[4] Roger Caron, a prisoner at Kingston turned writer wrote about the bell that was rung 100 times every day: "To the cons it was an object of repugnance and outrage, an unjustifiable punishment.
[5] Caron complained that in 1971 Kingston penitentiary was still governed by "archaic" Victorian rules under which the prisoners were punished by 30 days in solitary confinement if caught masturbating.
[8] The combination of a Liberal government whose rhetoric promised a "Just Society" for all vs. the steadily more harsher conditions at Kingston penitentiary made for a volatile mood in the prison.
[17] As Moore was a very attractive young man, many of the other prisoners at Kingston penitentiary had wanted to rape him, which led him to ask in February 1970 to transferred to the 1-D range for his own safety as he was afraid to use the communal showers.
The best known "wolf" at Kingston Penitentiary in 1971 was Harold St. Amour who served as the resident bookie for illegal gambling, which made him a relatively well off prisoner, who used his wealth to purchase several "sweet Kids".
[37] Ensor, a child-like man who seemed incapable of understanding why it was wrong to be sexually attracted to children, was serving a life sentence for raping two young girls, both under the age of 10, after he was convicted in 1962.
[58] On the evening of 16 April, the soldiers of the Royal Canadian Regiment were deployed outside of Kingston penitentiary and placed a barbed wire fence around the prison along with snipers with orders to shoot to kill should any inmates attempt to escape.
[60] Caron wrote that: "Two notorious drag queens wasted no time in settling up business on the first floor of B-block by closing off the front of their drums [cells] with blankets".
[57] The frequent claims being made in the media that the inmates were engaged in physical and sexual abuse of the hostages led to intense public pressure that the Royal Canadian Regiment storm the penitentiary and Morton's statement was intended to defuse such demands.
[73] MacKenzie went to meet the citizens committee, saying the mood was very dangerous in the prison as Shepley and Beacuage were on the brink of doing something reckless and that he needed a concession to sell the other inmates on surrender.
[80] Under his orders, his followers beat the condemned men with their fists, metal bars, hammers and anything else that would inflict pain, which caused the area under the dome to be socked in their pools of their blood.
[79] Caron wrote that "the cruellest of the lot" were Edward Fowler and Robert Robidioux who both "handsome and likeable nineteen-year-olds" who were seen as homosexual "sweet kids" to be sexually exploited by the older prisoners.
[82] One of the prisoners tied in the circle and beaten bloody, Richard Moore, later testified at the trial of the "Kingston 13" that he was in immense pain and his vision was clouded as too much of his own blood oozed over his eyes.
[86] Brawley also testified that Goyer's speech had led to the torture session as he stated: "The guys doing the beatings felt they had nothing to lose because we'd all be dead once the Army forced their way in".
[87] Lake testified at the trial that was beaten by the Oag brothers, Donald and James, for about 20 minutes, and despite the way that St. Amour had attacked him earlier, saved his life.
Another witness at the trial, Denis Robertson, testified that he saw Glen "Yankee" Morris strike a prisoner with an iron bar, saying: "He was just going back and forth across the guy's scalp.
[89] To the tune of blaring rock music, a child molester, Brian Ensor, was beaten very brutally and finally had his throat slashed by Robidoux with a homemade knife.
"[91] Caron who watched Ensor being killed wrote about the murder that he saw "...young Bobby [Robidoux], stoned out of his mind, talked to the corpse as though it still contained life, cursing and kicking it, In a further act of savagery he stooped down, dug his fingers into a hole in the dead man's forehead, and plucked out some brains!
[93] To put a stop to the impeding massacre as Beaucage was intent upon torturing and killing all of the "undesirables", MacKenzie, who had returned to the 4-B wing, agreed to release the hostages.
[98] A scene of pandemonium ensured as hundreds of prisoners attempted to rush out of the front gate to surrender to be confronted by Morton and a squad of soldiers with bayonets drawn.
as he argued that it was only when Knight's authority collapsed after Goyer's speech that the radical prisoner faction led by Beaucage went on the torture and murder session of the "undesirables".
[123] Justice Henderson was displeased with the causal hippie appearance of the students and stated that his courtroom would "not be a haven for bums", saying that he only would allow young people "properly" dressed to attend the trial.
[123] The trial featured extremely graphic testimony about the torture session with an American bank robber James Brawley testifying for the Crown he had never seen such brutality, saying: "They started beating them, breaking their noses and tormenting them.
[124] Another witness for the Crown, a bank robber, Edward Patricks, testified that he saw Robidoux torture two of the "undesirables" with a knife in such a vicious manner that he had to flee into his cell as he could not stand what he was watching.
[126] Moore who had barely survived the torture session gave graphic testimony about what it was like to have his ribs broken and to almost suffocate to death with his collapsed lungs while he was being continually beaten with iron bars.
[127] The journalist Catherine Fogarty stated that she was greatly " disturbed" by the account of the torture session in Caron's memoir, but discovered from the trial transcripts that "everything he said in the book about what happened was true".
[129] On 18–19 November 1971, a secret meeting was held in a cheap motel attended by the two Crown attorneys, 16 defense lawyers and Justice Henderson who pressured both sides to reach a deal for plea bargains.
[136] The Liberal justice minister, John Turner, in response to Diefenbaker's questions stated that the federal government did not intend to appeal the verdicts in the "Kingston 13" case.
"[141] "George" told Haggart that watching the torture session had made him vomit in disgust and despite being a career bank robber that he was giving up his life of crime as he still had nightmares about what he had seen.
[97] Buckler noted that later that same year, in September 1971, the Attica Prison riot ended with the deaths of 43 men, the majority of whom were killed by the troopers of the New York state police.