Bio & Incident Details
Age: 51
Tour: 19 years
Badge # Not available
Cause: Stabbed
Location: Illinois
Incident Date: 10/22/1983
Weapon: Edged weapon; Shank
Suspect: Sentenced to life
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Correctional Officer Merle Clutts was killed when he was stabbed by an inmate with a homemade prison shank at the United States Penitentiary in Marion, Illinois.
The suspect was being escorted back to his cell after having a shower when another inmate slipped him a shank. The suspect then ran down the tier and attacked Correctional Officer Clutts whom he had a vendetta against. By the time the officers got the suspect off Correctional Officer Clutts and him to safety he had been stabbed 40 times. The suspect was convicted of murder and sentenced to life in prison.
Just eight hours later Correctional Officer Robert Hoffmann would be murdered in the same prison in an unrelated incident.
Correctional Officer Clutts had served with the Federal Bureau of Prisons for 19 years.
