On April 16, 1959, Jerry Myles and Lee Smart led twelve inmates in a riot, which left Deputy Warden Ted Rothe dead.

They took eighteen prison employees and five stool pigeon inmates as hostages, soaked rags with flammable liquid and threatened to bum them alive.

After thirty-six hours of mounting tension, Warden Floyd Powell implemented a daring rescue attempt. The National Guard fired a bazooka at the tower where the ringleaders were headquartered.

Meanwhile, a team of men burst through the door in the west wall, crossed the yard, and entered the Cell House, freeing the hostages.

Myles and Smart were found dead of an apparent murder-suicide at the top floor of the tower.

Although the riot focused attention on the overcrowded conditions at the prison, it was twenty years before the last prisoners were finally moved to the new prison.