From one o'clock on the afternoon of July 24, 1974, until shortly 
before ten o'clock the night of August 3, eleven days later, one 
of the longest hostage-taking sieges in the history of the United 
States took place in Texas' Huntsville State Prison. The ringleader, 
Federico (Fred) Gomez Carrasco, the former boss of the largest 
drug-running operation in South Texas, was serving life for assault 
with intent to commit murder on a police officer. Using his 
connections to smuggle guns and ammunition into the prison, and 
employing the aid of two other inmates, he took eleven prison 
workers and four inmates hostage in the prison library. Demanding 
bulletproof helmets and vests, he planned to use the hostages as 
shields for his escape.

    Negotiations began immediately with prison warden H. H. 
Husbands and W. J. Estelle, Jr., director of the Texas Department 
of Corrections. The Texas Rangers, the Department of Public 
Safety, and the FBI arrived to assist as the media descended on 
Huntsville. When one of the hostages suggested a moving structure 
of chalkboards padded with law books to absorb bullets, Carrasco 
agreed to the plan. The captors entered their escape pod with four 
hostages and secured nine others to the moving barricade. While 
the target was en route to an armored car, Estelle had his team 
blast it with fire hoses. In a violent end to the standoff, Carrasco 
committed suicide, one of his two accomplices was killed (the other 
later executed), and two hostages were killed by their captors. 

_________________________________________________________

WILLIAM T. HARPER spent fourteen years with the Philadelphia 
Inquirer as reporter, writer, and editor. He has written numerous 
articles for American Heritage and Focus. For this story he 
utilized eighty-eight real-time audio tapes of negotiations and 
interviewed the surviving participants. He lives in Bryan, Texas.


Number Three: North Texas Crime and Criminal Justice Series


What people are saying about this book

"A unique story in American correctional history."—Ben M. Crouch, 
author, An Appeal to Justice

"None of us who were there for those eleven incredible days will 
ever forget the tension, the heat, the frustration, and the courage 
of so many good people, inside and outside that prison. It is a 
tragedy that two hostages died. It is a miracle all the rest 
lived."—Cal Thomas, Fox News

"This author has done a fantastic job in capturing this story. His 
portrayals of the individuals involved in all aspects of the story 
are extremely accurate. Although I knew what the ultimate outcome 
of the story would be, I still turned every page most eagerly."—Robert 
E. Wiatt, Director, Texas A&M University Police Dept., and former 
FBI agent at the siege