WEBVTT - Under New Management 0:00:02.279 --> 0:00:03.199 Campsite Media. 0:00:07.160 --> 0:00:07.640 A warning. 0:00:07.960 --> 0:00:10.880 This episode contains graphic content that may be difficult for 0:00:10.920 --> 0:00:11.600 some listeners. 0:00:11.960 --> 0:00:12.920 Please listen with care. 0:00:16.120 --> 0:00:19.480 After Roger had spelt the word pigs out of jelly beans, 0:00:19.960 --> 0:00:22.600 the prison guards had deemed him too menacing to be 0:00:22.640 --> 0:00:27.680 trusted with candy, so they confiscated the beans, which we 0:00:27.760 --> 0:00:32.000 can all agree is very pig like behavior, leaving Roger 0:00:32.159 --> 0:00:35.519 with a spirit full of four letter words, but with 0:00:35.600 --> 0:00:40.280 no tools with which to express them. He was left 0:00:40.280 --> 0:00:43.760 in a cell with a new epiphany pulsing in his head, 0:00:44.400 --> 0:00:48.920 a discovery about himself that he had something to say. 0:00:50.280 --> 0:00:53.279 Before this, it had never really crossed his mind to 0:00:53.280 --> 0:00:57.120 put anything to paper. But when he would arrange these 0:00:57.160 --> 0:01:01.960 words made out of jelly beans, look at the colorful, simple, 0:01:02.560 --> 0:01:07.360 slanderous words, and think I made this word, and he 0:01:07.400 --> 0:01:10.399 could see a new world of possibility. 0:01:10.720 --> 0:01:13.640 I felt I never finished Grade. 0:01:13.440 --> 0:01:16.920 Sixth Writing a word or a sentence is something most 0:01:16.920 --> 0:01:19.960 of us take for granted, but for Roger it was 0:01:20.000 --> 0:01:25.240 a revelation. So down in solitary confinement, he thought, if 0:01:25.280 --> 0:01:27.720 I learned to write the characters of the words that 0:01:27.840 --> 0:01:31.639 I think or speak, I'm free to make whatever words 0:01:31.680 --> 0:01:35.280 I want. Being free in any way was very attractive 0:01:35.440 --> 0:01:39.600 to Roger. He couldn't go anywhere, or do anything, or 0:01:39.640 --> 0:01:42.600 eat what he wanted or see anyone he wanted. But 0:01:43.080 --> 0:01:47.440 if he could write, he could write anything he wished. 0:01:48.480 --> 0:01:53.000 But how and with what. It was then that he 0:01:53.080 --> 0:01:57.120 remembered the Kingston Penitentiary had a school teacher based in 0:01:57.160 --> 0:02:00.760 the library, so he sent out a verbal quest for 0:02:00.920 --> 0:02:04.320 pencils and paper. His request made it all the way 0:02:04.400 --> 0:02:07.120 to the teacher, and that same day this teacher made 0:02:07.160 --> 0:02:09.640 the trip all the way down to the hole to 0:02:09.760 --> 0:02:12.240 deliver the supplies to Roger himself. 0:02:12.520 --> 0:02:16.560 He get you three striggers, three pencil a dictionary, and ASSAURIUSM. 0:02:16.840 --> 0:02:20.440 Roger was hardly allowed anything in the hole, so when 0:02:20.440 --> 0:02:24.680 he was handed these novel objects and allowed these objects, 0:02:25.160 --> 0:02:28.920 he almost couldn't believe it. So he figured might as 0:02:28.919 --> 0:02:33.880 well get started before they changed their mind. Roger had 0:02:33.919 --> 0:02:36.640 read books in the past, but when it came to 0:02:36.680 --> 0:02:38.960 his own writing, it was almost as if he was 0:02:39.040 --> 0:02:43.640 inventing it for himself, because what he was saying was 0:02:43.680 --> 0:02:48.520 more urgent than the logistics of spelling and punctuation. He 0:02:48.639 --> 0:02:51.880 had feelings that he needed to let out, and then 0:02:51.919 --> 0:02:52.480 I grant. 0:02:52.240 --> 0:02:54.840 Out a pencil and had so much house failed. The 0:02:54.880 --> 0:02:58.600 intention to meet a pencil rob not easy. I opened 0:02:58.639 --> 0:03:00.760 a sprigger, I went to write the paper, tore the 0:03:00.840 --> 0:03:03.720 nip girl. I sharpened the dip of the confeefore, and 0:03:03.720 --> 0:03:06.080 then turned on the patient. I went to write, and 0:03:06.400 --> 0:03:07.760 it was like frustration. 