Evening star., 1939-01-04
Murder Trials Open
In Baking Torture
Of Convicts
Former Deputy Warden
Pleads Innocent at
Philadelphia
By the Associated Press.

oS tne AsSoClhteu ftebS.
PHILADELPHIA, Jan. 4.-Frank
A. Craven, former deputy warden OF
the Philadelphia County Prison
pleaded innocent today to murder
and manslaughter charges arising
from the death of one of four con-
victs who perished last summer in
a super-heated punishment cell
block.
First of five former prison officials
to be placed on trial, he said quiet
ly, mot guilty. to three bills of in
dictment read by Assistant District
Attorney John A. Boyle.
The first indictment charged
Craven with the murder of Frank
Comodeco. The others charged him
with voluntary and involuntary
manslaLGhter in the same case.
Separate Trials Granted.
Attorneys for the four other former
officials, and for five former guards
charged only with manslaughter re-
ceived Judge Robert Lamberton's S
permission for separate trials.
Spectators were barred temporarily
from the courtroom because of the
large number of prospective Jurors
to be questioned.
Defendants on murder and man
slaughter charges, besides Craven,
are former Warden William B. Mills,
Guard Captain James Mcclure and
Guards Francis Smith and Alfred
Brough.
The 81 prisoners who survived the
oven cell beating will be star wit
nesses on a list of more than
so, which includes State troopers
and Welfare Department agents
who conducted a human guinea
pig" test of the "Klondike" punish
ment block.
To Tell of Madness
Some of the convicts were ex-
pected to repeat stories, told at pre-
liminary hearings and an inquest
of men being driven stark, raving
mad" by confinement for two or
three midsummer days in a small
brick building heated, by a battery
of steam radiators.
The men were placed in the pun
ishment cells, prison officials have
testified. for participation in a hun
ger strike against what prisoners
complained was a "monotonous" diet
of hamburger, spaghetti and other
foods.
In their agony, Klondike occu-
pants screamed for mothers, wives
and sweethearts and begged guards
to put us out of our misery" They
stripped off their clothing and
dipped undershirts in toilet bowls,
the only source of moisture. One of
them, a survivor testified. banged
his head against a concrete wall.
The four who perished were pro-
nounced victims of heat stroke
Physicians said they literally baked
to DEATH" Several others were hos
pitalized.
Denies Order for Heat.
Craven, ruddy-cheeked and black
haired, told a coroner's blue rib
bon" jury he positively did not
order the heat turned on and would
have shut it off if he had known
it was cooking the "Klondike" oc-
cupants.
Capt. Mcguire testified that the
''Klondike" had been built to pun
ish unruly convicts and that heat
was routine treatment" Mills pro-
fessed ignorance of the procedure
Some of the guards were accused
of ignoring the tortured mems en-
treaties.
A coroner's jury found Mills, Crav-
en- and nine others "criminally neg
igent"
Start of the trials has been post
poned twice. At first scheduled for
December 6, Craven's arraignment
was delayed by a State Supreme
Court order to give his attorneys
access to convict survivors whom
the prosecution claimed were ex-
clusively Commonwealth witnesses.
The trial was redocketed for De-
cember ~, but postponed until after
the holidays.