“Police Fire Kills 1, Wounds 1 At Bordeaux,” Montreal Gazette. August 2, 1952. Page 01. “700 Police Halt 3-Hour Fracas --- Damaged Rated Much Greater than $400,000 Vandalism Committed May 4-5. --- One prisoner was shot and killed last night by police battling almost 600 rioters at Bordeaux Jail. Two prisoners were wounded and about a dozen guards, police, firemen, and prisoners were injured in hand-to-hand fighting during the second revolt in three months over food served in the institution. Seven hundred police fired volleys of tear gas pellets into the prison yard to subdue the grim and silent prisoners who broke out of their cell block at 7.30pm. Sub-machinegun and revolver fire over the heads of the rioters held back a rush on the gates and guards warned that they would shoot to kill if anyone tried to break out. At midnight police began moving about 100 prisoners from the wrecked and fire-swept cell block to downtown provincial police cells. Twelve of them were patients from the mental ward at Bordeaux. Another 200 huddled in blankets in the courtyard but at 2 a.m. today the rest of the rioters still held out in their cell block, defying police orders to surrender. Police stayed on guard outside the gate to the inner jail yard, but did not attempt to enter among the prisoners. A city police official estimated damage in this riot as much greater than that done last May 4 when about 500 prisoners rioted to protest food quality and did $400,000 damage in their two-day smashing spree. Police said the dead prisoner was shot in the neck in a scuffle with police and guards early in the affray. He was reported to have tried to grab a policeman’s gun and to have been shot by another guard. Doctors who attended him said he died in an ambulance on his way to hospital. His name was not released. Claude Larose, 17, another prisoner, was injured by a piece of flying metal from a tear gas pellet. At Sacred Heart Hospital 30 stitches were put in his neck to close the wound. Another unidentified prisoner is in St. Luke Hospital. Authorities would not give his name or the extent of his injuries. Police said several men, including the ringleader of the revolt, were being held in special detention. At least half the men who milled about the courtyard during the riot were mental patients, released by the ringleader. One provincial policeman told a Gazette reporter that a group of prisoners who had no wish to participate in the riot tried to lock themselves in their cells, but were dragged out and beaten by the rioters. Two serious and three or four minor fires were set in Cell block B by the prisoners. As city firemen put them out, new fires, set in mattresses, broke out in other spots. Chief Camille Drapeau of the Montreal fire department, attacked by a prisoner, was taken to hospital with a broken nose and other injuries. In contrast to the boisterous outbreak by prisoners at Bordeaux in May, last night’s fighting was grim and purposeful. Police fire hundred of rounds from sub-machineguns and revolvers over the prisoners’ heads when they broke out of their cell block. Illness was Ruse Jail officials said the prisoners got out when one inmate feigned illness in his cells in the crowded mental wing. He called a guard, grabbed him, hauled him into the cell, and beat him up. Then the prisoner took the guard’s keys and opened the doors of the other cells in his block. The freed inmates swept through the jail, smashing everything in sight. They wrecked cells, kitchens, dining rooms, and the main telephone switchboard, cutting off communication with the outside. The prisoners armed themselves with knives from the kitchen and instruments from the jail hospital, and streamed into the jail yard. (Police later recovered 50 knives.) There they were met by volleys of revolver and sub-machine gun bullets fired into the air by hastily called police reserves. There was little shouting or yelling. Reporters were barred at the jail gates but they saw two blood-covered prisoners led out to waiting ambulances. At least eight ambulances were sent into the jail yard later in the evening and police said about 12 men in all had been hurt. Some inmates started a baseball game, using legs broken off tables for bats. Other wrapped themselves in their blankets and slept on the grass. Mosyt of the injured men were hurt in fist fights between guards or police and prisoners early in the outbreak. A Montreal police captain said early today that the damage far surpassed taht at the penal institution on May 4. The officer, who asked that his name be withheld, said that when he first arrived at the jail at 8.35 p.m. approximately one hour after the riot had broken out, smoke was rising from a dozen places in the s.x.-wing of the institution and prisoners were trying to break down the doors leading from the buildings into the main courtyard. ‘I was one of the first officers to arrive at the time of the last riot and I was in a good position to estimate the damage,’ he declared. A Dozen Fires ‘When I got there last night there must have been a dozen fires going. After that, dozens more were started. I was only on the outside but in my opinion they must have been setting fire to every mattress in the place and to everything else which could be burned.’ He said that at least six wounded prisoners had been taken out of the jail grounds as well as a fire captain with what appeared to be a painful head injury. He said he had been told that the fire captain had been struck by a piece of broken furniture wielded by a prisoner. Before he left, he said between 200 and 300 prisoners were milling about the yard. They were taking no part in the riot but seemed to be seeking protection from the hardened elements controlling the interior of the institution. Provincial Police received news of the outbreak at 7.30pm and within 30 minutes, nearly 700 policemen and detectives from both provincial and municipal forces were either at the scene or on their way. More than 300 members of the Provincial Police were called out and in response to an emergency appeal, more than 100 city detectives, some called off holidays, were on their way. They were joined by 12 radio card of the city police department each carrying two men, and another 100 men attached to the circulation branch of the city police. Also rushed to the scene were three members of the city police homicide squad and constables attached to a number of station including Nos. 20, 21, 27, 29, and 32. Ambulances belonging to the central division of the Montreal General Hospital, St. Lukes. Notre Dame, and St. Justine Hospitals were also despatched to the troubles area. The ambulances remained on the scene long after midnight. ‘It Had to Come’ ‘It had to come,’ a recent inmate of Bordeaux jail said early today. He told The Gazette ‘conditions had deteriorated to the same bad level after temporary improvements following rioting there May 4. John Howard Society officials reported hearing the same story from several released prisoners from the jail. The action, they heard, was ‘inevitable.’ ‘It was brewing for almost three months,’ said one ex-convict, who reported unkept promises by prison officials were mainly to blame. ‘They made a lot of promises to improve the food, have better accommodation, and several other things,’ he said. ‘Hardly any were kept. Accommodation is still rotten, and the movie are of 1926-1927 vintage.’ In 139 cells, the lock have been broken, making each unit useless. At least 50 were involved in the riot, the informant said. ‘Ever since May 4, that has been the only subject of the prisoners.’ After spending only three days at Bordeaux, he learned that ‘it had to come.’ Norman R. Romer, president of the John Howard Society, said the Society had been told the same story by released prisoners. A Red Feather agency, the society aids in rehabilitating prisoners and is ‘very concerned to find out the basic causes of these riots.’