0:03:08.040 --> 0:03:11.320 I was choked up. All these massive words don't come out. 0:03:11.400 --> 0:03:12.760 They didn't know I was filled. 0:03:12.960 --> 0:03:15.840 He'd spell phonetically or in a made up way for 0:03:16.000 --> 0:03:19.280 himself to decipher. Later, as he tried to keep up 0:03:19.320 --> 0:03:23.320 with a stream of consciousness, which was flowing like a river, 0:03:24.000 --> 0:03:27.200 he'd write about the past, about the scenes and people 0:03:27.240 --> 0:03:30.880 he'd encountered, the moments in his life that he'd revisit 0:03:31.000 --> 0:03:34.840 the most in his imagination. He was driven by the 0:03:34.920 --> 0:03:37.600 need to get these stories out of his head and 0:03:37.760 --> 0:03:41.120 into the physical realm in whatever way he could, at 0:03:41.200 --> 0:03:42.920 whatever pace it took. 0:03:43.360 --> 0:03:46.720 So I stole in the dictionary and Sidorus, and I 0:03:46.840 --> 0:03:48.960 found words, and I started writing. 0:03:49.440 --> 0:03:52.160 And it take me six hours to fill one felt paid. 0:03:52.960 --> 0:03:55.440 He'd spend hours with the dictionary to see if he 0:03:55.440 --> 0:03:58.160 could find the words he meant and learn how to 0:03:58.200 --> 0:04:02.160 spell them correctly. Then he'd flip to the thesaurus and 0:04:02.240 --> 0:04:08.280 find better words, tune tunnels, catacombs. The limbo room was 0:04:08.280 --> 0:04:13.840 in the catacombs underneath the reformatory. There's such pleasure in 0:04:13.960 --> 0:04:18.200 finding the right words. Each addition to the vocabulary brought 0:04:18.240 --> 0:04:20.760 with it a new permission to feel. 0:04:21.080 --> 0:04:23.200 But for the first time my life had felt good. 0:04:23.320 --> 0:04:25.640 All these words are born of my own aurus to 0:04:25.680 --> 0:04:28.799 the word anger and fell definition. 0:04:28.640 --> 0:04:36.400 Anger an intense emotional state of displeasure. See also indignation, rage, bitterness, 0:04:36.560 --> 0:04:39.760 higher contempt. Whole months would pass where it seemed like 0:04:39.800 --> 0:04:41.960 his pencil never stopped. 0:04:41.640 --> 0:04:44.000 Moving, I wrote, wrote. 0:04:44.320 --> 0:04:47.200 As the words plotted their way onto the page. He 0:04:47.240 --> 0:04:50.679 felt like he could unburden himself, one word at a time, 0:04:50.880 --> 0:04:53.800 of this mountain of strife and trauma. 0:04:54.240 --> 0:04:57.679 And I really think that was the beginning of where 0:04:57.720 --> 0:05:02.679 he learned, Wow, write a few things down here and whatnot. 0:05:02.720 --> 0:05:05.839 And I think that's really what set him off onto 0:05:05.920 --> 0:05:06.920 his writing journey. 0:05:07.440 --> 0:05:11.120 Around this time, Roger's sister Sue started to receive letters 0:05:11.440 --> 0:05:15.320 more regularly from her dear brother, where he'd explain this 0:05:15.400 --> 0:05:18.159 new writing kick he'd been on in the most Roger 0:05:18.240 --> 0:05:19.120 way possible. 0:05:19.320 --> 0:05:22.000 He said, my fingers are cramping and just writing and 0:05:22.040 --> 0:05:25.160 writing and writing and writing. You know, I'm doing a 0:05:25.200 --> 0:05:28.159 lot of writing whatnot. And I said, super, you know 0:05:28.320 --> 0:05:29.640 this is good. This is good. 0:05:30.040 --> 0:05:34.120 Sue had always been very encouraging of her brother through everything, 0:05:34.600 --> 0:05:36.000 and this was no different. 0:05:36.320 --> 0:05:38.120 I thought, it's not going to do him any harm, 0:05:38.200 --> 0:05:41.000 and hopefully you'll learn from some of what he's putting down. 0:05:41.839 --> 0:05:45.839 Sometimes when we have to face our thoughts, it's better 0:05:45.880 --> 0:05:47.960 for us and we see it more. It's nothing like 0:05:48.040 --> 0:05:51.080 putting it on paper and having a good look at it. 0:05:51.440 --> 0:05:54.880 When she received handwritten letters from Roger, she'd slide it 0:05:54.920 --> 0:05:58.599 from the envelope and would study the page fascinated. 