New York Times article

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Benjamiin Weiser, New York Times
(Jailed Gang Leader Wins Right to Mingle With 3 Notorious Fellow Inmates, March 11, 1999)

When the nation's most infamous terrorists -- the Oklahoma City bomber, the Unabomber and the World Trade Center bomber -- are ordered out of solitary confinement so that they can have one hour of exercise in the nation's most secure federal prison, what do they do?

They apparently just chat.

But now, a fourth notorious prisoner, the convicted leader of the Latin Kings gang, has successfully petitioned to join in, even though he is considered so dangerous that he cannot even write to anyone except his close relatives and his lawyer. A federal judge decided that there was no harm in letting the man, Luis Felipe, take part.

''This is the oddest coffee klatsch in the history of western civilization,'' said Steven M. Cohen, a former prosecutor on the case who now works in private practice.

The four inmates share little in common ideologically. Timothy McVeigh is a right-wing extremist convicted of carrying out the Oklahoma City bombing, while Ramzi Yousef is a Muslim terrorist who masterminded the World Trade Center attack. Theodore Kaczynski is a mathematics whiz and loner whose string of bombings was carried out from the woods of Montana, while Luis Felipe is a Bronx street tough known for his ruthless hold -- even from prison -- on a Hispanic gang. Felipe was convicted in 1996 on 18 counts of federal racketeering charges for ordering three murders.

The four are being held 23 hours a day in special 7-by-12-foot cells where they are not able to glimpse into the eyes of other prisoners and must take their meals through slots in their cell doors. The prison, the ADX Maximum Security Facility in Florence, Colorado, is so secure that it is known as Super Max.

The three charter members of the prison rec group, McVeigh, Kaczynski, and Yousef, who are otherwise allowed no contact with each other, are permitted to spend their one-hour exercise period in separate cages in the prison yard, speaking to each other through the mesh fences. Because of their distance from each other, they must speak loudly, so prison officials can hear what they say.

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