A trans-identified male inmate serving three life sentences for crimes against women has filed a discrimination lawsuit in an attempt to be transferred into the general population among female prisoners. Thomas Preston Lamb, also known as Michelle Renee Lamb, is currently detained in a women’s facility in Topeka, Kansas, but has been kept separate from the female inmates — an arrangement Lamb deems unacceptable.
Lamb, 82, alleges he is being discriminated against by the staff of Topeka Correctional Facility and the Kansas Department of Corrections on the grounds that he is being held in restricted housing instead of being allowed to frequently interact with incarcerated women.
Lamb first filed his legal claim against Governor Laura Kelly, Topeka Correctional Facility, and the Kansas Department of Corrections last November, and a ruling is expected to be reached by early May.
Authorities at Topeka Correctional Facility (TCF) made the decision to separate Lamb from the female prison population due to both his history as a sex offender and his conduct while in prison. Lamb, who was quietly transferred into the female prison estate in January of 2023, has repeatedly ignored no-contact orders and has been sexually harassing female correctional officers. On at least one occasion, he was charged with lewd conduct with a female inmate.
According to a report by the Kansas Department of Corrections (KDOC), the warden at Topeka Correctional Facility had intended to house the convicted killer among the general population of female inmates, but became concerned after he refused to answer questions about his crimes during an intake evaluation used to assess a prisoner’s psychological condition.
Prison officials said Lamb’s refusal to answer questions about his past was “worrying” because his “most serious crimes are violent actions specifically against women, and because this would be the first time in 50 years that Plaintiff would be co-habitating with women … Plaintiff’s refusal to answer was a red flag.”
The report also explained that Lamb’s security risk classification, which labels him a potential threat to the women held at TCF, was due to the nature of his crimes and the potential risk to other inmates. Lamb was then placed in restrictive housing with the aim of eventually integrating him into the general female population.
However, Lamb’s security risk status remains in place because his conduct has been “predatory towards another resident and manipulative towards security staff,” an allegation that Lamb has disputed in a Prison Rape Elimination Act (PREA) complaint.
Lamb has had a disciplinary report for violating a rule against lewd activity by giving a female inmate “a hug that continue[d] through another squeeze — appearing to be a ‘double hug.'”
Lamb additionally had repeatedly asked a corrections officer if his genitals “looked good and natural” as a result of the surgery he had, and posed questions to a different officer about her own anatomy and sexual habits. The ongoing sexual remarks led to an order from supervisor Major Dona Hook that Lamb must always be escorted by two female prison officers.
In a hand-written complaint dated September 2023, Lamb argued that his designation as a security risk, established just two months after he was transferred into the women’s prison in January of last year, constituted a “hate crime” against him.
“This is a grievance against everyone involved in placing me on OSR [other security risk] and HR [housing restriction] status, and keeping me on this status for what is now six months,” Lamb wrote. “I request I be placed on general population status immediately, and all information used to place me on this OSR status be removed from my file.”
In a separate grievance letter filed the same month, Lamb claimed that the restrictions placed on him were so “severe” that he had been suffering from anxiety, had developed rashes and elevated blood pressure, and was at risk of death by heart attack or stroke. He also stated he had begun experiencing chronic diarrhea as a result of his lack of access to the women’s general population.
“I have had numerous bouts of diarrhea due to my high levels of depression, anxiety, and stress caused by this toxic and restrictive environment,” Lamb wrote. “I’m being treated as if I’m public enemy number one here at TCF, being escorted by two officers all the time. I feel miserable and wake up crying at night. I’m denied the most basic need, especially for us females: the need to have close contact and relationships with other females.”
Court records indicate that Lamb had developed a relationship with a troubled 30-year old woman with a history of disruptive behavior. This situation had caused Lamb to “repeatedly break restrictive housing no-contact rules and orders.”
Prison officials also noted that Lamb had already been allowed multiple exceptions to housing rules, including permission to buy makeup and earrings. Since claiming a female identity in 2006, Lamb has been provided with “female undergarments” by the Kansas Department of Corrections (KDOC) while incarcerated, with the intimate clothing described as “therapeutic for Lamb’s gender dysphoria.” He has also been provided with estrogen and testosterone-blocking drugs.
In response to Lamb’s grievances, warden David McCabe noted that Lamb was being offered time out of his cell, time outdoors, group interactions, and “full access to medical and mental health practitioners,” and urged Lamb to “engage in positive interactions and activities” in order to work towards having his risk status removed.
Leading up to his November lawsuit, Lamb had been threatening prison officials in an attempt to increase his access to the female prison population.
In July of 2023, Lamb sent three letters to TCF Reentry Coordinator Angela Golightley, and the supervisor for his Unit Team Manager Linda Hull-Viera, who had filed the disciplinary report against him. In the letters, Lamb complained that his health was seriously impaired by his restrictions and offered an out-of-court settlement to his demands.
