Evening star., 1952-04-24

Picture on Pose A-3
Block IS as a hostage guard was
released reported fist-fighting and
kicking among nearly 200 inmates
left inside.
Kenneth Moore, 26, also told
prison officials of verbal battle
over leadership of the insurrec-
ton still going on between the
convictS' two top men-Earl Ward
and "Crazy Jack" Hyatt.
But he said last nights report
OF major clash between the two
was "juSt a publicity gag" and
Ward still held the upper hand.
The information from inside the
brick building assured Warden
Julian Frisbie that eight hostage
guards still were safe.
Governor Gives In.
To free the guards from the
knife-weilding rioters Gov. G..
Mennen Williams and prison
heads gave in early today to the
prisoners reform demands-and
threw in a steak dinner besides.
Moore told Warden Frisbie the
surrender ending the mutiny that
cost 50 million and the life of one
prisoner will come by Friday
noon and could come anytime" i"
Moore dashed from the cell
block with his hands in the air
as the big steel doors swung open
to free Guard James Atkins, "a. in
a state of nervous collapse after
long days as a hostage.
Mr.. Atkins was borne on a
stretcher to the prison hospital,
then sent home with his wife
Lillian.
Convict Ward, who held the
door open so Mr.. Atkins could be
helped out. send word to officials
that another guard was i'll with
q gall bladder condition. He said
the prisoners would not free
hostage Cecil Lawrence, but asked
that medicine for him be sent in.
Get Copies Of Newspapers.
Copies of morning newspapers
carrying accounts of the agree
ment were passed into the cell
block early today, and an hour
later there had been no reaction
from the convicts.
Lack Of any protest was re-
garded by Warden Frisbie as "a
good sign"
Actual surrender Of the five
TERED cellblock, with its solitary
confinement holes, was not ex-
pected before tomorrow morning.
Gov. Williams gave in to the
mutineers' demands, he said, "to
effect the release of the hostages
and the cessation of resistance"
The convicts' complaints al
legged brutality, overcrowding of
the vast prison, lack of proper
segregation and medical care and
inadequate parole procedure
among other things.
A no-reprisal demand was modi-
1led by Gov. Williams to a pledge
of no reprisals by guards or other
personnel who operate Michigan's
prisons for the State Department
Of Corrections.
The Governors capitulation
came after tense hours when the
guards lives hung in slender
balance against the mounting
rage and frenzy of the convicts
barricaded in cell block Is.
Effects Flung Out.
Personal effects-wallets and
Identification papers-of two Of
the guards were thrown from the
cell block to the ground outside.
The defiant gesture appeared to
prison officials as an open threat
of death to the guards. E
This fear was heightened when
Hyatt emerged from behind-the-
scenes leadership to take 'front.'
line command of the mutiny. The
long term convict once seized Gov.
williams at knife-point as an
escape shield at another prison.
Swarms of heavily armed State
troopers massed last night in the
rotunda of the prison administra-
ton building. They were primed
to storm Cellblock Is at the first
sign that harm had befallen the
hostage-guards.
13 Guards Seized.
But State Police Commissioner
Donald S. Leonard carefully
avoided any signal that might
send his troopers into premature
attack.
The mutiny began Sunday night
In Cellblock Is. where the worst
desperadoes in the 6,500-man
prison were serving isolation terms
for deflnance of prison rules.
The rebels seized 13 guards but
In the next four days they let foul
Of them go-because of age or ILL
ness or in deals for concessions
from officials.