{"id":1728,"date":"2013-06-03T10:01:22","date_gmt":"2013-06-03T10:01:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/thedigs\/?p=1728"},"modified":"2015-01-08T17:49:11","modified_gmt":"2015-01-08T22:49:11","slug":"pittsburghs-strangest-protest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/thedigs\/2013\/06\/03\/pittsburghs-strangest-protest\/","title":{"rendered":"Pittsburgh\u2019s strangest protest"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\" <\/a> <\/div>
\"Prisoners <\/a>
Prisoners in the yard watch the protest. (Pittsburgh Press photo) <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Convict <\/a>
Convict Richard Williams takes the top spot. (Post-Gazette photo) <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Nearby <\/a>
Nearby residents watch from outside the prison walls. (Pittsburgh Press photo) <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Aerial <\/a>
Aerial view of Payne in the early days of the protest. (Photo by Howard Moyer, Pittsburgh Press) <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Holdout <\/a>
Holdout Charles Miller makes his bed. (Pittsburgh Press photo) <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Protesters <\/a>
Protesters make their way down from the tower. (Pittsburgh Press photo) <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>\n

On a cool June evening in 1962, Robert Payne claimed he\u2019d swallowed a razor blade. Payne was a convict at Western Penitentiary at the time, so he was taken to the prison infirmary, where an x-ray revealed his lie. As he was being led back to his cell block, Payne broke away from a guard and scampered up an 80-foot water tower on the prison grounds.<\/p>\n

He stayed there all night. The \u00a0next day, Payne looked down and saw a group of boys playing baseball outside the prison walls. Go get \u201cnewsmen,\u201d he yelled to them.<\/p>\n

Reporters converged on the prison gate. Prison officials wouldn\u2019t let them in. But these were resourceful reporters. They scrambled up to the third floor rooms of houses adjacent to the prison to get a view of the tower. Payne was then just 50 yards away.<\/p>\n

\u201cTell us your story,\u201d one reporter called out. Payne, 28, said he was serving time for armed robbery and was unhappy with conditions in the \u201chole,\u201d a cell block where \u201cincorrigible\u201d prisoners were sent. Payne had spent a lot of time in the hole.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not coming down until there\u2019s a full investigation of the conditions here,\u201d he yelled.<\/p>\n

This guy Payne was a real troublemaker, the warden said.<\/p>\n

The next day, 12 more prisoners rushed passed guards and climbed the tower to join Payne. Fellow prisoners in the recreation yard hollered encouragement to them.<\/p>\n

Prison officials figured the best thing to do was wait. It was easy to keep an eye on convicts lounging on a catwalk eight-stories high. Said one prison boss, \u201cThere is no place for them to go but down.\u201d<\/p>\n

Within a day, conditions on the tower got nasty. Temperatures reached into the 90s. Hunger became a problem. The protesters had brought with them only a few scraps of food they\u2019d stuffed in their pockets. Prison authorities drained the tank of water.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s some trouble up here,\u201d Payne shouted out. \u201cThe guys are beginning to argue among themselves.\u201d<\/p>\n

Prisoners scrawled messages on the water tank. \u201cHelp, Public!\u201d read one.<\/p>\n

\u201cHello, can anybody hear us?\u201d one prisoner called out. \u201cWe have used up the last of our candy bars.\u201d<\/p>\n

For reporters and photographers, covering the standoff was a grand adventure. Pittsburgh Press photographer Howard Moyer took pictures of the tower from a helicopter, then instructed the pilot to fly over the Press building. Moyer dropped his film on the roof so his pictures would make deadline.<\/p>\n

Most newsmen watched the protest from the roof of an abandoned warehouse near the prison. When they got hungry, newsmen tied a rope to a basket and lowered their food requests to neighborhood youngsters waiting on the street below. Local restaurants filled orders such as \u201c22 hamburgers and eight quarts of milk.\u201d<\/p>\n

Two prisoners cracked after only 24 hours on the tower. One groped his way down \u201clike a first-day construction worker with acrophobia,\u201d noted The Pittsburgh Press.<\/p>\n

Day by day, other prisoners gave up. After nearly a week, only three remained. That\u2019s when Payne called it quits.<\/p>\n

The last holdout was Charles Miller, a murderer serving a life sentence. Alone on the catwalk, he made a bed out of clothing left by the other prisoners and calmly laid down.<\/p>\n

On the seventh day, rain fell on the prison yard. Miller scampered off the tower. The rain, he said, gave him the chills.<\/p>\n

The warden promised inmates would have a chance to air their grievances. He also vowed to move the water tower outside the prison grounds.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On a cool June evening in 1962, Robert Payne claimed he\u2019d swallowed a razor blade.<\/p>\n

Look at the picturesPittsburgh\u2019s strangest protest<\/span><\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":1730,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"gallery","meta":{"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true},"categories":[948],"tags":[962,980,984],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/thedigs\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/06\/tumblr_mno0nehBMg1rr5swxo2_1280.jpg?fit=936%2C630&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":9091,"url":"https:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/thedigs\/2018\/09\/13\/stories-from-pittsburghs-dungeon\/","url_meta":{"origin":1728,"position":0},"title":"Stories from Pittsburgh’s dungeon","date":"September 13, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Basement cells at a now vacant prison once terrified those confined there.","rel":"","context":"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/thedigs\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/Digs.20180828_Prisob03.jpg?fit=1200%2C801&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":9809,"url":"https:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/thedigs\/2020\/04\/30\/memories-of-a-strange-confinement\/","url_meta":{"origin":1728,"position":1},"title":"Memories of a strange confinement","date":"April 30, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"A band of escaped prisoners, some with violent pasts, once descended on a Washington County family.","rel":"","context":"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/thedigs\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/20200429smGagich01-scaled.jpg?fit=1200%2C785&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":7800,"url":"https:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/thedigs\/2017\/06\/15\/western-penitentiary-prison-inmates\/","url_meta":{"origin":1728,"position":2},"title":"Ghosts of Western Penitentiary","date":"June 15, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Not much changes in prison. 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