Inmate Receives Death Threat

From First Page

ture were being distributed "around the institution in hopes that someone will take drastic action against Riggs."

"Riggs is hoping to be paroled in a few months. He has applied to participate in a new program which allows inmates to leave the reformatory to attend college.

Riggs, a native of Baltimore, Md., lived in Ann Arbor, Mich., while he was a teenager.

While attending college in Pennsylvania, Riggs at the age of 19 started a small stock advisory business which published a newsletter.

HE SAID HE ATTEMPTED to move the business to Ohio after a year but was ordered by the Securities & Exchange Commission to end his operation because he was under 21.

After two quarters at Ohio University, Riggs moved to New York City, where he became acquainted with the drug culture and wrote a book about his experiences.

This book led indirectly to his prison sentence.

Riggs returned to Ohio in January 1971, intending to enroll at Kent State Univer-

sity. Instead, he started a tutorial service and publishing business.

His first publishing effort was a print order for 50,000 copies of his book, “King Heroin.'

RIGGS' BOOK DID NOT SELL. He overdrew his bank account to pay the printing bills.

He was arrested, pleaded guilty to a charge of larceny by trick and was sentenced to 1 to 7 years in the reformatory although, Riggs said, the money was repaid. Until a Plain Dealer reporter visited him in May, Riggs worked as a clerk in the reformatory office.

The assignment enabled him to pursue his studies through contacts with a wide range of younger, vulnerable inmates who told him stories of constant homosexual attacks on them by older, stronger inmates.

After the interview. reformatory officials took Riggs' job away from him and assigned him to sweeping floors.

At one point. Riggs purposely got himself sent to the reformatory's punishment area, the "hole", so that he could investigate reports that guards were failing to protect younger inmates from intimidation by tougher prisoners.