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       FIRE IN THE BIG HOUSE

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      Swallow Press

      An imprint of Ohio University Press, Athens, Ohio 45701

       ohioswallow.com

      © 2019 by Mitchel P. Roth

      All rights reserved

      To obtain permission to quote, reprint, or otherwise reproduce or distribute material from Swallow Press / Ohio University Press publications, please contact our rights and permissions department at (740) 593-1154 or (740) 593-4536 (fax).

      Printed in the United States of America

      Swallow Press / Ohio University Press books are printed on acid-free paper Image

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      Hardcover ISBN: 978-0-8214-2383-7

      Electronic ISBN: 978-0-8214-4682-9

      Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data available upon request.

      This book is dedicated to the victims of the 1930 Ohio Penitentiary fire and their families.

      CONTENTS

       List of Illustrations

       Acknowledgments

       Introduction

       1 Fire in the Big House

       2 The Fairgrounds

       3 Columbus, Ohio

       4 Ohio Penitentiary

       5 The Big House

       6 The Warden

       7 The Keepers

       8 The Convicts

       9 Board of Inquiry

       10 Mutiny in White City

       11 The Arsonists

       12 Aftermath

       Epilogue

       Appendix: Ohio Penitentiary Fire Victims

       Notes

       Bibliography

       Index

      ILLUSTRATIONS

      Map

       Layout of the Ohio Penitentiary in April 1930

      Plates

       Ohio inmates in earlier years when prison stripes and lockstep marching were common

       Guards and staff, ca. 1890s

       Ohio Penitentiary dining hall

       Aerial view of the Ohio Penitentiary

       Panoramic view of the fire

       Firefighters and hoses at the southeast wagon stockade gate

       The Columbus Fire Department attempting to control the fire

       Inmates and firefighters watching the fire

       Tending to the injured and checking for life on the quad lawn

       Looking for signs of life on the quad

       Inmates conveying the injured and the dead on blankets away from the quad area

       Ohio Penitentiary hospital ward

       Women at the prison gates seeking passes to claim bodies of loved ones

       Victims delivered in trucks to the fairgrounds for casket preparation

       Victims being prepared for caskets at the fairgrounds

       Caskets at the fairgrounds ready for burial

       Burial of unclaimed coffin by Naval Reservists

       Twisted rebar amidst the collapsed cellblock roof

       Devastation in G&H cellblocks

       A scorched cell in the aftermath of the fire

       The hero guards William Baldwin and Thomas Little in the aftermath of the fire

       Postfire activity in the quad area adjacent to the destroyed cellblocks

       Postfire prisoner activity, probably lining up for breakfast

       The stockade containing the tent city created in the aftermath of the fire

       Warden Thomas being sworn in to testify before the Board of Inquiry

       The penitentiary arsonists and escape plotters

       Arsonist Hugh Gibbons in solitary confinement

      ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

      This book had a rather long gestation period, during which I wrote four other books as I continued to research Fire in the Big House. I am indebted to a number of individuals for their research assistance on the project over the years. Several of my teaching assistants helped find articles and teach me the intricacies of the Excel spreadsheet. I especially want to thank (now) Dr. Robin Jackson, who helped organize the appendix detailing the backgrounds of the victims of the fire. Duncan McCallum and Kathryn Perez have contributed at one time or another as well. I thank you for your assistance. While conducting research in Columbus, archivists at the Public Library and the Ohio History Center were particularly helpful. Lily Berkhimer at the OHC was especially helpful in reproducing images for the book.

      Having written numerous books for a variety of presses over the years, I can say that the Ohio University Press has made this journey from prospectus to book as stress-free as writing a book and going through the review process can be. I would like to thank the three reviewers for their helpful suggestions that made this a much better book than it would otherwise have been.

      At

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