0:05:59.040 --> 0:06:02.640 It was just so interesting. He was writing as it sounded, 0:06:03.720 --> 0:06:05.880 you know, the spelling some of it. You had to 0:06:05.920 --> 0:06:07.040 almost figure it out. 0:06:07.279 --> 0:06:11.159 With each letter. It became more obvious that writing was 0:06:11.240 --> 0:06:15.919 no passing fad in Roger's life. He was a writer. 0:06:16.440 --> 0:06:20.599 He was just like a train down the track. He 0:06:20.760 --> 0:06:23.440 was just on a roll. So I guess he had 0:06:23.440 --> 0:06:24.279 a lot to say. 0:06:34.880 --> 0:06:39.120 From iHeart podcasts and campsite media. I'm Sam Mullens and 0:06:39.240 --> 0:06:57.720 this is Go Boy episode five under new management. So 0:06:57.800 --> 0:07:02.560 the jellybeans were given to Roger on Christmas nineteen sixty three, 0:07:02.640 --> 0:07:07.200 and we need to fast forward to nineteen seventy one, 0:07:07.640 --> 0:07:12.480 eight years later. Usually when you're writing a podcast about someone, 0:07:13.000 --> 0:07:15.360 this is a good example of the type of time 0:07:15.480 --> 0:07:19.080 jump where you just skip those eight years, nice and clean. 0:07:19.640 --> 0:07:22.840 But this is the story of Go Boy, where too 0:07:22.920 --> 0:07:29.320 much happens all the time, so we'll skim jellybeans were 0:07:29.320 --> 0:07:32.840 in sixty three, he starts writing. After twenty three months 0:07:32.840 --> 0:07:36.120 in the hole. He sent to Manitoba, then to Quebec, 0:07:36.320 --> 0:07:39.400 where he was finally paroled. He got a job laying brick, 0:07:39.720 --> 0:07:44.200 but then he was arrested for conspiring to rob a brinkstruck, 0:07:44.720 --> 0:07:48.200 which is how in late nineteen seventy he found himself 0:07:48.200 --> 0:07:51.240 for the first time in many years, entering through the 0:07:51.280 --> 0:07:56.080 gates of the Kingston penn back where he started. Okay, 0:07:56.280 --> 0:07:59.040 so that gets us from sixty three to seventy one. 0:07:59.480 --> 0:08:01.840 But the most important thing for our story is that 0:08:01.880 --> 0:08:05.880 throughout these seven plus years, while Nixon was being elected 0:08:05.960 --> 0:08:08.960 and the Beatles were making Sergeant Pepper's and Neil Armstrong 0:08:09.120 --> 0:08:13.000 was walking on the moon, Roger was writing and revising 0:08:13.400 --> 0:08:16.920 and rewriting, and his pages would always come with him 0:08:17.000 --> 0:08:20.760 from place to place, and by nineteen seventy one he 0:08:20.880 --> 0:08:23.160 do a lot of writing, not in his cell but 0:08:23.240 --> 0:08:26.520 in the KP library, where he was finally bold enough 0:08:26.640 --> 0:08:29.960 to share his work with someone other than his sister. 0:08:30.200 --> 0:08:31.960 I went to work in the library there, Kitty, with 0:08:32.000 --> 0:08:34.480 all of my scrippers and the library and encourage to 0:08:34.520 --> 0:08:35.360 be the writing book. 0:08:35.559 --> 0:08:38.000 Roger had been sharing some of the sections of his 0:08:38.120 --> 0:08:41.679 manuscript with the librarian and he told Roger that he 0:08:41.720 --> 0:08:43.319 thought he really had something here. 0:08:43.400 --> 0:08:46.000 And then that's when he started talking, I probably got 0:08:46.080 --> 0:08:48.480 enough material here for a book, And I say why not? 0:08:49.520 --> 0:08:53.400 Why not? And he was really excited about telling me 0:08:53.440 --> 0:08:53.840 about that. 0:08:53.880 --> 0:08:58.640 In the letters, Roger's manuscript had ballooned to eighteen hundred pages, 0:08:59.200 --> 0:09:02.960 and those pages had become the center of his whole life. 0:09:03.040 --> 0:09:06.240 He'd spent so many years looking over his shoulder, being 0:09:06.600 --> 0:09:11.199 hyper vigilant about his surroundings just to survive. But when 0:09:11.200 --> 0:09:15.920 he started thinking about a book, all the preoccupations of 0:09:15.960 --> 0:09:20.559 the institution kind of faded into the background. The project 0:09:20.640 --> 0:09:23.800 of his book was all encompassing, and there's almost no 0:09:24.000 --> 0:09:27.560 room anymore for the day to day dramas of the prison. 