Evening star., 1937-01-25
12REPORTED SLAIN
IN PRISON R|OT|NC
News of Fight Between
Whites and Negroes Leaks
Out at Frankfort, Ky.
By the Associated Press.

By the Associated Press.
FRANKFORT, KY, January 25.-
Reports of rioting among prisoners
and the killing of at least II convicts
filtered today past the bloodhound
walls of Kentucky's largest peniten-
tiary. Confirmation was handicapped
by a strict censorship.
Gov. A. B. Chandler, following q
boat tour of the century-old prison,
said:
1--WE don't know how many, if any
are dead. We will have no idea what
the real situation is until the water
goes down."
Flood waters, covering four-fifths OF
Kentucky's capital city, flowed six
feet deep in the prison grounds fol-
the first time since 1883. Confined
there are 1900 prisoners.
National Guardsmen, on duty at the
prison since Friday, said that at least
IS convicts were dead. Informants
would not permit use of their names
Whispering convicts, taken out OF
the prison in boats for jails in nearby
cities and to a stockade camp neal
Frankfort, told of fierce fighting be.
tween white and Negro inmates.
Killing is Denied.
Warden James Hammond and AS.
sistant Adjt. Gen. John Kelly, handling
all information out Of the prison
said there was trouble, but denied
any one had been killed.
w. F. Arbogast, Associated Pres.
reporter, who was forced by f1ooc
conditions to telephone his story te
Columbus, Ohio, said shots could be
heard intermittently inside the prison
walls.
Chandler said the huge prison, 10.
Gated in the heart of Frankfort neal
the Kentucky River, which had riser
to a stage of Al feet-16 above flood
stage-would be abandoned.
A new prison will be built, he said
No site has been determined.
Prisoners we're removed from
flooded cellblocks to second and thiro
tiers until they could be taken out
three and four at a time in boats.
There was no heat, power, water Of
communication in the institution
Food waS carried in by boat.
Guards patroled the institution ir
boats, training high-powered rifle.
toward the cellblocks, where convict.
made wholesale break for freedom
last Friday.
Women Are Removed
Eighty women prisoners were re.
moved first to building about g
block away. Some were in a tempo.
rary hospital, badly i'll from exposure
Chandler existed each of them
shook their hands and told then
everything possible was being don't
to ease their hardship.
Wading through the prison build
tngs in boots, the Governor said:
This is the most awful thing ~,
ever SEEN"
He said prison officials hoped t,
have all the convicts moved out b,
tomorrow night. He appealed t.
nearby cities to offer Jail facilities TO
housing the convicts.
Three hundred men were taken II
jails at Lexington, % miles east O.
Frankfort.
Even on the faces Of the mos
desperate prisoners there were scarce
looks" Arbogast said Most Of then
feared to say anything about the
conditions inside the walls.
I've been inside in a boat, but
didn't see any one dead. Guardsmer
told me quietly on the side, though
that there are at least Is dead.
Some Of them, according to tht
information I got, were shot in the
break attempt. Others were reported
killed in the fighting among the pris-
oners.
Gov. Chandler was trying to cheer
the prisoners as they came out, but
he appeared frankly worried"