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[Author’s Note: One of the unsung heroes of the story told by Dr. Thomp- son in her book was the Monroe County Medical Examiner, who publi- cally refuted the story being told by state officials and confirmed that every guard who was killed died of gunshot wounds. The prisoners had no guns.]
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JOURNAL
They requested that observers be brought in to help them negotiate with the State of New York; observers ranging in political party and in political persuasion. There was a congressperson, journalists, men from the republican party, men from the democratic party. Negotiations between these observers and state officials went on for four long days and four long
nights. The event was televised; the media was inside. Their simple: decent healthcare, decent food, basic rehabilitation.
demands were
It seemed that a peaceful end was in sight. Twenty-three of the demands – almost all of them – had been met by the State during negotiations. But meanwhile, outside of the prison, every state trooper battalion from across upstate New York was descending upon the prison along with scores of off-duty corrections officers from Attica and other pris- ons around upstate New York. Outside the walls, weapons were being passed out like candy. Nobody was writing down the serial numbers; nobody was responsible as to who had what weapon. People were bringing weapons from home. These troopers were angry, they were tired, they hadn’t had any sleep and they were itching to get inside.
The stakes were high. Inside were 1,300 prisoners but also forty state employees. The observers begged the Governor of New York, Nelson Rockefeller: “Please come to Attica. You don’t have to come in; you just need to stand outside of this prison and tell these men that they can surrender and they won’t be harmed. You have to assure them that there will not be indiscriminate prosecutions.” And he said no. And they said, “Please, Mr. Governor, you have to come because if you don’t,” and they minced no words, “a massacre will take place.” Because they could see what the men inside could not see, which was all of those armed troopers on the outside.
I discovered years later that Nelson Rockefeller’s own mil- itary observers told him “Yes, frankly, Mr. Governor, you will kill your own employees if you go in there like this.” Undeterred, however, on the fifth morning, he indeed sent in his own troopers and it was indeed carnage. One hun- dred and twenty-eight men shot; some six or seven times. In total, thirty-nine dead prisoners and guards alike. It was, indeed, a massacre.
This is not the story that the American people were told. In fact, the American people were told a complete fiction – that the prisoners had caused this bloodbath in Attica; that they had murdered the hostages. Worse, they had not just slit the throats of the hostages on the inside in cold blood,
they had actually emasculated one of them; they had bur- ied some of them in the prison yard days earlier; that these atrocities had been witnessed by the men speaking to the press outside. And these lies then spread like wildfire. They were printed on the front page of the New York Times, L.A. Times and by the AP and UPI, meaning these lies went out on the front page of every small-town newspaper in Amer- ica. This would have grave consequences.
Inside the prison, which of course the rest of the nation could not see, surviving prisoners were being tortured for days and weeks and months. This would not become ap- parent for a very, very long time. Lawyers could not get in. Medics could not get in. Doctors could not get in. This facility was under control of the State, and yet, horror and torture were allowed to go on. Did the American people know? No. Did we try to find out? Yes. There were hearings; there were many, many hearings. Public hearings, congres- sional hearings, there was even a federal investigation. But why didn’t they find anything? Well, in part, we found out later – it took me thirteen years to write the book in part because it was all covered up. It was very actively covered up. The only investigation that actually mattered was an investigation that was carried out by the State of New York itself; commissioned by the Rockefeller administration.
Who were the investigators? The same state troopers that had actually retaken the prison. They had actually not made chalk markings where the dead bodies had fallen. Most of the evidence of the atrocity had been gathered up and buried behind the prison. The only evidence pre- served would be evidence that would purport to point to prisoners as offending parties, not any member of law enforcement. This was an investigation that was skewed from the beginning. It was supposed to investigate both trooper and inmate crimes. In fact, it did not do this. Ul- timately, sixty-two surviving prisoners were indicted on forty-two felony indictments. Not a single member of law enforcement was ever indicted. Yet every death that occurred in the retaking was ultimately determined to
have been caused by the troopers and cor- rections officers who stormed the prison.
The deaths and torture of the prisoners was not the only horror, of course, the hostages’ families also paid a very high price. Their husbands, sons, brothers had also died and