ASSAULT ON PRISON.

Grey River Argus, 26 November 1927, Page 5

ASSAULT ON PRISON.

Turnkey Killed.

HUNDREDS MOBILISING FOR ATTACK.

‘'Ans. and N.Z. Cable Assn'). (Received November 25 at 5.5 p.m.) NEW YORK, November 24.

A message from Sacramento says that an army of several hundred men is mobilising outside Folsome State Prison for an organised assault on the barricaded position. Seven leaders attempted to release twelve hundred prisoners, but escape was frustrated within the walls in a battle, in which an assistant turnkey was killeu and three guards seriously wounded. The leaders, armed with guns and knives, barrieadad the doors of the main cell block and took a position of vantage in the hospital, directly above the entrance to the block where twelve hundred prisoners are at large. Two hundred and fifty National Guards and a hundred police left the city for the prison, where they will attack with light field artillery, machine guns and grenades, if the leaders refuse to surrender.

BITTER ALL NIGHT SIEGE. NEW YORK, November 24. Sacramento reports that seven men are now dead, and twenty-two wounded in the Folsom State Prison uprising. To-night settled ‘down into a bitter siege of the revolting convicts bv over five hundred militiamen, deputy sheriffs, and other officers. Two guards and five convicts were killed. Seventeen convicts and police officers, and the warden’s secretary were wounded. Warden Smith, who for a time was isolated in his office, which, to leave, he had to run the gauntlet of marauding convicts, directed operations against the rioters over a telephone, and finally succeeded in quitting the prison without being seen by the prisoners.