0:09:28.520 --> 0:09:31.920 But whether he was paying attention or not, there was 0:09:31.960 --> 0:09:36.319 something in the air at the Kingston Penitentiary in nineteen 0:09:36.400 --> 0:09:41.360 seventy one. A pressure was building in the institution and 0:09:41.520 --> 0:09:47.400 things were about to explode. The prisoners had learned of 0:09:47.440 --> 0:09:51.520 a new super maximum security prison that was being built 0:09:51.559 --> 0:09:57.319 eighteen miles away, called Millhaven, or ironically the Haven for short, 0:09:57.920 --> 0:10:01.600 and it was almost ready to open. The Kingston pen 0:10:01.760 --> 0:10:04.360 was nearly a century and a half old by this point, 0:10:04.880 --> 0:10:08.160 so the powers that be began pouring millions of dollars 0:10:08.240 --> 0:10:11.560 into the prison that would one day replace it, and 0:10:11.679 --> 0:10:16.840 everything the prisoners heard about Milhaven's design filled them with dread. 0:10:17.360 --> 0:10:19.720 It was going to have more gun towers than the pen, 0:10:20.120 --> 0:10:24.199 more razor wire, and a fleet of attack dogs. There 0:10:24.200 --> 0:10:27.439 were rumors that every cell would have a solid steel 0:10:27.520 --> 0:10:31.880 door instead of bars, every cell would have security cameras, 0:10:32.160 --> 0:10:34.840 and every room would be bugged by state of the 0:10:34.960 --> 0:10:39.520 art voice recorders, listening in on and recording their every move, 0:10:39.960 --> 0:10:44.360 their every conversation. And this was all on top of 0:10:44.480 --> 0:10:48.600 the changes they'd been observing at KP. Everything was more 0:10:48.640 --> 0:10:52.320 locked down than ever, The food was worse, the punishment 0:10:52.679 --> 0:10:56.480 more severe, and the mutual respect that was once possible 0:10:56.520 --> 0:11:01.320 between guard and inmate was a dinosaur of an earlier era. 0:11:02.240 --> 0:11:05.840 Roger was less invested in all this angst than an 0:11:05.840 --> 0:11:11.120 earlier version of him might have been, because he had hope, 0:11:11.360 --> 0:11:14.240 hope that his lawyer would help him overturn this wrongful 0:11:14.320 --> 0:11:18.120 conviction in appeal, and he had hope in the form 0:11:18.320 --> 0:11:23.240 of his eighteen hundred pages, that one day he'd be 0:11:23.280 --> 0:11:26.560 able to do something with him. He had convinced himself 0:11:26.720 --> 0:11:33.000 that these pages had value. But on April fourteenth, nineteen 0:11:33.080 --> 0:11:37.680 seventy one, the Kingston Penitentiary was about to become an 0:11:37.720 --> 0:11:44.280 all time bad place to have anything of value. On 0:11:44.360 --> 0:11:48.360 April fourteenth, the first dozen inmates were moved from KP 0:11:49.000 --> 0:11:53.000 to Millhaven, so the abstract boogeyman of this new prison 0:11:53.360 --> 0:11:57.160 had finally arrived at their door. Tension was at an 0:11:57.160 --> 0:12:01.040 all time high. Prisoners had been speaking in hushed tones 0:12:01.080 --> 0:12:03.720 for months about what they could do to stop this 0:12:03.840 --> 0:12:08.560 transfer to Millhaven from happening, and they've been brainstorming about 0:12:08.559 --> 0:12:11.440 what sort of power play they could make to fight 0:12:11.480 --> 0:12:15.360 against it. But when you pulled the threads apart to 0:12:15.440 --> 0:12:19.000 trace what triggered the most horrifying thing to ever happen 0:12:19.200 --> 0:12:23.240 in the Canadian prison. It started with a dress code 0:12:23.320 --> 0:12:30.559 violation when we went on our tour of the Kingston Penitentiary. 