Douglas Duane Turner was born around 1971 in Glendive, Montana. He began his criminal activities as a teenager, committing his first known murder in 1987. By April 1988, Turner had pleaded guilty to three counts of deliberate homicide, two counts of felony assault, and one count of aggravated burglary. He was sentenced to three consecutive life terms in prison.

While incarcerated at Montana State Prison, Turner became closely associated with fellow inmate William Gollehon. 

On September 22, 1991, during a planned riot at Montana State Prison, Turner and Gollehon led a mass murder of five fellow inmates. The riot was violent and calculated, with the two killers using the chaos to target specific prisoners, many of whom were suspected sex offenders or inmates they viewed as weak.

Turner, already convicted of three separate murders before the riot, was directly involved in beating, stabbing, and strangling five inmates during the event. The murders were especially brutal, with bodies showing signs of torture and overkill.

Following the riot, Turner was convicted alongside Gollehon and sentenced to death plus multiple life sentences for the five prison killings. However, Turner would never be executed. In 2003, while on Montana's death row, Douglas Duane Turner died by suicide, ending his life before the state could carry out the sentence.