Indianapolis Times, Volume 41, Number 296, Indianapolis, Marion County, 22 April 1930 — Page 1

319 KILLED IN PRISON FIRE, 150 DYING

LACK OF PREPARATION TO CATTLE FLAMES BARED AS HEAVY LIFE TOLL CAUSE

Warden Admits That No Specific Plans for Emergency Made. TELLS TRAGEDY STORY Guards Forced to Take Keys Away From Captain to Save Victims. By United Pres* COLUMBUS, 0., April 22. Confusion and panic that followed terror, resulting from inadequate preparations for fire fighting, were among the major causes of the heavy loss of life in the Ohio state prison, state officials were advised today at the start of their investigation. Warden P. E. Thomas, the first witness called In the attempt to fix blame for a death toll of 319 and which was growing hourly admitted two guards forced a reluctant captain to give them the keys which would allow the convicts in the cells to have a chance for life. All evidence adduced so far indicates the blaze was incendiary—started by a group of convicts who hoped to escape in the confusion. “1 got the alarm of fire at 5:35 p. m. from a house man,” Thomas testified. ‘‘l went to the guard room and learned the fire was In I and K blocks. There was considerable smoke in the yard at that time. Refused to Give Up Keys *1 asked if the keys had been sent to the cell blocks so that prisoners could be freed. I was told that had been done. “I learned that Guards Little and Baldwin had taken the keys. They were night guards in G and H blocks. The prisoners were in the cell block when the fire broke out. Guard Watkinson was in charge of that block. He had the key opening the corridor.” ’’The prisoners had been locked tn ther cells by twelve guards in charge of companies. Those guards either have keys on their persons during the day or the keys hangs In the guard room. "They would have to have six keys to liberate all the prisoners. ’Little and Baldwin told me the keys were in the guardroom and that Captain M. C. Coddington, in charge, refused to give them the keys, so they took them away from him. Then they went to the cell block, where Guard Watkinson told them they could not let the men out. No Standing Orders “They took the key away from Watkinson to unlock the ranges. That was about 5:40 p. m.” There were no standing orders to guards for movements in case of fire. Warden Thomas admitted under examination. Warden Thomas stated that he had not learned the cause of the fire, but added “when fire occurs in prison, escape is usually the motive and usually the fire is of incendiary origin." Asked if he was eager to save the lives of the men, Warden Thomas said: "Yes. I was. I learned of the suffocation of the prisoners about fifteen minutes after it occurred. Baldwin and Little worked until they fell, then gave the prisoners keys. “The prisoners used the keys to unlock cells of the third and fourth range, but when they reached the fifth and sixth ranges they found the keys did not turn the locks. Then they took sledges and shattered the locks. The sledges were easily accessible." Can’t Make Rules Rigid Q. "Warden what did you consider your most important duty?" A. "After ordering the release of the prisoners, my duty was to prevent escapes. I should supplement that. You must remember there was no indication of tragedy. Deputy Woodward returned from Kent, 0., just at that time. I told him to take charge inside and that I would direct activities outside." Thomas said he heard no shots fired but “thought” he heard the hammering of sledges breaking cell locks. The warden explained the lack of specific instructions in case of fire. You can not make enough rules to cover every detail of emergencies,” he explained. “I can not for instance, write rules telling an officer when to shoot. Guard Watkinson did not exhibit good judgment when he hesitated to give up keys to Baldwin and Little.” The investigation was adjourned intfl later today.

THE FLASHY ROADSTER STOPPED WITH A SCREECH OF BRAKES AS MARY DELLA WAS HURLED TO THE PAVEMENT. TURN TO PAGE 13 FOR THE TIMES THRILLING SERIAL.

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The Indianapolis Times Fair and cool tonight with frost probably heavy; Wednesday fair with rising temperature.

VOLUME 41—NUMBER 296

Act of God’ Warden’s Daughter Feels Holocaust Couldn’t Be Averted.

Itu Unit'd Pres* COLUMBUS, 0., April 22. Through the devastated halls of Ohio state penitentiary today walked a tired little figure in a dress of blue Miss Amanda Thomas. Her eyes are dark with fatigue and weary with the things she has seen. For herself and her father, Warden P. E. Thomas, today was a day of overwhelming disaster. Out at the state lair grounds lie the bodies of 317 of the men the state of Ohio gave into her father’s keeping. She saw the start of the flames Monday night, heard the hour-long agony of dying men in the locked cells, saw the hundreds of bodies carried from the prison doors. In the face of It all, she Is serene. Standing with her back to the tall bars of the prison office door, supporting herself with one smokegrimed arm, she spoke. “It was simply an act of God. There wasn’t a thing we could do that wasn’t done. And that fire ” She covered her face with her hands. “It was fiendish! It started over there in a tiny little flame, and it raced right up through those cells—nothing could stop it! “All this about the guard refusing to unlock the cells, I simply can’t believe. It must be that everything possible was done. I just can’t think anything else."

