Correctional Officer Frank DeLeon

Frank DeLeon

Correctional Officer Frank DeLeon, Sergeant Jere Graham, and Correctional Officer Paul Krasenes were shot and slashed to death during a prison uprising when a civil rights lawyer smuggled a 9 mm pistol and two magazines of ammunition to a prisoner at San Quentin Prison.

The prisoner hid the pistol and magazines in his afro wig. When one of the guards became suspicious of the wig, the prisoner ripped it off, loaded the handgun, and then held the guards at bay. The prisoner forced the guards to free 26 inmates, who then proceeded to attack the guards. They slashed the throats of six guards and also shot three of them to death. All of the guards' bodies were then stacked in the cell of the inmate who started the disturbance. The prisoners also murdered two jail trustees.

The prisoner who started the uprising was shot and killed by responding officers. He was awaiting trial for the murder of Correctional Officer John V. Mills at Soledad Prison on January 16, 1970.

Six prisoners were charged with the officer's murders. After a 16-month trial, only one was convicted of murder. He was paroled in 1988. Three were acquitted, and the other two were found guilty of assault. Only one remained in prison. He murdered Correctional Officer Robert J. McCarthy on March 4, 1971. He was stabbed to death during a prison riot at Folsom Penitentiary on August 12, 2015.

Officer DeLeon was a United States Navy World War II veteran and an Air Force Korean War veteran who had served with the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation for four years. He was survived by his wife, three daughters, and two sons.