Published: October 11, 2008 07:29 pm         

“John Boy” Frierson reportedly hangs himself

PICAYUNE — Only months after being moved to federal custody in another state, the man convicted of murdering four members of his family was found hanged in his cell.

News of the convicted man’s death had been circulating in the community for some time, but only months after the fact and a Freedom of Information Act request by the 15th District Attorney’s office was limited information on the incident provided.

District Attorney Hal Kittrell said his office filed the request shortly after he heard of the death, but did not receive information until recently. A letter from the U.S. Department of Justice’s Federal Bureau of Prisons states that only one record was available, Frierson’s death certificate. That letter is dated Sept. 18, 2008.

The death certificate lists Frierson’s death as self-inflicted hanging. His cause of death is listed as asphyxia due to hanging. Frierson, 35, died on May 27 of this year.

Apparently Frierson was transferred to federal custody earlier this year. Mississippi Department of Corrections spokesperson Tara Booth said Frierson was transferred to Colorado Federal Prison on Jan. 14 of this year. The only cause she would release for the transfer was “security reasons”.

Booth said while Frierson was in MDOC custody, he was being kept in maximum security with his own cell.

Frierson was serving time for the murders of his grandmother, step-grandfather, aunt and his 13 year-old brother, which occurred Sept. 15, 1990. In Aug. of 1991, Frierson was found guilty on four counts of capital murder and sentenced to life in the custody of MDOC, a press release from Kittrell’s office states.

Nine years after the conviction of his family’s murder, Frierson and another inmate were charged with the stabbing death of a fellow inmate, who reportedly was attacked with a shank, or homemade knife.