UTAH'S most spectacular prison uprising ended with
the death of one convict and the injury to two more convicts and two prison
guards. The attempted break from the Utah
penitentiary was frustrated shortly after 9 a.m. on the morning of
September 9. (see picture)
Lewis Deathridge, 26, serving for robbery, was shot
off the prison wall by L. W. McTavish, a guard, and died a short time later
in cell block No. 1 where his aides dragged him after the shooting.
Balvin L. Christensen and David L. Reese, both inside
guards, were slugged and held as hostages by the rioting prisoners for
a few moments, and Wilford F. Giles, deputy warden, was captured and held
prisoner for a short time but suffered only a few scratches on the hand.
Two other convicts, Raymond Underwood, 32, a burglar,
and Joe Speel, 26, convicted of robbery, were wounded, but not seriously.
Underwood was shot just beneath the heart, but one of his ribs stopped
the slug. Speel was wounded in the back with buckshot.
The convicts used prison made bombs, knives and
improvised slugs in their unsuccessful fight for liberty, but had no guns.
This fact relieved the prison officials, who have feared for some time
that firearms were secreted within the walls.
The riot started in cellhouse No. 1, about 8:45
a.m. Mr. Christensen, the regular guard in the cellhouse was slugged on
the head and knocked unconscious as he was making his rounds on the third
floor. Mr. Reese, the outside guard in the prison enclosure, heard the
commotion and walked inside the cell block. He was likewise slugged and
temporarily stunned. Hertel, who is believed to have plotted the attempted
delivery, then called Deputy Warden Giles on the phone and told him to
come to the cellhouse as two men were dying. Deputy Giles, not suspecting
anything was wrong, walked into the trap and was pounced upon by four or
five of the convicts as he entered the cellhouse.
Warden Giles was ordered to call Warden Davis on
the telephone and tell him to come to the cellhouse. Deputy Giles told
them that the warden was down in the city and refused to call the office.
They then threatened to kill him with prison sharpened knives unless he
would go to the northwest guard tower and order McTavish to throw his guns
away. Mr. Giles refused and Hertel ordered him to stay in the cellhouse
while he blew McTavish off the tower with a bomb, manufactured from a piece
of lead pipe, heads from matches and cellose, obtained from playing guards.
Hertel threw high, and the bomb exploded harmlessly
as it passed over the guard tower. A moment later, another convict, as
yet unidentified, darted out from between the cellhouse at the other end
of the yard and hurled a bomb at the southwest corner guard tower, where
William Irvine was stationed. His aim was short, and the bomb exploded
on the ground in the corner of the wall. Both guards took quick shots at
the bomb throwers, but missed.
The explosion of the bombs was the signal for the
others to dash out of the cellhouse to the north wall and throw over a
hand-made rope with an iron hook on the end. The hook caught the rail at
the top of the wall and Deathridge began climbing up, followed by Underwood.
Deputy Giles, with his hands bound, was kept in
the center of the group in the hope that the guards would recognize him
and hold their fire for fear of hitting him.
As Deathridge neared the top of the wall a slug
from McTavish's gun struck him on the right side of the neck, severing
his jugular vein. He threw his head back with a gasp and fell, bringing
Underwood down with him.
Meanwhile, Deputy Giles, who had been knocked down,
crawled farther out in the open, with slugs spattering on all sides of
him, and tried to signal Mr. McTavish by shaking his head. As Deathridge
and Underwood came down in a heap, the others seized the dying prisoner
and ran back into the cellhouse. Warden Davis, in the meantime, had returned
from downtown and, running down to the northwest corner of the wall found
out from the guard what was happening. He dashed back to the west wall
and shouted for the prisoners to get out in the yard. Practically all of
them obeyed except the rioters, who took refuge on the top floor of No.
1 cellhouse. By this time members of the fire department and some 30 policemen
and a squad of deputy sheriffs had arrived and lined the wall with menacing
rifles, shotguns and revolvers.
Hertel, the spokesman, called for the warden to
come into the cellhouse as two men were ědying.î Warden Davis turned a
deaf ear to their demand and told the group to come out with hands up.
Hertel then asked for a promise that they would not be shot.
"I promise you nothing," Warden called back. "Come
out right now or we will come and get you.'
The five convicts, who are now under strict disciplinary
measures, came into the yard with their hands high in the air. Guards and
officers then went into the cellhouse, carried the two stunned guards out
and released Deputy Giles.
One small group of convicts, congregated between
the cellhouses, booed as Guard Christensen was carried out on a stretcher.
