The Laurens advertiser. (Laurens, S.C.) 1885-1973, 1921-07-20
WILD CONFUSION
in CONVICT PRISON RR|S0|t
Prisoners Riot and Start
Several Fires.
EIGHT CONVICTS
ARE HURT

Prisoners In Western Pcnitentiary at
Pittsburgh Throw Institution into
Wild Confusion. Aid from CITY
Police ad Flremcn Required to
Qucll Disturbance.
Pittsburgh, July IS Prisoners in
the Western pcnitcntiary here tsuaS
broke all bounds OF. s-ecfpline, fred
| four buildings and for a time kept
the institution in an uproar, while
] prison guards, deputy sherffs and po-
llicemcn, reinforced by armed citizens,
battlcd to put down the disorder. Six
convicts were shot and two others
cut in the battle. ':. -. -
Prison officials said that three or
four Of the wounded would likely die
The outbreak, timed to start with
the ringing OF the first fire gong, be-
gan in the dining room where the
convicts sought to attract the atten-
ton of guards from the first. officials
said. Alarms sounded from four
'Wlaccs in the institution almost
simultaneously, when guards discov-
cred the prisoners had fired the build
ngs with any material avilabIe.
Some 600 prisoners had just taken
their seats in the big dining room
when one Of them sent soup bowl
carccning down one OF the long
tables. Instantly the room was in
an uproar for at the same moment
the fire gong sounded an alarm from
the construction shop, the linen shop,
the Kitchen and the chapel.
The guards in the dining room tried
to qucll the outbreak, but the thor
oughly maddencd prisoners pelleted
them with tableware and cutlery, all
the time shrieking and bowling. The
fire department, finding the blaze was
beyond control, called the city. fire.
department, while riot calls We're sent
in for the police.
Meantime the guards in the dining
room had retgaincd in part. their con-
troll and forced some Of the men back
to their cells, but 200 or more dashed
for the prison yard and when faced
by other guards backed into a build
ing and ran for the top of tier of
cells. From this vantage point they
pelted the guards, now reinforced by
every available man in the prison,
with bricks torn from the top Of the
PrN
every precinct in the city soon added
to the fighting force within the en-
closure and it was not long until the
prisoners had been chased from the
wall to their cells. They signaliZed
their reincarceraton by breaking the
glass in the windows and shrcking
and bowling to the thousands Of per-
sons gathered in the streets and fill
ing the housctops nearby.
Within two hours the fire was under
control but not until number Of
buildings had been destroyed with an
estimated loss in excess Of $4,000
John NJ Eagon, parole officer, after
quiet had been restored, said that the
outbreak was the result OF period
of discomfort among the l35 persons
confined in the institution About 500
i OF these, he said, were long term men,
many of them desperate criminals.
Recently party of convicts was
brought here from the Eastern peni-
tcntiary in Philadelphia. These men
and women, Mr. Wagon said, made
many demands which were not recog-
.nized in any penal institution, but
which, when denied only added to the
| discomfort.
SO many cell locks were broken that
tonight picked men from Pittsburgh
police are on guard in the corridors,
while outside the streets arc b4ayly
patrolled.