Everyone is familiar with famous Marylander, John Wilkes Boothe. Boothe assassinated Abraham Lincoln at the Ford's Theater in Washington, D.C. on April 14, 1865. Boothe was killed before he could stand trial.
The following are Maryland's Most Notorious criminals of the 20th Century:
Dontay Carter - Received two (2) consecutive life sentences plus 119 years for murder and kidnapping. Dontay Carter famously escaped custody by leaping out of a second-floor window in the courthouse.
Dontay Carter is the reason there are two (2) images on your driver's license. The State was forced to upgrade its design when Carter easily obtained a driver's license in the name of a man that he had murdered.
Harold Benjamin Dean - Dean is the only man to have successfully escaped Maryland's Supermax prison. Dean was serving a life sentence plus 105 years for murdering one man and critically wounding another during a robbery. Dead escaped by squeezing through an 8 inch by 22-inch window, getting around the razor wire and climbing to the roof of the prison. Dean was captured 10 months later.
Joseph C. Palcynski - Palcynski went on a two-week rampage of murder and kidnapping. He held five people hostage in a 97-hour ordeal in Dundalk, Maryland. The ordeal came to an end when one of the hostages managed to slip Xanax into Palcynski's drink and escape. Police were able to raid the home and shoot and kill Palcynski.
Anthony Ayeni Jones - Jones is a drug lord convicted of killing and/or conspiring to kill rival drug lords and federal witnesses. Jones developed his own coded language to order hits while he was in prison. It took the State months to decipher the code.
Joe Metheny - Metheny claimed he killed 10 people, but he was convicted of only 2. He was originally sentenced to death, but on Appeal, he received a commuted sentence to life without the possibility of parole. At sentencing, Metheny vowed to never apologize for his crimes, stating that the apology would be a lie because he was not sorry. Metheny begged for the death penalty. When Metheny received his death sentence he kissed his defense attorney on the cheek.
Mark Castillo - Castillo took his 3 children, ages 2, 4 and 6, to the Maryland Science Center for a day of fun and sightseeing. However, after the day spent with his children, he took them to a Baltimore hotel where he systematically drowned each one in the bathtub. Castillo called the front desk and reported what he had done. Castillo claimed he committed these crimes because he wanted to get back at his ex-wife.
John Thanos - Thanos killed 3 teenagers in a 1990 Labor Day rampage. Thanos was sentenced to death. Thanos' execution for an end to Maryland's 33-year moratorium on executions. Thanos was unrepentant to the end. Thanos refused to appeal his death sentence claiming that it was cruel and unusual to keep him alive.
Nicholas Browning - Browning was 16 years old when he killed his father, a Towson area attorney, his mother and 2 siblings. Browning cited years of physical abuse by his father as the motive for the killing. Browning received 4 life sentences to be served consecutively. After killing his family, Browning went to a friends house and then shopping at the mall in Towson. During his questioning by police, Browning interrupted the interrogation to order a double cheeseburger and a diet coke.
Check out our Maryland blog to read about Maryland's most notorious criminals.
