Inchcape Island Siege
| Inchcape Island Siege | |||
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 Prison Authority armed guards reinforcing the prison's perimeter. | |||
| Date | September 16–17, 1978 | ||
| Location | |||
| Caused by | Coordinated escape attempt by Paleocacherian Mafia | ||
| Goals | To effect the escape of Llewellyn Jones from the prison. | ||
| Methods | Kidnapping, Siege, Murder | ||
| Status | Failed | ||
| Parties to the civil conflict | |||
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The Inchcape Island Siege was the result of a botched escape attempt by members of the Teaghlach Eucoir Paleocacher a Tuath crime family to free two of its incarcerated leaders from the supermax prison on Inchcape Island. Underboss Llewellyn Jones organized the escape attempt through letters passed by his lawyer, Arbuckle Lynch. Over the course of several visits to see his client on the island Lynch knowingly received and passed along orders to accomplices on the mainland. The plan was very detailed and hammered out over the course of several conferences during which the two men were supposedly planning Jones' appeal for a number of racketeering and smuggling convictions.
The plan was enacted on the 16th of September, 1978. Arbuckle Lynch smuggled a handcuff key and a pocketknife to the prisoner. Jones used these to break free on his way back to his cell and he killed the guard escorting him. Using the guard's keys to unlock two cells containing fellow gangsters Owney McGrath and James Coonan the three intended escapees took control of the guard station in the West Cell Block. During this time they overpowered two more guards stabbing both. They then took the guards' sidearms and using the two overpowered guards as hostages fled to a blockhouse outside on the prison's grounds used by the Prison Authority as a storage building. From there they engaged in short periods of long range potshots alternating with negotiations with the Prison's warden, Sandine Teague while a fishing trawler carrying five additional heavily armed members of the gang approached the island from the east.
The negotiations lasted until five in the morning when, just before dawn, the boat arrived just offshore and the criminals onboard began firing rockets at the guards on the dock. One guard was killed and one wounded and the lightly armed men fled. The warden, afraid that men would be landing ordered the blockhouse stormed. Tear gas bombs were fired in and the Prison Authority guards stormed in shooting. One of the two hostages was killed by Coonan and that he was subsequently killed by a guard coming in through a window. The other two gangsters, Jones and McGrath were overwhelmed by the tear gas and beaten into submission by guards with rifle butts and batons. As the raid was happening a Paleocacherian Coastal Patrol response boat RK-036 arrived on the scene and, after a brief exchange of fire sank the stolen trawler with its 40mm cannon, killing all five gangsters aboard.
Following the end of the siege Jones, McGrath, and the lawyer Lynch were all convicted of conspiracy to escape and conspiracy to murder and received consecutive life sentences for each of the three murdered guards. Lynch joined the other two men in becoming an inmate of the island prison. An inquiry was launched by the federal government and as a result the Inchcape Supermax had its already impressive security tightened even further. A patrol boat was permanently assigned to circle the island and lawyers that visit the island are now subject to full body searches, no longer allowed to have physical contact with clients, and they are kept handcuffed at all times.
