Evening star., 1938-09-01

BY the Associated Press
PHILADELPHIA, Sept. deputy
Warden Frank Craven told blue
ribbon" coroner's jury TODAY he
knew" that steam was on in the
Philadelphia County Prisons "Klon.
dixie" punishment cellblock at least
Is hours before the baked" bodies Of
four convicts were found
Deputy Craven said Lew Edwards.
a prisoner in another part of the Jail,
told him the "Klondike" was like an
oven the day before the deaths were
discovered
Iestlfying on the second day of the
inquest into the deaths. the deputy
warden again named Guard Sergt,
James Hart as responsible for turning
on the blasting heat Warden Will
liam b. Mills testified yesterday that
Harv gave an ''unauthorized' order
which sent steam up to killing tenn
peratures in the radiators in the pun.
ishment building
Craven said he positively did not"
instruct Hart or any guard to use
steam heat as punishment on the IS
men confined in the cramped punish-
ment cell block
Told Heat Was Stopped.
Craven explained he had not inves-
tigated the convict's report because
Guard Capt James MCGUIRE told him,
in the presence of Warden Mills that
the heat had been turned off and that
every thing was all right
Sunday afternoon was the first
time l thought of the heat Craven
said, the first I know of it."
The deputy warden said Edwards
told him late that afternoon that he
could see the heat rising from the
cell block.
Craven did not say whether he took
any action TO have the heat turned
off
Craven earlier testified that isola-
ton, confinement and a bread and
water diet were the only puniShments
meted out to unruly convicts in the
'Klondike."
He said he did not visit the build
ing himself, but that guards made
trips there.
Tell of Screaming.
Craven said he .had been within 20
feet of the box-like "Klondike" the
night before the convicts were found
dead. He did not say whether he
heard any commotion.
Previously convicts told stories Of
tho rnnRv,ol inn ~, in,
and begging for mercy during night
of horror" as the cells grew hot from
steam heat from q battery of radia-
tors.
Craven testified he did not visit the
'klondike' during the three nights
and two days of the prisoners con-
finement and had come near it only
the one time on Sunday night, when
he was putting his automobile in a
garage.
The four bodies were found Monday
morning.
The stocky. broad-shouldered depu-
ty warden said he personally issued
the order that put the first 4 Of the 25
men in the isolation cells.
Rule OH Hold Hearing.
One unnamed guard took it upon
himself" Craven said, to put at least
one other prisoner in the isolation
building. He said the guard should
have received permission from himself
(Craven) or Warden William B. Mills.
Under questioning by Assistant Dis
trict Attorney John A. Boyle, Craven
said it was an unwritten rule that con-
victs should be given a hearing before
being placed in "Klondike." The
practice was suspended two weeks ago,
however, because of an emergency"
he said.
The emergency was hunger strike
OF 600 convicts protesting "monotonous
diet"
Craven added there had been only
one other occasion. in 1884. when men
were sent to the punishment cell block
without hearing.
Says Hart Responsible.
Warden Mills testified Yesterday be-
fore Coroner Charles H. Hersch and a
jury of business men and club women
that Sergt. Hart was the person re-
sponsible" for turning on the heat in
the isolation building.
Meanwhile, five State troopers and
f1ve representatives of the State De-
partment of Health and Welfare went
to the prison to become human guinea
pigs" in an attempt to establish as near
as possible the conditions under which
the inmates died
State Secretary of Welfare Charles
I. Engard said the 10 would enter the
"klondike" and submit to the torture
treatments" with the windows closed
and the steam turned on to the "ap-
proximate" degree reached during the
original punishment.