00:00:00
Hey weirdos. I'm Elena. >> I'm Ash. >> And this is Morbid. [music] >> Yay. [music] And you know what's crazy?
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We don't have any business. >> No business. >> No real business. >> No. And I sound more like a real person
00:00:23
this time. You know, somebody literally said, "Who narrated The Last Morton?" And the thing is, this is why you need
00:00:30
to listen to the beginning of the episode because I told you >> this is where we tell you if one of us
00:00:34
is sick, we might sound a little weird or like >> you know whatever. Somebody was like,
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"Who the [ __ ] was that?" [laughter] It's >> like, "I'm sorry." Okay. >> I know.
00:00:43
>> I don't know what to tell you. >> And I think somebody else was like, "What happened to Ash's voice?" And I
00:00:47
was like, "If you listen to the beginning, we said it." >> Well, I'm like, "Babes, only so many
00:00:52
things can happen." >> Yeah. >> I don't know. Ursula visited me in the night and took it. Like, [laughter]
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what? Just listen to the beginning. I promise it's just us chatting with you. >> It's us trying to catch up with you.
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>> That's all it is. >> Tell you what's going on. >> We're trying to connect. >> That's all.
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>> We won't connect this time cuz there's no business. I'm not sick. >> No. >> Anymore.
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>> Just hot. >> The only thing I can say is get tickets to the live show while they're
00:01:16
available. >> While they're hot. >> Uh, Radio City Music Hall June 27th. >> For some reason, I keep saying like,
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"Get it while it's hot." And I keep thinking of the Sex in the City thing. >> Get it? Well, it's hot.
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>> Hot. And it's one of the most cringy clips ever [laughter] >> cuz it's when she's dressed in the
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>> like a Parisian. >> And is she holding the >> the McDonald's? Right. >> McDonald's, right?
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>> Yeah. Get it while it's hot. >> I don't know why. It's been like my vocal stump lately.
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>> I love that a lot. So, get them while they're hot. >> Uh, >> and picture us in Beret saying that.
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>> Yeah, do that. And pre-order the Butcher Legacy. Yeah. Get that while it's hot.
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>> While it's hot. Do it. Um, it's great. It's I promise. I That's my guarantee is
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that it's great. >> Guaranteed. Great. >> It's a great >> You should put that on the cover.
00:02:06
>> Little period to the trilogy. >> I like it. So So go. >> Not an ellipses. >> A a period to the trilogy.
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>> Okay. Didn't say to the series to the trilogy. >> All right. I see what you're doing.
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>> It's its own little story. >> I like that. >> Yeah. All right. Uh, but that's it. So,
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here we are. We're going to start >> today. We're going to talk about um something that I think needs to be
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taught to more people. This thing that happened, especially people in Massachusetts, because like I didn't
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know about this and I was like, "Hi, born and raised. >> Am I going to know about this?"
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>> What? No. Absolutely not. >> Okay. >> Because like I don't think most people don't know.
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>> Yeah. Because the other thing about this, we're talking about the Pwick Club disaster.
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And there's also what I found out at the end was there's no plaque or memorial for this.
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>> What the hell? >> Yeah. So, I think we need to like try to >> make that happen cuz I [clears throat]
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feel like it needs to happen. >> Yeah. A lot of people >> cuz even you're saying that I don't
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think I've heard of that. >> And I think that's why a lot of people don't know about it is cuz there's
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nothing to show memorial existed at all. >> That's really shitty. >> So, we need to make that happen.
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>> Yeah. I love you, Boston. Let's do this. Let's do it. >> We're We'll try for the Coconut Grove um
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fire. >> There is a memorial. >> Yeah. And like if you take a duck tour, they talk about the Coconut Grove, but I
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don't think they talk about the >> Pwick. We need one for the Picwick. There was a lot of people who died in
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this and it was pretty rough. >> Oh, no. Yeah. Again, I have not heard of this. >> Yeah. So, let's begin, shall we?
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>> Uh on Beach Street in Boston's theater district >> theater. Uh, in 1924, Hyman Bloomberg
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found himself trying to sell off a now defunct Cafe Drafus. >> What's a cafe Drafus? [laughter]
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>> The [ __ ] Uh, so the Cafe Drafus was a club. It was >> It was like a place where you could
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gather in 1924. Okay. >> Um, it was actually kind of like a speak easy-ish kind of thing
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in the 20s. Um, and it had closed amidst like kind of skin doll. >> I love >> and some legal issues.
