Word: warden
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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...convicts broke out to the main gate before being beaten back. ¶1934: nine convicts and a guard died in "The Lincoln Day Break." ¶1952: a loo-ft. tunnel was discovered shortly after prisoners were given a dinner by the warden for digging no tunnels during the previous year. ¶1953: a convict-made bomb killed Prison Manager Albert Gruber. A two-day riot and $500,000 fire killed one prisoner, destroyed five buildings. One-quarter of the prisoners (400 men) held a "sleep strike" after using barbiturates to go on a mass bender...
Prodigal. In Leicester. England, two hours after he escaped from jail. Dennis Anson rang the bell at the front gate, asked the warden to let him back in. ex plained: "I'm tired and cold. Besides. I split my pants...
From then on, life within the walls of Pont-l'Evéque underwent a subtle change. With Convicts Grainville and Manguy in virtually complete charge, the new chief warden found plenty of time to enjoy his poetry and his pastis. The prisoners got keys to their cells and were permitted to move about at will. Unexplained guests came and went. Rude prison fare was augmented with Epicurean delicacies. Many prison inmates began to take their breakfast in bed, and often, at the dinner hour, they wandered out for an apéritif in the village...
Only Words. Like all good things, however, the happy life at Pont-l'Evéque was eventually soured by those who took too great advantage of it. The principal serpent in Warden Billa's paradise was an ardent, free-lancing lover who sent so many uncensored love letters that authorities took notice. An investigation followed, and the carefree warden was arrested along with eight of his prisoners...
Last week, no longer a warden, Fernand Billa went on trial for "criminal negligence." One of the beneficiaries of his kindness, himself on trial for forging his own passes out of the prison, did his best to help. "Sometimes I gave him a swig of red Bordeaux or a chicken wing," testified the prisoner. "He was my guest, that's all." Billa's lawyer entered an eloquent appeal: "Billa is a pioneer of the new penitentiary doctrine which, so far as possible, would keep the prisoner from any contact with the prison." But all this...