HUEY
CARSON
The Huey Carson Drama
The Metropolitan Remand
Centre at Long Bay was rarely referred to by its full name. Sometimes it was simply called the Remand
Centre, but mostly it was called the MRC.
The MRC had two, three story wings,
being 12 and 13 Wings, (cell blocks), each having 112 cells, housing 150
prisoners. All 300 prisoners believed
they would beat their charges and would be going home once they had been to
court, that is until two or three days prior to their case being heard in
court, at which time the realisation that they were about to be told they would
not be going home for quite some time, if at all, would hit them hard. It was for this reason that many of the
prisoners were unpredictable and others were just plain dangerous. One such prisoner
was Huey Carson, who was often both unpredictable and dangerous.
Carson had a long history
of violent behaviour. He had attacked me
in 1972 in the MRP hospital and he was also involved in the Bathurst Gaol riots
on 3rd and 4th of February 1974. You can read all about both incidents in my
first book “It’s all in the Fall”. Additionally, I was aware he was involved in
several other skirmishes with prison officers.
It was early 1980 when
Frank “Karate Jack” Hutchen was relieving the Deputy Superintendent in the MRC.
It was not unusual for Mr Hutchen to be relieving in higher positions within
the Long Bay complex. It was about 16.00 hours when he was putting his cap on
ready to go home, it had been a long day and I can only guess that he was
thinking about going home to his beloved wife Rose and to feed his birds in his
exceptional aviaries.
A young junior prison
officer hurried in to Mr Hutchen’s office and exclaimed, “A prisoner has just
tried to stab me with a pair of shears”. He continued, “He’s gone up to the maintenance
shed”. If there was one thing I had
learned about Mr Hutchen, regardless of the fact that it was knock off time, he
was always going to support his junior officers. I know he had supported me on numerous
occasions.
Mr Hutchen made his way
to the maintenance shed where he found a prisoner Huey Carson holding not a
pair of shears as the young prison officer had thought, but a pair of scissors
that he had taken from the barber in one hand, and a shovel in the other. Mr Hutchen tried to talk to Carson one on one
in the hope that he could calm him sufficiently to disarm him. Instead Carson
said in his very aggressive manner, “I’m going to cut your head off with a
shovel”. With that said, Carson swung the shovel hard and fast at Mr Hutchen,
who managed to dodge the shovel as it hit the top of the door frame with such
force that it broke and dislodged a brick.
To find out how this story unfolded and
more about Frank (Karate Jack) Hutchen, read my eBook “Australia’s Best Prison
Stories”, available through this website or Amazon.