0:12:31.040 --> 0:12:34.200 In this one part, we walked into what looks like 0:12:34.360 --> 0:12:38.840 a big gymnasium like you'd see in high school, and 0:12:39.080 --> 0:12:43.000 to get in, there's a couple checkpoints with steel gates 0:12:43.040 --> 0:12:46.440 in this little bottleneck just before you walk in and 0:12:46.559 --> 0:12:50.240 through this bottleneck is where the inmates would pass into 0:12:50.280 --> 0:12:53.720 the gym where they would have their recreation time. They 0:12:53.760 --> 0:12:57.360 could exercise, play a game, or often they would just 0:12:57.440 --> 0:12:59.960 watch TV. I think they were a hockey game. 0:13:00.360 --> 0:13:04.560 And then it was basically somewhere on this segment when 0:13:04.640 --> 0:13:06.000 the riot started. 0:13:06.080 --> 0:13:09.760 To keep the groups manageable, the guards would bring inmates 0:13:09.800 --> 0:13:13.480 through the checkpoints to the recreation area only twenty men 0:13:13.679 --> 0:13:16.679 at a time. So it was in one of these 0:13:16.760 --> 0:13:21.440 checkpoints with steel bars all around them that guard named Decker, 0:13:21.840 --> 0:13:26.839 when glancing at an inmate named Knight, spotted a dress 0:13:26.840 --> 0:13:30.840 code violation. KP had a strict dress code that was 0:13:30.960 --> 0:13:35.480 enforced at all times that included, among other things, having 0:13:35.679 --> 0:13:39.559 your shirt tucked in. We stood in the exact corridor 0:13:39.840 --> 0:13:42.600 where this happened. I would imagine it was a long 0:13:43.440 --> 0:13:47.079 partner wow a guard stand Tucker shirt at tuck that 0:13:47.240 --> 0:13:51.439 shirt in. The guard barked at the exact wrong inmate 0:13:51.559 --> 0:13:55.600 on the exact wrong days. Everyone in the checkpoint waited 0:13:55.640 --> 0:13:58.880 to see what Billy Knight would do, to see how 0:13:58.920 --> 0:14:02.960 this most respect of inmates would react to the upity 0:14:03.160 --> 0:14:07.319 tone of this cocky twenty seven year old guard. They 0:14:07.320 --> 0:14:11.200 didn't need to wait for very long, because Knight swung 0:14:11.280 --> 0:14:14.880 a sudden punch to the stomach of Decker and yelled, 0:14:15.400 --> 0:14:21.120 that's the last order you're going to give. Within seconds, 0:14:21.360 --> 0:14:24.160 the inmates had the keys to get through the next barrier, 0:14:24.440 --> 0:14:27.840 where they overpowered the next guard and moved into the area. 0:14:28.000 --> 0:14:31.520 After that, they were making a break for the center Dawn, 0:14:32.000 --> 0:14:35.720 the effect of control center of the whole institution, where 0:14:35.720 --> 0:14:38.920 they knew that if they got control of that, the 0:14:38.960 --> 0:14:43.080 prison would be theirs. While all this was going on, 0:14:43.560 --> 0:14:46.760 Roger was sitting quietly in his cell when he heard 0:14:46.800 --> 0:14:50.360 the sound of yelling in the distance. Where were you 0:14:50.640 --> 0:14:52.680 on April fourteenth, nineteen seventy one. 0:14:53.040 --> 0:14:55.400 I was where I wish I wouldn't have been. I 0:14:55.440 --> 0:14:58.560 was in Kingston Penitentiary just before it exploded. 0:14:58.760 --> 0:15:00.680 D Roger will take a break and then we'll come 0:15:00.720 --> 0:15:04.400 back and find out what did happen when somebody yelled bingo. 0:15:08.440 --> 0:15:11.840 In short order, the rogue inmates had captured six of 0:15:11.880 --> 0:15:15.320 the guards, taken them prisoner, and locked them up in 0:15:15.400 --> 0:15:20.600 their cell block. Word deliriously spread that the inmates had 0:15:20.600 --> 0:15:23.400 taken control of the place, as they said about the 0:15:23.560 --> 0:15:27.720 urgent task of freeing every inmate in the pen. Some 0:15:27.840 --> 0:15:30.720 cell blocks were a cinch to unlock and required just 0:15:30.760 --> 0:15:34.000 a spinning of the wheel to open, while with others 0:15:34.360 --> 0:15:37.560 they needed to smash their way in by ripping the 0:15:37.600 --> 0:15:41.440 bars clean out of the wall. One by one, the 0:15:41.480 --> 0:15:45.640 men ran to the dome, whooping and hollering, disbelieving this 0:15:45.800 --> 0:15:49.840 sudden twist in their Wednesday evening. What were they going 0:15:49.920 --> 0:15:55.160 to do with this unlikeliest of opportunities. Well, I'll tell 0:15:55.200 --> 0:15:58.320 you the first thing they did. They smashed the shit 0:15:58.480 --> 0:16:02.680 of the Kingston Penitentiary bell. Today you can go and 0:16:02.720 --> 0:16:06.040 see what remains of it at the Canadian Penitentiary Museum. 