Prisoners Tell How They Were "Baked" in Tiny Cells; Steam Heat Turned Full On; Four Died Philadelphia, Jan. 8.
TANLEY Martin, a convict, testified in the trial of Deputy Warden Frank Craven here today that he had attempted to hang himself in his cell to escape the terrific heat when prison guards turned on the steam radiators in the county jail last August as punishment for mimer violations of prison regulations.
Four persons died in the county jail as a result of the steam treatment.
Martin said he had improvised a noose from rags and attached it to a metal hook on his cell wall.
He said his cell mates cut him down before he strangled. Later, he said, he fainted and hit his head on the floor when he collapsed.
"I was covered with blood when I was carried- out the next morning," he said. He was required to spend four days in a Philadelphia hospital to Obtain treatment for burns on his feet and back where he had brushed. against the hot steel cell door, he said.
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