It was 9:30 P.M., and the Mayor was in his office at Gracie Mansion, speaking by commercial radio to the prison ers. His short statement was gamble to win without force the release of 17 hostages held by the prisoners.
Almost precisely two and half hours later, the Mayor stepped from his limousine in front of the Tombs before mid night. There were cheers from inmates leaning out of the prison windows.
He said he was “deeply gratified by the release of the hostages unharmed.” It was for that word that he had been waiting since 9:30 P.M., and it had taken more than two hours to arrive.
Open telephone lines linking his office with the warden's of fice in the Tombs and the Cor rection Commissioner's office across the street from the prison kept him in continuing contact with the tense situation down town.
But until the limousine dash just before midnight, the Mayor, according to his press secretary, Thomas Morgan, did not go outside his residence all day.
He consulted with a variety of city officials during the long day, and at 4 P.M. a “final re view” of the situation was made at a meeting in the new wing of Gracie Mansion.
With the Mayor were Acting Police Commissioner John F. Walsh; George F. McGrath, the Correction Commissioner; Dep uty Mayors Timothy Costello and Richard R. Aurelio; Barry H. Gottehrer, the Mayor's ex ecutive assistant for special community problems, who has been involved with the continu ing prison crisis; Michael J. Dontzin, counsel to the Mayor, and other staff members.
The men to whom the Mayor made his radio appeal were told by the warden— by telephone from his office to the 11th floor of the Tombs—to turn on their radios at 9:30 for the Mayor's message.
The Mayor canceled his scheduled 10:30 P.M. appear ance on the weekly television show “With Mayor Lindsay”; Deputy Mayor Aurelio took his place on the WNEW‐TV pro gram on Channel 5.
The Mayor left his office at last and started toward the Tombs to begin his midnight meeting with the prisoners.
This is Mayor Lindsay speaking to the men on the Tombs’ 11th floor. I want to repeat to you what I said to the whole city yesterday. I will meet personally with your representatives imme diately upon the release by you, unharmed, of all of the hostages.
I am asking you to release the hostages within 30 min utes. Otherwise other courses of action must be taken. As I said to the citizens of this city yesterday, I am aware of your grievances and prob lems. I am prepared to deal with them positively, and to enlist the aid of the courts and the state, but you must understand that this city can not tolerate violence and dis order.
I wish to emphasize that no other course except the immediate release, unharmed, of all of the hostages within 30 minutes is acceptable. Then and only then will I meet with representatives of your group. I urge you to weigh carefully the conse quences of continuing your present course of conduct.
I have a very brief state ment that I wish to make to you and that is that I'm deep ly gratified that the hostages have been released unharmed. I'd like to express my gratifi cation to the superb work of the correction officers and of New York City police.
Now I'm here to hold to the commitment I made that if the hostages were released unharmed, I would meet with a representative group of the prisoners and listen to what they have to say. I shall do that, and then I may have something to say when I've completed that assignment.