Evening Star Newspaper, April 22, 1930, Page 5

THE EVENING STAR, WASHINGTON D. C, . TOHURT IN PRISON FLAMES MAY DIE "Attempts to Save 100 Men in Sixth Tier of Cells Were Futile. (Continued From First Page.) Prison cotton and woolen mills. Others urled stones and slugged the guards that were trying to maintain order. In | the Jining Balldishes and tables were Every available policeman in Cnlum-: was summoned for duty both within | the prison and outside. A submachine- | 8un in the guard room protected the en- trance to the prison yard. : Two companies ‘of Regular Army | troops and 1,500 Ohio National Guards- men were stationed at strategic places about the penitentiary. Every guard on both day and night shifts was on duty. Still the thousands of milling prison= ers in the%yard refused to be quieted When they were ordered to assemble in the dining room many refused. Later they were ordered into the remaining cell blocks and dormitories, but they in- sisted upon staying in the yard, crowd- ing about the bodies, which were ar- ranged in long rows five and six deep. Flames Start in Several Places. Except for minor disturbances there | was no_trouble, however About five | hours after the fire was brought under | control the ranks of scantily clad con- | victs began to thin out and at midnight only a few of them were left in the | yard. | Beacon lights and arc lamps, placed upon the main wall for protection, play- ed down on the ghastly scene. Slowly the work of removing bodies to the Fair | Grounds proceeded. Scenes of confusion and terror ac- companied the outburst of the flames. They started in the northwest corner of a new building of cell blocks, part of which still was under construction. It was in this new part that the fire origi- nated not more than half an hour after & gang of prisoners working on the job returned to their cells. Apparently the flames broke out in several places simultaneously, officials said. Everything pointed to incendia- rism, they indicated. Sereams of Terror Split Air. Liston G. Schooley, Cleveland council- man who is serving a term for partici- pation in a Zleveland playground fraud, was at work in the deputy warden’s of- fice on the opposite side of the prison yard. He saw smoke rising from the cell blocks. About the same time Charley Sholkey. & prisoner from Toledo, and one of those quartered in the damaged build- ing, sounded an alarm on range 2 of section H. Sholkey, a practical joker, was not taken seriously until they saw the red reflection in the windows of a manufacturing plant near the peniten- ! tiary. Then a great scream emanated from sections G and H. In each there were six ranges of 17 cells, housing four pris- oners to the cell. The flames and the smoke were eating toward them rapidly. William C. Baldwin and Tom Little, guard captains, dashed to the flaming building with keys to the cells. At the same time other guards ran to the deputies’ office where Schooley, in the absence of officers, began handing out orders and issued all the keys heI Convicts Join in Rescue. Guards Baldwin and Little rushed into the smoke filling building, took the keys to the ranges from the day guards and started unlocking celis as quickly as they could. Meanwhile, fire companies, answering four alarms, spread every foot, of hose available. As the guards released convicts from one range they climbed to the next Men were choking and gasping for | breath. As they were released, many joined in the rescue work. After he had unlocked the last cell on the fourth range, Little collapsed. Four inmates carried him out. Baldwin struggled on to the fifth tier, then he collapsed and was carried to safety. On the fourth and fifth ranges, death | took its toll rapidly. The lungs of the trapped men were filled with smoke. Ghastly sights greeted the rescuers. Suffocated men lay on the floor clutch- ing with pale, white fingers at the bars | that held them in. Others were stretched across and un- der their bunks. Some had tried to bury their heads in the lavatories in the | cells, and still others had grabbed their | blankets or torn their shirts from their backs to drench them with water and | place them over their heads. | Streams of water swished through the | mesh and the iron bars and formed ! rivulets in which the faces of fallen | men were buried. Hundreds Carried to Safety. Hundreds had been carried from the structure, and above the heads of the rescuers in the sixth and last range | were more than a hundred others who | could not possibly be saved. Bed mat- | tresses and the cots