AUSTIN, Texas — Viewed from the outside, the Texas State Prison in Huntsville is a stark, foreboding building. But it was behind those thick prison walls 50 years ago that America was gripped by the daily news coverage of one of the longest prison sieges in history.
It happened in the summer of 1974, when Fred Gomez Carrasco – who was serving a life sentence for the attempted murder of a law enforcement officer – and two other prisoners took mostly civilian hostages inside the prison library. Their weapons had been smuggled from inside canned hams, while the ammunition was hidden in peach cans.
For nearly 11 days, Carrasco tried to negotiate with prison officials. His plan was to escape to freedom and flee to Cuba.
During the long ordeal, Carrasco threatened to kill the hostages unless officials met his demands.
Finally, almost 11 days into the ordeal, Texas prison officials agreed to provide an armored truck and getaway for Carrasco and his fellow inmates in exchange for the safe release of his hostages.
The prisoners had fashioned a sort of Trojan Horse made with two rolling blackboards and padded with books taken from the library. As the prisoners, who had handcuffed themselves to six of the hostages, began walking down a ramp inside the moving blackboards to the supposed safety of the armored truck, they were met with fire hoses.
Because a water pump failed, the spray wasn’t strong enough to knock down the escapees as had been hoped.
The prisoners began shooting their hostages. Officers fired back. Carrasco, the inmates and two women hostages died during the escape attempt.
As Houston TV journalist Cal Thomas wrote, “It is a tragedy that two hostages died. It is a miracle all the rest lived.”