0:16:06.280 --> 0:16:09.280 During the riot, this was such a focal point of 0:16:11.240 --> 0:16:14.160 all their aggression and all their like let's take it 0:16:14.200 --> 0:16:16.360 out on the bell. One can't help but think of 0:16:16.400 --> 0:16:19.360 the scene with the printer from Office Space one of 0:16:19.400 --> 0:16:22.200 their things was not just take it, not just to 0:16:22.200 --> 0:16:24.520 assemble it, but to smash it as many pieces as 0:16:24.520 --> 0:16:26.920 they can. So it's amazing they actually have it here 0:16:27.120 --> 0:16:31.320 with the actual pieces. Wow. There's a newspaper headline framed 0:16:31.400 --> 0:16:36.360 above the bell remains that reads, Jangling Bell tolls no longer. 0:16:36.800 --> 0:16:39.960 And the destruction of the bell was just the beginning. 0:16:40.120 --> 0:16:42.600 The prisoners have done some damage. They've smashed the three 0:16:42.720 --> 0:16:45.840 chapels and destroyed most of the locking systems throughout the 0:16:45.880 --> 0:16:49.680 cell block they occupy. They broke windows, kicked in doors, 0:16:49.800 --> 0:16:54.360 and broke every breakable thing there was. It was complete mayhem, 0:16:54.680 --> 0:16:59.000 complete disorder. And after the initial wave of joy and 0:16:59.080 --> 0:17:02.640 anger and revel on the physical, it was time to 0:17:02.720 --> 0:17:06.120 think about what their next move was. With the six 0:17:06.200 --> 0:17:09.000 guards in their custody, they knew they had a very 0:17:09.000 --> 0:17:12.520 strong bargaining tip. If the inmates really were planning on 0:17:12.640 --> 0:17:15.920 getting some sort of message out to the public about 0:17:15.960 --> 0:17:18.480 how poorly they were being treated at the hands of 0:17:18.520 --> 0:17:22.040 the Canadian penal system and how afraid they were about 0:17:22.040 --> 0:17:26.200 what waited for them in Millhaven, they had a horrified 0:17:26.280 --> 0:17:31.439 nation's undivided attention. In Kingston, Ontario, prisoners hold six guards 0:17:31.480 --> 0:17:35.040 and insist their demands be met or else the inmates 0:17:35.119 --> 0:17:39.160 needed to figure out what to do with their hostages. There, 0:17:39.160 --> 0:17:41.760 of course, were some who wanted to just kill the 0:17:41.760 --> 0:17:46.080 guards and not let this opportunity slide by, while others 0:17:46.240 --> 0:17:49.840 wanted to protect the guards because without them there was 0:17:49.920 --> 0:17:53.119 nothing stopping the police from just shooting their way in 0:17:53.440 --> 0:17:57.080 to regain control. But aside from the guards, there was 0:17:57.119 --> 0:18:00.600 another group of hostages. There was even more disagreement over 0:18:01.600 --> 0:18:05.800 the undesirables. The undesirables are the men at the very 0:18:05.840 --> 0:18:10.320 bottom of the inmates social order, the rapists, child abusers, 0:18:10.480 --> 0:18:14.359 pedophiles and informants who were kept in Cell Block one D. 0:18:15.400 --> 0:18:19.200 The undesirables are kept completely separate from the general population 0:18:19.560 --> 0:18:23.000 for their own safety. If the main population ever got 0:18:23.040 --> 0:18:25.879 their hands on them, they try to kill them. So 0:18:26.000 --> 0:18:29.600 now that the prison had fallen, the fate of Cell 0:18:29.600 --> 0:18:33.119 Block one D was very much in jeopardy, but for 0:18:33.200 --> 0:18:36.960 the time being, the riot leaders wanted to keep them safe. 0:18:37.000 --> 0:18:40.240 The inmates appointed a committee to speak on their behalf, 0:18:40.720 --> 0:18:44.040 and the two sides would meet regularly, giving updates and 0:18:44.119 --> 0:18:49.359 passing along their demands to the media. Number one medication 0:18:49.680 --> 0:18:53.800 for those who