The Bismarck tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, N.D.) 1916-current, 1923-10-08
BANDITS LEAVE
DEFIANT NOTES
F0RATTACKERS
Three C0nvicts Who Staged
Desperate Fight Are All
Found Dead
TWO ARE SUICIDES: :

Eddyville, KY, Oct. 8.--Prison life
was practically normal following the
burial in the prison cemetery yester-
day Of Monte Walters and Harry
Ferland, convicts who met death in
a barricaded dining hall after fatal.
ly wounding three guards in an at
tempt to escape. Enclosed in two
pine boxes their bodies were hauled,
one at time. through the prison
yard ut Vineyard hill and inferred
without service. The body of Law
renee Griffith was sent to his form
er home at Dresden, Tenn,
In commenting on the fact that
prison guards and Kentucky National
Guardsmen reported having seen
movements IN the barricaded build
ing during the three and half days
| seige which it is now certain only
dead men were holding. officials said
this was probably due to fluttering
coats and aprons of prison attend
ants which hung on the walls inside
the gunmen's covert.
Before the convicts died they left
hastily scrawled messages.
One from Griffith read: defiance
Di Defiants (defiance) from the
dead"
One from Walters to his wife
said: "Love to you. Beloved"
Western Kentucky State Peniten-
tiary, Oct. 8.-A storming party late
Saturday entered mess hall convicted
murderers held since Wednesday
when they killed three prison guards
in q desperate bid for freedom--and
found them dead. Indications were
that the gunner had been dead for
at least 33 hours, two of them pos
sibly for two days and nights.
Entrance to the bullet-torn two
story building was effected by a
detail of seven picked men after the
desperadoes' stronghold had been
flooded for an hour with ammonia
fumes. Bodies of the convict-gun-
men were found on the floor Of the
second story of the building.
Monte Walters body was founc
near the northwest wall with u bull
let wound through the head and
horribly burned from a bursting
rifle grenade. Bodies of Lawrence
Griffith and Harry Ferland, Walters
companions in the spectacular "laat
stand" stripped to the waist, were
partly sheltered under a table
against the wall on the northwest
side. Powder burned bullet wounds
over the heart indicated the manner
in which Griffith and Ferland died.
Ferland's gun hand, stiff in death,
still gripped heavy caliber auto
matte pistol.
Two Suicides -.
Ferland and Griffith's arms were
folded as though the bodies had oesn
arranged after death. These two Of
the desperate trio lost heart as hope
of escape diminished and committed
suicide to avoid capture or were slain
by Walters, who then fell under the
heavy fire from the besieging forces.
Prison physicians said that the three
men had been dead for 1T least two
days, but physicians said Walters ap-
parently was the last man to die.
Unaware. that all members of the
gunman trio we're dead, authorities in
charge of the siege Of the mess hall
recently obtained supply Of high
proof ammonia from an ice company
in Paducah. Under cover Of metal
shields, three pipe lines were laid to
the building and for an hour the
fumes were forced into the desper-
ADDE'S bullet-torn covert.
After second hour had elapsed,
during which besiegers waited for air
currents to sweep the ammonia from
the building, the storming party
moved forward. Entrance was made
1t sos o'clock and q moment later
word flashed out that all the men
were dead.
Siege Lasted 81 Hours
The barricaded mess hall was un-
der siege Of prison guards, more than
half hundred Kentucky national
guardsmen, made up Of details from
guard companies at Hopkinsville ard
Mayfield, and citizens marksmen.
who volunteered their services soon
aftsr the outbreak, for eighty-one
hours. In duration Of time the "siege
Of Eddyvills" surpassed the three day
/ Bath Of Gettysburg, most hotly
contsstsd engagement Of the Civil
War.