1959 Riot

On the afternoon of April 16, Jerry Myles and Lee Smart led a violent riot by inmates against prison authorities. After seizing a rifle from the catwalk guard, they took control of the 1912 cell house and forced their way into the administration building, where the rioting inmates shot and killed Deputy Warren Ted Rothe. The inmates then took 19 prison employees and 5 inmates identified as stool pigeons as hostages and threatened to burn them alive if any rescue was attempted. Under a rescue plan formed by Warden Floyd Powell, National Guardsmen fired a bazooka at the northwest tower of the cell house headquarters, stunning the inmates long enough for a rescue team to free the hostages. Myles and Smart were found dead on the third floor of the tower in an apparent double suicide. Although the riot drew attention to numerous problems within the prison, another twenty years passed before the old prison closed.

Deer Lodge, Montana · United States