need it. Number two food they needed 0:18:53.840 --> 0:18:57.080 to feed their hostages and insisted on control of the kitchen, 0:18:57.480 --> 0:19:01.520 and three security. They wanted assurance that there would be 0:19:01.560 --> 0:19:05.119 no surprise offensives that would jeopardize the lives of inmate 0:19:05.320 --> 0:19:10.160 and guard alike. At the bargaining table, the discussions appeared 0:19:10.200 --> 0:19:14.200 civil and well organized and intentioned, but everything was that 0:19:14.320 --> 0:19:18.720 a stalemate, with neither side budging. Many members of the 0:19:18.760 --> 0:19:21.359 public had no idea of the state of things on 0:19:21.400 --> 0:19:24.600 the inside, and found it easy to empathize with the 0:19:24.640 --> 0:19:28.159 inmates who'd been suffering out of sight of Canadian society 0:19:29.080 --> 0:19:32.560 outside the wall. The police had the place surrounded and 0:19:32.600 --> 0:19:35.800 the Canadian Armed Forces were called in as the riot 0:19:35.960 --> 0:19:40.560 became the top story in the nation. But inside the prison, 0:19:41.200 --> 0:19:46.200 the main persistent thing was the cold. They'd recklessly smashed 0:19:46.320 --> 0:19:49.360 so many windows that the place felt like a Nordic castle, 0:19:49.840 --> 0:19:53.400 with the icy wind coming off Lake Ontario chilling them 0:19:53.440 --> 0:19:55.760 to the bone. As they ran low on things to 0:19:55.840 --> 0:19:59.520 keep the fires burning, Roger took the time to explore 0:19:59.560 --> 0:20:02.040 the place to see if he could find some snacks. 0:20:02.080 --> 0:20:05.240 At first, and a little later he was involved in 0:20:05.280 --> 0:20:08.440 the making and hanging of one of the lasting images 0:20:08.520 --> 0:20:12.040 of the riot. The banner hung out the top dome window, 0:20:12.119 --> 0:20:17.679 which read under new management. Roger claims to have been 0:20:17.760 --> 0:20:20.800 part of the group who advocated for keeping the hostages 0:20:20.920 --> 0:20:24.679 safe and alive. There was a small group who worked 0:20:24.680 --> 0:20:28.080 in shifts to safeguard the prisoners from the wolf packs 0:20:28.080 --> 0:20:32.160 who roamed the cell blocks thirsty for blood. But after 0:20:32.200 --> 0:20:36.520 a few days it became apparent that whatever civility had 0:20:36.560 --> 0:20:38.880 remained among the inmates in the first day or two 0:20:39.520 --> 0:20:44.160 was merely a mirage, and with the combination of the cold, 0:20:44.400 --> 0:20:48.520 the running low on supplies, and the growing desperation, there 0:20:48.560 --> 0:20:51.119 was no way this was going to have a happy ending. 0:20:52.200 --> 0:20:56.600 But no one would believe how horrifying a turn everything 0:20:56.720 --> 0:20:57.560 was about to take. 0:20:58.320 --> 0:21:01.080 Everybody was going a little bit crazy, and they decided 0:21:01.119 --> 0:21:03.439 that they were going to drag the undesirables from d 0:21:03.600 --> 0:21:05.800 block here into the central part of the dome. 0:21:05.920 --> 0:21:08.240 A small group of the most violent men in the 0:21:08.280 --> 0:21:12.000 place said enough was enough. If they were just gonna 0:21:12.040 --> 0:21:14.840 end up rotting away in Millhaven anyway, they might as 0:21:14.880 --> 0:21:17.240 well get to do something they'd always wanted to do. 0:21:18.119 --> 0:21:20.840 They dragged them out, screaming, and they tied them to 0:21:20.920 --> 0:21:24.359 fourteen chairs with wire rope and chained. He held a 0:21:24.440 --> 0:21:25.480 kangaroo court. 0:21:25.400 --> 0:21:28.160 In the central dome of the prison. There's a truly 0:21:28.320 --> 0:21:33.400 theatrical layout. All around the center circle are catwalks four 0:21:33.440 --> 0:21:35.000 stories high. 0:21:34.920 --> 0:21:38.000 All these galities of the nags and demo stairways, and 0:21:38.040 --> 0:21:40.960 all these heart like figures all leaning over the rail 0:21:41.080 --> 0:21:43.720 in a spot like the high dome, shining on the 0:21:43.760 --> 0:21:45.320 floor just like a stage light. 