00:00:06
hey weirdos I'm Elena I'm Ash and this is [Music] morbid and I just waved at you you did
00:00:25
you waved at me and it was uh it wasn't offputting I didn't wave at you waved at
00:00:30
the weirdos well that's the end of this episode because I quit I'm done she didn't wave at me [ __ ] that it makes me
00:00:39
feel better I just knocked mustan over and all the ice chattered didn't spill on that was Instinct Karma it was it
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would have been more car car kific caric caric caric I like that it spilled on me
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but it didn't but um anyway I'm going to move it that's a great idea because it'll clang clang clang mhm live updates
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with us and bang bang bang bangang so yeah um what updates do we have do we have updates uh we don't even
00:01:08
know when this is going out so no we don't you should buy Elena's book obviously pre-order that book The
00:01:13
Butcher game it's coming out September 17th you can pre-order it anywhere but the butcher game.com has all the places
00:01:18
uh Barnes & Noble smaller bookstores Amazon all those Target all those places there you go all of them um by the time
00:01:27
you're hearing this we probably made another new Tik Tok so go over to Elena to the Max and go see that Tik Tok and
00:01:33
if it inspires you pre-order that book and interact with the tickity talky with the Ticky talky Tick Tock I did a shimmy
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but I did arm day yesterday and like the so it was a light shimmy like no but like it hurt right here like under my
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armpits you're like right here every but I'm getting swo SW you know what else is getting swole
00:01:56
because we've been in a humid Heat Wave all the do every door that existed on the East
00:02:03
Coast every time you open a door in Massachusetts right now it is like a it's like a a CrossFit event to open the
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door we have that problem at our apartment it would get super duper swollen in the summer and like you'd
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have to like slam it and then in the winter time it like wouldn't like latch properly when you closed it cuz I think
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it like [ __ ] up the alignment of it oh yeah that makes sense it's annoying uh so that's swollen doors with Ash and
00:02:32
Elena it's a new segment that we're introducing today where we just talk about all the swollen doors look out for
00:02:39
the next one yeah ever did see uh so today's episode is so sad I believe that it's so sad oh
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um and it's a little local here it's the Hartford circus fire and yes we're talking about Hartford Connecticut I've
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been there um you have been there we've all been there uh it's this is really it's from 1944 okay um so
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sort of old timey yeah a little I mean it's where I live and it's just a really sad story it's very tragic a lot of
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people lost their lives a lot of people got hurt it's a very unsettling scene just warning you this is like the intro
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to all of your cases unfortunately it's so unsettling it's tragic it's horrifically sad all of the above yeah
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all of the above um so without further Ado I suppose we just get into it let's go um so first things
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first you're the realist I'm the realist I never really liked the circus because
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I don't like animal shows like I don't like animals having to do tricks yeah I think I'm trying to think of like cuz I
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know one of my mom's boyfriends was like let me impress this [ __ ] and took me to
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the circus like with my mom and I'm trying trying to think if animal it's only recent that animals were taken out
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of the circus right let's look it up cuz I mean like childhood trauma makes it so
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that I don't recall a lot of events in my life but I can't remember if there was animals there or not I think it was
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I feel like it was like recent fairly recent trying to look do you remember animals being there when you went to the
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circus I have I do not remember specifically what was there I do remember um my dad took me when I was
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much younger which is adorable when your dad takes you at school yeah when your mom's boyfriend takes you you're like
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who's this [ __ ] like thanks for trying to take me somewhere but I don't even know you yeah see my D my dad did like
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the uh he he loved to do just like the me and him Hangouts I love that so he would take me to like the all the Disney
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movies that came out that was like his thing I'm just kidding sorry it was great I will say papa papa did fun [ __ ]
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with us he did he did a great job and this was one of the things he did because he's an electrician and at one
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point he did like the lights for the show he also did the lights for a Seline Dion concert and then he met her in the
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elevator and he said she was one of the nicest people he's ever met in his life he did and he said one of the most he
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was a very she was a very beautiful woman in person too is beautiful so that was very nice and he also did the um the
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lights for the uh Olympic trials the gymnastics trials once I don't think I [ __ ] knew that yeah he took tons of
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pictures and he gave me all the pictures cuz I used to love watching the gymnastics that's cool yeah
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damn I don't know that I knew that yeah pup is the coolest he's pretty cool Bob he wasn't a submarine he was like
00:05:37
thinking of him being in a submarine at the bottom of the ocean for like months at a time I'm like you're a badass
00:05:42
months at a time actually wait can you tell the story cuz I don't I don't tell it perfectly but how he hurt his back
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how he hurt his back so the story is that my dad was like almost paralyzed in the military yeah um he was like in
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horrible shape when he got out of it and um some guy was uh about to fall down the ladder in like the hatch I don't
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know how this works all I know don't at me don't at me about it uh cuz he doesn't even really talk about it he he
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told us the story like once yeah M tells it sometimes but he grabbed the guy and
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as he grabbed the guy to try to help him he slipped and hit his back on every like the rungs of the ladder and then
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fell down into the the hatch and he ended up like having to have like crazy surgeries on his back he's got like a
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massive scar down his back it's crazy um but he's like he walks around like it's
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nothing now I think he literally had to learn how to walk again yeah and now it's like you'd never know it happened
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yeah unless you see his back and you see that giant massive scar on his back I think it might have been like a rogue
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wave or something yeah I was going to say there was a reason that like something happened that like jostled
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everything where this person fell yeah but he was trying to help that guy out and he grabbed him that's our guy cuz
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that's our guy that's what he does that's our guy right there uh but yeah so he's he's a pretty big badass and he
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did the lights for the [ __ ] circus have you figured out when they got I figured it out it's kind of hard
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to figure out um I feel like it it was always kind of an um it was always a thing that people were up in arms about
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yeah like it always became a thing where people were questioning how these animals were treated and whether this is
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Humane or not the answer to me is no it is not Humane did you ever watched that movie um Water for Elephants no of
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course I didn't watch that movie yeah that check it would make me cry and I don't want that oh I can't watch it
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anymore but I watched it one time and it made me absolutely so yeah see that and