CONVICTS HOLD BACK FIREMEN Chief Describes Battle to Curb Inmates. Bv United Pres COLUMBUS, 0., April 22. The vicious fight with crazed inmates bent on letting the entire institution go up in flames was described by Fire Chief C. W. Osburn whose battalion was one of the first in the grounds. "We were surrounded by frantic convicts,” he said. “They said we wem’t trying to put out the fire. They were mad with horror at seeing their comrades die up on the high tiers. “Finally a line was cut. And a convict with a knife in his hand was seen running away. I believe that all that saved us from murder was the fact that the prisoners had no real leader. There is no question but that all the fires were set. “The blaze spread faster than normally, and to add to our difficulties, shortly our big emergency gas tank was brought into the yard the convicts tried to break it open. “Their next move was to try to set fire to a dormitory on the east side by firing their mattresses. “Finally, we found another small blaze had been started by setting fire to rags and trash under the Catholic chapel steps. DENIES DRYS' CHARGE Black Duck Case Aired at Lobby Quiz. Itu United Press WASHINGTON. April 22.—Charges that the Association Against the Prohibition Amendment “manufactred” public sentiment against the coast guard shooting in the Black Duck case last December were made before the senate lobby committee today in Its investigation of prohibition lobbying.

ROBIN’S SONG OF LIFE AND LOVE MOCKS GREWSOME DEATH SCENE

COLUMBUS, 0.. April 22.—1n the trees of the state fairground today, a robin sang a song of the coming of spring and the sweetness of life. It sounded almost like a lie. For inside the great central exhibit hall of the state fair was a sight so supremely terrible it seemed the robhi's song must belong to different worlds. Through the block-long wings of the exhibit hall stood row upon row of white tables. And on each

Victims Dragged From Blazing Cell Block

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PRISONERS HEROIC IN RESCUE FEATS Bu United Press COLUMBUS, 0,, April 22.—Epochal feats of heroism stood out today as the only bright spot on the mournful picture of the Ohio penitentiary catastrophe. Stories of the bravery of men who risked death—some to succumb—in order to aid their fellow men, were recounted from the parched and twitching lips of others who, paralyzed by terror, watched the heroic deeds performed. Most of the individual heroes were convicts, many assigned to the category of killers and major criminals. In the space of three grewsome hours they expiated for a life of crime.

Members of Company K, classified as incor-*;ibles and refused privileges accorded other prisoners, were among the first to become organized for the rescue work. Holloweyed, but filled with indifference for impending death, they filed time after time into the acrid corridors and singly and in fours with stretchers to batter down doors and carry out victims. Bank Robber Saves Twenty Big Jim Morton, whom Cleveland society banished as a bank robber singly aided twenty men to safety. Trip after trip he made, staggering from doorways, a victim under each arm. Finally he collapsed. Path Sword, Columbus, rescued twelve before he fainted. Other rescuers, unidentified but equally courageous, performed similar acts. A giant Negro, worn to the point of frenzy, staggered up to a United Press correspondent and related how he saved 300 prisoners by chopping a hole in one of the cell walls. He no sooner had finished the story than he collapsed from exhaustion. Frank Ward, a former Cleveland policeman, serving a sentence for perjury, demonstrated the mettle of heroes when he chopped away the bars of several cells to permit prisoners to be rescued. Wild Bill Croninger, desperado, gave his life for society. Twelve times he made his way into the furnace, each time coming out, choking and coughing, with the limp body of a friend. He made a tliirteenth attempt to go in—end collapsed, dying. Convicts Prove Bravery It was here, too, that Frank Ward, once a policeman, found regeneration. Seizing an ax, he hacked away a: the locks of half a dozen cell doors liberating their shrieking inmate and driving them into the open. And there was “Big Jim” Mortor. a desperate Cleveland bank robber who broke out of his ow: cell with his bare hands, and—although he

table lay the twisted body of a man—3l7 of them—burned or suffocated in the fire that swept Ohio state prison Monday night. /tea THEY lay in all the different attitudes in which men meet death. Some were black and crisp with arms outstretched and charred fingers still clinched, just as they died clutching the bars of their flaming cells.

