• Choose a category
• All
• Classic-Fiction

As Cretzer passed through the steel D Block access door, he observed Burch straining against his restraints and looking over the steel shield of the gun gallery. Cretzer yelled to Burch in the gallery while pointing the .45: “I’ll kill you if you try to reach that phone!” Coy and Cretzer then started shuffling through the keys on the gallery ring, trying to find Key #107, which would grant them access to the recreation yard. After several minutes of fruitless attempts, both became frustrated and tried to force the lock with any key that would fit, as their plan was starting to fall behind schedule. They had hoped to get into the recreation yard, snipe off the tower guards and then escape through the yard access door. They planned to get down to the dock area by using hostages, so the next item on the agenda was to secure captives, probably family members of the correctional staff. They would then hijack the prison launch to take them over to the mainland, where they would make their final escape. Everything had run smoothly, up until now...

The desperate inmates searched feverishly for key #107, but a brave correctional officer had concealed the key inside the hostage cell.

Standing at the recreation yard door, Coy and Cretzer methodically debated where the right key could be found. Cretzer seemed certain that it had to be one of the keys in their possession. Carnes called over to Cretzer and Coy from his lookout post, warning them that he had heard a gate inside the sallyport open and then close. About a minute later the main cell door swung open and Chief Steward Bristow emerged, walking briskly down Broadway towards the Dining Hall. Bristow was in charge of the prison’s culinary division and he was completely unaware that armed convicts were roaming the cellhouse. He approached the Dining Hall door realizing that something was amiss, as the gate was not secure and Bill Miller wasn’t anywhere to be seen. Attempting not to make any suspicious gestures, he turned quickly as if he had forgotten something, and headed back to the main gate, hoping Officer Phillips would be there to greet him. Carnes positioned himself in the cutoff corridor after quietly running up from Park Avenue, and he watched Bristow to see if he would enter the kitchen. Carnes was now armed with what an officer would later describe as a pair of sharp “artist’s dividers,” and he intercepted Bristow at the cutoff and led him to Cell #404 without any struggle.

Coy and Cretzer were now becoming very frustrated, as they had not anticipated being unable to locate the yard key. The two inmates walked up to cell #404 where Bill Miller was now fully conscious and sternly demanded to know where key #107 was hidden. Miller denied having any knowledge of the key’s location, since it was strict protocol to return it to the gun gallery officer after using it. He insisted that the key must be in the gallery, adding that the inmates had witnessed the procedure numerous times themselves, and therefore must know that this regulation was stringently followed by all correctional officers. Coy and Cretzer walked a short distance to the officer’s desk in D Block, and laid out all of the keys, searching for #107. What they didn’t know was that Miller had failed to follow protocol and for convenience sake, had slipped key #107 into his shirt pocket. It was a stroke of luck, but Miller’s act of mild nonconformity was in fact upsetting the entire escape effort.

Suddenly, one of the inmates signaled that someone was coming through the main gate. At about 1:45 p.m., the gate opened and an unsuspecting Ernie Lageson strolled into the main cellhouse. While making his way down Broadway, he quickly noticed that something was wrong. Turning to look back, he recognized Bernie Coy wearing a pair of officer’s pants and no shirt. But before he could act, Coy aimed a rifle at him, leaving him no chance of escape. Coy forced Lageson to walk through the cutoff and onto Seedy Street, where he was searched