Three 'jails' for antagonist Jerry Myles
By David P. Conley, PhD
In Jerry's Riot, Kevin Giles is masterful in re-creating what must be America’s most unsung prison riot.
Through meticulous research and a pivotal local-knowledge advantage, Giles brings the 1959 Montana riot alive in splendid detail.
Even more striking is his profile of the antagonist, former Alcatraz jailbird Jerry Myles. As a deft manipulator of “the system” as well as of fellow inmates, Myles is superbly depicted as both a predator and a victim of a life gone wrong.
Although it’s difficult to have sympathy for such a man, Giles employs an engaging story-telling formula that allows the reader to interpret the psychopath as a toxic byproduct of a society that put him behind bars.
Indeed, Giles locates three “jails” for Jerry Myles. First there is the “jail” of freedom, with which the convict could not cope. In effect, he escaped into a second jail in the form of the Montana State Prison.
There, he found a jail within a jail – the unwritten rules of prison life in which convicts exploit one another in a melting pot of sex and violence. Sadly, it is this “jail” at which Myles excels. Here he becomes a leader. If his self-aggrandizing goal was to lead prisoners into violence and chaos in highlighting poor conditions, he succeeded.
The author’s commitment to symbolic factual detail, together with his excavation of official records and revival of faded memories, bolster a convincing narrative that takes the reader on an ultimately explosive journey.
Giles has in-built advantages. He not only grew up in Deer Lodge, home of Montana State Prison, his father was a guard at the time of the riot. As a veteran journalist, his research and writing skills shine in every chapter.
Given its innate drama and strong character in the form of Jerry Myles, it would not be surprising if Jerry’s Riot were picked up for a tele-movie or film. The book’s keen insights into criminal behaviors might also give it a second life as a companion text for college courses in criminology, sociology or psychology.
David Conley, an Oklahoma native, was a longtime professor of journalism at the University of Queensland in Australia. He has worked for nearly a dozen newspapers in the United States and Australia and has authored several articles and books.