were masses of | flames. | Locks on the cells were battered | away with sledge hammers. The mesh | walls of the ranges were cut away with wire clippers. Hose lines, winding a path up the flights of stairs got in the | road of stumbling men. | At first the prisoners who had es- | caped death emerged in pairs, carr ing a comrade by the arms and feet. | They hurried across a small clearing | covered with new lumber and dropped the victims into the grass. Then they knelt beside the choked men, turned them on their stomachs and applied methods of resuscitatior For a while this revived the victims, but soon they came so fast that the band of convicts found themselves stumbling over each other, dropping the men they had carried out and hurrying back for others Room for Those With Chance. Groans and feeble cries, from the | lips of the victims and words of en- | couragement and shrieks of terror from the men who were working over them. rose from the ground. Seared and blackened faces bespoke ' .e futility of pondering over men wlio already were | de: ad. Big gray blankets were spread pro- fusely over the green grass. | “Make room for this man. He's| alive. Gangway.” came the cry from a little group hurrying along the walks toward the hospital. The lanes of prisoners separated. They made room for the man who had a chance to ve. NGt of the guard room door poured doctors, internes, nurses, priests and | ministers. Dying men cried for the | last rites of the church. Medical | men, without hats or coats. tramped over the ground, which became soggy | under the burden of many feet. Two hours after the fire started day- | light had faded away and weary, trou- bled men worked on under the rays | of the arc lights that gave the prison | yard a dismal appearance It was about this time that mutter- ing prisoners, chilled to th bone in the night air, because they would not obey orders to go inside, started the disturbances that caused so much alarm. Effects of Coffee Wear Out. The effects of warm coffee served during the rescue operations and con- sumed freely by hundreds who were idling about, as well as those who were working, had worn off when dark fell. But it was mostly the idle prisoners who were inclined to cause trouble. ‘They assembled in small groups in different parts of the prison yard. The guards could do nothing with them. Stones flew through the air occasionally and once a band of ., men rushed a gasoline supply truck | that had been brought into the yard and tried to set it afire. Several pris- | were Upper: Front view of the State Penitentiary at Columbus, Ohio, where 317 | prisoners were burned to death by a fire main cell blocks. Warden Preston E. WHERE FIRE TOOK TOLL that swept dormitories and part of the Thomas' residence is in the center. Inset: Warden Thomas. Lower left: Firemen fighting to control the blaze in one of the wings of the structure. This picture was brought from Columbus to | Cleveland by air and then telephoned. Lower right: Telephoto picture showing rescuers at work on some of the victims of the disastes Associated Press Photos. oners intervened, were pelted with tin- ‘ cups and dashed away, but the inclina- tion to burn the gasoline truck was broken up. | Beyond the gates, in the office of | Warden Thomas, in the warden’s resi- ( dence, in the record room and in the | secretary’s office, State and county offi- | cials, armed guardsmen and troopers | prepared for whatever might happen Electricians, aided by trusties, climbed to the guard tower atop the front wall and installed floodlights that fllumin- ated nearly every corner of the yard. Policemen patrolled the walks, prison | guards were ready with pointed weapons. | Occasionally among_the milling pris- | oners could be seen the striped cap of | a member of first “K” company, that notorious band of convicts ordinarily kept under close lock and key because | of their tendency to start trouble on | the least provocation. Could Gain but Little. But the men apparently convinced themselves that there was little to be gained by adding to the appalling sit- uation created by the fire. The groups thinned .ut to mere handfuls. They took to their bunks. In the outside world there was many a family whose anxiety could not be quieted last night. Out of the prison population of more than 4,000, each prisoner who escaped the fate of those in companies G and H was as anxious to spread word that he was safe as his relatives were hopeful of receiving it. Prison officials finally called upon radic stations to broadcast the news that all