A Fatal Ruckus

At Road Prison No. 32 in Florida's piney Panhandle region, Guard Arnie Oree Lovett doused the main lights in the barracks one night last week. All was quiet, and he settled down in his wire cage, which protruded into the building, allowing him to watch the twelve white and 39 Negro prisoners--some of them "close custody" convicts who must be guarded at all times. When one prisoner, following standard practice, asked permission to leave his bunk for the bathroom, Lovett thought nothing about it. The next moment a riot erupted--or in Dixie parlance, a "ruckus." Normally, it involves some shouting and vandalism to let off steam. In this case, it killed 38 men.

"Come Out, Boys!" Convicts leaped from their beds. Some grabbed brooms and smashed out the fluorescent lights. Others knocked the TV set to the floor and demolished it. Still others tore out plumbing fixtures. Following emergency plans, Lovett, 49, summoned another guard and gave him the key to an arms cabinet in the prison office. As he rushed back to his cage, Lovett saw one group of prisoners setting fire to a pile of newspapers and toilet paper that they had stacked under a bunk and another starting a blaze at the opposite end of the building. A large exhaust fan sucked the flames along the ceiling. In seconds, the one-story structure was a furnace.

Prisoners screamed for Lovett to unlock the cage. The same key used to open the gun cabinet was the one needed to unlock the padlock at the barracks, and Lovett did not have it. While he watched, helpless, flames rolled across the ceiling, turning metal fixtures red hot. Some prisoners rushed to the showers to escape the heat--only to die from asphyxiation. Some huddled in corners, while others lay flat on the floor. Two or three minutes after the fire started, the other guard returned on the run and tossed the key to Lovett. By then Lovett's cage was filled with smoke and flames. Three times he tried to get to the lock, only to be forced back. On the fourth try, he succeeded. "The door's open!" he cried. "Come out, boys, come on out!" He pulled several out himself, suffering burns on his face and back. Some staggered out on their own. Flames kept others from the exit, and ax-wielding guards and convicts frantically chopped a hole in the wall. "For God's sake, men," sobbed one of the rescued convicts, "come out." Only 16 did--and of those, three died later and five were injured.

Three Ringleaders. At an inquiry after the fire, convicts testified that two white prisoners and a Negro had planned the riot, possibly to mask a prison break, possibly just to vent some frustrations. "They really wanted to tear it up," testified one prisoner, but for what reason he could not--or would not--say. Nor could the three ringleaders. All had perished in the blaze.

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