Criminals En Route to Devils Island Engage in Revolt, Daily Racing Form, 1938-11-22

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I CRIMINALS EN ROUTE TO DEVILS ISLAND ENGAGE IN REVOLT PARIS, France, Nov. 21. A mass revolt of more than 700 hardened criminals, in which fifteen were injured, postponed the de- parture today of the ill-famed prison ship, La Martiniere, for Devils Island, in French Guinea. Driven to fury by the prospect of a living death in Frances South American penal colonies, scores of the prisoners attacked their guards with bottles, iron bars and knives, according to reports from Saint Martin Island, off La Rochelle. One of the fifteen injured was trampled to the ground and stabbed seventeen times. Another had his eyeball torn from its socket. Danger of renewed rioting was so great, according to reports which leaked out of La Rochelle, despite rigid censorship, that Saint Martin Island was virtually an armed camp today, with mobile guards in command. The prison ship had been scheduled to sail today with 738 prisoners, many of them four-time offenders. Although Devils Island was officially abandoned by the popular front government, it was recently decided to renew sending habitual criminals there. . I


Persistent Link: https://drf.uky.edu/catalog/1930s/drf1938112201/drf1938112201_2_7
Local Identifier: drf1938112201_2_7
Library of Congress Record: https://lccn.loc.gov/unk82075800