prisoners who were safe would send word to their families today. While the disaster was revealing itself at its worst, pandemonium reigned without as well as within the prison | walls. Black smoke, rolling in clouds from the roof of the damaged cell blocks was the first signal to the outside world of the impending. catastrophe. Spec- tators gathered rapidly, and within a few minutes forced a serious handicap upon the officials trying to mainain order. The crowds surged up to the lawn | fronting the piison and policemen bat- | Ued futilely against them. Automobile | traffic jammed the surrounding streets. A company of troops finally was | called into action to clear West Spring street, on which the penitentiary faces, and other abutting thoroughfares. The troops charged up the street with fixed | bayonets. Guards stationed on the outside dropped their rifles and picked up sub machine guns to drive back the throngs ‘This maneuvering brought prompt suc- cess. WORLD WAR VETERANS GUESTS AT EASTER FETE Veterans at Mount Alto Hospital were guests last night at an Easter party ar- | ranged for them by & group of social service workers led by Mrs. Laura V.| Dann and her daughter, Miss Lillian | Dann. | The performers in a vaudeville pro- | gram included the Phil Hayden Girls, | Barr and Mitchell, tap dancers; George O'Connor, comedian, and Cover Sisters A musical program was supplied by Miss Elizabeth Mulli., Miss Evelyn Foster, | Miss Kathlyn Hillyer, Phil Hayden and | Miss Virginia Hunter, Easter eggs and other souvenirs were distributed by Gen. Fran| rector of the Veterans' B accompanied by Mrs. Hines. COOPER WARNED, DUDDING ASSERTS Ohio Governor Replied He Didn’t Need Any Sugges- tions, D. C. Man Says. Reports of corruption and misman- agement on the part of officials of the Ohio State Penitentiary, charged by ! prisoners released from the institution { to Dr. E. E. Dudding of Washington, president of the Prisoners’ Relief So- | clety, were communicated a year ago to Gov. Myers Y. Cooper of Ohio, Dr ared today. Gov. Cooper. acc . Dudding, replied that he could manage the institution without any suggestions from the Prisoners’ Re- lief Society Dr. Dudding, after learning of the disastrous fire at (he prison last night t the following telegram to Gov per: 'On or about March 10, 1929, I wrote you that I had received a letter signed by 21 convicts in the Ohio penitentiary, in which they stated that the prison was badly managed and that it was as bad as an outpost of hell. Now you can see that I was not in error in writ- ing you as I did. You failed to take heed and now you see the result. The convicts in that, prison seem to have lost confidence i the warden and tie officials in general, and I made it plain in_my letter, which was given wide publicity, and you came back with a reply that you could manage the in- stitution without any suegestions from the Prisoners’ Relief Society.” In addition to the le(ter mentioned in the telegram. Mr. Dudding sald he has received 17 affidavits from former prisoners, swearing to statements based on their personal knowledge. In his letter to the governor, ng sald: “These men charge that food in- tended for the convicts Is taken out by the guards. Only half the coffee fur- nished by the State is used, the other half being taken by officials for their private use. They claim that blankets and other merchandise is taken out by guards and sold. “They claim that it's pay or suffer, and that when they pay, they still suffer. Graft in many forms is going on dail; Pay to get food. Pay to get bed covers. Pay to be a trusty. Pay to be recom- mended for a parole. The system is like Mr. OF 317 OHIO PRISONERS CROWDING IN PRISON POINTED OUT IN 1929 Need for Ne;n:;tu‘ti‘on Apparent‘ for Many Years, Penal So- ciety Report Said. I By the Associated Press. | NEW YORK, April 22.—Overcrowding | of the Ohio State Prison, scene of yes- | terday's tragic fire, was charged in the 1929 handbook of the National Soclety of Penal Information. “The ancient plant at the State Pen- itentiary in Columbus, one of the largest prisons in the country, suffers from & condition of overcrowding worse than | that in any other prison,” the report | sald. | “The need of another institution in | the Ohio penal system has been ap- | parent for many years, but the Siate | is only now taking steps to alleviate the conditions at Columbus. Not only can | Columbus not care for an mclvnsed' population, but it is already too large | a prison to be operated on any other | lines than those of blanket treatment. Even with the completion of the present building program, it will be able to| care for its present population only under conditions that fall far below accepted modern standards for housing prisoners.” OHIO PRISON, BUILT [ FOR 1,600, HELD 4,300 By the Associated Press. COLUMBUS, Ohlo, April 22.