Letters From Celebrities Behind Bars

What happens when a well-known celebrity is forced to do time behind bars? They get pen pal letters from Thomas Loudamy. The Northern California man has greeted just about every single high profile jailbird with a note, and what's even more impressive is that the stars actually write back. His star-studded list of correspondents includes former survivor champ Richard Hatch and domestic goddess Martha Stewart. Loudamy has also sent letters to more infamous prisoners like Richard Ramirez, Charles Manson and Andrea Yates.

Most recently, Loudamy received a missive from Richard Hatch and TMZ has a copy of the handwritten reply letter. Hatch responds with a simple "thanks for your kind sentiments" but is too busy writing his husband and family to be a regular pen pal.

TMZ spoke to Loudamy and asked how he approaches writing to a high profile prisoner like Stewart or Hatch. He says he gives "a general description of myself, 5'9, 160 lbs., brown hair, blue eyes. Then I went on to say that I could use someone to talk to and share, and thought maybe they could also. I told them that I'm sure they received lots of mail, but that if they could find a moment to respond to me, it would mean so much to me. I always hand write my letters (instead of typed), which normally gets a response, because written letters are more personal."

One of his favorite pen pals is Charles Harrelson, father of actor Woody Harrelson. Mr. Harrelson is serving two life sentences in connection to the of killing Federal judge John H. Wood. In his letters, Harrelson talks in length about his fondness for Texas as his two youngest children were born in Midland. He also gives, in amazing detail, a description of the exact measurements of his cell, his everyday activities and how he has come to terms with the fact that he will die in prison. TMZ also obtained one of the letters written by Mr. Harrelson to Mr. Loudamy.