It is believed by the prison officials that this group was planning to
join the leaders in case their break was successful. All of the prisoners,
except a few trusties, were herded into the east end of the enclosure out
of sight of the front of the cellhouse before the body of Deathridge was
carried out.
Guard McTavish reported that five bombs were thrown
by the rioters, but only three could be found after the excitement had
died down. The one thrown .. at the northwest corner tower was on a lawn
outside the prison wall. The one hurled at the other guard was at the bottom
of the wall, and a third was found in the yard where the convicts had thrown
it after their break had come to sudden disaster. Only one of the bombs
which were found had exploded as planned, the other two merely blowing
out the plugs at the ends.
The knives, with which all the rioters were armed,
were prison table knives, filed down to a sharp point on cement blocks
or rocks. The rope was woven from materials obtained from the workshop
and the hook was made from iron taken from the same place. The material
is believed to have been smuggled to the unruly prisoners by factory trusties.
The improvised slugs, used by the prisoners to knock
out the two inside guards, were made of heavy toilet knobs, attached to
pieces of wire and placed in old socks. The knobs originally had handles
on them, making a murderous weapon, but the handles were broken off in
anticipation that they might be put to such a use. The knobs are screwed
onto a shaft and are easily detached.
Had the prisoners gotten over the main wall they
would have still been far from free. On the outside of the wall is a high
barbed wire fence which would require some time to scale. The fact that
they chose the north wall for the break, in view of the presence of the
wire fence, is a mystery to prison officials. If they got over any other
wall they would have had open country. Every previous prison break has
been directed at the north wall.
The slugging of the two inside guards was necessary
in order to get in control of the cellhouse and preventing the spreading
of the alarm. Their scheme fizzled out when Hertel and his compatriot bomb
thrower failed to hit their marks.
The general alarm system which connects with the
police and fire departments as well as the sheriff's office, worked perfectly
when set off from the office of Warden Davis. More than 30 officers were
on the scene soon after the outbreak. Warden Davis praised all three departments
for their prompt response.
FIVE PRISONERS HAVE RECORDS AS
TROUBLEMAKERS
The five prisoners, who with Lewis Deathridge, planned
a prison break at the Utah State prison, which ended with the death of
Deathridge, and the injuries to several guards and other prisoners, have
black pasts and had been trouble makers since their incarceration.
Deathridge was received at the prison January 17,
after he had been convicted of a series of robberies committed in the fall
of 1930. For many months he had been known as one of the most desperate
inmates. He was the ringleader in the Salt Lake county jail break on January
16, 1931, in which eight prisoners got out. Deathridge was captured the
same day in a barn at 1204 Fourth avenue.
Deathridge was said to have shot Patrolman L. R.
Terry on November 5, 1930, who interrupted a burglary of the Sewell United
Store at 684 East 21st South street. Deathridge later was arrested by Patrolman
C. J. Larson and Patrolman J. P. Dastrup.
Delbert Webster Pfoutz and R. H. Elliott were arrested
September 5, 1929, at Moab on suspicion of service station robberies. On
the following day, Marshal R. D. Westwood was opening the jail door to
give them their evening meal when Elliott, who later confessed, killed
him with three bullets (on September 5, 1929).
They were recaptured and taken to Price for safekeeping,
but were returned to the county jail at Moab on November 16 to stand trial.
The next day they escaped. Pfoutz attempted to float down the Colorado
river on a log. Elliott evaded capture for two days. The trial was brief,
the men convicted and sentenced to the prison for life.
Raymond Underwood had been an inmate since April,
1930, when he was convicted in the Fourth district court at Provo of third
degree burglary.
It was Underwood who, nearly a year ago, stuffed
papers in the rafters of the No. 1 cellhouse in an effort to burn the structure.
The cries of the prisoners brought assistance and the blaze was extinguished.
When the guards attempted to open the iron doors
leading to the prisonersí corridors, they found the levers had been jammed.
Questioning of the prisoners resulted in Underwood's being placed in solitary
confinement.
T. C. Hertel nearly lost his life on July 16, 1939,
after he had attempted to burglarize the Symns-Utah Grocery Company warehouse
at 327 West Second South street. He was shot by Special Patrolman Jesse
L. Barker at Second West and Second South streets. He hovered between life
and death for several days. Hertel admitted he led a jail break out of
the Fresno county jail in California in June, 1930.
Day was received from Carbon county last December
after being convicted of grand larceny.
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