—Ohio Penitentiary, scene of a disastrous fire | claiming more than 300 lives, was bullt | in 1890 and was designed to house only | 1,600 men. A roll call yesterday had | shown a total enrollment of 4,300 The prison covers about five acres square, within a stone’s throw of down- town Columbus. Within the prison walls are a score of buildings, including eight cell blocks, hospital, miils, chapel, dining halls and other structures Preston E. Thomas has been warden of the prison for about 15 years. He is noted us an expert on prisons. Under his rule there have been no major riots, but there have been many de- liveries and escaped, including one when 13 convicts of Company K, the “bad | gang,” got loose @f E=2 o \_.6 5.9 a big circle—no matter which way you | turn it gets you” Lr. Dudding said that in no peniten- tary in the country are conditions worse according to his information, than at the Ohio prison. He said the reports he had received indicate de- plorable sanitary conditions. THURSTON SLAYER DIES COLUMBUS, Ohio, April 22 (#).— Among the dead in last night's Ohio Penitentiary fire was Robert Stone, 49, contessed slayer of Charles Thurston, rallroad detective. He was serving a life term for slaying the brother of the famous magician. Howard Thurston. For nin~ years the murder Was un- solved. Finally Stone’s accomplice con- | fessed, and later Stone himself told the storp. Columbus Prison | with GUARANTEED Gave O. Henry His Start as Writer Porter, Serving Term for Embe zlement, Be- came Author. COLUMBUS, Ohio, April 22 (NAN.A). ~The Ohlo State Penitentiar~ is the institution at which a certain convict named Sydney Porter, serving five years for embezzlement, began his career as a writer by turning out short stories un- der the pseudonym of O. Henry, The prison was established in 1815. Although the State in recent years has been modernizing the prison with an extensive reconstruction program. the prison has been regarded as far from a_model institution in the report of the National Society of Penal Infor- mation in its 1929 Handbook. “The ancient plant at the State Pen- itentiary in Columbus, one of the larg- est prisons in the country, suffers from a condition of overcrowding worse than that in_any other prison,” this report | declared. Today's fire is not the first the Ohio State Prison has experienced, although it dwarfs in significance the earlier one. In October, 1928, six men lost their lives when flames destroyed a dormitory in which 270 prisoners slept at the in- stitution’s Junction City brick plant. NEW PRISON EXPECTED BY GOVERNOR OF OHIO By the Associated Press. COLUMBUS, Ohio, April 22—The fire at Ohio's 40-year-old prison, which resulted in so frightful a toll of life “probably will mean & new prison Gov, Myers Y. Cooper said early today on his arrival from White Sulphur Springs, W. Va., where he had been taking a short vacation “The proposition of a new prison at least will be a matter for considera- tion by the Legislature next Winter,” he sald. ounr SPECIAL! 8-Day Banjo Clock $4.95 s really a SUPER-VALUE! make, 8-Day Banjo Clock, movement. and Jade Green, rations. 50c a Week TUESDAY, APRIL e e e e T e e S S T n 22 GUARDS SHIFTING AT START OF FIRE Firemen Testify That They Appeared in 12 Minutes. in Probe| __ (Continued From First Page.) { | ranged for troops and ofher things out- | side. Thomas said he was suffering | from asthma and could not stand the | smoke. The transcript also disclosed that | Chester thought his questions were not | being_properly answered and that he| told Thomas he would have to answer | satisfactorily or he would make him do | 50 in court. | | When reading of the transcript was | finished, the warden went beforc the | inquiry board to testify. Covers Same Ground. Under questioning by Assistant At- | torney ~ General Godown, Warden | ‘Thomas went over practically the same ground covered by Prosecutor Chester. He said Guards Little and Baldwin were | preparing to go on duty on the ill-fated | blocks when the fire started. Guard | ‘Watkinson, suspended pending investi- gation, had the keys to the cages lead- ing to the ranges, he said. Asked who locked in the men, he replied that 12 day guards before they went off duty. He explained thev turned in their keys in the