INDIANAPOLIS, TUESDAY, APRIL 22, 1930

had a chance to flee to the yard, stayed in the blazing cell house to rescue his companions. When he could find no more living, he carried out two dead todies. A strange party wended its way through the water-soaked and harred cell block where more than one hundred perished. There was Joe Russell, diminutive Cleveland highway robber, who is serving a fifty-five-year sentence for a series of depredations that kept Cleveland police chasing him for weeks. And there was George Mengione, sent up from Toledo, George and Joe are pals. George a strapping hail-met fellow and Joe a little fellow who insists he was “only a 19-year-old kid” when he committed his robberies. Joe was nursing sore limbs and bruised arms. On his face he carried the mark of a burn. “I saved about twenty fellows," he said. “I keeled over twice and they brought me around with ammonia.” George, too, said he saved about a dozen of his fellows. The pals were members of the white city cell block which escaped he fire. Ben Rudner of Canton, serving a life sentence for complicity in the assassination of Don Mellet, Canon newspaper editor, worked uniringly a pulmotor reviving men as they were carried from the bumng cell block. Graf Zeppelin on Test Flight '}" United Press BERLIN, April 22.—The dirigible Graf Zeppelin, making a test flight over the Rhineland, arrived at Bonne this afternoon. England’s Poet Laureate Dies • ■< United Press LONDON, April 22.—John Masefield was mentioned today as a possible successor to the poet laureateiiip of England, left vacant by the death of Robert Bridges Monday.

Others merely were still white forms, tangled hair and bare feet sticking grotesquely out from either end of a sheet. Here and there was one whose face bore a smile strangely sincere, as if death had been gentle, and not imwelcome. a a a OUTSIDE the hall, soldiers in uniform paced their patrols! wearing paths in the fresh spring grass.

Some of the 300 victims of the Ohio penitentiary fire are shown here, ying in the prison yard while the fire was at its height after their bodies had been dragged from the blazing cell block. In the background other prisoners, tended by a uniformed guard, are preparing to make efforts to identify the lifeless bodies.

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Trapped behind the steel wire grating as flames swept the Ohio state prison at Columbus, these men faced death as firemen and troops sought to rescue them. This graphic closeup was taken by a cameraman for NL.'\ Service and The Times, who penetrated to within the lines while the prison blaze was at its height.

GRIEF-STRICKEN CONVICTS MOURN FOR BROTHERS

Bv United Pres COLUMBUS. 0., April 22.—Ben Henderson, Cincinnati highway robber, lost a brother in the prison fire. He pointed to a charred cell on the ill-fated sixth tier and said: “There's where my brother died.” He said it simply. There was nc

Inside eighty-six embalmers wer% working silently and swiftly. Without was the scent of grasses and new leaves and clean winds; within, the bitter nauseating smell of embalming fluids, the destructive odor of death. At the entrance to the grounds a little knot of women was gathered. Every now and then one of them would approach the lieutenant in command of the guard.

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rancor in his voice, only sorrow. “Yep, Hank died in there like a rat. He never had a chance.” A reporter found Ed Sunkle, a convict, sobbing bittery in the guard office within the yard. His brother Charles of Napoleon, 0., had been one of the victims.

“TF Ah could just go in for a -■•minute, mister,” one old Negro woman said. “Ah could find mah boy right away if he's thar. His name’s Thomas, mister " She turned away in tears as the lieutenant, stiffly impersonal, shook his head. Just at that moment the robin’s call came again from the trees. The lieutenant’s face twitched. “Damn that bird!” he said.

OHIO DISASTER LAID TO FRUITLESS REVOLT EFFORT; • TROOPS G UARD CONVICTS Suspension of State Warden Is Demanded by; Prosecutor; ‘Everything Done to Save Men/ Says Penitentiary Chief. HORROR SCENE LASTS FOR HOURS Red Tongue of Flame That Was to Be Signal \ for Mutiny Lights Pyre, Holding \ 1,000 in Trap of Own Making. BY HARRY W. SHARPE United Pres* Staff Correioondent COLUMBUS, 0., April 22.—The most appalling prison fire in history, started in a fruitless attempt at mutiny, brought death to 319 known prisoners and probably more at the state penitentiary here Monday night, and injuries from which 150 more may die within the next few days. The slow death that comes from bums and smoke-filled lungs took two victims in hospitals today. Hospitals reported there are approximately 150 injured who have slight chance of recovery, and 100 others are suffering minor hurts. Nearly 1,000 armed officers patrolled the walls and yards of the prison today.

