Cement shoes? In a Montana prison riot? It’s fantasy made for television

Photo shows cement shoes

Cement shoes, on display at Old Montana Prison, made a prop for a Travel Channel video, but there’s no evidence they had anything to do with inmate Jerry Myles and the 1959 riot.

By Kevin S. Giles

A friend called me recently to ask if I had seen a Travel Channel feature about the 1959 riot at Montana State Prison that aired that night.

“Tell me it’s not the urban myth about Jerry Myles and the cement shoes,” I interrupted.

Sure enough, that was the one, contrived and cartoonish straight through to its overwrought (but merciful) ending 3:31 minutes later. This Mysteries in the Museum stinker surely provided entertainment value to some viewers. Who wouldn’t marvel at watching an angry convict start a prison disturbance because guards made him wear shoes with heavy cement soles?

Quite a story – but not true.

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