On the clear, crisp morning of Sunday, September 22, 1991, a brutal and calculated uprising erupted within the maximum-security unit of Montana State Prison in Deer Lodge. In the chaos that ensued, 26-year-old Gary Evans, a male inmate, lost his life. He was one of five men murdered by fellow prisoners during a four-hour riot that left the cellblock in ruins and exposed deadly flaws within the correctional system.
The violence was orchestrated by a group of inmates, chief among them the serial killer Douglas Duane "Doug" Turner and his accomplice, William Gollehon.
The riot began when inmates managed to breach a fence in an exercise yard and gain access to the maximum-security building through a door that had been left unsecured. Once inside, they overpowered guards, seized keys, and released other prisoners. Their primary targets were inmates housed in the protective custody unit, who were perceived as "snitches" or informants. Gary Evans was one of these men, targeted for breaking the harsh inmate code. He was serving a 20-year sentence and had been placed in protective custody after providing information to prison officials.
The assault on the protective custody inmates was savage. The rioters, led by Turner and Gollehon, used makeshift weapons, including sharpened broom handles and fire extinguishers, to beat and stab their victims. Some of the men, after being brutally beaten, were hanged with electrical cords from a second-floor walkway. When a tactical unit finally stormed the building with tear gas, they discovered a horrific scene of carnage. Gary's body was found on the concrete floor of the cellblock, having been severely beaten by the rampaging inmates.
The investigation into the riot and the murders identified numerous participants, with Douglas Turner and William Gollehon emerging as the main perpetrators of the killings. Turner was already a convicted murderer, serving three life sentences for killing three of his neighbors in Glendive in 1987 at the age of 16. A year before the riot, he and Gollehon had also beaten another inmate, Gerald Pileggi, to death with baseball bats in the prison yard. The riot was not a spontaneous outburst but a planned attack, and the murders were described by investigators as "crimes of opportunity" carried out with extreme brutality.
In the legal proceedings that followed, more than a dozen inmates were convicted on various charges ranging from homicide to kidnapping and rioting. For his role in the five murders during the riot, Douglas Turner received five additional life sentences. He had already been sentenced to death for the 1990 murder of Gerald Pileggi. Turner's violent spree, which accounted for nine known victims, ended not by the state's hand, but his own. On July 8, 2003, before his execution could be carried out, the 31-year-old hanged himself in his maximum-security cell. His accomplice, William Gollehon, was also convicted and remains on death row.
In the aftermath of the riot, investigations revealed significant negligence on the part of prison officials. A state district judge found that the prison had failed to heed warnings of a potential uprising and that chronic security violations directly contributed to the deadly events of that day. The state of Montana was held liable for the deaths and injuries that occurred. In 1995, the state agreed to pay $150,000 to the family of Gary Evans in a settlement, one of several payouts to the families of the slain inmates and those who were injured.
While the details of the crime and its aftermath are well-documented, very little is publicly known about who Gary Evans was as a person. His life has been tragically overshadowed by the horrific manner of his death and the notoriety of his killers. His story serves as a stark reminder of the violence that can erupt within prison walls and the profound human cost of a system's failures.