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that's the thing I've heard that that's the reaction and anytime somebody tells me a movie made me SOB it's off my I I
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don't like being I don't like being manipulated by movies to cry I get that sometimes I watch a movie like if I have
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to cry but there's like certain movies that I'm like I can't cry I can't have that kind of cry it's a different kind
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of cry when it's like gut-wrenching and you're like now I just feel sad yeah and
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if I'm feeling sad for an animal I'm not going to recover for days and also elephants are my favorite animals so
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yeah so that's just that's all bad but getting into this um on July 6th 1944 an estimated
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7,000 people mostly women and children gathered at the Barber Street Fairgrounds in Hartford Connecticut to
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see the wringling brother in Barnum and Bailey Circus after the lion show had just ended tragedy struck oh no within
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10 minutes the entire tent had burned to the ground 139 people were dead and hundreds were badly injured and in the
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weeks that followed another 28 would die from their injuries oh my God yeah it was like a massive loss of life at the
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time the Hartford circus fire was one of the worst fires in American history and
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it remains one of the biggest tragedies in in the state history especially I believe it so in the summer of 1944 um
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just to give you an idea of like what was going on then and why there were just so many women and children and like
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elderly people in in attendance to this one particular show yeah in the summer of 1944 um as the Allied Forces were
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beginning to overtake the Nazis across Europe Americans at home were just trying to find ways to distract
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themselves from the horrific losses of life um you know the Normandy invasion the battlefields like you were hearing
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all kinds of awful stuff yeah and among the more popular summer pastimes in both
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1944 and years before that you know were the things we think of the fairs the carnivals like you think of those old
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timey carnivals and stuff and they were newer too you know like at that point in
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time and circuses that traveled to small towns and big cities across the country
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and each year companies of you know varying quality would bring their animal shows their games their you know B their
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various big tops you know all those attractions to town and locals could just pay a small fee and spend the day
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being entertained eat some Carnival Food ride some rides you know one thing about
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me I [ __ ] love Carnival Food oh Carnival food is Top Notch I thought you were going to say toxic no absolutely it
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is but it's to toxic yeah like toxic yes friedi the [ __ ] up you will never John
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loves a fried dough yeah yes that man I feel like I should just like for one of his birthdays just have like several
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food trucks of different fos show up at the house obviously you're going to invite me to that but if you don't
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invite me to that I'm going to kick you yeah I'm going to kick your shins I'm going to kick you in the Shins and
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honestly that's a scary so uh but yeah so but when it came to the circus there was none better and of and at the time
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thought none better quality and More wellknown Than wringling Brothers and baram Bailey Circus which everybody
00:11:01
knows those names yes so the Ringling Brothers in barnham and Bailey Circus officially began operating when the two
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businessmen businesses merged in 1919 oh wow I was going to say this it all was much earlier yeah I didn't
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actually realized that yeah but their individual histories date back to the early 19th century in one form or
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another oh [ __ ] me then I was like yeah this was a new thing you said that was
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like like I have a sentence coming up that's going to rock your world B but within a decade the organization had
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purchased other traveling companies and kind of Consolidated them into one large
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exhibition that they dubbed what did they dub at everybody The Greatest Show on Earth oh wow so it uh the circus
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generally traveled from one location to another by train cuz I mean train was the way to travel yeah um and it carried
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the entire operation the train uh performers tents animals attractions it all came on the same thing I saw Water
00:12:02
for Elephants there you go following the merger the company employed over more more than like a thousand people at that
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point yeah um and they all traveled with dozens of camels large cats Bears more than two dozen elephants and over 700
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horses and countless other animals those poor animals think about it two dozen elephants when elephants are in like
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short supply right now yeah and two dozen of them were just working for the circus and just like stuffed into train
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cars like they're [ __ ] elephants and bears and like big cats it's like like lions all these animals are like
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endangered now yeah and you wonder why yeah now throughout the economic turmoil of the first half of the 20th century
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you know traveling circuses and Ringling Brothers in particular became really important opportunities for short and
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long-term employment like they offered a lot of opportunities for work and especially those who were desperate just
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to do any kind of work they could take it in fact by the early 1940s their power and influence was so crazy that
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President Roosevelt recognizing the relief from wartime tensions that the circus could provide for the American
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public granted them special rail privileges the President W that's crazy I didn't know that yeah well others were
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restricted due to military activities so like they got this special privilege to
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go on the rail like just to get to these places cuz he recognized listen everybody needs a distraction like we
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all need to be entertained by something yeah I mean yeah yeah now despite their power and influence or maybe because of
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it Ringling Brothers and barnab and Bailey were often targets of criticism uh for a number of issues that included
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you know their frequently inhumane treatment of animals which is just proven [ __ ] um there was exploitation
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of workers there was a lot of lack safety protocols I'm sure and while there are always going to be you know
00:14:02
some amount of risk especially around such a large scale operation like this um particularly one with u unpredictable
00:14:10
wild animals you know other issues like fire safety was something that like management should have had better
00:14:16
control over absolutely like you know you're going to have risk you have performers that are doing very you know
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very dangerous things that you can't necessarily control you performers tossing fire into the sky yeah and it's
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like and wild animals you can't control wild animals you can try to and you can do it for a little bit of time but
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you're never really in control no but it when it comes to the safety issues you know like they should have been able to
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control some of these they should have put better stuff in place definitely and circus fires were actually a common