0:21:45.760 --> 0:21:48.399 The leader took the stage and asked the sea of 0:21:48.480 --> 0:21:53.960 faces above him, what shall we do, gentlemen, Cast right them, 0:21:54.320 --> 0:21:58.720 cut their throats, kill them. The faces shouted. As the 0:21:58.760 --> 0:22:04.320 bloodthirsty audience began rhythmically pounding the railings in anticipation. The 0:22:04.359 --> 0:22:08.760 man in the center shouted, the show is about to begin. 0:22:10.040 --> 0:22:13.200 The twelve thirteen chairs were all eye together, and then 0:22:13.200 --> 0:22:15.440 they're rich, realistically tortured. 0:22:16.000 --> 0:22:20.919 At first, the undesirables were beaten with clubs, kicked, slashed. 0:22:21.600 --> 0:22:25.080 Before long, blood began to pool on the dome floor 0:22:25.400 --> 0:22:28.679 as the hundreds looked on, horrified at the violence and 0:22:28.720 --> 0:22:33.320 depravity of their peers. At one point in the proceedings, 0:22:33.680 --> 0:22:37.000 a figure emerged on the makeshift stage to try and 0:22:37.040 --> 0:22:39.200 put a stop to the senseless violence. 0:22:39.920 --> 0:22:42.120 One guy lost his mind for a moment and ran 0:22:42.240 --> 0:22:45.720 into this inner circle where the fourteen undesirables were being tortured, 0:22:46.160 --> 0:22:48.679 and everybody gave a gasp of shocked and said, the 0:22:48.720 --> 0:22:50.320 guy's crazy. He went in there and he says, you 0:22:50.400 --> 0:22:52.880 got to stop this torture. You got to stop this cruelty, 0:22:53.200 --> 0:22:56.200 and biff bang arm bars to the head, boots knives 0:22:56.240 --> 0:22:59.159 at him. He crawled out of the circle just barely alive. 0:22:59.440 --> 0:23:02.520 And that was one example to everybody else. Don't interfere 0:23:02.640 --> 0:23:04.280 or you'll end up tied up to that chair. 0:23:04.920 --> 0:23:07.640 Some of the onlookers would try to slink away from 0:23:07.640 --> 0:23:10.320 the violence and go wander to a different part of 0:23:10.359 --> 0:23:14.080 the prison, but looking away was not an option. 0:23:14.480 --> 0:23:16.720 Sort of wolf packs would roam around and they drag 0:23:16.760 --> 0:23:18.240 the guys out of their cell and you say, come 0:23:18.280 --> 0:23:18.920 back to the dome. 0:23:18.960 --> 0:23:19.920 You need to show a force. 0:23:20.200 --> 0:23:22.320 The army and the prison warden is looking through the 0:23:22.359 --> 0:23:24.360 windows of binnockers and they got to see that there's 0:23:24.400 --> 0:23:24.800 a shower. 0:23:24.960 --> 0:23:28.080 After the initial beating of all the undesirables, they were 0:23:28.119 --> 0:23:31.119 covered in sheets and if you were one of the 0:23:31.200 --> 0:23:34.880 unfortunate souls in the circle, all you could hear were 0:23:34.920 --> 0:23:38.679 the sounds of steel bars snapping bones, the crunch of 0:23:38.720 --> 0:23:42.960 fists breaking noses, the moans of the beaten, and the 0:23:43.000 --> 0:23:46.840 gasps of the horrified crowd. The sounds alone made it 0:23:46.880 --> 0:23:49.480 obvious that not everyone would be making it out of 0:23:49.520 --> 0:23:53.439 the dome alive. One of the main undesirables taking the 0:23:53.480 --> 0:23:57.359 worst of it was a convicted child molester. After having 0:23:57.359 --> 0:24:01.680 his ribs broken, his chair was tipped backward, his head 0:24:02.040 --> 0:24:03.800 bouncing off the cement. 0:24:03.880 --> 0:24:06.800 And the rail walked over and took his knife slacks. 0:24:07.320 --> 0:24:09.880 This guy tied to the chair, crash and sank. Wo 0:24:10.240 --> 0:24:11.160 took a steel mop. 0:24:11.640 --> 0:24:14.480 Actually it wasn't a steel mug. It was a chalice 0:24:14.760 --> 0:24:15.920 stolen from the chapel. 0:24:16.240 --> 0:24:17.840 Fill the steel mop full of blood. 0:24:18.119 --> 0:24:20.359 Look the guy tied up in the chair, hook him 0:24:20.400 --> 0:24:23.480 the eye said, here's to you, sucker, drank the guy's blood, 0:24:24.400 --> 0:24:26.320