Eleven Days in Hell: The 1974 Carrasco Prison Siege in Huntsville, Texas

North Texas Crime and Criminal Justice Series

by William T. Harper

From one o'clock on the afternoon of July 24, 1974, until shortly before ten o'clock the night of August 3, eleven days later, one of the longest hostage-taking sieges in the history of the United States took place in Texas' Huntsville State Prison. The ringleader, Federico (Fred) Gomez Carrasco, the former boss of the largest drug-running operation in South Texas, was serving life for assault with intent to commit murder on a police officer. Using his connections to smuggle guns and ammunition into the prison, and employing the aid of two other inmates, he took eleven prison workers and four inmates hostage in the prison library. Demanding bulletproof helmets and vests, he planned to use the hostages as shields for his escape. Negotiations began immediately with prison warden H. H. Husbands and W. J. Estelle, Jr., director of the Texas Department of Corrections. The Texas Rangers, the Department of Public Safety, and the FBI arrived to assist as the media descended on Huntsville. When one of the hostages suggested a moving structure of chalkboards padded with law books to absorb bullets, Carrasco agreed to the plan. The captors entered their escape pod with four hostages and secured nine others to the moving barricade. While the target was en route to an armored car, Estelle had his team blast it with fire hoses. In a violent end to the standoff, Carrasco committed suicide, one of his two accomplices was killed (the other later executed), and two hostages were killed by their captors.

Genres: History, True Crime, Nonfiction, Crime

360 pages, Hardcover

First published June 29, 2004

Reviews

[Steven · Rating 4 out of 5]

I remember the news stories as a child growing up down the road in Houston. I had a grandmother, aunt, and a cousin that lived in Huntsville so the news stories were for once real to me. Coincidentally, the final day of the siege, Aug 3, 1974, was my 9th birthday. It was interesting to learn the real inside events of the siege and compare them to my memories as a child and the school yard gossip that I heard at the time.

[Max Zappe · Rating 4 out of 5]

It took me a while to finish this one, but it was an informative summation of one of the biggest events in Huntsville local history. Damn near everyone who lives in Huntsville, works in the prison system, or both, knows about this event. I was happy to finally learn of the events real impact and ramifications.

[Mishka · Rating 2 out of 5]

fucking WILD ride

[Wolf · Rating 5 out of 5]

To know that the details of this story were collecting dust over the years & were found by chance by the author, is amazing enough.

I live in Huntsville,Tx and unfortunately I never knew about the history of this event until I found out they were going to film a movie here.

I was able to experience some of the making of the film here on 11th & 12th street, they took us back to the 70s!

The book is very detailed and the author covered all bases to make sure you receive a thorough account of what happened in this time from all of the victims in the library, as well as those on the outside.

[Claudia · Rating 5 out of 5]

Interesting story; gripping; hard to read some of the gruesome details ... to put a face with the names. But absolutely awesome at the same time.

[Mark · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good account of the siege and the events around it. The author used a collection of cassette tapes that are held by my place of employment- the TX Archives.