National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial

Officer Rank: Corrections Employee

Memorial Panel: 63-W: 6

Department: Colorado Department of Corrections

End of Watch: October 3, 1929

Cause: SHOT

Age: 65

Years of Service: Unk

Description: Raymond Brown, John J. Eeles, Elmer G. Erwin, John W. McClelland, Walter Rinker, Charles G. Shepherd, Robert Wiggins, Myron H. Goodwin were all killed in a deadly riot at the Colorado State Penitentiary. This incident was preceded earlier that summer by a series of riots in two New York prisons and the Federal Penitentiary in Leavenworth, Kansas. Large sections of the prison were destroyed by fire. It is estimated that over 2,000 rounds of ammunition were fired during the melee. Robert Wiggins had been held hostage since noon on October 2. Knowing that he would be killed, it was reported, he did not ask for mercy He was shot by inmates on the evening of October 3rd and was dragged outside the prison gates. Later he was taken to the Holmes hospital, where he died on the operating table a few minutes later.