The Key West citizen. [volume] (Key West, Fla.) 1879-current, 1952-04-24
Prison Rioters Agree To End
Mutiny After Michigan Govt
Surrenders To Their Demands
BIZ ARTHUR Z. EvERETr

JACKSON, Mich. R - Tired,
trigger-tense Southern Michigan
Prison convicts agreed today to
end a flaming 5-day riot which
cost one life and two million
dollars In damage.
Their decision guaranteed the
final safety of nine guards, still
held as hostages by knife-wielding
convict rioters in the worlds larg-
est walled prison.
With these hostages IN mind,
the State of Michigan humbly
bowed to prison reform demands
by the mutineers-and even threw
La steak dinner in the bargain.
Even then the last 169 desperate
holdouts in the prisons isolation
Cell Block Is delayed final sur
render. They demanded confirma-
ton In today's newspapers Of the
states agreement.
Thus their actual surrender Of
the grim, 5-tiered cell block with
its solitary confinement holes, was
not expected before Friday morn
ing.
Gov. q. Mennen williams gave
In to the mutineers' demands, he
said, ito effect the release Of the
hostages and the cessation Of re-
sistance."
The convicts' complaints alleged
brutality, oyercrowding Of the vast
prison, lack Of proper segregation
and medical care and inadequate
parole procedure among other
things.
A no reprisal demand was modi-
fled by Gov. Williams to . pledge
Of no reprisals by guards or other
personnel who operate Michigan's
prisons for the State Department
of Corrections.
The governors equalization 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.
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.
This fear was heightened when
Jack (crazy Jack) Hyatt emerged
from acknowledgements leadership
to take ont-line command OF the
mutiny. The quick-tempered long
term convict once seized Gov.
Williams at knife-point as an
escape shield at another prison.
Williams was visiting the other
prison at the time. Hyatt failed
to get away with that brazen
escape try.
Swarms Of heavily armed state
troopers massed Wednesday night
In the rotunda Of the prison adj
ministration building. They were
primed to storm Cell Block Is al
the first sign that harm had be-
fallen the dog-tired unshaven hos
tage guards.
But State Police Commissioner
Donald S. Leonard carefully
avoided any signal that might send
his troopers Into a premature at
tack and further endanger the
guards.
Thus hour after hour, the State
Of Michigan played cat and mouse
with convicts so high strung after
five days Of mutiny that an auto
backfire In the distance sent them
into delirium Of nervous fright.
The mutiny began Sunday night
In Cell Block Is, where the worst
desperadces In the 6,50o-man pris.
on were serving isolation terms
for defiance Of prison rules.
The rebels seixed IL guards but
In the next five days they let four
OF them go-because Of age or
illness or In deals for concessions
from officials.
On Monday, the isolated rioting
spread throughout the big red pris-
on like a grass fire. The raging
convicts fired recreation buildings,
ripped apart the insides Of their
neat cell blocks and spread smok.
Ing debris across trim lawns lust
turning a spring-like green.
One convict was killed, II Ia.
tared. -Four state troopers suffered
minor wounds.
Gradually, the rioting was put
down in one cell block after an.
other until by Tuesday Block Is
was the last real hastion Of rebel
strength.