If the administrators did not comply with his wishes, Lamb threatened to “send the ACLU a copy of my lawsuit.” The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has been behind multiple lawsuits across the United States which have resulted in male rapists and criminals being transferred into women’s prisons.
The letters expressed that if Golightley removed Lamb’s security risk status, expunged the history from his record, supported him for a parole release within the year, and transferred him into the general population, “it will all go away.”
Lamb, in a sinister tone, encouraged Golightley to personally meet with him: “Come see me so we can come to an agreement, and this can all stop now. It’s up to you.” He further threatened to pass information about his lawsuit on to a reporter, Blaise Mesa, for Kansas City Beacon, “so he can do the story he wants to do… It will not make you look good. I have his word.”
In his lawsuit, Lamb is being represented by Legal Director at the ACLU of Kansas, Sharon Brett. In recent months, her listed biography on the ACLU Kansas website was made hidden behind a login and password prompt.
Lamb, who is described as “female” in the state Criminal Justice Information System and referred to as a “transgender female” in court records, was convicted of kidnapping and murdering Karen Sue Kemmerly, a 24 year-old student at the University of Kansas-Missouri, around December 5, 1969.
Lamb murdered Kemmerly after she commented he was a “handsome man,” and told him he was “very capable sexually,” which sent him into a violent rage as he saw himself as a woman. Lamb strangled the woman to death, and left her nude corpse in a cornfield. The young student’s body was found approximately five days after her death on December 7.
In addition to Kemmerly, Lamb was also convicted on charges of kidnapping 18-year-old Patricia Ann Childs on January 15, 1970. Childs was returned to her family after her father paid out a $3,500 ransom demanded by Lamb. During the ordeal, Lamb bound Childs’ hands and raped her, according to court documents, though he was never formally charged for the sexual assault.
Lamb was ultimately convicted of two counts of kidnapping and one count of first degree murder, and is now serving three consecutive life sentences in prison. While in prison, Thomas Preston Lamb began going by Michelle Renee Lamb, and in July 2006, filed for a legal name change.
Yet despite claiming to be a woman and undergoing genital surgery and hormone supplements, Lamb’s record of violence against women indicates a disturbing pattern of sadistic sexual pathology.
On February 25, 1970, Lamb was ordered to undergo a psychiatric evaluation. Lamb, who waived his right to a jury trial, was interviewed by Dr. Joseph Satten, a psychiatrist specializing in criminology at the Menninger Foundation in Topeka, who filmed the exchange. The video was shown in court as evidence to support an insanity plea. Before playing the recording for the spectators, Judge Harold Riggs warned of “vulgar and obscene” content.
“In my opinion, the defendant’s thinking was severely disturbed at the time of the crimes and he did not have the normal knowledge of the nature and quality of his acts alleged to have been committed,” Satten testified. “Now, as to the second element, as to knowing whether they’re wrong, I’m a little more uncertain.”
Lamb told Satten that he “thought he was a girl” when he carried out the crimes against the two women. It was Satten’s view that Lamb was “intelligent” and aware of the crimes he committed. However, he emphasized “peculiarities” in his personality.
“At times, during the course of the kidnappings, there must have been some awareness that what he was doing was wrong. But during both of the kidnappings, he was in a peculiar state of mind in which he felt himself to be a girl,” Satten said.
The doctor went on to blame the “female version” of Lamb for the crimes, insinuating that the “male version” of Lamb was not mentally present during the time of the offenses.
“Maybe ‘she’ knew the nature and quality of it, maybe ‘she’ knew what was being done was wrong, but the normal Thomas Lamb, I believe, probably did not,” Satten added.
The doctor continued that Lamb had an “overriding preoccupation that all of his problems revolved around the need to have a sex reassignment operation.” In a seemingly contradictory statement, Satten said that Lamb did not hold prejudices against women, but believed “they have all the advantages.”
The convicted killer has repeatedly used the legal system to his advantage. In a 2017 motion filed by Lamb against the KDOC, he alleged that his Eighth Amendment rights against cruel and unusual punishment were being violated. Lamb had demanded “more comprehensive treatment of [his] gender dysphoria, access to more female items in prison, recognition of [his] name change, and transfer to a female-only prison facility.”
Lamb’s original 2017 request to be transferred to a women’s correctional facility was initially denied by District Judge Eric Melgren. In the decision, it was stated that “Lamb is not entitled to transfer to a female facility.”
He continued, referring to Lamb with feminine pronouns: “Thomas was ordered to serve three life sentences so that he would never kill or hurt another woman again. Thomas is now Michelle, but Michelle is still a convicted kidnapper and murderer of women, and the justification for her sentence has not changed.”
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