A view from a living hell

The cells were under continuous surveillance from an observation fish-eye in the rear wall. Permanent fixtures were strategically placed to minimise cell space. A stainless steel unit set into the wall served as a toilet with separate buttons for flushing and drinking water. The food hatch at the rear of the cell doubled as a table. A large slab of concrete served as a bed complete with fire-proof blankets and a mattress. My whole world measured 84 square feet.

The cell ventilation relied upon air flowing through a small gap under the door or through the food hatch. Waste air was sucked out through a ventilation shaft in the toilet. Theoretically the principle worked. It failed in reality because the stale air remained in the cells and induced continual headaches or nausea. The confined airless space also increased body heat that caused perspiration to soak through the foam mattresses and create pools of water underneath. It gave a whole new meaning to the concept of water beds.

Life in Katingal was comparable to living inside a submarine or an atomic bomb shelter. The longest distance anyone could walk in a continuous straight line was 19 paces along the gallery walkway. All light was artificial. Rays of sunlight that did manage to squeeze through a canopy of steel bars over two elevated exercise yards at the end of each cell complex were experienced for one hour each day during our daily exercise periods. The two exercise yards were hidden behind high concrete walls that obscured any views of the outside world.

Katingal’s population expanded during 1976 when deranged thrill-killer Archie “Mad Dog” McCafferty led a fresh intake from Grafton. Billy Baldry and Terry Hailey, ringleaders in the 1974 Bathurst riot, followed with bank robbing escapees Dick Lynott, Steve Dowd, Harry Visser, Steve Blair and Jimmy (The Irishman) Murray.

Ray Denning and Warrick James earned admission after an escape attempt from Parramatta Jail resulted in the death of prison guard Willy Faber. The August 1975 shootout inside Long Bay Jail resulted with Russell Cox, Alan McDougal and Marco Motric, also joining the Katingal crew. Jockey Smith, Peter Schneidas, Tony Lanigan and the Dickenson brothers followed in quick succession. John Lewthwaite and Owen Martin, two kid killers placed on protective custody, joined the rest of the dogs (a dog is prison jargon for an informer) and rock spiders (a rock spider is prison jargon for a child molester or child rapist: child killers also fall into this category) in Lower Yellow.

As more prisoners came into Katingal a suffocating tension began to emerge. Time inside Katingal became a dripping acid. It slowly destroyed any concept of a world outside the building. It was like a festering boil waiting for eruption. The installation of a new superintendent during 1977 became the catalyst for that eruption.

“Lantern Jaw” was a power-crazed martinet who exerted his authority indiscriminately. He took control of Katingal by sanctioning restrictions on visits, mail and exercise periods. His appointment coincided with a mass escape from Maitland Jail resulting in the return of Ray Denning and Dick Lynott to Katingal. Steve Shipley, Roy “The Red Rat” Pollitt, Terry Humphries, Freddy Owens and William “Billy the Kid” Sutton followed shortly afterwards.

The Maitland crew plotted to cut their way out of the prison van en route to court. A hacksaw was required to accomplish the feat.

Despite Katingal’s strict security it was possible to smuggle clandestine messages out of the building. The high concentration of uric acid produced by the body overnight created a unique way to write secret messages. Once the urine soaked into the paper the writing was invisible to the naked eye. The application of heat by the letter’s recipient produced the hidden message. Within weeks a hacksaw blade securely wrapped in carbon paper to foil the metal detectors came into Katingal. Russell Cox received half the blade.

As the Maitland crew made preparation for their escape Russell Cox began cutting the bars over the exercise yard in preparation for his escape.

November 4, 1977 Cox duped a screw to open the security door on a pretext of retrieving his joggers from the exercise yard. The screw was distracted and Cox seized the moment to jam a paddle tennis bat into a crevice in the wall and shimmied up to the cut bars. He squeezed through the caged ceiling of the exercise yard and climbed from the roof. Cox was spotted scaling the two 4.5 metre perimeter fences surrounding Katingal but it was too late. He had already created history. Russell Cox had defeated the escape-proof Katingal.

The screws retaliated with a campaign of harassment. They restricted air-flow to the cells by shutting the food hatches. “Lantern Jaw” compounded their actions by confining everyone to the cellblocks and banned access to the exercise yards. The simmering tension was again aggravated on December 29, 1977 when men in the Upper Red and Yellow cell-blocks nearly suffocated after malfunctions to the air conditioning system stopped all air-flow into Katingal.