John Gardner
Billy Baggett described John Gardner as like an adopted brother, and said Baggett's parents also visited him. Baggett said Gardner was attacked by several men in a dormitory at Georgia State Prison in Reidsville in 1969, strangled with a guitar string and sexually assaulted, and that guards told him of the death. The Georgia Department of Corrections could not verify the death, though state archives show a prisoner by that name at Reidsville in 1968. The account comes from Baggett, and the department has not confirmed it.
Cause of death, as reported: Killed by another person in custody (disputed). Billy Baggett says several men strangled John Gardner with a guitar string and sexually assaulted him in a prison dormitory, and the Georgia Department of Corrections could not verify the death.
Reported by: Billy Baggett (family or their lawyers); Georgia Department of Corrections (the agency that held him).