guard room. Little and Baldwin told him, the war- den said, that they took the G and H tier cell keys and went on a run toward the fire. They asked Watkinson to open the corridor door, but he refused, they | said, saying he had no order to do so. | They sald they took the keys from | him, opened the corridors and then | started to open the cells. | | Convicts Take the Keys. Asked if guards had any special in- structions about fires, the warden re- plied no particular instructions were issued, but that the guards were ex- pected to act to meet any situation. Asked if he knew of any motive Wat- | kinson might have for not letting the | other guards in, the prison head re- plied in the negative. Little and Baldwin told him, Thomas continued, of their work in opening cells until they were overcome. At this point convicts took the keys from them and continued the cell openings. Pris. oners rescued the guards. The convic! found some locks sprung by heat and | attacked these with hammers. Asked if any inflammable material | was near the spot where 100 convicts had been working near the scene of the start of the fire, Warden Thomas re- plied there was a gasoline concrete | mixer, but he did not know if it had been in operation Monday. He said he had no idea as to how the fire started and had heard no rumors of dissatis- | faction. ‘Warden Ordered Keys Sent. Guards failed to realize quickly the seriousness of the fire and directed their first efforts against a possible outbreal rather than rescue work, it was indi- d in testimony in the official in- vestigation. | State Welfare Director Griswold early | today questioned six prison officials, | guards, firemen and prisoners in the | hope of fixing responsibility. | Warden Thomas said his first orders | on receiving word of the fire were to| send a deputy with keys to the prison | gates to let ihe fire apparatus in and then inquired if keys had been sent to the cell blocks to release the pris- | oners. | “I 'was informed that keys had not been sent to the cell blocks and I or- dered the guards to get them down | there as quickly as possible. I don’t know what guards took the keys or how long they were in getting them there.” The warden said he then armed two | 8 charge of guarding the prison from the outside to prevent possible escape of prisoners. ““Before leaving for the outside, T or- v There | tering the locks off with axes. A—S ek dered keys to the cells sent by a trusiy to the E and F cell blocks, but my wife had beaten me to it.” The warden said it probably was 20 minutes from the time he was notified of the fire until they were bringing out bodies. C. W. Osborn, assistant Columbus fire chief, said he was the first fireman to arrive on the scene. He figured it was not more than 12 minutes from the time the arm came into the fire station until he had his apparatus inside the | prison_walls Osborn said when he arrived on the cell range prisoners and guards were rushing about opening cells. “Some were using keys and others were bat- he said The work of opening the cells, he said. “seemed to be rather slow, but the heat was so intense and the smoke so densc that it was difficult for them to make speedy headway. The assistant fire chief said they be- gan removing bodies within five min- utes after he arrived on the cell range Osborn could throw little light on whether guards were doing all in their power to free the prisoners. “The guards sald they were unlocking the cells, but the prisoners said they were not.’ I did not see any guards unlock- | ing cells.” Prisoners Seize Hose. Prisoners, impatient at the efforts of firemen to extinguish the blaze which was threatening the lives of their friends, overpowered the firemen and took the hose lines from them in an attempt to play streams of water on the cells where the prisoners were held. Osborn said. He declared their efforts were futile, as the hose lines were not long enough to reach the upper tiers of cells where the prisoners were con- fined Liston G. Schooley, Cleveland prisoner, said he was In the deputv warden's of- fice when he discovered the flames. He called the telephone operator. who re- sponded that he already knew of the fire. “Cleveland Johnson. a prisoner, came running in and asked for keys to open doors to get down to the cell blocks where the fire was raging. Guard Cooper came running in and asked for keys also, but in the excitement and confusion I could not find the ones he wanted. He left and then came back, reported that he could not get through and asked what he should do. I