Accused cannibal dies in prison

Former Mass. man preyed on children

Nathaniel Bar-Jonah had been sentenced to 130 years, offering no opportunity for parole and ensuring he would die in prison.

One of Massachusetts's most notorious criminals, once accused of cannibalizing a young boy in Montana, died in prison in the northwestern state yesterday, hobbled after a battle with diabetes.

Nathaniel Bar-Jonah, a 51-year-old Massachusetts native, had served a fraction of his 130-year sentence for kidnapping, raping, and choking a teenage neighbor. Foul play is not suspected in his death.

Bar-Jonah was never tried on a separate cannibalism charge. But authorities in Montana had said they had evidence he murdered, butchered, and cooked 10-year-old Zachary Ramsey in 1996, serving his remains in meals to his neighbors without telling them. Those charges were dropped in 2002 when Ramsey's mother, Rachel Howard, who had expressed misgivings about the death penalty, told prosecutors that she was prepared to testify that her son was alive. His remains were never found.

Though Bar-Jonah's worst crimes occurred in Montana, he drew national attention to Massachusetts because he had been allowed to move out of state in 1991, even though he had been accused of several crimes against children.

In 1977, Bar-Jonah, dressed as a police officer, kidnapped two boys as they left a movie theater in Shrewsbury. He tried to assault them, but one escaped and found help. The former Dudley man served 12 years in the Massachusetts Treatment Center for the Sexually Dangerous in Bridgewater. Born David P. Brown, he changed his name while incarcerated. He told acquaintances he wanted people to think he was Jewish so he could feel persecution.

Forty-three days after his 1991 release, he was charged with assaulting another Massachusetts boy. A judge released him on the condition that he move in with his mother in Montana. Once there, he continued to prey on children.

His 130-year sentence offered no opportunity for parole, ensuring he would die in prison.

Yesterday, Bar-Jonah was found unresponsive in his prison cell just after 6 a.m., said Mike Mahoney, warden of the Montana State Prison in Deer Lodge. After guards failed to resuscitate him, Bar-Jonah was pronounced dead at 7:06 a.m. at the Powell County Memorial Hospital, Mahoney said.

The cause of death will not be known until officials perform an autopsy, Mahoney said.

"I would not characterize him as a picture of good health," Mahoney said.

Bar-Jonah stood 5 feet 8 inches tall and weighed 252 pounds at the time of his death, and had had one of his legs amputated just below the knee in recent weeks as a result of diabetes, Mahoney said.

Earlier in his prison stay, he was a frequent complainer, but had been less argumentative in recent years and was living in the prison's low-security compound at the time of his death, Mahoney said.

Before that, Bar-Jonah spent most of the last six years segregated from the normal prison population because of the notoriety of his crimes. He had been beaten up at the county jail before he was sentenced and transferred to the prison in 2002.

Last year, he was moved into the general population without incident, Mahoney said.

Bar-Jonah had no visitors during his six-year stay, according to Captain Scott McNiel, a shift commander on duty yesterday.