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Occurrence at Ringling Brothers and others like circus fires happened a lot um and like there's like a there's a
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very common and well-known joke that when you say have you heard of the circus fire and somebody says it was
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intense what and you say it was intense and it's supposed to be that double little it was intense but also it was
00:15:06
in I love that joke but after reading this now I feel icky about that joke yeah that's fair you know that's one of
00:15:13
my favorite little like oh I have a funny little joke for you have you heard about the circus fire and I'm like I
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have heard about the circus fire and it's very sad that's the thing I think a lot of people telling that joke hadn't
00:15:23
heard about the circus fire it's true and now there's a lot of circus fires when you look into it it happened a lot
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but in 19 40 for example a fire at the Clyde batty circus uh stop in Rochester Indiana resulted in the death of a
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majority of the circuses animals oh including and this just this will destroy you no six Lions no six Lions
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died in a circus fire oh that's horrible and like I'm not saying like that you know one loss of life is worth more than
00:15:56
the other I'm not saying no humans died but like the this one in particular the the animals were the ones who died there
00:16:02
was no human deaths but six Lions two leopards 15 Antelope and 100 monkeys oh all died in that fire when the fire
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broke out in the animal pens oh my God like that's a lot that's that's horrific that's oh my God that makes me want to
00:16:24
cry and again so many of these animals are [ __ ] in dangered they're going instinct and it's like what the [ __ ] six
00:16:31
lions and you said more than 100 monkeys more at least 100 monkeys oh and a similar tragedy occurred during a 1942
00:16:40
Ringling Brothers show in Cleveland Ohio and that resulted in the death of dozens
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of animals and an estimated $125,000 in damage damn that was in 1942 right now because of the frequency and
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cost of circus fires accidental and otherwise yeah one would assume circus managers would uh be a little more
00:17:02
Vigilant when it came to fire safety maybe but the problem just kept on going through the decades with honestly very
00:17:10
little attention paid to it CU they just figured they could just get more animals
00:17:14
just keep going yeah we're just letting animals burned it death that's not a big
00:17:17
deal no big deal and then tragedy struck in 1944 that's wild and this demonstrated how truly [ __ ]
00:17:24
hellacious the cost of LAX fire safety could be in these environments so from the moment the
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Ringling Brothers in Barnum and Bailey arrived in Hartford Connecticut on July 5th
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1944 things were off there was a VI there's something like a lot of these things theaters circuses car like these
00:17:45
kind of production Productions there's a lot of superstition involved in it that
00:17:50
is very fascinating when you look into it they their superstitions and their like traditions and stuff very
00:17:57
fascinating I love that ever been involved in like a theater company or anything like that you know that there's
00:18:02
a lot and they're very very serious about it we should cover some more of those we should that' be fun to look
00:18:07
into yeah that would be an interesting one but and this is one of those situations that you sit there and you go
00:18:12
well [ __ ] like because things were going wrong and that morning a late start out
00:18:18
of Providence caused them to miss their first performance of the day they call that a sign where I'm from well that's
00:18:24
something that superstitious members of the crew said that's bad luck the fact that we loost we didn't get that first
00:18:29
performance that's bad luck wow I mean I believe it yeah and once they arrived the crew worked very quickly to get
00:18:36
everything set up including the circus's big top which was a 200x 450 ft tent with 15t High canvas walls you see me me
00:18:46
and mine we want you to work as slow as you need to as methodically as you need to to get that massive of a [ __ ]
00:18:54
thing up in the air that is going to be responsible for holding um many women and children and elderly people and
00:19:01
animal animals fire throwers like all that kind of thing take as much time as you need but they worked quickly CU they
00:19:08
had a late start yep and when it was fully assembled the big top stood 40 feet 48 feet tall damn and included the
00:19:16
three W rings for the performers two stages a large Hippodrome and multiple big seating areas like big
00:19:25
um like balcony bleacher kind of things um and that July it was super super hot it like now retweet yeah and so the
00:19:35
freshly cut grass hay and wood shavings where the tent was going to be raised upon super dry very dry and so what they
00:19:43
were doing though they were thinking of this but they ended up being LAX about it they it was requiring like many
00:19:50
soakings with a hose like they would just keep soaking this to make sure and it was mainly one because you don't want
00:19:56
that tall to dry up but two was making a lot of dust and debris kind of go in the
00:20:00
air when it dried up oh and that's terrible for what you're to be do for anyone to be breathing so they would
00:20:06
soak it to try to keep it dry or keep it wet um so with everything in place the management was able to get the gates
00:20:13
open for the evening show and the next day and that one went okay and the actually the next day the papers
00:20:19
announced that audiences found that show to be bigger better and smarter than ever wow and in addition to the usual
00:20:26
you know menagerie of animals the also um had something called the cloud ballet which sounds beautiful um it's a
00:20:34
Highwire spectacle and it included dozens of girls on swings and trapezes engaged in aerial acrobatics think of
00:20:41
that like in the 1940s that's in that kind of thing fascinating totally I'll watch people do that kind of stuff I
00:20:47
don't want to see the animals like Cirus solle kind of yeah like those kind of things M we were talking about this
00:20:53
earlier there's something called cir berserk I think it's called I've never seen it mm-m I've seen little like clips
00:21:00
of it I don't even know if it's still happening but [ __ ] I want to go to cir berserk wait am I [ __ ] nuts or was
00:21:08
Bridget in cir berserk was she wasn't that an episode of girls next door I know she was in um one of the Cirus
00:21:17
things but maybe she W like I'm maybe I'm forting but I need to know if cir berserk is still around okay so Bridget
00:21:25
trained with cir Dole cuz I I think she was in the particular one that was like o and it had like water in it it's like
00:21:32
Cirus o um yeah cuz they have like different versions of circus I think you're right like they love and stuff so
00:21:41
we looked up some [ __ ] it's it's surprisingly harder to confirm all this than we thought but yeah
00:21:47
truly but somebody called Dave I don't know Dave help um but there is something called cir B berserk and it's the one
00:21:55
with a z that we're it's got like um it's got like burles kind of things going on it's very it's like spooky
00:22:02
Carnival Vibes yeah and that looks cool and I kind of want to see it there's also something I just saw called
00:22:08
paranormal circus or paranormal Circ and it looks really cool too it's spooky I love haunted Carnival Vibes like we
00:22:18
still have to go to that um remember it's like that like um abandoned Fairgrounds you covered it
00:22:24
like in when we were in the laundry room yes I want to go we do need to go to there we do an S um the
00:22:33
uh it popped into my head and then left me too yeah shie whoa it was like I was like it's coming
00:22:43
it's coming it's coming you got that was incredible I wasn't looking at anything
00:22:49
you can ask literally just touching my Che was touching her tle with her eyes closed and going like I was like it's
00:22:56
there it's there it's there all right continue with this is giving old school morbid and I'm
00:23:00
loving this is which every once in a while that is just uh but yeah so sounds like this was awesome the cloud ballet
00:23:09
so cool Highwire spectacle dozens of girls swings trapezes you know aerial acrobatics so cool and Victoria rietta
00:23:18
and Frank who hold a giant swing from their teeth while a young woman does assorted turns in midair can you say
00:23:25
that one more time Victoria rietta and Frank who hold a giant swing from their teeth from their teeth you guys while a
00:23:31
young woman does assorted turns in midair from their teeth from their teeth I try to hold my keys in my teeth which
00:23:38
is gross and you shouldn't do that and that is hard still hard weird but the positive reviews in the morning papers
00:23:44
on July 6th was going to ensure that the next performance was going to be packed
00:23:50
full big old crowd uh and that next performance was scheduled to begin at 2:00 p.m. that day so that day was what
00:23:57
they described at the time as perfect weather for a day out to me it sounds horrific it's nearly 90° in Sunny
00:24:04
without a cloud in the sky [ __ ] a whole bunch of that unless I'm like near a body of water I'm I don't even want that
00:24:11
