reported to Watkinson, “There is a Fire.”13 Richardson’s version varied somewhat from Watkinson’s. Richardson claimed that he hollered to the elderly guard, whom he referred to as “Shorty,” on the first floor from his vantage point above the fifth tier.14 Getting no response, he rushed down to deliver the alarm in person. He estimated it took him no more than a minute to do so.
Ohio Penitentiary warden Preston Elmer Thomas usually ended his workday around 5 p.m., but just happened to stay another twenty minutes on Easter Monday, before heading upstairs from his offices to his living quarters. He would remember being on his porch around 5:35 when he was told of the fire.15 Thomas, “affectionately known as the Pig” by some inmates,16 had been appointed warden in 1913 and by 1930 had a well-deserved reputation as a hardliner. Having personally helped stop past escape attempts, he was always fretful about the next one, lest it blot his résumé. He would come under withering criticism for not overseeing the immediate release of trapped prisoners from their cells as well as for not being in the prison yard directing rescue efforts, choosing instead to wait for the National Guard.
Warden Thomas would later claim he had a touch of asthma and could not smell the smoke, unlike almost everyone else, who smelled the fire before they saw it. He told the subsequent fire inquiry, “I can’t smell. I lost my smeller several years ago…. I can’t smell a skunk—I am not kidding…. I have had a good many operations for olfactory trouble.”17 His handicap might have been overlooked in the subsequent investigations if he had not consistently refused to institute safety devices, drills, or regulations to prevent fires. His main concern was preventing escapes at any cost. In his defense, in 1930, on the heels of a series of bloody prison riots the previous year, the primary focus of any prison warden was on keeping inmates in their cells, not necessarily preparing to get them out safely in the event of an emergency.
Looking out into the prison courtyard for a moment, Thomas saw the intensifying smoke to the west. He exclaimed something to the effect of “My God what is going to happen next.” He asked several guards whether an alarm had already been sent to the Columbus Fire Department and was told that it had. At this point he made a decision that he probably regretted in the days to come. Rather than lead the growing rescue efforts within the prison yard, he decided to station himself outside the prison walls to supervise efforts to prevent any convicts from breaking out. Profoundly disliked by many of his charges, the warden was usually hesitant to spend too much time in the yard without sufficient protection. He would not make an appearance within the prison walls until two days after the fire. The “hero priest,” Father Albert O’Brien, would later report that the convicts were indeed ready to kill the warden if he stepped inside the prison during the pandemonium.
Night guards Thomas Little and William Baldwin, as well as seventy-two-year-old Captain John Hall, had all arrived at the guardroom separately on Easter Monday, a half hour early for their shifts. It was customary for Baldwin to get to the guardroom before 6. His explanation was that he had an old car and “sometimes it don’t just jump as it should,” so he always liked to get a head start so he wouldn’t miss his shift.18 That day he stopped to speak briefly with Captain Hall, who was perusing a newspaper outside, before entering the guardroom. Following protocol, he signed in on two sign-in sheets and sat down. He recalled that he was sitting against the wall making small talk with night guard Thomas F. Little until about 5:45, when a prisoner ran into the guardroom yelling, “Fire.”19 As will be seen, the early arrivals of Baldwin and Little would prove serendipitous.
Leaving the prison yard, Warden Thomas made a beeline for the guardroom door and told Little and Baldwin rather cryptically to “get down there” on his way out of the building. The guards would later admit that no one was really sure which of them he was speaking to since there were others in the room as well, but they made off for the endangered cellblocks just the same.20 Baldwin and Little hurried from the guardhouse through the E&F dormitory toward G&H, with the geriatric Captain Hall trying to keep up. Not surprisingly, the decrepit captain lagged behind the two younger guards. Reaching the cellblock, they found that Watkinson had stationed himself at the cage gate leading into the upper ranges. The cell house was rapidly filling with dangerous smoke, and flames could be seen in the upper reaches of the northern cellblocks (I&K). The guards intended, once Watkinson had opened the gate, to reach the men in the upper ranges. But this would have to wait, as some type of verbal altercation took place between the two night guards and the day guard Watkinson.
Watkinson, Baldwin, and Little all held the same rank, but since it was still before 6 p.m., the Englishman was in control of the cellblock, which he zealously protected. At this point Little and Baldwin had to overcome their first major challenge, which was to convince Watkinson to open the cage gate leading up to tiers two to six. The day guards had the cell keys to the upper tiers, but those would be worthless without access to the upper ranges. But Watkinson refused to cooperate, telling them, “I got no orders to unlock those men.”21 Even after they told the Englishman that he had verbal orders from the warden to release the convicts, Watkinson held firm, replying, “I have no order to open the door.”22 Little said, “We have to get it open and get up in there and get fellows out.” Watkinson adamantly responded, “Well I can’t open it without orders.” Outranked before 6 p.m., Little recognized he needed to act quickly. He ran around to the west side of the block, looking for any opportunity to get the men out, but the smoke was so dense he had to run back around to haggle once more with Watkinson, wasting at least five to six valuable minutes.
After being refused entry into the cage door leading up to the top five tiers, Baldwin and Little returned to the adjacent ground-level cells on the first tier, the only ones they had access to without passing through the cage first, and began releasing the convicts. They were the first guards to actually release any convicts from the cellblocks. Little told Baldwin that they had to “get this goddamn door [cage gate] open or those fellows are all going to die.” He could not know that they were already dying by the dozens. It was at this point that Watkinson finally came to his senses and decided to cooperate. He approached Little with the key, “but not fast enough.” Little grabbed it out of his hand, opened the cage door, and started upstairs. He is credited with leading the first rescuers up to higher tiers, but not without making sure that others followed him in case he was overcome with smoke and needed rescuing himself. Initially, when he turned around he only saw Baldwin.23 Five to eight crucial minutes had been wasted by the time the rescue could begin.
Watkinson’s account conflicts sharply with that of the guards Little and Baldwin, as it did with Captain Hall’s. The Englishman later claimed that he was just sticking his key into the cage lock to let the guards in when Captain Hall intervened and told him, “Don’t open that yet, don’t do that.” Since Hall was the captain, the Englishman would argue, “he had to follow superiors or he would be suspended for disobeying rules and order.” As to why Hall wouldn’t permit it, perhaps Hall thought it “didn’t look so dangerous in G&H.” At one point during the exchange over the keys, Baldwin commented, “Isn’t this hell?”24
Contrary to Watkinson’s assertion that Hall had personally ordered him to keep the cells locked, both Little and Baldwin later testified under oath that Hall never even made it to the gate to prevent them from entering the tiers. In fact, they never saw Hall at the cage door. But they could definitely hear him hollering behind them for inmates to knock windows out to let in some air and the sounds of shattering glass. In fact, Hall could not possibly have reached the cage before them. Furthermore, if he had verbally directed Watkinson not to open the gate, he would have to have done this after the two guards got there, which simply never happened. Buttressing the guards’ claims was Captain Hall’s testimony that he “did not tell
