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Famous Inmates
Famous inmates of the Eastern State Penintentiary include many notorious gangsters, criminals, escape artists, and murderers.
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Alphonse "Scarface" Capone
Chicago’s most famous mob boss spent eight months at Eastern State in 1929-1930. Arrested for carrying a concealed, deadly weapon this was Capone’s first prison sentence. His time in Eastern was spent in luxury compared to the other inmates; Capone had oriental rugs, a cabinet radio, free time, and access to the Deputy Warden’s phone.
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Victor "Babe" Andreoli
Convicted of killing a Pennsylvania State Trooper in 1937 Andreoli arrived at Eastern State Penitentiary to serve a life sentence for 1st degree murder. He escaped in 1943, apparently by hiding in a delivery truck that was leaving the prison. Several weeks later the police caught up to Andreoli in a Chester, PA diner where he was shot dead.
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Joe Buzzard
Perhaps no family had a closer connection to Eastern State than the Buzzards of Pennsylvania’s Welsh Mountains. From the late 1800’s to the mid 1900’s five brothers (Abe, Ike, Jacob, Martin, and Joe) were all imprisoned at Eastern. Joe Buzzard, the youngest of the clan, considered himself one of the premier horse thieves in the country. A remnant of a past era, Joe was the only horse thief in the prison when he entered Eastern for the final time in 1939. There was a time when horse theft was the number one crime at the prison.
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Leo Callahan
Of the approximately 100 inmates to escape from Eastern State, Leo Callahan is the only one that got away with it. Assault and Battery with Intent to Kill brought Callahan to ESP and a makeshift wooden ladder brought him out. In 1923 Callahan and five other inmates built a ladder that they used to scale the East wall of the penitentiary. His five accomplices were all eventually recaptured, but Callahan is still at large (though he would be over 100 years old).
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