Postscripts to Attica

It was eerie 40 years after the deadly riot at Attica state prison to hear the voice of the late Gov. Nelson Rockefeller of New York employing his breathless signature adjective — “fabulous!” He was speaking back then to President Richard Nixon and attributing “a fabulous job” to the state troopers hours after they took the prison in a barrage by rooftop riflemen who killed 10 hostages along with 29 inmates. The president is heard complimenting the governor for “the courage you showed,” their voices resounding from newly available White House tape recordings.

A state investigation commission has long since quashed the celebration, establishing how reckless the governor was to allow troopers, some with shotguns, fire down through thick clouds of tear gas at the innocent and guilty alike massed in the prison yard. Despite what the Rockefeller administration insisted, inmates did not slash the hostages’ throats; they were killed by state gunfire.

Establishing the truth of that frenzied morning helped ease a painful experience for some. I am still troubled that the day before the raid, I foolishly stoked hope while talking to hostage families waiting outside the prison walls....