Officer Raymond La Forest Messer

Raymond La Forest Messer

Officer Messer was stabbed to death at the California Vocational Institution at Lancaster.

Officer Messer was making bed checks when he discovered one of the inmates in possession of two knives. He was stabbed when he ordered the man to hand over the weapons.

The 20-year-old inmate, serving a sentence for assault with the intent to commit rape, was convicted of first degree murder and sentenced to death. On February 4th, 1952, he strangled himself to death in his cell on San Quentin's death row.