Daniel Altstadt
UPDATE: Daniel Altstadt committed suicide by
hanging himself in his prison cell at Pleasant
Valley State Prison Friday, May 26, 2000.
A guard found him hanging inside his cell will a
shoelace wrapped around his neck.
The story below about Daniel Altstadt originally
appeared in GD #12 (Order it here)
It was after midnight Feb. 21, 1975, when
Daniel Aldstadt, then 18,
came home and for some
unknown reason, chopped up his mother, father and
older sister with his scout ax. His younger brother
survived but was left paralyzed.
Alstadt, a straight-A student at Patrick Henry High
School and an
Eagle Scout, then tried to burn down
his family's San Carlos house.
He was convicted of the first-degree murder of his
father and not guilty of the other three by reason of
insanity. He is serving a
life sentence.