Reviled serial killer Dana Sue Gray bares all about her ‘terrifying and disgusting’ sex attack at the hands of her trans prison cellmate

Incarcerated serial killer Dana Sue Gray has revealed how she was sexually abused by a male-to-female trans cellmate in prison. California

Gray rose to fame in the 1990s for stabbing and strangling three elderly neighbors to death so she could steal their credit cards and buy nice clothes and massages.

Now a lifer at Central California Women’s Facility (CCWF), she says she has been sexual attacked by one of the trans prisoners now serving their sentences in women’s prisons.

Gray, 66, described a “terrifying and disgusting” attack by the cellmate, who has not undergone gender reassignment surgery, during which he pulled down his pants and “shoved his dick in my face.”

Dana Sue Gray, a serial killer who murdered three elderly women in 1994, pictured here in court in 2004.

Gray and other female inmates at the Central California Women’s Facility (CCWF) say their lives changed after trans inmates were allowed to live there.

Still, the alleged attack sheds light on life in California’s women’s prisons, which have seen increasing numbers of sexual assaults since 2021, when a new law allowed trans women request to switch there.

In telephone interviews with the Independent Women’s Forum (IWF), a campaign group, Gray reveals details of the attack and her fears about trapping women with biological men.

When Gray learned early last year that she would be sharing her dorm room with a transgender inmate, she said she “wasn’t bothered by it” and saw an opportunity to “educate” herself about the trans experience.

She and the cellmate were “very friendly” at first, she says.

That quickly felt “a bit strange” as their interactions became stressful and part of an “abusive relationship,” she says.

He criticized her, said she would die in prison and urged her to stop attending college, she says.

Gray says her 6-foot-2 roommate, who we are not naming, became aggressive.

“He came into my bed, pulled down his pants and shoved his dick in my face,” she says.

It was “terrifying and disgusting,” she says. But she had the means to order him to withdraw, which he did.

He did not touch her, she says, calling the attack a “display of male dominance.”

The roommate tried again the next night, she says.

She kept her composure, she says, and told him, “Keep the F out of my area.” Never come near me. Don’t ever touch me.’

Gray told a security guard about the incident and the roommate was moved to another yard, she says.

She did not formally report the assault, she says, because there was no way to prove her allegations, and it would have started a process that would have isolated her, which worried her.

Gray rose to fame in the 1990s for stabbing and strangling three elderly neighbors to death.

CCWF’s sprawling complex in Chowchilla has been dogged for years by claims of sexual violence in its cells.

Gray says she killed her victims so she could steal their credit cards and buy nice clothes and massages.

Her experience — and other sexual assaults at the sprawling prison outside Chowchilla, in central California — expose flaws in Senate Bill 132, which enshrined the rights of trans prisoners, she says.

To request a transfer, trans inmates only need to confess their identity; taking cross-sex hormones or surgery is not necessary.

Requests are reviewed by a guard, guards, medical and mental health staff and a prison rape expert.

Supporters of the law, that’s what it was signed into law by Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom in September 2020say trans inmates are the most likely victims of abuse and deserve the safety of confinement that matches their gender identity.

But Gray, who has been behind bars since 1998, says SB132 has changed women’s prisons beyond recognition.

“It’s disgusting, and I have to be polite and deal with it for my own safety, and so I can have a less stressful day, but I don’t like it,” Gray said.

‘I don’t want them here. I want them to go away.’

Vrouwelijke gevangenen zijn vaak kwetsbaar en slecht opgeleid, zegt Gray. Some have consensual sex with trans cellmates.

The law shows how politicians have sacrificed female-only cell blocks to “troubled” trans-identified men, she says.

Gray killed three elderly women in the Canyon Lake area southeast of Los Angeles in 1994 and was captured after a fourth victim survived and identified her.

She took her victims’ credit cards and spent money on swimsuits, cowboy boots, a ski mask, vodka and a massage at a fancy spa.

Andrea Mew, who is researching SB132 for IWF, says even female murderers should be allowed to serve their sentences in all-female prisons.

“If someone of her reputation is now boldly raising the alarm, there is clearly cause for serious concern about the safety of all female prisoners.”

A spokeswoman said the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) does not comment on specific cases.

Gray, who proposed to her before the murders, is serving life without parole at the Central California Women’s Facility (CCWF) near Chowchilla, in central California.

CCWF inmates and staff celebrated a “day of action” for trans prisoners in January.

California’s Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom signed the transgender prison bill into law in September 2020.

Gray, pictured here as a young woman, says trans prisoners have made women’s prisons more dangerous

The department “investigates all allegations of sexual abuse, sexual misconduct and sexual harassment in accordance with our zero-tolerance policy,” she added.

The state system has approximately 1,997 trans and non-binary inmates.

Ongeveer 345 gevangenen in mannengevangenissen hebben verzocht om overplaatsing naar vrouwengevangenissen. Of these, 46 were approved, 64 rejected and 87 prisoners changed their minds. The rest is under review.

Only 16 inmates from women’s prisons have requested transfers; three have been approved.

The CDCR says it carefully reviews requests and only approves them if it is “safe to do so.”

The Transgender Law Center, the ACLU and others say trans inmates are most often victims of abuse and deserve protection.

Allowing them to serve their sentences in confinements that match their gender identity will make them safer, advocates say.

But women’s rights groups are warning of rising cases of rape and other horrors in what were once women-only cell blocks.

They point to Tremaine Carroll, 51, a 6-foot-2 male-to-female trans inmate who is accused of raping two female inmates in January after they were transferred to the Chowchilla prison.

One of them, a petite woman in her 30s, says Carroll forcibly penetrated her in the shower of the eight-bedroom dormitory they shared.

She was left traumatized by the attack and relives the ordeal every time she showers, her heart beating in her chest, she says.

Carroll is scheduled to return to Madera Superior Court on July 8 for a preliminary hearing.

Sharon Byrne, executive director of the Women’s Liberation Front, says SB 132 makes it too easy for male convicts seeking access to women or a way out of violence-ridden men’s prisons.

“Any man serving a sentence for violent assaults, rapes or crimes in a men’s prison sees an open door to easily get into a women’s prison,” Byrne says.

“Who isn’t going to take advantage of that?”