I'm inside with the AC fair enough all the shades pulled too sunny sweatshir hate it uh but that you know there
00:24:19
wasn't a lot going on so of course they're going to go out if it's 90 I feel like you need a cloud in the sky I
00:24:24
need clouds uh but the grounds had been watered earlier that morning so they were keeping up with that but by the
00:24:31
time the audiences started arriving at the gate around 1 p.m. they had dried already yeah and then the person
00:24:37
responsible for keeping them wet was distracted by how many people were coming in okay so they weren't getting
00:24:42
it done that's not great no and it being you know the War years at the time a significant number of American men were
00:24:50
sent to Europe and the uh in the Pacific so that's why the audience was mainly comprised of mostly women children and
00:24:59
elderly people cuz like a lot of men were overseas sure um so despite the sweltering heat inside the tent
00:25:06
thousands of people showed up and just waited patiently in their seats for 2 p.m. when the show would finally begin
00:25:12
oh man that sounds horrible now the show began as it always did um with Merl evans's Big Show band performing the
00:25:18
opening number which was the Star Spangled Banner let's go um and that's as ring Master Fred bradna led a parade
00:25:24
of horses ele elephants and other performers into the ring to to welcome all the guests cool I guess it's
00:25:30
everything you think of for a circus you know the ring Master coming in with all
00:25:33
the animals yeah and once everyone was seated the opening act started with dozens of show girls dressed in flashy
00:25:40
military costumes performing a lion taming act uh the opening act led into other animal shows including big cats
00:25:48
Great Danes and even polar bears the [ __ ] polar bears in 90° heat a those poor babies that's [ __ ] up that's [ __ ]
00:25:59
course it is and also [ __ ] polar bears polar bears will [ __ ] you you think a lion is scary a polar bear is
00:26:06
going to [ __ ] your [ __ ] up just for fun aren't they just for [ __ ] give a [ __ ]
00:26:10
they're also [ __ ] massive aren't they massive yeah they are huge I don't need to see a polar bear in person I don't
00:26:17
need I don't need to I don't want to I don't request to n so as the animals and their trainers slowly exited the ring
00:26:24
through a very special like um tunnel that they used to get the animals uh the fly you guys might recognize
00:26:32
people listening might recognize this name the flying wendes maybe it's a very you might just recognize it because
00:26:38
they're a very well well-known act they're family okay who's been doing it for decades and decades and decades like
00:26:46
they're just they're the ACT um they started getting into position they were up next they were one of the circus's
00:26:53
most popular acts and remained that way forever uh they were an acrobatic family
00:26:58
they were known very much for their Highwire act that performed without a net oh so the flying W lendas were like
00:27:05
a huge draw for the Ringling Circus like huge uh so a little past 2:30 p.m. just
00:27:12
as the wendes were about to begin their act um Usher Ken gwel noticed a small fire on one of the tent wall panels on
00:27:21
the southern side no again this was common and they could put out small fires the reason that fires happen so
00:27:29
often were also because men would go in there and smoke cigars and cigarettes oh
00:27:34
and women would smoke cigarettes too but mostly at that time it was men smoking cigars sure and they would toss them so
00:27:40
if it was dry then they're going up it's a canvas like this is essentially kindling on the ground literally um so
00:27:47
this was just behind a row of audience members seated in the bleachers and from what he could tell the fire was about 5T
00:27:53
up on the panel and hadn't reached the ground yet uh so G ran to get the other ushers and the three of them grabbed the
00:28:01
water buckets like special water buckets for fires and started to dose the Flames
00:28:07
but that didn't work oh [ __ ] and so Usher Mike de di adrio attempted to pull the panel down cuz that was part of the
00:28:15
protocol you pull that panel down and you step on it you stomp it up okay um and in the seconds it took the men to
00:28:21
reach the wall the fire had doubled in size and was now climbing up the panel oh my God they realized that the fire
00:28:27
buckets or were not going to work so when they tried to pull the panel off it was um secured too tightly to the roof
00:28:34
panels and they couldn't pull it away oh no normally they could but they had done
00:28:38
it tooo too tight and so they realized that the fire buckets weren't going to be enough to stop this and they began
00:28:44
the process of escorting people out of the tent okay for most of its existence wringling Brothers safety protocol for
00:28:52
fire was pretty simple like I was just explaining ushers were tasks tasked with monitoring the big top for any signs of
00:28:59
smoke or fire um you know which would be like a dropped cigarette or a dropped cigar and when one was spotted one or
00:29:06
more of the ushers would grab the red and silver fire safety buckets from under the front row of seats and
00:29:11
extinguish the flames in the event that they couldn't do that with just the water and the buckets the panels or pan
00:29:18
the panel or panels would be pulled down or cut down and then they would be smothered on the
00:29:24
ground which you know if it if that thing was able to as we see if it's able to spread to the top of the tent that's
00:29:32
when catastrophe strikes so you have to get it before it goes there that's a that's leaving a lot to chance yes cuz
00:29:38
also fire moves so rapidly and so unpredictably oh wait until you hear what this big tent was covered in oh no
00:29:45
for weatherproofing oh no so in the event that the fire couldn't be brought under control through either of those
00:29:50
two things either with the buckets of water or by cutting the panel down yeah two ushers um or excuse me any of the
00:29:56
ushers that they could find would Evacuate the tent and the local fire department would be called emergency
00:30:02
responders and they would take care of it now as the largest circus show in the country ringling's Big Top tent was
00:30:09
[ __ ] huge uh it was 100,000 square fet in size the size of a large Warehouse holy [ __ ] was huge yeah the
00:30:17
massive size was intended to house multiple shows at one time so it was by design that individuals on one side of
00:30:24
the tent wouldn't or couldn't easily see or hear what was happening on the other
00:30:28
side of the tent at first audience members slowly started to become aware of the fire starting with those in the
00:30:35
upper bleachers of the southwest side of the tent but some people who had noticed
00:30:39
the fire started moving towards the exit on their own While others needed to kind
00:30:44
of be like prompted by ushers like we got to go yeah but they didn't want to start Panic either they thought they
00:30:49
could contain this um but others thought the fire was part of the act and so they
00:30:54
remained seated and they assumed the fire would just be extinguished and it would just keep going as I mean you can
00:31:00
understand why people thought that like it's unpredictable yeah while the ushers
00:31:04
worked quietly to evacuate the audience on the southwest side one of the men notified the band leader Merl Evans and
00:31:12
he was instructed to play Stars and Stripes Forever which is the circus's so-called disaster March oh now the
00:31:21
disaster March was something that signaled all circus staff and performers that there was a catastrophic emergency
00:31:27
happening oh fantastic in the circus and other parts of the theater industry this
00:31:32
is very normal that song was universally recognized signal of an emergency that could be used without starting a panic
00:31:39
among the audience in a tight space and so confusion desperation Panic is not good to have no because running a muuk
00:31:48
and you want everyone to be signaled very subtly getting everyone upset everyone
00:31:54
that works there so that they can all jump into action without getting everybody freaked out right um I'm going
00:32:00
to need to play you a quick little piece of this because imagining this playing as what
00:32:09
happened like the the tent is literally burning down around you or starting to her you know is really horrifying so
00:32:17
this is what the disaster March [Music] was no yeah [Music] and the walls are just burning down
00:32:37
around you as like fire is starting to consume and people are like running out of the tent and this is having to be
00:32:43
played to like not panic everybody I'm like I'm panicked I'm panicked but also you can understand why people thought
00:32:49
that it was part of the performance because they're still playing the [ __ ] circus music and it feels very
00:32:54
circusy very like Entertainer very like you know everything's happy everything's
00:32:59
fine which again is the intent right and when you have the situation under some semblance of control yeah it makes sense
00:33:07
it's it makes perfect sense to have a disaster March where you alert the people who need to be alerted without
00:33:13
making everyone else panic but [ __ ] but in when you look at it in hindsight how
00:33:19
terrifying that cuz as we know like I always say it that kind of music music playing
00:33:26
during some kind of horri event that's not at all like um scary dark or scary feels so much scarier to me like upbeat
00:33:37
music yeah like something like that is just so much scarier I hate it but either way um they were they started
00:33:44
playing this and at this point the fire was still contained to the west side and
00:33:49
