FURIOUS FIGHT AMID FLAMES

Hokitika Guardian, 20 September 1929, Page 7

FURIOUS FIGHT AMID FLAMES

GUARDS AND CONVICTS SHOT.

“HOWLING BEDLAM” OF WOMEN.

NEW YORK, July 20

The ivy-clad Auburn Prison, regarded' for 112 years as a model home-for convicts, is to-day recovering from the maddest and most sensational revolt in the history of the New York State penal institutions. The prison shops, the Bertillon room with its documents for criminal indentification, and the kitchen are destroyed by fire; two convicts are dead, four have escaped, and eleven are in the prison hospital and six guards are woundded, one so seriously that he is not expected to live. The combat between the rebellious prisoners and their guards was waged throughout the prison yesterday from 1 p.m.. until 7 p.m. The prison holds 1,700 inmates and hundreds of them who were caught in a cross-fire between the guards and the convict ringleaders were interested mainly in saving themselves from death at the hands of enemies or friends.

SHOT WHILE COOKING. » One of the convicts was killed while quietly "preparing a meal for his fellow prisoners when the riot began and another prisoner shot him through the eye.

Local fire brigades played an heroic part in the turmoil. Heedless of the bullets, the firemen clambered over the walls with their long hose-lines but no sooner was the water turned on than convicts armed with stolen axes and kitchen knives severed the connections.

The “grapevine telegraph” which links up all prisons, had evidently spread the news through Suburn of last -Monday’s rebellion at the Daiinemora Prison.

If this set the riot moving the authorities believe that outside assistance provided some ‘of the' arms and ammunition which made the Auburn outbreak so much more dangerous than that at the other institution.

“TRUSTY” ACCOMPLICE. A group of about 40 men are supposed to have been the ringleaders, who used a “trusty” (privileged convict) as a means of persuading one of the guards to open a door leading on to the yard. They fell upon the guard and beat him unconscious on a concrete floor Then the ringleaders invaded the arsenal and seized 40 riot guns, lighted torches and hastened to destroy the hated workshops.

Four who escaped tried to make the guard at the main gate give up his key When he refused they placed him in front and rushed, up a stairway to the top of the prison wall. With their living shield as a protection, the four men dropped from the wall. Two escaped in a waiting motorcar. The other two tossed a taxicab driver out of his own vehicle and made off with it.

The news of the riot soon spread to the adjoining women’s prison, andisoon that was a howling Bedlam as the women screamed from excitement ana fear.

The heat of the day—the tempera-

ture was 92 degrees in the shade— the over-crowding of the prison, which had at leat oCO more inmates that it holds normally, and the blaze of flames in all directions, made a vast, restless agitated picture—a maelstrom of furious passions as the guards sought to drive the convicts back to their cells.

While the melee was at its height State troopers, armed with revolvers and under cover of machine-guns, descended into the seething yard and began driving the prisoners out of their shelters. As the groups of convicts dwindled the backbone of the riot was broken. DESPERATE “LIFERS”.

The scene from the prison walls as the tumult subsided towards nightfall was vivid in the extreme. Odd fires flickered still in places. All the prison electric lighting had been destroyed, and improvised lights were installed by electricians on the walls.

Some desperate “lifers” still herded m an undamaged building, but they were covered by an array of guns on

four sides. Jt was all over—save for the investigation as to how the prison officials were caught naping. An ironic comment on yesterday’s battle is the recent statement by Warden Jennings, who said:

We have, to as great an extent as possible, the self-governing system in Auburn. We are trying to inculcate self-government in the individual. Jt is lack of discipline that makes the felon incapable of self-government. With this ideal in view the prison has motion pictures, a bank and a number of baseball teams.

The four men who escaped are still at large. One of them is Arthur Barry known as “the Gentleman Burglar,” who is serving a sentence of 25 years.