The Nome Nugget

38 Hostages Freed
From Convicts in
Wash. Escape Try

By JOHN KOMEN

MONROE, Wash. (AP) - Thirty-eight hostages held for 13½ terror-filled hours by four "kill crazy" young convicts were freed unharmed at the State Reformatory yesterday in a surprise tear gas attack.

Armed officers carried out the rescue at 4:03 a.m., two hours before the third and latest deadline set by the rebelling prisoners. Reformatory officials said it went "like clockwork."

The rebels, who had armed themselves with butcher knives and long forks in the kitchen Tuesday afternoon in the abortive escape attempt, threatened violence only to the three guards held hostage.

One of the guards, Hugh DeWalt, said the desperadoes told the officers to start praying because they would be thrown out of the window dead if their demands for freedom were not met.

Twenty-five visitors, many of them women and children, and 11 other prisoners who had been visiting relatives were seized along with the three guards.

One woman was released from the barricaded visitors' room during the night when she became ill. The others were held until the uprising ended. All outsiders and the 11 hostage inmates were treated fairly well.

The four rebels were quickly subdued as the tear gas sent the occupants stumbling, weeping and choking from the room.

The four were ordered placed in isolation.

Lawrence Delmore, state supervisor of adult correction, praised the reformatory staff for the smoothly executed rescue.

"We picked the time; we picked the battlefield," he said.

"We knew from 11 p.m. on what we were going to do. It was a matter of allowing enough time so that the women and children would be down asleep. We didn't want anybody to get hurt."

Mary Turner, 24, wife of one of 11 inmates held hostage, said she was asleep holding her baby when the officers rushed the door.

Mrs. Turner said everyone was calm throughout the attack.