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Unresolved

New Mexico State Penitentiary Riot (Part One: Powder Keg)

Unresolved

Unresolved Productions

True Crime, Society & Culture, History

4.52.6K Ratings

🗓️ 25 November 2018

⏱️ 48 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Throughout the 20th century, the New Mexico State Penitentiary earned a reputation of being, ironically, a lawless place - where violent and non-violent prisoners were forced to co-exist in cramped and deplorable conditions.

Violence was constant, and certain cell blocks were allowed to run rampant over others. To make matters even worse, the prison's revolving door of wardens through the 1970's kept implementing changes, but just ended up creating vacuums... which were only ever filled with apathy and disorder.

This eventually reached a head in the final days of 1979, when rumors of a vicious uprising began spreading through the facility. Prison officials thought nothing of it at the time, but in the early morning hours of February 2nd, 1980... the powder keg could no longer be contained.

Part one of three



Written, hosted, and produced by Micheal Whelan

Learn more about this podcast at unresolved.me

If you would like to support this podcast and others, consider heading to patreon.com/unresolvedpod to become a Patron



Music Credits

OKAM vs ps - "Understanding the Limits of Symbiotic Echolocation"

Parvus Decree - "First Encounter"

Murmurous - "Fathom"

Other music written and composed by Ailsa Traves

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

Childhood should be fun. Don't let bed wetting spoil that.

0:07.0

Dry nights give maximum protection, so kids can go to bed where we free.

0:12.0

Have a dry night sleep. And wake up awesome!

0:19.0

Awesome days start with dry nights. Search dry nights for a free sample.

0:30.0

This episode includes descriptions of physical and sexual violence.

0:34.0

Listener discretion is advised.

0:53.0

In unincorporated Santa Fe County, roughly 15 miles south of New Mexico's capital city,

1:00.0

sits a large facility. Today, it is mostly abandoned,

1:04.0

but it was once a state-of-the-art facility constructed to house New Mexico's worst and most violent inmates.

1:11.0

You may know this set from famous films or TV productions.

1:15.0

Most notably, the film was used as the primary filming location for the mid-2000s Adam Sandler football comedy, The Longest Yard,

1:23.0

where it was rented for $1,000 a day by the production company.

1:28.0

That is a pretty regular cost, as the facility has also been used to film all the pretty horses,

1:34.0

a Kormac McCarthy adaptation, and the hunt for Bin Laden, where, funnily enough,

1:40.0

the set acted as a stand-in for Pakistan.

1:43.0

In most of these productions, the filming crews have made note of odd, unexplained phenomenon during their stay there,

1:50.0

things like doors closing mysteriously, loud disturbing noises in the hallways, stuff like that.

1:56.0

This has even led some to claim that this facility is haunted.

2:00.0

Surprisingly enough, they have a reason to believe so.

2:03.0

You see, this building, which was closed in November of 1998,

2:08.0

was the site of a violent uprising, which resulted in hundreds being hospitalized,

2:13.0

and left dozens dead in its wake.

...

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