the rest of the audience hadn't become aware of it yet so there was still the possibility for an orderly evacuation
00:33:55
which is why they started playing that okay uh but as the band began playing the song and the emergency call began to
00:34:01
register with the performers inside the tent it was already too late years later
00:34:07
members of the Wenda family recalled hearing the song being played and scanning the tent from their position
00:34:13
because they were high above the crowd waiting to do their act oh God and they said that's when their eyes landed on
00:34:19
the fire on the west side and that was just as it had reached the decorative Fringe on the outer edge of the canvas
00:34:25
roof um and this was an all weather performance space rain or shine so the canvas roof and other parts of the Big
00:34:33
Top were waterproofed using a mix of gasoline and paraffin wax I'm sorry what I thought you said
00:34:42
was gasoline yep you heard that right and paraffin wax two highly flammable substances I don't have
00:34:55
words yeah also I paraffin wax I'm pretty sure that's like what they put on your heels during a pedicure to like rip
00:35:01
your dead ass skin off so like it's weatherproofing apparently that's some crazy [ __ ] weatherproofed big
00:35:06
tops what yep gasoline and wax yep why just get a waterproof tent it gets so much worse
00:35:19
too with that wax cuz I don't know if anybody's uh anticipating what's going to happen with
00:35:25
that I sure am but when the fire reached the fr on the roof it ignited a literal
00:35:30
flash like the wendes said they literally saw it explode like it just poof and they said it filled the tent
00:35:36
with toxic smoke sent the audience into a panic and then everyone went crazy Bonkers for the exits now while the most
00:35:45
obvious danger in situations like this is the fire there are additional factors that pose um a nearly equal threat here
00:35:53
trampling not the least of which are the live animals that are typically present
00:35:58
in the tent in a fire uh a frightened lion or tiger can make this a lot worse yeah uh
00:36:07
fortunately when this fire broke out the one fortunate thing May kovar who had just finished her lion act had seen the
00:36:14
fire early and managed to get the cats and all the other animals out of the tent early through that tunnel
00:36:21
underneath the audience that housed the animals so she was able to like corral them all out wow that's good people on
00:36:28
the other hand were much less fortunate not long after the roof CAU fire this this will give you chills not long after
00:36:36
the roof CAU fire the generator blew so it cut the power and plunged the entire tent Into
00:36:43
Darkness what the [ __ ] so the generator cut out and they went into complete darkness in that tent with chaos and
00:36:50
just Flames [ __ ] everywhere the only thing that's going to light the way is Flames oh my God now ring master Fred
00:36:57
bradna tried desperately to calm the crowd and try to get them orderly out of the tent and was encouraging them please
00:37:03
move towards the exit in a quick and orderly fashion so we don't hurt people but the power went out so then he
00:37:10
couldn't be heard over the screams of the crowd cuz the power's out so he's trying to scream it to everyone but
00:37:15
everyone screaming oh my God to make matters worse and this is the part that I was like holy [ __ ] as the paraffin wax
00:37:24
on the ceiling canvas heated it's burning people as the increasingly desperate crowd of mostly women and
00:37:31
children are rushing around towards the exits large droplets of lethal molten paraffin wax started falling on the
00:37:40
[ __ ] audience below oh my God so they are now being pelted with lethal molten like literal lava wax is falling on them
00:37:53
they it caused catastrophic Burns only incre the Panic cuz now they're being rained on by essentially lava oh
00:38:02
my God oh my God in the those who were familiar with the interior of the Big Top quickly made
00:38:10
their way to the performer exits because the performers knew where those were yeah and managed to get out of the tent
00:38:16
but the audience knew only of the main ex exit and entrance which quickly became completely clogged up and people
00:38:24
just kept pushing people were getting stampeded like it was awful and among the last performers to exit the tent
00:38:31
were the wendes who climbed the ropes down to the ground and headed towards the animal exit that may kovar had
00:38:37
ushered the cats through moments earlier and Herman Wenda told a reporter but people were so crowded in there that we
00:38:44
saw we didn't have a chance we climbed over the cage that lines the exit that was easy for us we're performers but the
00:38:50
public couldn't get out that way right because they just jumped up on a like they're used to flipping around
00:38:55
everywhere like they can climb on things it's in fact when the fire was finally extinguished and firefighters were able
00:39:02
to access the site many of the Dead were discovered piled up near inaccessible exits like the ones that the W is tried
00:39:10
to go through oh my God just to think of people like you said mostly women and children and elderly people just piled
00:39:18
on top of one another covered in [ __ ] parin wax yeah now those who were higher up on the
00:39:27
bleachers managed to honestly far A little better than those closer to the ground who got caught in the Stampede of
00:39:34
people uh Dorothy Carvey who was in attendance with her young son said I was up as high as the fire and it was coming
00:39:40
in my direction I got down to around the fourth row and I fell and everyone stepped on us oh my God she said a
00:39:47
circus attendant kept yelling watch out for the kid watch out for the kid he finally pushed all and I'm like this
00:39:53
circus attendant was amazing he finally pushed all the adults off then he grabbed my son and I held on to his
00:39:59
waistband oh now Carvey was among the lucky audience members on the opposite side of the tent from where the animal
00:40:06
shoot was located because that ultimately just ended up acting like a large steel barrier in front of several
00:40:12
of the exits oh now Moren C I think it's cian was 11 years old at the time and was attending the circus by herself for
00:40:21
the first time an 11-year-old oh my God that just made by in this situation I'm not kidding you that just made my
00:40:27
stomach flip she said I remember somebody yelling and seeing a big ball of fire near the top of the tent and
00:40:32
this ball of fire just got bigger and bigger and bigger and like many of those who made it out relatively unharmed she
00:40:39
jumped down from the grandstands and was able to get out over most of the obstructions and in the confusion she
00:40:45
was able to make her way to an exit and she said there was a young man a kid and
00:40:50
he had a pocket knife he slit the tent took my arm and pulled me out wow yeah so there are
00:40:58
there many heroes in here now some workers and performers heard Stars and Stripes Forever and came running While
00:41:04
others only smelled the smoke and followed it back to its origin regardless of what made them come
00:41:09
running when they finally reached the tent and this was like people outside of the cuz that was the other thing that's
00:41:14
Stars and Stripes Forever is for the entire Carnival that's going on around like all those people could hear it and
00:41:20
were like [ __ ] and went running towards there yeah but when they finally reached
00:41:24
the tent none of them were prepared for what they saw um a clown a well a well-known clown
00:41:30
named Felix Adler said I thought the managerie fire in Cleveland was the worst thing I could ever see but no one
00:41:36
in the circus business had ever seen anything like this wow now outside the tent the crew and bystanders watched an
00:41:42
absolute horror as audience members crawled out from under the tent walls attempted to break through the canvas
00:41:49
and toxic smoke is just pouring out of every crack in this tent and you're just hearing people [ __ ] screaming oh and
00:41:57
it even gets it's even worse now according to John Davis who was a writer for the heart Hartford current um he
00:42:03
said circus men were forced to restrain parents from da dashing back into the fire to search for missing children oh
00:42:10
no no no no no no no yeah that's [ __ ] terrible cuz they were just trying to save whoever they could now meanwhile
00:42:16
other circus workers and performers gathered around the edges of the Flaming tent to try to usher and in some cases
00:42:23
pull people out of the tent until they were eventually forced back because of the Heat and the smoke they just
00:42:29
couldn't stand it anymore yeah now within a few minutes of the roof catching the Fire had burned through
00:42:34
much of the wax and the gasoline soaked canvas and had made it its way to the ropes that held the support beams stop
00:42:42
it once the ropes caught it was only a matter of seconds before the entire Big Top collapsed on top of those remaining
00:42:48
inside and as one reporter put it quote the shrieks of the dying and injured were muffled
00:42:58
that's so dark and chilly it is haunting haunting now it's unknown how many people exactly were there that day but
00:43:11
most agree the number was nearly 7,000 people holy [ __ ] by 2:50 p.m. the fire had consumed the entire tent and burned
00:43:21
itself out and left a pile of smoldering Rubble behind and they said started at 2
00:43:26
right and that the the show started at two that's what I mean it took less than 10 minutes to burn the entire thing to
00:43:33
the ground oh my God that's how fast this happened oh my God so the initial count of the dead at this point was
00:43:42
estimated at 136 people but the total was expected to rise as hospitals all over Connecticut were just flooded with
