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"The 1974 Huntsville Prison Siege was an eleven-day prison uprising that took place from July 24 to August 3, 1974 at the Huntsville Unit of the Texas State Penitentiary in Huntsville, Texas. The standoff was one of the longest hostage-taking sieges in United States history.
From July 24 to August 3, 1974, Federico "Fred" Gomez Carrasco and two other inmates laid siege to the education/library building of the Walls Unit. “Fred” Carrasco, the most powerful heroin kingpin in South Texas, was serving a life sentence for the attempted murder of a police officer. He was also suspected in the murder of dozens of people in Mexico and Texas. Having smuggled pistols and ammunition into the prison, he and two other convicts took eleven prison workers and four inmates hostage.
At the precise moment that a one o’clock work bell sounded, Carrasco walked up a ramp to the third-story library and forced several prisoners out at gunpoint. When two guards tried to go up the ramp, Carrasco fired at them. His two accomplices, who were also armed, immediately joined him in the library. The prison warden and the director of the Texas Department of Corrections immediately began negotiations with the convicts. FBI agents and Texas Rangers arrived to assist them, as the media descended on Huntsville. Over the next several days the convicts made a number of demands, such as tailored suits, dress shoes, toothpaste, cologne, walkie-talkies and bulletproof helmets, all of which were provided promptly. With the approval of Texas Governor Dolph Briscoe, an armored getaway car was rolled into the prison courtyard. Carrasco claimed that they were planning to flee to Cuba and appeal to Fidel Castro.
After a grueling eleven-day standoff, the convicts finally made their desperate escape attempt just before 10 PM on Saturday August 3, 1974. They moved out of the library toward the waiting vehicle in a makeshift shield consisting of legal books taped to mobile blackboards that was later dubbed by the press the “Trojan Taco”. Inside the shield were the three convicts and four hostages, while eight other hostages ringed the exterior of the “taco”.
Acting on a prearranged plan, prison guards and Texas Rangers blasted the group with fire hoses. However, a rupture in the hose gave the convicts time to fatally shoot the two women hostages who had volunteered to join the convicts in the armored car. When prison officials returned fire, Carrasco committed suicide and one of his two accomplices was killed. Syndicated columnist Cal Thomas, who was an onsite reporter for Houston’s KPRC-TV at the time, later wrote, “It is a tragedy that two hostages died. It is a miracle all the rest lived.”
Two women, Yvonne Beseda and Judy Standley, died during the incident.
Ignacio Cuevas, the surviving perpetrator, received the Texas Department of Corrections Death Row ID#526. Cuevas was received as a death row prisoner on May 30, 1975. Cuevas was held at the Ellis Unit, and he was executed on May 23, 1991. Cuevas's last meal request consisted of chicken dumplings, steamed rice, sliced bread, black-eyed peas, and iced tea. Cuevas's last words were "I am innocent. O.K., Warden, roll ‘em." [end]
In the aftermath of this tragedy, all death row prisoners were relocated from the Walls Unit. Male death row prisoners in Texas are now held at the Polunsky Unit, females are held at the Mountain View Unit.
The following article appeared in the Huntsville (TX) Item on 12 Apr 2011: (
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"Scott recalls 1974 prison siege
By Lorri Stewart
Special to The Huntsville Item
HUNTSVILLE — Wayne Scott, retired Executive Director of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice and an SHSU alumnus, recently recalled the 1974 Carrasco Prison Siege in the Huntsville Walls Unit as part of the College of Criminal Justice’s speakers series called Real Talk with CJ. In addition to sharing his story with students, Wayne was one of three who survived the siege to participate in “Let Talk,” a SHSU Honors Program benefit, which featured small group discussions over dinner with renowned experts.
Scott was a Lieutenant in the state prison when three inmates took 11 civilian workers and four inmates hostage in the library. As the siege unfolded, Scott and a colleague came under fire from the captors as they approached the front door of building. His fellow officer was shot in the foot; the bullet missed Wayne but hit his clothes.
“We were within 20 feet of the glass doors when two inmates jumped out and shot at us,” Wayne said. “I participated in the Carrasco Prison Siege for 11-1/2 days. It’s a compelling story and it has so many ups and downs, it is hard to cover in just an hour.”
Wayne was returning from escorting inmates to the lower yard when shots rang out as he approached the only door to the Education Building. He ordered the inmates to clear the yard, made his way to the officer’s dining room to inform the staff to stay in place, and then went to the Warden’s Office to report the situation.
Inside the library, Heroin Kingpin Frederico Gomez Carrasco and two other inmates – Rudolfo Dominguez and Ignacio Cueves -- were holding 15 people hostage. Carrasco had feigned a leg injury to be assigned to Huntsville Unit, and a fellow inmate had smuggled in three guns and hundreds of rounds of ammunition in the center of a carved out ham and in a large can of peaches.
“There were no windows or exits, except for the double glass doors,” said Scott. “They had barricaded the doors with filing cabinets, and they would rotate hostages in to sit on the barricades.”
Scott brought some of the artifacts from the Texas Prison Museum, including Carrasco’s cane, a walkie talkie, and a protective helmet fashioned for Carrasco in the prison’s metal shop. He also brought photos from the days of the siege.
While prison officials, the FBI, and Texas Rangers developed options to end the siege, Carrasco became increasingly agitated. One hostage was released after suffering a heart attack; a second woman feigned a heart attack and was kept in the hospital with guards so as not to alert Carrasco to the ploy. One of the hostage inmates escaped by jumping through the plate glass front doors, emerging alive but covered in blood from shattered glass.
On the 11th day, Carrasco told each hostage to call their loved ones to say goodbye. Carrasco emerged from the Walls Unit, encased in a “Trojan Horse” made of rolling blackboards lined with law books. TDC employees, using fire hoses provided by the Huntsville Fire Department, blasted the device with high pressure water and, just before the capsule toppled one hose ruptured causing the Trojan Horse to right itself. Gunshots could then be heard from inside the crippled device.
Carrasco shot one hostage before turning the gun on himself. Dominguez shot a second hostage before taking a bullet from a member of the 13-man strike team when he was observed trying to use his pistol to shoot at the strike team. Cueves lay motionless under one of the hostages, but he was not injured. He was taken into custody and later executed for his role in the siege.
In the end, two women hostages were fatally wounded, and the chaplain was seriously injured.
“One of the things you learn when you start to work in prisons is that no hostages are ever released,” Scott said.
The story was turned into a book called “Eleven Days in Hell” by William T. Harper.
Many correction officers vowed to quit after that day, but like Scott, continued with their careers. Scott worked in the state prison system for nearly 30 years, rising to the position of Executive Director of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice.
During his career, Scott earned several awards and developed programs that received national recognition. Among these were four Awards of Excellence from the American Corrections Association for community service with Habitat for Humanity, for its computerized maintenance management system, for the Edmundo Mireles Criminal Justice Training Academy and for the Correctional Managed Health Care partnership with two universities.
Scott was named a Distinguished Alumni of Sam Houston State University in 2000, and the Texas Board of Criminal Justice honored his service by naming a prison facility after him upon his retirement in 2001." [end]