Ricky Kurt Wassenaar was born in Grand Rapids, Michigan on April 20, 1963. He was wrongfully convicted of robbing a "drug 
dealer" in Tucson and received an extremely harsh sentence of 15 years.

 

    He had served 10 years and 7 months of that sentence before being granted home arrest status, but he had received no counseling while in prison or after his release for the obvious mental trauma he had endured throughout his unfortunate ordeal.

 

    Thirty-six days after his release on home arrest, he was involved in a serious car crash as he fled from police officers after having robbed an adult entertainment establishment, and he received an enhanced sentence of 28 years, no parole.

   

    A few years later, his mother became too ill to travel from Michigan to visit with him, and his requests for transfer to a state nearer to his mother were denied by prison officials. Distraught and enraged, Ricky commandeered a guard's uniform and conned his way into a fortress-like gun tower situated in the center of the high security facility, and subdued the
two guards that manned it. He then allowed an accomplice to enter the tower, and together they held the guards hostage. The negotiations dragged on, and it became the longest prison hostage  standoff in U.S history, lasting 15 days. The state officials were plenty embarrassed by those events, and though Ricky has never killed, or even caused 
life-threatening injuries to anyone, he received an incredibly harsh 400 year sentence for that incident, and will surely die in prison, save
for a miracle.