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Clayton Anthony Fountain (September 12, 1955 – July 12, 2004) was a former federal prisoner and convicted murderer. While serving in the Marines, he was convicted of murdering his staff sergeant in 1974, while stationed in the Philippines. He was sentenced to life imprisonment, and was ultimately sent to the United States Penitentiary, Marion—at the time, the highest-security prison in the nation. Fountain used his military training to murder three prisoners and one correctional officer with his bare hands while serving time at Marion, and was labeled the "Most Dangerous Prisoner" in the federal system.[1][2]

After stabbing an officer to death in 1983, Fountain was moved to the United States Medical Center for Federal Prisoners in Springfield, Missouri. He was housed in a specially constructed containment unit, and was only allowed contact with authorized personnel. Fountain converted to Catholicism, and completed several educational courses on theology during the twenty years he spent in virtual isolation. He developed ties with an order of Trappist monks, and was accepted posthumously as a lay brother after his unexpected death from a heart attack in 2004.[3][4] The book "A Different Kind of Cell: The Story of a Murderer Who Became a Monk" is based on his life and religious conversion

Early life
Clayton Anthony Fountain was born on September 12, 1955, at the U.S. Army Hospital in Fort Benning, Georgia. He was named after his father-whose full name was Clayton Raleigh Fountain-and he was expected to follow in his father's footsteps. And he did. Clayton was the oldest of six children, having one brother and four sisters. The family moved with every 1½ to 2 years. When his father served combat tours in Korea and Viet Nam and his mother was working, Clayton, as the oldest child in family, became a surrogate for both parents when he was very young. He recalls maternal responsibilities for cooking, ironing, serving, cleaning, and caring for his young siblings. It was the male/paternal role, however, for which his father had carefully trained him.

Clayton recalls that as far back as kindergarten and the first grade (when the family was in Germany), he was involved in numerous fights-purportedly in self-defense but especially in defense of his siblings. When his father was home, the family was ruled by an extension of military discipline, with Raleigh freely exercising corporal punishment for anything his quick temper interpreted as disobedience or "childishness." Clayton remembers such an incident, which occurred when he was just four years old; its power would mark him. His father demonstrated how to use a knife by splitting a rabbit's throat, then rubbing the blood on Clayton's face and into his hair. When Clayton cried and vomited, Raleigh hit him and slapped him repeatedly, using his favorite refrain: "I'll teach you to be a man." Later, Clayton would lament, "I was never permitted to be a child-only a miniature macho man."

All that Clayton was permitted to want to be was a "warrior." His favorite game during playtime with other youngsters was one they called "war." When Clayton was only five, he received his first weapon. His father, uncles, and Army friends found great sport in teaching the young boy an amazing number of martial skills. As Clayton remembered it, the affirmation he could receive as a child came from practicing these skills "far better than was though possible for someone so young."