Amanda Knox Got Hero's Welcome at Prison
Amanda Knox was cheered by hundreds of inmates at prison after acquittal.
Oct. 4, 2011— -- Amanda Knox was given a hero's welcome at the prison where she spent four years after she returned from her acquittal to collect her belongings and depart for America, according to her close friend that was with her.
"All the prisoners, five or 600 of them, started to greet Amanda from the windows, like soccer stardom," said Corrado Maria Daclon, secretary general of the USA Italy Foundation, which has helped Knox through the appeals process. "It's difficult to describe the happiness of them seeing Amanda and greeting her and seeing her free now. Yelling "Oh, wow, ciao Amanda!" It was really really incredible emotion."
Daclon said that Knox walked back into the prison through its central square, surrounded by blocks and blocks of prison buildings with small windows. Two to three prisoners crammed into each small window in the buildings, cheering and waving clothing in the air like flags.
"All the prison was greeting her like a champion," he said.
In response, Amanda jumped up and wave back.
"She was moved and jumped two times to greet them, she was so touched, you can't imagine," Corrado said.
Knox walked through the cheers to collect her belongings from her cell. She then bid farewell to her cellmate and the other girls and some of the police guards, he said.
"They always said that Amanda is a model prisoner, perfect, never one argument in four years, never one problem with guards or other prisoners. The perfect behavior, we already know this, but I didn't expect a reaction like this, believe me," he said.
Corrado accompanied Knox out of the prison and into a waiting car, which took them through a swarm of 100 paparazzi and onto the airport, he said.
"Imagine, to see so many people, like a Hollywood movie, looking out of the windows, greeting Amanda and waving clothes. She was moved, like us, to see a show like this," he said.
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