Included in the troops, equipped for any kind of warfare, were 600 soldiers of the federal garrison at Fort Hayes and the 166th Ohio national guard infantry, 200 regular guards and 150 city policemen, including 100 ordinarily detailed to night duty. Six hundred prisoners, out of 835 herded within the central hall of the west cell block, fought unsuccessfully for freedom in a raging furnace, and were brought out dead or injured after the flames died down. The blaze, one of three supposedly set by vengeful lifers, was part of a plot to throw the penitentiary into an uproar and, in the excitement, to sieze control of the institution. All relief agencies were mustered here today with physicians and nurses volunteering to attempt to save the lives of the convicts who fought their way out of the blazing trap that their own comrades had set. In a cattle bam on the state fairground, the dead were stretched In x-ows. All but thirty-five have been identified. Demands Warden's Ouster The 4,000 convicts who escaped unscathed arose today in cells through which water sloshed an inch deep. In the west cell block, where the fire started, little was left except blackened ruins. John J. Chester, county prosecutor, demanded that Warden P. E. Thomas be suspended until responsibility for the fire had been fixed. Griswold declined to discuss the matter, but Thomas defended himself. “I am satisfied that everything humanly possible was done to save the prisoners,” he said. Only one prisoner escaped. Michael Dorn, 33, who calmly donned a civilian suit and walked away at the height of the confusion. Almost every agency of deathfire. asphyxiation, even an accidental hanging of a man who was being lowered by a rope—contributed to the horror. Wooden Stairs Feed Blaze It was 5:40 p. m. when the flames were discovered in an unused prison block. Wooden stairways, constructed as a part of temporary repairs, fed the blaze, and it spread to Cell Units G and H, where the prisoners were returning from supper to be locked in their cells. This was the moment chosen by the conspirators for their mutiny. The fed tongue of flames, creeping up the stairs of cell Unit I was to have been the signal for revolt. Instead, it lighted a pyre, welding the locks and fusing the steel bars that held nearly 1,000 men prisoners within a trap of their own making. Inside the fiery pit the fearcrazed convicts beat against the doors and shrieked their demands for release. Alternately they cursed and implored the guards, outside, to strike off the locks and let them batter their way to freedom. But the guards, standing grimly by their orders, refused. They feared a general uprising, rateasing nearly 5,000 convicts, was in the making. Terrified Convicts Rebel The blaze swept upward through the open corridors of the cell house, finding little timber to feed upon until it struck the heavy roof and ate its way through. The screaming men below began to suffer

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showers of hot embers coming from above and redoubled their imprecations. Not all the prisoners had been locked up when the first danger signal was sounded. These the guards tried hastily to herd into their cells. The fear of escape plots is always uppermost in an institution where escape is in the mind of every man. One group of prisoners was being hurried along by the guards within the doomed cell house. They rebelled and turned on their keepers, striking them down with fists, and snatching the keys from their hands. Unlocking what doors they could, they drove several hundred prisoners to open air. Pandemonium in Prison The entire prison became a pandemonium as the flames burst through the roof. Shortly after the first fire was discovered, a second blaze, in the Catholic chapel, was found and promptly extinguished. But by this time a majority of the more hardened and reckless criminals, still hoping for escape, still were fiendishly plotting, and a group of lifers struck down their guards, made a break for the woolen mills, 300 yards away, and put it to the torch. Warden P. E. Thomas ordered the gates opened for the fire department. The fire fighters entered the yard, only to find themselves face to face with a jeering, crazy mob of rioters who threatened to tear them to pieces If they attempted to extinguish the blazes. The fire department was forced to withdraw, temporarily. Fire Fighters Are Fought Arrival of the national guardsmen, reinforcing the police and federal troops, who had thrown a steel ring around the prison, gave sufficient strength to the authoriites to make their first drive against the 4,000 milling convicts. They went in, with bayonets, and cleared the way for the firemen. The blaze in the woolen mills soon was extinguished. The state penitentiary took on the appearance of a siege. The walls bristled with machine guns and strong military forces guarded every exit. At 8:30, with the flames of tha west cell block dying down, the horror was heightened by collapse of the lighting system. A short circuit, caused by falling timbers, threw the prison into darkness. Out of this darkness came the hoarse cries of men both inside the smouldering building and in the yard. Then the lights flashed on again, in festoons of temporary bulbs, draped from the walls like the decorations at a lawn party, U. S. FACES DEFICIT Hoover Warns Congress in Letter to Chairman. By United Prena WASHINGTON, April 22.—The government is faced wtih a deficit of $20,000,000 or $30,000,000 for the next fiscal year. President Hoover warned today in a letter to Chairman Jones of the senate appropriations committee and Chairman Wood of the house appropriations committee, pointing to the many small appropriation bills now pending in congress.

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