Celebrities Who Died In Jail

Death is a part of life, even for famous people. While they're immortal in the media, in real life, their lives come to an end just like ours. And much like us regular people, sometimes those lives end in ignominious ways, such as in jail after being convicted for a crime. You would think the perks of being rich and famous would be enough for them, and they would have no need to push things too far into the realm of the illegal, that living in a big house would mean they'd strive to stay out of the Big House. And yet, it's not like there's a shortage of celebrities who end up inside prison's brick walls.

While there are plenty of people who became famous because they committed crimes, such as Charles Manson or Richard Ramirez, and who ended up dying in prison, we're specifically looking at people who were famous before their crimes were committed, or at least before they came to light. Notoriety is very different from true celebrity. Here's what happened to these celebs who lost everything and ended up dying in jail.

This article includes trigger warnings for suicide, sexual assault, domestic violence, addiction, and mental health issues. If you or anyone you know is having suicidal thoughts, please call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline​ at​ 1-800-273-TALK (8255)​.

While Jeffrey Epstein is now far more famous for his numerous disturbing crimes than he ever was beforehand, there's no denying that he was a huge name investor for many years. Epstein was so successful in the financial world, turning small fortunes into massive ones, that he handled the assets of celebrities, politicians, and more. 

What's more is that Epstein was famous for his social life. He frequently held massive parties on his various properties, with invites only given to the biggest names in the world. It was later discovered that these parties might have had sinister things going on behind the scenes, but at the time he was simply seen as a very powerful socialite, according to the BBC, with those who worked with him shrugging off the rumors that he secretly trafficked minors.

In 2005, after being accused of molestation by a 14-year-old girl, Epstein went to prison for 18 months and was a registered sex offender but was otherwise given a very lenient sentence. In July 2019, however, he was arrested once again, accused of running a massive child trafficking network. On August 10, 2019, Epstein was found dead in his jail cell, an alleged victim of suicide. Things may not be so cut and dry, though, as numerous ongoing rumors claim that Epstein was actually secretly murdered.

In 2010, Aaron Josef Hernandez was just at the start of a great football career. Playing for three seasons, Hernandez was a lauded athlete, and even made it to the Super Bowl in 2012. Things were looking great for Hernandez, and it was his career to throw away.

In the 2013 off-season, Hernandez was arrested for the murder of Odin Lloyd, his fiancé's sister's boyfriend and a fellow football player, albeit a semi-professional one, according to Sporting News. On June 17, 2013, Lloyd was murdered not far from Hernandez's house, though to this day, the exact motive remains unknown. Hernandez initially denied being involved in the crime to his coaches, but it soon became clear that was not the case.

On April 15, 2015, Hernandez was convicted of the murder and sent to prison for life. Nearly two years later to the day, however, he was found dead in his cell, where it appeared he had taken his own life. When Hernandez died, he had not yet exhausted all of his appeals, so his conviction was briefly vacated, though it was later restored after an appeal by Lloyd's family. Hernandez was also suspected of other violent crimes, including two 2012 murders, those of Daniel de Abreu and Safiro Furtado in a drive-by shooting outside of a club Hernandez had visited that night, but he was acquitted of these killings days before his death.

You might not know who Lou Pearlman is, but you've heard his work. Pearlman was a record producer and manager with a particular knack for forming boy bands in the late 1990s. Namely, he created a group you might be familiar with — the Backstreet Boys — by recruiting five previously unknown singers. He followed this up by introducing the world to bands like NSYNC, O-Town, and LFO, all of whom he produced and managed, according to Billboard.

But while Pearlman had a talent for developing pop groups, he was even better at his other job, which was ripping people off. Nearly every single band that worked with Pearlman later sued him for fraud. And all that time, Pearlman was secretly running one of the biggest Ponzi schemes in U.S. history, scamming investors out of half a billion dollars, something that ended up getting him put in prison in 2008, where he was sentenced to 25 years for conspiracy and money laundering.

In 2010, Pearlman suffered a stroke in prison, but did survive. In 2016, Pearlman was scheduled for heart surgery, but suffered a cardiac arrest before the surgery was completed. He died on August 19, 2016. None of the bands he made famous performed at his funeral.

"Fast" Eddie Johnson was one of the best basketball players of the 70s and 80s, spending a decade on the court from 1977 to 1987, primarily with the Atlanta Hawks. He even made it as an NBA All-Star twice, in 1980 and 1981, according to the New York Times. He was no slouch on the court and earned his nickname of "Fast Eddie" by, well, being fast.

Off the court, though, Johnson suffered from drug addiction. As time went by and his drug abuse got worse, Johnson fell out of the NBA and began playing for smaller associations. He attempted a comeback in the late 80s but was soon suspended by the NBA due to his heavy cocaine use. Things didn't get better from there, and Johnson had already had several brushes with the law in regard to his drug use and other minor crimes, but things quickly spiraled out of control after his professional career ended, with Johnson being arrested for crimes from burglary to assaulting a police officer.

Johnson ended up in and out of prison until 2008, when he was convicted of assaulting an 8-year-old girl, which finally landed him in jail for good, with a life sentence and no possibility of parole. It's there that Johnson's story finally came to an end. In 2020, Johnson died of an undisclosed illness while still serving time in Milton, Florida.

Back in 1997, just before the WWF changed to the WWE we know today, a little-known wrestler by the name of "Too Sexy" Brian Christopher (also known as Grandmaster Sexay) hit the scene. He was briefly the WWF Tag Team Champion with his partner, Scotty 2 Hotty, and the two wrestled as a pairing called Too Cool, according to The Daily Beast. (It was the late 90s, in fairness.)

Little did viewers at home know, Brian Christopher was actually Brian Christopher Lawler, son of wrestling legend Jerry "The King" Lawler. While he never reached the heights of his dad's work in the ring, he did okay for himself. At least, until 2001, when he was caught smuggling drugs from Canada into the United States, which led to him being released from the WWF/WWE.

Christopher had a few other run-ins with the law, including an arrest for disorderly conduct and another for public intoxication, but nothing major until he was arrested in his hometown of Memphis, TN for a DUI in 2018 with an included charge of evading police. On July 7, 2018, Christopher was jailed and on July 29, found hanging in his cell after an altercation with another inmate. He was declared brain dead and removed from life support later the same day after his father arrived to be by his side. He was 46 years old.

Roy Buchanan never achieved mainstream fame, but in blues circles, he was a bit of a legend with his rich, clear tone on his iconic Fender Telecaster guitar, according to Louder Sound. Working as a sideman in various bands in the late 1950s, Buchanan later set out on his own as a solo artist in the 1960s. It wasn't until the early 1970s that Buchanan began to see some fame after an hourlong PBS documentary titled "Introducing Roy Buchanan" aired, bringing his sound to an even larger audience, according to Music Enthusiast.

He had two albums go gold during the 1970s — 1973's "Second Album" and 1977's "Loading Zone." He's also rumored to have turned down a job playing for the Rolling Stones around this time, earning him even more underground clout. He would have fit in, however, because behind the scenes, Buchanan had developed a nasty drinking habit, abusing drugs as well.

While Buchanan tried to clean up in the 1980s after a hiatus from the studio for most of the decade, he relapsed on August 14, 1988, when he was arrested for public intoxication. A few hours later, during a routine check, Buchanan was found dead, having hung himself with his own shirt. Buchanan's friends and family claimed that the "suicide" was actually a cover up by police and that Buchanan had bruises on his head, but these claims were never proven.