00:43:49
people injured by this fire and by most accounts those who managed to escape the
00:43:54
fire relatively unharmed had been in the upper tier of the bleachers and were able to jump or climb over the metal
00:44:01
cages and you know other obstacles that blocked a lot of the exits so you were in better shape if you were up there
00:44:06
which is crazy cuz you wouldn't think so and like I said the piles of the Dead were found really huddled around those
00:44:12
blocked exits or had been crushed by stampeding crowds rushing the exits according to the Press quote many
00:44:20
escaped through the heroism of circus performers and refreshment vendors we either LED them to the nearest of 10
00:44:26
exits or through lifted sidewalls and other did their part to mitigate the disaster by Leading the animals away
00:44:32
from the fire to avoid further tragedy yeah because again you can't have a lion running in the middle of this crowd like
00:44:39
that's that could have been even worse that's the thing that I think that's one of the only things that is good yeah cuz
00:44:46
by so by midnight 51 victims had been identified wow but at least 85 remained unidentified at the time um because
00:44:54
there was extensive Burns that left a lot of people completely unrecognizable and imagine knowing like your loved one
00:45:00
or your your kid went to the circus that day and now you have to go see if you can recognize them and unable to
00:45:07
accommodate that many bodies the coroner was like we can't house this many people
00:45:12
like I don't have this so they had to establish a temporary morg at the State Armory in Downtown Hartford wow just
00:45:19
steps away from the capital wow um inside the bodies were all arranged on tables along the wall children on one
00:45:26
side ads on the other oh my God that must have been to have to I can't even imagine to have to clean up that scene
00:45:34
and like collect all those bodies and and go through them children like so many children attending the circus they
00:45:41
came to the circus like that's what that's I'm like for a kid that's like the most innocent and and so exciting
00:45:49
and they were so excited I'm sure it's the it's the greatest show on Earth like not so excited and a lot of these are
00:45:56
like kids whose dads are away at War too and it's like and the mom is just trying
00:46:01
to take them out for a day to like for a distraction distract and it's like now these who knows how many fathers heard
00:46:08
that their kid died in the circus fire or their wife or their oh my God their Lov ones yeah so inside like I said it
00:46:18
was children on one side adults on the other and then the days that followed this a steady stream of people would be
00:46:24
admitted a few at a time people people just hoping or not hoping to see their loved ones there and you're just looking
00:46:30
across a sea of bodies and trying to identify your loved one how do you ever recover like I can't the PTSD people
00:46:40
must have suffered oh it must have been unbelievable yeah unbelievable meanwhile
00:46:44
local police were overwhelmed by reports of missing children and adults who were
00:46:49
supposed to be in attendance that day and by late that evening at least 113 mothers and children had been reported
00:46:55
missing and police had found at least 20 unaccompanied children wandering the circus grounds in search of their
00:47:02
parents oh my God at the same time a surprising number of adults arrived at local police pre precincts through the
00:47:10
evening to report that they had found frightened unaccompanied children on the grounds and taken them home to get them
00:47:17
away from the chaos but they were bringing them now to be like I didn't kidnap this child I just couldn't leave
00:47:22
them I need to help this chaos oh my God but by the evening time they had still not figured out how to find these
00:47:28
parents tragedy isn't even the word no it's really not while countless state workers and volunte volunteers tried to
00:47:34
deal with identifying the dead state and local authorities started investigating
00:47:39
what the [ __ ] caused this fire to begin with in a statement to the Press Ringling Brothers publicity agent Roland
00:47:45
Butler told reporters he believed the fire was caused by defective wiring resulting in a short circuit in the
00:47:51
men's room near the main entrance oh Butler added that in addition to the human cost the human loss of life the
00:47:57
fire also resulted in more than $100,000 in property damage and the circus would
00:48:02
be canceling the remainder of the season and returning to their headquarters in Florida I mean I can't imagine anybody
00:48:08
wanting to go to the circus after that must have go on at that point like now despite Butler's Claim about faulty
00:48:15
wiring there were other theories about the origin of the fire according to Ken gwel the Usher who first attempted to
00:48:22
put out the fire he said the blaze originated from a cigarette thrown against the sidewall by of the tent by a
00:48:27
man using the men's toilet now three Hartford detectives who were also in attendance at the circus that day [ __ ]
00:48:36
and they had tried to help D the Flames they agreed that the fire appeared to be
00:48:40
to have been caused by a dropped cigarette in the men's room I wonder if they just didn't want people like
00:48:45
hunting down this guy and that's why they were like faulty wiring faulty wiring now as police officials continued
00:48:51
to investigate what caused the fire Das bur Leen issued a warrants for warrants for arrest of four circus officials and
00:48:59
Hartford police arrested ja a Haley who was the Vice President John Bryce who was the circus chief of police that's a
00:49:09
real thing wait what the circus chief of police I think they have their own like
00:49:14
thing oh to keep order like I couldn't find exactly what it was but he was literally listed as the circus chief of
00:49:20
police but like did the police see them as the police no I don't think it's the I don't think it's the same thing I I
00:49:26
shouldn't say know but I don't I think it's like its own thing okay interesting yeah George Smith who was the general
00:49:32
manager and Leonard alsworth who was the boss canvas man quote unquote I would not want to be the boss canvas man that
00:49:39
day all four men were charged with manslaughter and held on $155,000 bail with uh lyen announcing that he expected
00:49:47
other arrests to be forthcoming now within a few hours I witness accounts started circulating and the public
00:49:53
started to learn the extent of the horror and tragedy that occurred on those Fairgrounds Army private B Bob
00:49:59
Ensworth wrote the most amazing sight as I stood in the backyard was the fact that 17 tons of Big Top canvas went up
00:50:06
in smoke like a piece of Cellophane in less than 10 minutes just standing in your backyard 17 tons now according to
00:50:14
nworth he said many of the circus performers were burned considerably about the hands and arms as they rushed
00:50:20
pastons to safety children were tossed from Top bro bleachers down 15 ft to workmen outside the Blazing
00:50:27
God they're catching children being thrown to them as their hands and arms are burning he said it was early evening
00:50:33
before stage workers stopped to have their Burns and wounds treated and at that point they're probably not even
00:50:39
like when it was all happening they probably don't even realize their hands are burning because of adrenaline but
00:50:44
they're just trying to save kids like just trying to get people out Bob nworth comments about the courageous circus
00:50:50
performers not withstanding many residents did turn their anger towards towards the circus sure
00:50:57
uh they blamed wringling Brothers for the tragedy which like how can you not one performer asked a reporter why is
00:51:04
the town saying that the circus is to blame for what happened don't they know how we feel about this don't they know
00:51:09
how awful it was to see those children knocked down and trampled on by men Yes Men which that's also the same kind of
00:51:16
like you know it was a tragedy all around yeah many pointed to the heroic acts of well-known clown emit EMT Kelly
00:51:24
who led dozens of children to safety from the tent wow he said I got all the kids out that tried to run towards the
00:51:30
exit where the blaze was when the arena was clear I saw that the fire had reached the point where the gasoline
00:51:36
engines were close to the Flames so I grabbed my buckets again and did what I could to soak the canvas I did what I
00:51:42
could it wasn't much no it was a lot you you rescued a bunch of kids they were rescued by a clowns like that's like
00:51:49
what a [ __ ] like I can't IM these kids the memories and like just like the things that's are going to stay with
00:51:58
them the visuals and the feelings and the like flashbacks and hearing us like imagine hearing that song oh my God I
00:52:04
can't that must trigger something just dark inside of you prob send you right back to that moment so viewing of the
00:52:11
bodies resumed at the Armory the following day and by midnight all but 15 bodies had been identified and claimed W
00:52:19
uh the unidentified that still remained were moved to a facility with better refrigeration and by the end of the
00:52:25
weekend all but six had been identified that's incredible among those still remaining was a little girl that the
00:52:31
Press dubbed Little Miss number 1565 oh God which was a reference to her identification number assigned by the
00:52:38
coroner that's horrific um of all the victims this little Miss number 1565 really stood out and really stood out to
00:52:47
a particular detective detective Edward low said I remember when the little girl
00:52:51
was brought into the State Armory at about 3:00 in the morning after the fire she was practically marked a beautiful
