This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list. Surnames: Tobin, Rooney, Russell, Brown, Eeles, Erwin, McClelland, Rinker, Shepherd, Wiggins, Goodwin, McMillin, Perse, Autobee Classification: Death Message Board URL: http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/msg/rw/lY.2ADE/750 Message Board Post: Metro/State OTHER HEADLINES November 19, 2005 (Saturday) Salute to 14 fallen correctional officers By ANSLEE WILLETT - THE GAZETTE CAÑON CITY - A memorial for Colorado’s 14 fallen correctional officers was unveiled Friday at the site of the bloodiest incident in the history of the state’s prisons. The 14 men died between July 1899 and October 2002. The marble memorial with three flags at half-staff is off U.S. Highway 50 at the Colorado Territorial Correctional Facility, the state’s first prison, which opened in 1876. “Because we work behind a fence and walls, for the most part, people don’t even know who we are, and they’re more ignorant of what we do,” said Joe Ortiz, executive director of the state Department of Corrections. The memorial is on the outside of prison walls, he said, to serve as a reminder to the public that working with the most dangerous criminals can carry the greatest risk. Eight of the 14 were killed in October 1929 trying to stop a mass breakout from the prison during a riot. Five prisoners also were killed in the riot, during which more than 2,000 bullets were fired and part of the prison was destroyed by fire. Among those killed was the prison executioner, 70-year-old John “Jack” Eeles, who worked there for 25 years. None of the prisoners, some of whom had weapons hidden in the walls, escaped. The breakout was thwarted, in part, by Officer Myron Goodwin, 63, who shot and killed the ringleader. “Goodwin, stationed in tower No. 1 at the southwest corner of the stone wall, was true to prison tradition,” according to DOC’s Web site. “He threw away his keys when the attack started and began firing. . . . Prison officials credited Goodwin’s promptness in shooting down (the ringleader) with having stopped a general break by the 1,200 inmates.” Goodwin was one of the officers that died that day, shot in the chest. His granddaughter, 68-yearold Kay Goodwin Murphy, saw his name Friday on the memorial. She was born after his death. “The family didn’t talk about it a whole lot because it was part of life,” said Goodwin Murphy, who lives north of Denver. Goodwin has a surviving daughter, 88, who lives in Denver and was unable to attend the unveiling. “It’s so marvelous,” Goodwin Murphy said, looking at the memorial. “We all still honor him.” DOC staff raised about $20,000 for the memorial through bake sales, donations, barbecues and selling T-shirts and pins. The memorial, which will be lit nightly, reads: “Gone but not forgotten.” The last corrections officer to die in the line of duty was Eric Autobee, 23. Autobee was killed in October 2002 by an inmate who beat him with a 9-pound soup ladle at the Limon Correctional Facility. The job of the correctional officer has changed through the decades, but the danger remains, said DOC spokesman Walt Ahrens. Years ago when officers ordered a prisoner out of his cell but the inmate refused, officers would barge in with a mattress and block the prisoner before removing him. “We just ran in there and hoped for the best,” said Ahrens, who’s worked for DOC for 19 years. Now, specialized teams of highly trained officers with protective gear remove prisoners. The smallest thing can trigger a prisoner to attack, he said, including an upsetting letter from a girlfriend or food that isn’t to an inmate’s liking. “You just have to be cautious,” Ahrens said. “You can never be complacent. You always have to be on your guard.” The memorial does more than recognize the sacrifice of those who died, said Gary Watkins, warden of the Fremont Correctional Facility. “I also want it to serve as a reminder that we place our lives at risk every day we walk into a facility,” he said. “We need to remember that it is a dangerous business.” CONTACT THE WRITER: 636-0366 or awillett@gazette.com THE OFFICERS: Thomas Tobin: Died in July 1899 after being accidentally shot in the chest by a sheriff’s official who was searching for an escaped prisoner. William Rooney: Died in January 1900 after being stabbed by prisoners in a boiler room. John Russell: Died in June 1913 in a gunbattle with an escaped prisoner. Raymond Brown, John “Jack” Eeles, Elmer Erwin, John McClelland, Walter Rinker, Charles Shepherd, Robert Wiggins and Myron Goodwin: Died in October 1929 riot. Victor McMillin: Died in December 1961 while supervising inmates rebuilding a dam when a truck toppled, crushing him. Marc Perse: Died August 1994 after falling 90 feet while rappelling a tower during a training exercise. Eric Autobee: Died in October 2002 after being beaten by a prisoner. SOURCE: DEPARTMENT OF CORRECTIONS