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.