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LV Prison building
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STV Prison official walks from captivity
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LV Prisoner Farra walks out, followed by official holding pistols
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LV Women hostages
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STV Hostages walk to Administration building
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Initials KJ/N/MR/ES


NOTE: This is the first time that the inside a US Prison has been televised live. We apologize for poor quality which is due to film being shot on Videotape.

Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved

Background: A desperate bid for freedom by two convicts at Nashville, Tennessee, state penitentiary ended Mar 24, when 16 hostages were released and the rioters surrendered to the authorities.

Convicts Raymond Farra, serving a life term for robbery and kidnapping, and Robert Rivera, imprisoned for 40 years on a similar charge, seized a Deputy Governor, three women employees, and several wardens an inmates. Mar 23. Two of the women were paving prisoners for their work when taken hostage.

Hundreds of police and State troopers, armed with machine-guns, rifles and even bazookas, were waiting to blast their way in while negotiations continued between the authorized and the rioters, who threatened "wholesale murder" unless they were given their freedom and car.

Farra and Rivera finally surrendered in fear of reprisals for their action. Walking out with their hostages, the two convicts were followed by a lawyer holding their pistols aloft. They were hustled into a state highway patrol car taken to the county goal.