Keys to the Cages: 1930 Ohio Penitentiary Fire

"Keys to the Cages" recounts the frightful story of a fire at the Ohio State Penitentiary in Columbus on Easter Monday 1930. First fire responders wait in open-air trucks outside a locked gate. Cries of men bolted behind steel bars are heard widely amidst creeping flames and black smoke, while individual cell door keys hang on guard room hooks, undisturbed. It is the change of shift. Guards debate the wisdom of releasing any keys to unlock the cells. The fire attracts thousands of Columbus people, who stand around prison gates while tragedies unfold inside. This is also an account of inmate Theophilus Kabel of Dayton, institutionalized at an early age into a life devoid of personal decision-making. He is emancipated into a world full of uncharted freedom, yet his attempt to fit into society fails; he is soon arrested and forced hopelessly into this deadly prison setting. His story gives voice to men logged only as statistics in the annals of America's deadliest prison fire. Three hundred and twenty-two die that night. None on death row.