riot. The disturbance Myles would later start in Montana shared many elements with the Battle of Alcatraz. Myles was released
from Leavenworth on 3 March 1952, after which he finished his sentence at the Georgia State Penitentiary and was released in
May 1958. During his long prison tenure, Myles had learned of a prison in Montana where the convicts ran the industries, and
Myles was interested in what he viewed was a place where he could have power.
After his release, Myles bought a bus ticket to Butte, about 40 miles from Deer Lodge, where he was arrested for burglary. He
was sentenced to five years at the Montana State Prison and arrived in Deer Lodge in June 1958. Since the prison at that time was
not in the habit of running background checks on incoming prisoners, his previous penal experience went unnoticed, and he was
assigned to a cell in the general population. Myles quickly rose to the position of con-boss of the garment shop, due to his experience in similar places in other penitentiaries around the country. He used the position to his advantage, decorating his apartmentlike cell in the garment shop with niceties and manipulating young inmates into providing him with sexual favors for work in the
factory. When Warden Powell abolished the con-boss system in October 1958, Myles was stripped of his favor in the prison community and started acting out, which earned him time in segregation. He had a short, heated interview with Deputy Warden Rothe
in which Myles took an intense dislike to Rothe and threatened his life. Rothe sentenced Myles to isolation in the hole, for an indefinite amount of time followed by a longer stint in segregation.
Walter Jones, the prison's newly graduated sociologist, recognized the danger Myles represented and suggested further segregation in Siberia in the base of the northern towers of Cellblock 1. The area known as Siberia was separated from the rest of the
prison yard by a razor-wire topped chain-link fence and was used to keep known troublemakers apart from the rest of the population. The cells were cramped, cold, and isolated. Rothe rejected this treatment of Myles, claiming that he wanted to gain inmate
trust by showing equal rights to all prisoners regardless of their past activities. On 27 February 1959, Rothe released Myles back
into the general population and assigned him to the water crew—the group of inmates who emptied toilet buckets from Cellblock 2
and the guard towers.
Lee Smart was born in 1940 in Washington State and lived 17 years before being sentenced to thirty years confinement to the
Montana State Prison for the second-degree murder of traveling salesman Charles Ward outside of Browning, Montana on 28
April 1956. Smart had bludgeoned Ward to death with a pair of lineman's pliers and robbed him of $100 cash. Smart was almost 6
ft tall and weighed 147 pounds, wore a ducktail haircut, a black leather jacket, and had tattooed arms and chest. He and a friend
had escaped from a reformatory camp in Cedar Creek, Washington, on 14 April 1956. The two then went on a two-week criminal
binge which ended in Great Falls, Montana. Lee Smart left his friend in Great Falls and went north, where he ended up killing
Ward.
Once inside the walls of the Montana State Prison, Smart eventually found his place playing drums for the prison band.
Though one of the youngest convicts in Montana, he had fallen in with a relatively powerful group of convicts—the "band gang"
was the largest trafficker of narcotics in the prison. Lee became a regular member of the cadre, and his crime of murder gave him
standing among the inmates, most of whom were incarcerated for larceny. One of the inmates who was highly impressed by
Smart's haughty, impulsive nature was Jerry Myles, who befriended the boy. Smart got in trouble a few times, once for being in
possession of a weapon, once over his haircut (which led him to receive a buzz cut by an inmate barber), and again over having an
illicit weapon (which earned him time in isolation).
Since the prison had no system of segregating inmates based on age, crime, or sexual proclivities, Smart was housed in general
population where his youthful frame became an instant target for older, predatory cons. His crime of murder and connection with
the band gang lent him a modicum of notoriety, but he still felt obliged to hire George Alton, a known troublemaker, for protection
at the cost of ten dollars a month. Alton, who had been in and out of prison since 1952, regularly sold protection services to newer
inmates who could not fight for themselves. A diminutive, wiry Montanan, Alton was well respected by guards and inmates alike,
known for his vicious left hook and his prowess in the prizefighting rink, held weekly in the WA Clark Theatre. Alton and Smart
became friends and eventual cellmates, until Alton was moved outside the walls into minimum security housing.
Taking full advantage of his "trusty" status, Alton escaped with a fellow inmate in a prison vehicle marked "Registrar of Motor
Vehicles" on 26 August 1958, the day after Floyd Powell started his job as warden. The two prisoners waved to the new warden on
their way past the prison, and Powell waved back. By the time the warden realized what had happened, Alton and his confederate
were too far away to do anything. Alton managed to stay hidden until November 1958, when he was apprehended in his hometown
of Culbertson. He was remanded to the prison and spent time in the hole, then more time in segregation. It was during this time
that he met, and had extensive conversations with, Jerry Myles, who had been placed in the cell right next to Alton's in segregation.
Jerry Myles knew that timing would play a major factor in the successful initiation of the riot. Between the time he was released back into general population in February 1958 until he decided to start the riot, he paid close attention to the movements of
the guards and found a loophole in their routine; each day during the dinnertime turnover, the ratio of guards to inmates was decreased in Cellblock 1. His plan was to seize a rifle from ?H? H?X\? ? ?? ?[?Y H?] ?[??] ?YH\??[ ?[? H?X\???\?[?K?H?] ?[? ?\????H ? H Y\???[ ??X\? ? ??][?[ H[?Y?] ?Y[? H?] ?[?[? H Y\???H] H[?H [??? [?????H?H ? H?\?? ?[??H?Z]\? ?[??^H ?\??Y?Y HX[?]]?\? ?\? ?[\K??^[\?[ ???YYY ? ?X?Z]?\?[?X]\? ?\??]\?H?][Z] H?[X?\?? ?\??\?? ???]? ?X?Y?X?? ?[??\?H HYZ[?\? ?][? ??[?H?]Y? [?]?\?\?H???H ?]YH?X\?[?? H [????^[?? H??H[?? ?] ??Z\?\????YY?H[?Y ?[? \?K??[??H[ ?H ? ?]? [?[Y?[?X[? ?\?\??X\?[ H???[??Y ?Y?H ???X?H\??\H [?] ?X?Y?[K?^[\??YYY[ ??X?]\?H?\? ?\ ? ?] H[?X]H ? [][??[ ?[ ?? ???Y[? B?H?\?? ??]?Y?H L???