Junction City Prison - History

History

Originally the site of a brick plant, the State of Ohio purchased the property in 1913 to be used as a satellite prison for the Ohio Penitentiary in Columbus, Ohio, for the care of aged and disabled prisoners. But on September 2, 1927 guard Grant Weakly was shot and killed during an escape attempt while escorting prisoners to the dentist office. The escapees Patrick Riley and Fred Kellogg were apprehended in nearby New Lexington, Ohio.

In 1928, prisoners rebuilt the main wing in brick after the original building burned down. Between 1935 and 1938 the prison was closed while a third floor was added to the main cellblock. An educational wing was added in 1970. On January 7, 1974, two prisoners took three women hostage at knife-point. After several hours, the stand-off was ended when 28 Ohio State Highway officers rushed the room. One inmate was killed and the other was injured.

Ohio State authorities closed the prison permanently in 1977.

Read more about this topic:  Junction City Prison

Famous quotes containing the word history:

    “... in America ... children are instructed in the virtues of the system they live under, as though history had achieved a happy ending in American civics.”
    —Mary McCarthy (1912–1989)

    “In the history of the human mind, these glowing and ruddy fables precede the noonday thoughts of men, as Aurora the sun’s rays. The matutine intellect of the poet, keeping in advance of the glare of philosophy, always dwells in this auroral atmosphere.”
    —Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)

    “If you look at history you’ll find that no state has been so plagued by its rulers as when power has fallen into the hands of some dabbler in philosophy or literary addict.”
    —Desiderius Erasmus (c. 1466–1536)