Hostages!
Held Hostage During Utah State Prison Riot
The following is a summary of the Salt Lake Tribune newspaper articles 7 Feb 1957 about the riot.
On 6 Feb 1957, the basketball team of the Granger 2nd ward went to the Utah State prison to play against the prisoners. This was the second time in about a month that the LDS team had played against the prisoners. They had played there several times before and had always had a good time.
Members of the team were:
John R. Condie
George Condie
Ronald Thurman
Robert Fuller
Paul T. Smith
Paul B. Smith
Phillip Condie Jr
Clyde Smith
Howard Condie
Wayne Thomas
Raymond Soloman
Dean White
Bryant Mackay
a youth surnamed Blackburn
Coach Severn Smith.
The time was 6:30 p.m. and the game was in its third quarter with the inmates trailing the Church team 49-37. Suddenly a prisoner appeared on the court and stopped the game shouting,
"The prison has been taken over by the convicts."
The convicts beat up a couple guards and stole their guns, and took the Church team hostage. There were 511 inmates in the prison. Also taken hostage were:
Marvin Hogensen
Clifford Gates
Clair Kilts
Dean Peters
Paul Kuhni
Robert Laney
These men were at the prison to help inmates rehearse the annual 'Felon Follies' variety program.
All the hostages were taken to the auditorium. Once there, the inmates seemed to go out of their way to treat them well. They gave the hostages ice cream and candy from the prison kitchen, and allowed them to watch the Wednesday night fights (boxing) on television. Nothing was done to harm or embarrass the team. At 9 o'clock p.m., a prisoner called the Salt Lake Tribune and asked, "Have you heard about the riot here?" A reporter answered the telephone and answered, "Yes." "Are you going to have a story on it?" "Yes." "Are you going to put it on page one?" "Yes," the reporter answered, and then asked, "Who's calling?" He heard angry voices and then the line went dead. Utah Governor George Clyde rushed to the prison to negotiate with the inmates. The inmates presented him with 43 'suggestions.' He said he would not begin to discuss solutions until the hostages were released. The National Guard was called out as well a policemen from Salt Lake, Davis, and Utah Counties. As time went on, the convicts decided to release half of the hostages. The convicts wanted the hostages to draw straws to decide who would leave, but the hostages had other ideas.
Wayne Thomas, Clyde Smith, Ray Solomon, Phil Condie, Paul Smith, Bryant Mackay and Howard Condie
decided to remain behind and allow the others to go free because some of their wives were expecting babies. After those hostages left, Bryant Mackay, Howard Condie, and Paul Smith were placed in front of a
submachine gun and threatened to be killed.
About the time this happened, the National Guard arrived at the prison. The situation lasted about 12 hours. It finally ended after a long night of the Governor and others negotiating with the inmates to stop, and because of a threat from law enforcement. About 30 policemen were on one side of a large steel door, and on the other side were the rioting inmates. An announcement was made to the rioters that the door was going to be opened and that on the other side of the door was a force behind the door that would deal with them. The were advised to return peacefully to their cells. The police were told to shoot the first inmate that came through the door when it was opened. The police were nervous as the door opened and faced a group of hostile inmates. The inmates saw the officers with shotguns leveled at them and quickly understood they could not compete against guns. They returned to their cells. The hostages were released at 5:55 a.m. 7 Feb 1957 and returned home.