told him to break the doors. down or get through any way he could. “I began to realize the seriousness of the situation and ordered the hospi- tal nurses in to make ready to care for the injured.” Night Capt. John Hall said he had just arrival to go on duty when the fire was discovered. but had not vet taken over his duties. “I ran down to the cell block. and seeing fhe dense smoke was suffocating the prisoners, ordered th» windows on the east side roken in to allow fresh air to themy"‘ Hall said. Capt. Hall said he did not know what guards were on dutv. as it was just at the time the day shift was leaving and the night shift coming on duty. “Whose duty is it to unlock the cells in case of fire?” Director Griswold asked. “It is the duty of the guards,” Hail | replied. Capt, Hall said there originally had been 12 keys to the fatal cells, but that one of them had been lost since last Thanksgiving. The keys were in du- plicate and each would unlock the cells n opposite tlers. “I saw Guard Wilkinson trying to | unlock cells and he was overcome by the smoke and fell several times. Prisoners finally carried him out. “Guards Baldwin and Little started to unlock the cells, but both of them went down had to be taken to the hos- pitai. 1 suppose they both had keys.” Director Griswold sought to havi Guards Baldwin and Little brought in for questioning, but the nospital re- ported they were not in condition to testify. Edward _Jenkins, guard, said: sergeant of the “I had no instructions in case of | fire, except to guard the gates.” Deputy Warden James W. Wood- ard said he was outside the prison when he saw the smoke and flames coming from the inside. He Yushed to the prison and found that all cells in the vicinity of the fire had been un- | ‘ds with shotguns and took personal | locked except the ones in the top | ranges. He said it probably was 20 minutes before he could get to the top of the cell ranges to let the prisoners out. are no extra charges of any kind with | BOND TEN PAYMENT BUDGET SERVIC | 77 0F DEAD HELD * INCOMMON OB Tearful Wives and Mothers of Prison Fire Victims Enter Vast Morgue. By the Associated Press. COLUMBUS, Ohio, April 22.—The ex- hibition building of the Ohio State fair grounds, for years & house of living plants, flowers and botanical specimens in the process of growth and develop- ment, today was a vast temporary tomb in which reposed the bodies of 276 con- victs, the majority of the dead of the greatest penitentiary disaster in history. In the horticulture building, only the muffled footsteps of guards resounded | as dawn came today. Automobiles of the curious whiszed up the streets and here and there the curious sought to enter as the morning | wore on, but guards were vigilant over | the place of death to all but those offi- clally concerned with the building and its_gruesome contents. With the dawn, the vanguard of a |small army of relatives of the dead men began to arrive. Here, tearful mothers and wives, long separated by the walls of the peniten- tiary from their sons and husbands, mingled with brothers and fathers, sterner In the face of the tragedy. When the doors were passed and some suc- cessful entrant had gone beyond the guards, silence settled again. The temporary morgue building was | draped in black crepe during the morn- | Ing. Flowers trom the State gardens on | the fair grounds were moved into the morgue to soften the grim scene. The work of perparing the bodies for burial proceeded rapidly. PRISON RUINS BLAZE Firemen Quickly Quench Flames Starting This Morning. COLUMBUS, Ohio, April 22 (#).— The ruins of the Ohio Penitentiary eell olock where the lives of 317 men were | snuffed out by fire last night broke into | lames again this morning. A fire com- pany quickly quenched the blaze, [l New 3-Pc. Batl; Room Outfit. . . | §52.45 | Get Our Low Prices on All Plumbing Fixtures 3—Branches—3 MAIN OFFYCE-6™& C.Sts. S.W. CAMP MEIGS-5 & Fla. Ave.N.E. | Il BRIGHTWOOD-592| Ga. Ave. N.W. | We have not added one cent to our established cash prices of 16 years standing. This is a thrifty servicel We exact no interest or carrying charges of any kind. This is a friendly servicel We do away with expensive old-time charge account and credit methods. This is @ modern service! 96,820 responsible men enjoyed the advontages of this service last year. You'are invited to join them. Full selections of new Spring London - Designed Fashions await you, today! As always, they are priced $25, $35, $45— every suit with two trousers. 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