A US federal judge has dismissed a lawsuit brought forward by a transgender convicted killer who alleged that the Kansas Department of Corrections had discriminated against him. Thomas Preston Lamb, also known as Michelle Renee Lamb, 83, is serving three life sentences for crimes against women and is currently detained in a women’s facility in Topeka, Kansas. However, Lamb has been kept separate from the female inmates in a situation that he has complained is a form of discrimination which places his health at risk.
Last November, Lamb filed a legal complaint against Gov. Laura Kelly, as well as the prison warden and other staff at the Topeka Correctional Facility and the Kansas Department of Corrections, demanding immediate transfer into the women’s general population. Lamb also requested his security risk status be removed and expunged from his record.
In his complaint, Lamb argued that Gov. Kelly was “complicit” in “hate crimes” against him, which he alleged involved designating him a security risk and keeping him segregated from the female inmate population. Lamb repeatedly described himself as a “female transgender” person in the suit.
In a hand-written complaint dated September 2023, Lamb argued that his designation as a high security risk, which was 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.”
On July 8, however, U.S. District Judge John Lungstrum dismissed Lamb’s lawsuit. The court decision referred to Lamb with feminine pronouns and stated that “Plaintiff has not shown that her housing assignment subjects her to atypical and significant hardship in relation to the ordinary incidents of prison life.”
In a last-ditch effort, Lamb responded by filing a motion for a preliminary injunction, which if successful, would have resulted in a temporary pause on proceedings. Though Lamb filed the motion four days after the ruling was already passed down, he dated the document July 8, the same day as the suit’s dismissal. Within the document, Lamb argued that his constitutional rights had been violated and that he would suffer “irreparable harm” should his requests not be granted.
Judge Lungstrum dismissed Lamb’s claim, stating, “Nothing in Plaintiff’s motion warrants reconsideration of the Court’s Memorandum and Order dismissing this case,” and the suit was ordered closed.
According to court documents, Lamb was designated as a security risk just two months after being transferred in to the women’s facility on January 27, 2023. Prison officials had intended to place him among the women in the general population, but became concerned after he refused to answer questions about his past crimes during an intake evaluation.
Within weeks it was reported that Lamb 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.
Lamb has also had three disciplinary reports lodged against him. One of the complaints involves 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.’”
Throughout the legal proceedings, Lamb displayed malicious behavior which included attempts to threaten and blackmail female prison officials.
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.
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.”
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.
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.”
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.
Reduxx uncovered news reports from that time and revealed that Lamb had 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 told Dr. Joseph Satten, a psychiatrist specializing in criminology at the Menninger Foundation in Topeka, 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.
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.
As previously reported by Reduxx, 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.”
However, Lamb’s attempts at a transfer to a female facility were realized in January 2023, after he underwent a genital surgery at the University of Kansas that he claims he obtained with the assistance of the ACLU.