Table of Contents

CONTENTS
 
Introduction: State Secrets xiii
 
PART I THE TINDERBOX
Frank “Big Black” Smith 3
1 Not So Greener Pastures 5
2 Responding to Resistance 18
3 Voices from Auburn 22
4 Knowledge Is Power 28
5 Playing by the Rules 31
6 Back and Forth 35
7 End of the Line 38
 
PART II POWER AND POLITICS UNLEASHED
Michael Smith 43
8 Talking Back 45
9 Burning Down the House 50
10 Reeling and Reacting 60
11 Order Out of Chaos 64
12 What’s Going On 71
13 Into the Night 83
14 A New Day Dawns 89
 
PART III THE SOUND BEFORE THE FURY
Tom Wicker 101
15 Getting Down to Business 103
16 Dreams and Nightmares 116
17 On the Precipice 139
18 Deciding Disaster 153
 
PART IV RETRIBUTION AND REPRISALS UNIMAGINED
Tony Strollo 161
19 Chomping at the Bit 163
20 Standing Firm 169
21 No Mercy 178
22 Spinning Disaster 193
23 And the Beat Goes On 204
 
PART V RECKONINGS AND REACTIONS
Robert Douglass 223
24 Speaking Up 225
25 Stepping Back 232
26 Funerals and Fallout 242
27 Prodding and Probing 251
28 Which Side Are You On? 256
29 Ducks in a Row 266
 
PART VI INQUIRIES AND DIVERSIONS
Anthony Simonetti 271
30 Digging More Deeply 273
31 Foxes in the Hen House 287
32 Stick and Carrot 294
33 Seeking Help 299
34 Indictments All Around 304
 
PART VII JUSTICE ON TRIAL
Ernest Goodman 311
35 Mobilizing and Maneuvering 313
36 A House Divided 321
37 Laying the Groundwork 327
38 Testing the Waters 334
39 Going for Broke 340
40 Evening the Score 363
41 A Long Journey Ahead 388
 
PART VIII BLOWING THE WHISTLE
Malcolm Bell 401
42 Joining the Team 403
43 Protecting the Police 418
44 Smoking Guns 425
45 Going Public 434
46 Investigating the Investigation 442
47 Closing the Book 452
 
PART IX DAVID AND GOLIATH
Elizabeth Fink 457
48 It Ain’t Over Till It’s Over 459
49 Shining the Light on Evil 466
50 Delay Tactics 479
51 The Price of Blood 485
52 Deal with the Devil 498
 
PART X A FINAL FIGHT
Deanne Quinn Miller 507
53 Family Fury 509
54 Manipulated and Outmaneuvered 517
55 Biting the Hand 528
56 Getting Heard 533
57 Waiting Game 542
58 A Hollow Victory 550
Epilogue: Prisons and Power 558
 
Acknowledgments 573
Notes 579
Index 685

About the Author

HEATHER ANN THOMPSON is an award-winning historian at the University of Michigan. Her most recent book, Blood in the Water: The Attica Prison Uprising of 1971 and Its Legacy, won the Pulitzer Prize in History, the Bancroft Prize, the Ridenhour Book Prize, and the J. Willard Hurst Prize, and was a finalist for the National Book Award and the Los Angeles Times Book Prize, among other accolades. She is also the author of Whose Detroit?: Politics, Labor, and Race in a Modern American City and the editor of Speaking Out: Activism and Protest in the 1960s and 1970s. She served on a National Academy of Sciences blue-ribbon panel that studied the causes and consequences of mass incarceration in the United States and has given congressional staff briefings on the subject. She has written on the history of mass incarceration and its current impact for The New York Times, Time, The Atlantic, Salon, Newsweek, NBC, Dissent, New Labor Forum, and The Huffington Post, as well as for various top scholarly publications.

Reviews

Praise for Heather Ann Thompson’s Blood in the Water

“Gripping . . . Not all works of history have something to say so directly to the present, but Heather Ann Thompson’s Blood in the Water: The Attica Prison Uprising of 1971 and Its Legacy, which deals with racial conflict, mass incarceration, police brutality and dissembling politicians, reads like it was special-ordered for the sweltering summer of 2016. But there’s nothing partisan or argumentative about Blood in the Water. The power of this superb work of history comes from its methodical mastery of interviews, transcripts, police reports and other documents, covering 35 years, many released only reluctantly by government agencies . . . It’s Ms. Thompson’s achievement, in this remarkable book, to make us understand why this one group of prisoners [rebelled], and how many others shared the cost.” —Mark Oppenheimer, The New York Times
 
“Chilling, and in places downright shocking . . . [Thompson] tells the story of the riot and its aftermath with precision and momentum.” —Bryan Burrough, The Wall Street Journal

“A masterly account . . . Essential . . . Blood in the Water restores [the prisoners’] struggle to its rightful place in our collective memory.” —James Forman Jr., The New York Times Book Review

“A long, memorable chronicle . . . dense with new information . . . Thompson’s capacity for close observation and her honesty [are] impressive.” —Adam Gopnik, The New Yorker
 
“Masterful.” —Lewis M. Steel, The Nation

“Thompson’s book is a masterpiece of historical research; it is thoroughly researched, extensively documented and reads like a novel . . . Magnificent.” —Terry Hartle, The Christian Science Monitor

“Heather Ann Thompson tracked down long-hidden files related to the tragedy at Attica—some of which have since disappeared—to tell the saga in its full horror.” —Larry Getlen, New York Post
 
“Writing with cinematic clarity from meticulously sourced material, [Thompson] brilliantly exposes the realities of the Attica prison uprising . . . Thompson’s superb and thorough study serves as a powerful tale of the search for justice in the face of the abuses of institutional power.” —Publishers Weekly Review of the Day (starred review)

“[A] real eye-opener for readers whose interest in Attica and knowledge of what happened ended when the headlines receded . . . Compelling . . . Sensitive . . . Impressively authoritative and thoughtfully composed.” —Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
 
“Blood in the Water is extraordinary—a true gift to the written history of civil rights and racial justice struggles in America.” —Michelle Alexander, author of The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness
 
“Remarkable. Blood in the Water is a historical tour de force. It sheds new light on these most important historical events, events that in part triggered the wave of exponential prison growth today. For those of us who have been tracing the rise of mass incarceration in this country, Heather Ann Thompson’s book is a must read.” —Bernard E. Harcourt, Professor of Law and Political Science at Columbia University
 
“Heather Ann Thompson wields the powers of the historian with mesmerizing force. Forty-five years after the Attica uprising, Blood in the Water offers the most complete history to date on that tragic episode and does so with unflinching purpose: a clearer view of the consequences for human life, both past and present.” —Glenn E. Martin, Founder and President of JustLeadershipUSA
 
“Blood in the Water tells of warning signs in 1971 that still exist more than forty years later. Heather Ann Thompson’s prophetic analysis is a sobering reminder that we must all care about what is happening to human beings behind prison walls.” —Soffiyah Elijah, Executive Director of the Correctional Association of New York