Psycho. Fresh, Peace Maker, Lee 3, G-Town, Turtle, and C-Murda are just a few of the prison nicknames some of the prisoners on my cellblock go by. Where these nicknames come from varies in nature and tales. Some are hilarious tales that tiptoe on the brink of complete I-JUST-MADE-THIS-SHIT-UP-AS-I-WAS-TALKING-TO-YOU type funny.
But the rumors are true. No one in prison goes by their real name.
It is sort of a prison taboo to be called what your parents named you. I’m guessing it takes away from the false persona that mostly everyone walks around the prison with. Prison nicknames, however, at times takes a life of their own. Some are self-appointed, while others are picked up unwillingly.
For example, a new guy comes into the cellblock and a person asks him where he is from.
He responds, “Galverston.” The guy questioning him then says, “Oh you are out that G-Town,” am abbreviated term for Galverston. Next thing you know that is what everyone is calling him. If he does not make an assertive effort to correct anyone and give another nickname, then G-Town it is. That nickname can last as long as he is on this cellblock or it could become that person’s official nickname for good.
Other names, like Peace Maker, are self-appointed and most of the time it does not fit the character of the person carrying it. The guy in here who has that name walks around with all of these mystifying books and acts as if he was one of the wizards out of the
Harry Potter movies, but the truth of the matter is there is nothing peaceful about him. He loves going around creating mischief. If he is not engaging in a frivolous argument with the guards, he is yelling at the top of his lungs on how he wants to hurt somebody. But he is known as Peace Maker.
C-Murda is the guy who wants you to believe that he is inside for killing everyone in his town. “I’m telling you, when I saw a person, I murdered them,” he would say without a blink of an eye, “that’s how I got the name C-Murda.” This is a guy that would not harm a cockroach if it crossed his path. The entire “When I see a person I murdered them,” is nothing but a defense tactic.
Names like Turtle, well, that is pretty much self-explanatory. The guy is small and round, and moves like a Turtle, so someone along the way gave him that nickname and it stuck!
Nicknames are not exclusively assigned to prisoners. Most prison guards have nicknames, too and almost 100% of them are assigned by the prisoners. You got “Shakedown Brown.” Officer Brown loves going inside of prisoner’s cells and conducting searches. So he wears his nickname proudly.
You got “Gangsta Granny.” She is the guard that should be off enjoying retirement with her great-great grandchildren but instead is working inside the prison. Because of her age, most prisoners think they can slip a prison rule violation by her, but for an old woman she is on top of her game.
“That old woman is gangsta,” a prisoner will say when someone asked them to violate a prison rule around her. “We are going to solitary confinement fucking with her.” So, she became known as “Gangsta Granny” and everybody knows not to try her. Then we have Officer “Obama” and Officer “Britney Spears.” Neither of them even remotely look like the person whom they have been nicknamed after, of course, but somehow a prisoner or group of prisoners assigned them those nicknames and they stuck.
Nevertheless, prison nicknames are mostly shed the moment that one leaves prison. With the exceptions of very few people, no one takes their prison nickname back into the free society.
The best part about prison nicknames is when you get a chance to call a person by it in the presence of his family or childhood friends in the visitation room. That is some of the funny shit you could ever encounter! There you would see a guy like C-Murda — the guy who sees a person and murders them, sitting drinking a coke with his elderly mother. They probably are chatting about God knows what when you suddenly walk up and say, “Hey what’s up C-Murda?”
Typically, his mother would respond, “C-Murda, what type of name is that?” And, if you hang around long enough she will reveal for you his true nickname, which oftentimes is a thousands miles away from anything that has to do with murder.
“That’s Poo Poo,” his mother would reveal to everyone’s surprise and C-Murda’s embarrassment.
And so it was, “Poo Poo,” the prisoners would echo from the visitation room, if nothing else but to take a jab at C-Murda. “How in the hell did Poo-Poo become C-Murda?” For the next few days guys would go around calling C-Murda by Poo-Poo — until the point where he begins to want to fight people for calling him that.
“Only my mother can; call me that,” C-Murda would warn the guys so they would digress.
Jeremy is serving 75 years in Texas for murder. His website is joinjeremy.com.
He is a former staff writer for the Texas Prison Newspaper, The ECHO. His writings have also been published by The Marshall Report, The Crime Report, and Minutes After Six.
Jeremy Busby #881193
James Allred Unit
2101 FM 3694
Iowa Park, TX 76367
