Seldom does anyone have the opportunity to respond to a warden’s daughter regarding her father’s job as former warden at the old Missouri State Penitentiary, (MSP). I was there while DW (as we called Donald Wyrick) was the warden. I was there in the ‘70s, where in one year of that decade, MSP had 13 inmate homicides and was rightfully known as the “worst of the worst” prisons in Missouri and beyond.
DW was most unusual in that much of what Missourians knew of him, it seems, came from people like his daughter. One look at the number of state and federal lawsuits filed against him and his regime at MSP will clearly show that he was as ruthless as any convict there and the phrase “worst of the worst” certainly included him as well.
Donald Harden
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