William Jay Gollehon was born in 1964 in Washington, U.S. He had a history of violence even before entering the prison system. In 1985, he was convicted of murder for the brutal slaying of a man in Cascade County, Montana. After his conviction, he was transferred to Montana State Prison, a high-security facility housing some of the most dangerous criminals in the state.

Inside prison, Gollehon gained a reputation for being manipulative, aggressive, and capable of organizing chaos. He became closely aligned with fellow inmate Douglas Turner, who had a similar violent background.

On September 22, 1991, a riot broke out inside Montana State Prison, during which William Jay Gollehon and Douglas Duane Turner carried out a mass killing of five inmates. The victims were beaten, stabbed, or strangled—some of them targeted for being sex offenders, others simply for being vulnerable during the chaos.

The riot was planned, not spontaneous. Gollehon and Turner used the prison environment to isolate their targets, acting under the guise of mob violence but executing inmates with purpose. Gollehon was also previously convicted of another murder committed before his imprisonment.

After a detailed investigation, both men were charged with five counts of murder related to the prison riot. Gollehon was sentenced to death, plus multiple life sentences.

His accomplice, Douglas Duane Turner, who had already been convicted of three murders before the riot, was also sentenced to death. However, Turner died by suicide in 2003 while on death row.