00:52:57
little girl with honey colored hair she was put with those we believed would both be most readily identified and day
00:53:04
after day night after night people passed her by and given that so many victims had been burned beyond
00:53:11
recognition investigators assumed that this girl would be quickly identified as her by her family but she wasn't is it
00:53:19
possible that her family died in the fire it's possible and there's there is a a little bit of a the conclusion that
00:53:26
so don't worry eventually detectives came to believe that the girl's family had actually mistakenly claimed another
00:53:32
child as their own oh in Little Miss number 1565 was eventually buried in Windsor cemetery and the moniker that
00:53:41
everyone had used for her was what she was buried under and ultimately six victims did remain unidentified wow now
00:53:50
the day after the fire an investigation into the tragedy was opened by the state
00:53:54
and led by State Police Commissioner Edward hickey who had been in the tent that day to see the show with his nieces
00:54:00
and nephews stop it in his statement to the Press State's Attorney James Kennedy
00:54:05
told reporters he has evidence that the circus failed to provide adequate firefighting equipment or sufficient
00:54:11
Personnel to operate it and that the 520t canvas tent itself was a dangerous fire hazard having been treated with
00:54:18
paraffin diluted with gasoline can you [ __ ] idea was that like I'm sorry but like you knew that that like sure that's
00:54:27
that's uh waterproofing it but uh it's literally making it the perfect the perfect spark for a fire yeah exactly so
00:54:36
hickey's investigation focused mostly on the six ushers who first noticed the fire and tried to extinguish the Flames
00:54:43
after hearing their version of events and visiting the site again with them hickey determined that they were telling
00:54:48
the truth um but he remained unable to determine whether the fire had in fact been caused by a cigarette there were
00:54:56
also two stories that concerned Ticky the first was from a food vendor who claimed that the fire could have been
00:55:02
prevented if the fire extinguish had extinguishers had actually worked and the second was regarding quote a drunken
00:55:09
circus employee seened by a concessionaire leaving the men's toilet as the fire started oh no so now they're
00:55:16
saying like it could have been this drunk circus employee that flicked a cigarette yikes these stories were
00:55:23
collected by Hartford DET detectives who had been actually sent this is how they
00:55:28
heard these and this is very interesting they had been sent to local taverns in the days after the fire to listen in on
00:55:34
conversations between circus employees I love it to try to get additional evidence I [ __ ] love I why I love
00:55:42
that I was like because it's spying and spying is fun it's so down and dirty detective 1940s kind of detective work
00:55:50
you know what I mean you see it in your head as like a movie like and you see the hats they're wearing and everything
00:55:55
listening to these conversations while drinking like a little you know Stout some whiskey yeah you know so alcohol
00:56:04
alcohol now by the end of the year the Fire Commission had completed its investigation as had the coroner's
00:56:10
office and both determined that several Ringling Brothers staff were quote guilty of such wanting or Reckless
00:56:16
conduct either of commission or of omission where there is a duty to act which makes them criminally liable for
00:56:22
the deaths yeah based on those findings investigators arrested James Haley the vice president and
00:56:28
director of the circus George Smith the general manager Leonard alsworth boss canvasman uh Edward ver the chief
00:56:37
electrician David blanchfield a superintendent of Rolling Stock William Kayley who was an usher and Samuel Clark
00:56:43
who was another Usher okay according to the coroner's report Kaylee and Clark the ushers quote left their places under
00:56:51
the bleachers when it was their duty to remain there and watch for fires that might occur the [ __ ] where were you
00:56:57
ultimately all but Samuel Clark were found guilty and went on to serve between 6 months and 7 years in prison
00:57:04
wow now nearly 5 years went by and the residents of Hartford had started to move on with their lives When The Circus
00:57:11
Fire case was revived because there was a new arrest in March 1950 police in Columbus Ohio received a tip about a
00:57:20
young man who claimed to have set the fire in Hartford set it yep and they arrested 21-year-old East St Louis
00:57:29
resident Robert sey uh-huh according to Ohio State Fire Marshall Harry Kalen sey
00:57:36
was quote being questioned about a series of fires in three States including the circus fire in Hartford
00:57:43
and also not only did sey have a history of setting arson fires but he also worked for the Ringling Brothers and was
00:57:50
traveling with the show when the fire occurred stop it now during his initial interview um he told reporter um
00:57:57
investigators that he had been working as a rust about which is like a casual laborer okay with wringling Brothers in
00:58:03
1944 he claimed that on the day of the fire and this is his quote this is what he said it's offensive he said the red
00:58:11
Indian awakened him and ordered him to set a fire what after that he claimed his mind
00:58:17
went blank and when he came to again the big top was already in flames and he was
00:58:21
burned in the fire it quickly became clear to investigators that he was me oh uh but he had nonetheless confessed
00:58:28
to a very serious crime so he was held for further questioning okay but Chief Charles lamanda told reporters we're
00:58:36
gone as far as we can with him psychiatrists will have to work him out now and I think we'll we'll get the
00:58:41
Hartford case cleared up now Robert sey continued talking to investigators and by July he' confessed to four
00:58:49
murders and also said that he committed that he had set more than 80 arson fires
00:58:54
holy [ __ ] including the Harford circus fire according to sey his quote career of crime started at the age of nine with
00:59:02
the murder of a 9-year-old girl in Portsmith New Hampshire but the Portsmith police official told reporters
00:59:10
that his confession to the murder of 9-year-old Barbara Driscoll he said looks fishy to me okay also at the time
00:59:17
of the murder police had a strong suspect but that suspect was later acquitted at that and the same official
00:59:24
admitted that sey was living near the victim at the time and it was possible he did commit that crime had a
00:59:30
9-year-old cover up murder for that long it's an awful crime I looked it up it's
00:59:36
awful she was a 9-year-old she was um assaulted and murdered and she was killed with a rock at a railroad track
00:59:45
and was found with a clump of her attacker's hair in her hand what the [ __ ] and it's like did he go home with a
00:59:52
compa hair missing that's what I'm I'm like I wish we could have figured that out oh and her name was Barbara dll
00:59:59
Barbara now while Ohio law enforcement officials had already begun claiming credit for capturing a serial killer and
01:00:06
the person responsible for the Hartford Fire CU he's a serial killer at this point he's three he's saying he murdered
01:00:12
four people and then also set these fires that killed other people hundreds and hundreds uh many like the Portsmith
01:00:18
Portsmith that's really hard to say Portsmith is hard to say Portsmith police officials remain skeptical of his
01:00:25
claims I the same right now yeah when he was questioned about sei's employment at
01:00:29
the time of the Mur of the fire a Ringling brother's SP spokesperson told reporters though they didn't have
01:00:35
employment records going back to that time he doubted very much that the circus would have hired a teenage boy
01:00:40
for the job I don't know about that I don't know about that in fact after sey claimed he was interviewed by police
01:00:46
following the fire Edward hickey reviewed the list of wringling Brothers um employees questioned at the time and
01:00:52
his name was not among them okay that doesn't mean he was an employee yeah he could just on another [ __ ] train yeah
01:00:58
that that just means he wasn't officially questioned on or in or on record despite their doubts at least 10
01:01:04
of the arson fires that sey claimed to have started were substantiated by the police oh giving his story at least a
01:01:11
little bit of credibility yeah also in investigative reports from the time and interviews with his parents they claim
01:01:17
he ran away to join the wringling Brothers Circus in 1944 stop so all these claims that he couldn't have been
01:01:23
he his parents agree that he he ran circus now in July 1950 Robert sey prepared and signed a written confession
01:01:33
in which he took a full responsibility for the Heartford fire according to the statement he regularly hallucinated the
01:01:40
spirit of a Native American man who encouraged him to set fires and commit acts of violence including the murder of
01:01:47
Barbara dll in Portsmith he also said that this included the murder of a 12-year-old boy
01:01:53
in Portland Maine and the murder of a boy in Japan while sey was in the military what the [ __ ] a few months
01:02:00
later after evaluating him psychiatrist Dr Roy bushong of Lima Hospital said that although he was quote essentially
01:02:08
neurotic and capable of committing serious crimes he was not inane in the legal sense of the term okay I think he
01:02:15
was just lying about hallucinating things so he's also racist cool so exactly so Robert sei's dubious
01:02:21
confession not withstanding because it's still a little like that's a lot the fact that he was deemed s meant that
