https://wchstv.com/news/local/three-...ld-case-murder

CLARKSBURG, W.Va. (WCHS/WVAH) ? Three inmates at the Mount Olive Correctional Complex are set to be arraigned next week in connection with the 1989 murder of an inmate at the old Harrison County jail.

Frederick Hamilton, 62, and Charles Franklin, 64, will be charged with second-degree murder and Warren Franklin, 63, will face a felony charge of malicious wounding for the beating death of John G. Perry, said lead investigator Sgt. Dixon Pruitt with the Harrison County Sheriff's Office.

On March 14, 1989, Pruitt said, Charles Franklin and Hamilton killed Perry in cell E on the fifth floor of the Harrison County Correctional Center in Clarksburg.

Perry, who was 39 at the time of his death, was at the facility because he was waiting to testify in a criminal proceeding, according to the criminal complaint. Pruitt confirmed Perry was a witness in the trial of William "Red" Snyder, who was charged with murder in the stabbing death of inmate Kent Slie during a Jan. 1, 1986, riot at the state prison at Moundsville. Slie was stabbed 18 times, according to The Associated Press.

"It was learned that John Perry's death was a result of an ongoing power struggle within the state penitentiary at Moundsville, more specifically North Hall," Pruitt wrote in the complaint. Witnesses said Perry was "marked" and ordered to be killed if "an opportunity presented itself," the complaint stated.

Perry had been acquitted of a murder charge in the 1986 slaying of inmate Danny Lehman, who was stabbed to death in the prison?s notorious, maximum-security North Hall, The AP previously reported. Prosecutors at the time said Perry headed a prison gang called the Aryan Brotherhood and said Lehman was the head of a rival gang named the Avengers.

On the date of Perry's murder, 12 inmates from Moundsville were being housed on the fifth floor of the Harrison County jail waiting to testify in the Snyder case.

The three allegedly confessed to Perry's death in a "detailed confession," the complaints said.

Three inmates at the Mount Olive Correctional Center will be charged in connection with the 1989 murder of John Perry, who was killed at a jail while waiting to testify in a murder case. (West Virginia Division of Corrections and Rehabilitation)

"John Perry had been added to the witness list for a trial and had been transported to the Harrison County Correctional Center as to put him in the position to be killed," Dixon wrote. Dixon said all cell doors were open, allowing access to Perry. The Franklin brothers, along with several others, are accused of removing their shackles using a homemade handcuff key that had been brought with them from Moundsville.

When Perry entered cell E, another prisoner allegedly put Perry in a "sleeper hold," Dixon said. "Warren Franklin placed the shackles that he had removed from around his hands and began beating John Perry in the face and head."

Charles Franklin is also accused of beating Perry in the face and head with his fist. "Charles Franklin also did place John Perry's neck on the metal bunk choking him and placing his foot on John Perry's neck participating in his death," the complaint stated.

Hamilton is accused of standing as a lookout after he had "coached" Perry into the cell while other inmates beat Perry until he was unconscious. Later, investigators said Hamilton removed the bottom portion of his T-shirt he was wearing and wrapped it around Perry's neck before he tied it as "tight as he could" around his neck, resulting in his death.

Pruitt said blood was found on Charles Franklin's coveralls, left shoe and elbow and injuries he received during the altercation were photographed.

Blood was also found on Hamilton's coveralls and his T-shirt was missing, Pruitt said.

In 1992, Hamilton was one of three prisoners serving lifetime sentences at the Moundsville prison who tunneled their way out of the maximum-security facility in broad daylight. Hamilton, who was 34 at the time of the escape, had been in prison since he killed a state trooper in 1977 and had attempted escape 13 times, according to previous press reports. He was recaptured several days later in Oklahoma.

"Some guys spend their whole sentence trying to get out of here legally with appeals. I have spent mine trying to get out illegally," Hamilton was quoted by The AP as saying in 1993 . "I live life to the fullest, even inside this place."

The Franklin brothers, who dubbed themselves the "Panhandle Bandits" were serving life sentences for beating a Hagerstown, Md., man to death when they escaped in March 1981 from the Maryland Correctional Institute, according to the Washington Post.

"They were captured a month later in a hail of gunfire in southwest Virginia after allegedly shooting one man, kidnapping six people and stealing two cars. One of the kidnap victims attracted Virginia State Police by scribbling frantic notes on toilet paper in rest stops," the Post reported. "After the Franklins were tried and convicted in Virginia courts for attempted murder of two troopers during that escapade, the brothers were returned to West Virginia."

In July 1981, they escaped from the Jefferson County Jail before being recaptured and sent to Moundsville.