“I Only Regret I Didn’t Kill More”: Inmate with 16 Life Sentences Slaughters 3 Prisoners
He was already serving 16 consecutive life sentences. So what did he have left to lose?Ricky Wassenaar, a convicted murderer serving 16 life sentences without the possibility of parole, shocked authorities when he brutally murdered three fellow inmates in a single day inside Arizona State Prison in Tucson on April 4, 2025. All three victims were convicted child sex offenders.
That morning, Wassenaar first strangled his own cellmate to death. He then armed himself with a rock hidden inside a laundry bag and used it to attack and kill two more inmates near the prison mess hall. In the aftermath, Wassenaar showed little remorse. He later told reporters that his only regret was that he didn’t manage to kill even more prisoners that day.
He also claimed responsibility for murdering a fourth inmate several months earlier, although prison officials had officially ruled that earlier death as due to natural causes.Wassenaar has insisted that he repeatedly warned prison staff he would harm or kill anyone placed in his cell with him, but officials ignored his warnings and assigned a cellmate anyway.Now 62 years old, Wassenaar has already spent nearly 40 years of his life behind bars. In January 2026, he was formally charged with three counts of first-degree murder. Despite publicly admitting to the killings in interviews, he has entered a plea of not guilty in court.
