| Summary: | Dick Cheatham Recounts Riot. DICK CHEATHAM RECOUNTS RIOT Dick Cheatham, former Spokane man, was in the "thick of things" Monday afternoon in the penitentiary riot at Walla Walla. At work in the office at the time the riot started, Cheatham was summoned hastily to the walls of the prison from which vantage point guards directed the deadly hail of lead into the midst of the convicts desperately fighting for freedom. Armed with a rifle, Cheatham took his station under the direction of Warden James M. McCauley. For several months he served as a guard and recently has been assigned as inmates' bookkeeper. Shouts Add to Din. "We hurried to the walls and awaited the rush of the convicts, who used guards and captured turnkeys as human shields, he said. The melee lasted only about 10 minutes. Much noise and yelling on the part of the convicts added to the din of the guns. Quiet was quickly restored." Cheatham, who attended North Central high school and spent a greater part of his life in Spokane, is known for his expert marksmanship. He has hunted big game through Canada and into the arctic circle. Questioned as to whether he was responsible for some of the marksmanship, which outright took the lives of five of the convicts and fatally wounded three others, Cheatham said: "I am not in a position to comment."
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