The Story Behind the Story

From the Chrysalis (a novel) is based on the most deadly prison uprising in Canadian history, the Kingston Penitentiary Riot of April 1971. Six guards who were taken hostage survived; two  prisoners who were beaten and tortured on the final day of the four day riot did  not.

Two books have been written about the riot: Roger Caron’s Bingo: Four Days in Hell and Gregory Bell’s Birdsong. Both these jailhouse authors were long-term inmates and low key leaders in the riot. Caron's book purports to be a factual account; Bell's was marketed as a novel.

If neither Bingo nor Birdsong addresses the role played by the inmate who protected the hostage guards, it’s no wonder. At the time of the riot, there were over 600 prisoners in the Kingston Pen and at least as many  stories.

From the Chrysalis is about the inmate who protected the guards and was later one of thirteen men charged in the torture deaths of two prisoners. I called this inmate Dace Devereux. 

Dace’s younger cousin Liza had great hopes for him—hopes he’d survive, hopes he’d get out and stay out, hopes people would stop thinking he got away with murder in the prison riot, hopes they would always be together.

This is her story too.

Karen E. Black | Create Your Badge