mix too.

Sure, the story is fiction. But the facts that I presented in any of my books are real, not made-up facts.

Unless indicated, most of them are real.

If reading my book makes your skin crawl for some reason, it’s because it’s based on a real thing.

It’s just like when you read the book The Iceman. It sure does feel like fiction when you read it.

But little do you realize that all the things said in the book are real.

P.S While you can jump straight into reading the third book from the Trigger Locked series, The Virtual Mass Murder, without having to read the first book, I still recommend you to read from the beginning, though.

If you enjoy reading original light novels, particularly the one that tends to overlap with reality, then you may enjoy reading the Trigger Locked series.

Want to give the series a try? You can take a look at the first book from the series right here on my Payhip store:

Trigger Locked Book 1: The Mind Control Assasins

Don’t forget to use the coupon code SEKINAMAYUBLOG to save 25% off on your purchase.

Just to let you know that my books are also available in major retailers and print. But you can only get a discount if you buy the books directly from me.