A dedicated career Marine from Agana, Guam, Staff Sgt. Tomas Aguon Gali was a husband and a father to two children. At 27 years old, he was a respected platoon leader serving in the U.S. Marine Corps, committed to his country and his family. His life was a world away from that of the young, troubled Marine who served under his command, a man whose violent impulses would soon erupt with devastating consequences.
On October 19, 1974, while stationed in the Philippines, Staff Sgt.
Gali was murdered by a 19-year-old subordinate, Private Clayton Anthony Fountain. The motive was shockingly trivial: Fountain held a grudge against his platoon leader for a recent reprimand. In a carefully planned act of violence, Fountain stole a pistol from the armory of his ship, went ashore, and used the weapon to rob a local guard of his shotgun.
Fountain then located Staff Sgt. Gali and, without exchanging any words, shot him once in the chest, killing him. The cold-blooded murder was only the beginning of the rampage. Immediately after shooting his superior officer, Fountain took five people hostage before he was finally apprehended. The promising life of a decorated Marine and loving family man was extinguished in an instant, the first victim of a man who would go on to kill many more.
Clayton Anthony Fountain’s capture for the murder of Tomas Gali was the start of a long and violent criminal career, almost all of it spent behind bars. He was sentenced to life imprisonment for the premeditated murder of his platoon leader. This, however, was not a deterrent. Incarceration only provided Fountain with a new environment for his homicidal rage. He was eventually sent to the United States Penitentiary at Marion, Illinois, then the highest-security prison in the federal system.
Inside Marion, Fountain became a member of the notorious Aryan Brotherhood prison gang and was soon labeled the "Most Dangerous Prisoner" in the federal system. His violence was relentless and brutal. Over the next decade, he used homemade knives to murder three fellow inmates and a correctional officer. His methods included shooting, bludgeoning, and stabbing. Fountain’s horrific actions, along with those of another inmate, led to a decades-long lockdown at the prison and spurred the creation of the federal supermax prison system.
For his many crimes, Clayton Anthony Fountain was ultimately convicted of five counts of first-degree murder and one count of second-degree murder, accumulating four life sentences. He would spend the rest of his life in prison, dying of a heart attack in 2004 at the age of 48. While his reign of terror eventually ended, it began with the senseless killing of Staff Sgt. Tomas Aguon Gali, a man whose service and sacrifice are not forgotten.
