Imprisoned Serial Killer
Is Punished for Art Sales
A convicted serial killer
was sent to solitary confinement for two years yesterday for having
his autographs and artworks sold on the Internet.
The killer, Arthur Shawcross,
who strangled at least 11 prostitutes in Rochester and cannibalized
some of them, also lost the right to receive packages, buy items at
the prison store and make phone calls while he is in solitary, officials
said . Mr. Shawcross, 54, was also barred from arts and crafts programs
at the maximum-security Sullivan Correctional Facility.
Inmates are prohibited
from running any kind of business in prison. The authorities suspended
Mr. Shawcross's arts and crafts privileges a week ago when they learned
that an Internet auction site, eBay.com, was auctioning items bearing
his signature. ''An investigation determined that Shawcross would mail
the autographs and artworks from his cell to others and receive a fee
for those items,'' the State Department of Correctional Services said
in a statement. ''The items then would show up for public auction on
the Internet.'' Mr. Shawcross was convicted of the killings in 1991
and received a sentence of 250 years to life.
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