01:02:27
investigators had no choice but to accept that confession to the Hartford Fire and the other murders so on
01:02:32
November 3rd 1950 he appeared before a judge in Ohio and he pleaded guilty to a variety of crimes ranging from AR arson
01:02:40
to murder yeah and he said I've never been in trouble before and I would like to ask the court to grant me leniency I
01:02:46
don't think so buddy off so after accepting sei's plea judge William Radcliffe sentenced him to two
01:02:54
consecutive terms of two to 20 years in prison that's not enough which was the maximum allowed under Ohio law at the
01:03:00
time when asked why he committed the crimes he responded when you got a bunch of Brothers who call you Dopey all your
01:03:06
life you'd understand a little bit actually I never had a happy day in my life so now list now he's saying people
01:03:12
were mean to me people call me dumb all the [ __ ] time people call me dumb Left Right Center above you're not going
01:03:19
to go do that and I'm not trying to set fires no [ __ ] that excuse people called
01:03:25
me okay and it's not even people my brothers my siblings called how many people in your life have called you dumb
01:03:31
before ready it's like that scene in Mean Girls raise your hand if you felt personally victimized by the people that
01:03:36
called you Dum by your siblings [ __ ] you I'm outraged by that excuse as you should be now years later Robert sey
01:03:45
actually recanted his confession and insisted he had not worked for Ringling Brothers and had nothing to do with the
01:03:51
fire I feel like it was just convenient though cuz at first I wasn't convinced but then when his parents said he ran
01:03:56
away yeah and like well he had never technically been charged with the Hartford Fire he had been charged for
01:04:02
the other things okay um so there were no consequences for his confession to that crime so though he remained in
01:04:09
prison on the Ohio arson charges for which he had been convicted until he was pered in 1959 he maintained his
01:04:16
innocence about it until he died in 1997 [ __ ] I was born yeah and also he served 9 years y that's it for those ARS
01:04:26
cuz that's what he was commit um convicted for Wow but he got two to 20 and he only served nine he was paroled
01:04:32
the [ __ ] you paroled that man yeah like what's going on Ohio honey Ohio so the
01:04:38
eagerness with which some investigators accepted Robert sei's confession isn't really difficult to understand like we
01:04:44
were saying sure they wanted somebody to in the wake of this kind of tragedy you
01:04:48
want someone to blame and if someone's willing to take the blame you want to believe it and if somebody who's willing
01:04:53
to take the blame has also committed multiple other arson people like I'm going to believe and he
01:04:57
offered a very convenient explanation that could potentially happen but the fact is whoever or whatever caused the
01:05:04
Hartford circus fire has never and honest I want to believe it can be fixed but they have never been identified I
01:05:11
believe there's always hope in these situations yeah in 1991 Hartford Fire Lieutenant Rick Davey told reporters he
01:05:17
had strong reason to believe the fire had been deliberately set in the men's room and was not an accident uh so
01:05:25
following his announcement the State Fire Marshall reopened the case and spent 2 years investigating the claim
01:05:31
but eventually concluded there wasn't enough evidence to support that assertion but there wasn't enough
01:05:36
evidence to not support it either damn so we're literally in a place of limbo of like it could have been uhhuh and the
01:05:43
Fire Marshall said we reviewed tons of old documents talked to survivors and spent four hours in Ohio interviewing
01:05:49
Robert sey but we gleaned no new information as to how the fire might have started wow now while the cause of the
01:05:56
fire was one more mystery that was remaining unsolved for the time being Rick Davy's investigation did unearth
01:06:03
some new information that likely solved at least one of the heart for Fire's Mysteries is it our girl like many
01:06:09
investigators at the time Rick Davies formed a kind of attachment with little Miss
01:06:16
1565 and became determined to identify her which I was really hoping someone would cuz I was like I'm going to be
01:06:23
determined now yeah um so he actually told a reporter in 1991 she became family to me she is in effect a
01:06:31
surrogate daughter I spent more time looking for her than when she was alive probably what a sweetheart and according
01:06:37
to Davey during his research he found a photograph among the evidence that appeared to depict a girl that bore a
01:06:42
striking resemblance to Little Miss 1565 and after tracking down the origin of the photo he learned that the girl's
01:06:50
name was Elanor cook Elanor cook and the photo had been obtained by the girl's Aunt Emily Gil who brought it with her
01:06:56
to Hartford when she was searching for her niece after the fire now Elanor C cook had attended the circus that day
01:07:04
with her mother Mildred and her younger brothers Edward and Donald oh when the fire broke out the family became
01:07:10
separated in the chaos and unfortunately Edward died in the fire and their mother
01:07:15
was burned over more than 90% of her body and was hospitalized for months and months so that's why nobody came nobody
01:07:22
came Davey believes Emily Gil came to to Hartford from her home in Southampton Massachusetts to search for her sister
01:07:30
and her nieces and nephews but left after a few days because she had never seen the body of Little Miss
01:07:36
1565 and it took considerable time but eventually Davey Tracked Down Donald's cook who was her brother stop it who
01:07:43
agreed the girl was certainly his sister and the two men were able to get the Connecticut State medical examiner to
01:07:50
legally declare body number 1565 to be Elanor cook and in 1991 one Donald and Mildred cook mother was able to bury
01:08:00
Eleanor in a nearby Cemetery in Southampton with a marked grave oh my God so now she's finally buried with her
01:08:06
name all that tragedy even though that's still so tragic at least she was able to
01:08:10
be like kind lead to actual arrest cuz I'm sure they just thought she's just gone yeah like I don't know where she is
01:08:18
oh and in the wake of the fire most people in Hartford honestly did their best to put the tragedy behind them and
01:08:24
kind of move forward but these things are very not easy to to move forward from the memory remained on
01:08:31
it was like an open wound oh yeah finally in 2004 victims and family members received some closure cuz the
01:08:39
city unveiled a memorial to the victims on the 60th anniversary of the fire it took 60 years a lot of time the memorial
01:08:46
which shows a basic design of the layout of the Big Top lists the names of all those lost in the tragedy and provides a
01:08:52
brief description of the event ensuring neither the fire nor the 167 in the end lives that were
01:08:59
lost will not be forgotten anytime soon wow but that is the story of the Hartford circus fire and it
01:09:07
was one of the most haunting things I've ever read I believe I mean it's one of the most haunting things I've ever heard
01:09:13
Dave was saying that too he was like this one is like chilling cuz it's just layer upon layer of traumatic tragedy
01:09:21
it's fascinating at times because it's like things like the paraffin waack and gasoline to weatherproof are things that
01:09:27
you don't see now so they're things that are just fascinating to like hear that they did you know like that's why these
01:09:35
like older cases are so fascinating to me because these things that you're just like what did they do you know like what
01:09:40
the [ __ ] it's just mindboggling and then you hear the like you know the good updates like when you know people are
01:09:46
able to identify Little Miss 1565 like Elanor cook it's like at least those things come out of it like decades later
01:09:54
and just from like people who are so determined and like just like Angels yeah and hearing like the clowns that
01:10:01
help children get out of there and oh it just like breaks my heart yeah cuz it also is really sad like the people who
01:10:08
ran that circus obviously a lot of them were convicted and did need to face consequences for being but some of those
01:10:15
workers that weren't owning the place you know I mean like the Clowns the performers the people who like helped
01:10:21
yeah they all lost their jobs too they all lost their livelihoods they loss what you know you're obviously
01:10:27
passionate about that if that's what you're doing for your work but then it's like also do you lose that passion
01:10:32
afterwards thing like did they lose any of the the love that they had for that I
01:10:37
have to assume like a portion of them weren't able to perform again I feel like being especially clowns like when
01:10:43
you really look into what it takes to become a professional clown it's not like you just like throw you know pain
01:10:49
pain on your face and go like it's a legit thing you have to really learn about it and you have to like working
01:10:55
with kids and you can't scare them so it's like and that's inherently a scary thing and there's like a whole
01:11:00
psychology behind like the face paint and everything so to know that these people probably dedicated so much of
01:11:04
their lives to this kind of thing and then this happens yeah and to like have to deal with that later what a case
01:11:11
Elena yeah elener I know it's an early one we hope you keep listening we hope you keep it
01:11:20
weird but not so weird that you cover anything flammable in more flammable things yeah don't do that bye bye
01:11:30
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