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>> I don't love legal issues [laughter] stuff going on. >> So after finding trouble getting anyone
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to bite at the building, a man named Timothy Barry expressed interest. He said, "I want to rent the first floor of
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this place." And Barry told Bloomberg he and several of his investors were interested in opening a new social club.
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>> Social club. >> Social club. a cler where you chat >> where you become social
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>> and have a little drink. >> Uh and they were only waiting on the city to approve their charter. So they
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wanted the building. Um and desperate for a tenant, Bloomberg wasn't in the position to turn anyone away. So he was
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like, "Hell yeah, you can take that space." >> Okay. >> Now, the Pwick Club, social club, opened
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in April and occupied the first floor, again, what had once been Cafe Drafus. It's unknown whether Heyman Bloomberg
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knew anything about his new tenant before he offered Barry the lease. >> Oh no. >> But if he did, he probably wouldn't have
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been so eager. >> Perhaps in 1924, Timothy Barry was, according to author John Keefe, known as
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quote, "A man who had many friends in Boston political, legal, and newspaper circles." Okay.
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>> In other words, he was a man of power, strongly suspected of having ties to organized crime. Oh, now opening the
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business at the height of the prohibition era, the Pwick was officially a social club, quote unquote,
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cuz those were like official things. Okay? >> But in truth, >> it was really a speak easy. Like it was
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a speak easy. In fact, as a social club, the Pwick, like by definition as a social club was supposed to have strict
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rules for membership. That's what a social club had. >> I'm obsessed. >> But in reality, anyone could get in.
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>> I love that. As long as they knew what to say to the man at the door, which is
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speak easy. >> Speak easy. I'm so obsessed with that. >> Have you ever been to a speak easy?
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>> Yes. I love speak easy. >> It's just it's got such a vibe. >> That's the thing. Like it feels
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dangerous. >> We're like not great for women and like not great for like many people.
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>> Not great. Uh the vibe though, >> the aesthetic. The [laughter] aesthetic honey.
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>> That's all I say when I say I love the 20s. I don't want to be there. No, >> I want to visit.
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>> I want us I want us to like dress like we're in the 20s again and for places to
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look like we're in the 20s. >> That's what I want. >> But to have modernday respect and uh
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understanding of community and culture. >> I want what we that that's exactly what
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I want. I want what we thought the the 2020s was going to be. Remember when we all entered 2020 and we said it's the
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raarin 20s. You sent a shiver down my spine just >> and we all said, "I'm so excited. It's
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the Roaring 20s back again." >> Yeah. >> And then all of a sudden, Co was like, "Fuck y'all."
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>> Literally, >> I want to do that. I want to do the original thing that we wanted [laughter]
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>> because that sucked. >> Uh, but yeah, the 1920s, the aesthetic is just bar none.
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>> Chef the best. Like the dress >> and the hairstyles, >> the way men dressed in the I know.
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>> I can't get over it. >> I love it. I don't love the makeup. I will say >> um >> it depends.
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>> I don't hate it. >> I don't like the eyebrows. >> The eyebrows leave something to be
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desired. >> I really don't like the eyebrows. >> But for someone with um really light
00:07:32
eyebrows like that are like sparse, >> I think I would do okay. >> All right. >> Cuz I really have to fill mine in.
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>> You have good eyebrows. [clears throat] >> So I feel like Thank you. I fill them
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in. But I wouldn't have to in the 20s. That's true. >> Just draw a line. [laughter]
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>> It's literally just a line >> which so easy. >> And it expands a lot of your forehead.
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>> Hell yeah. Uh, now at first the Pwick garnered little attention from anyone outside of the neighborhood. Then in
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January 1925, the club appeared in the headlines for the first time when a police raid turned up dozens of cases of
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rum, whiskey, and gin hidden in the basement. Yikes. They arrested the bartender, Max Molmat, uh, and shut the
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place down for a few days. But by early February, Max got off with a small fine,
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and the Pwick opened its doors for business again. Now, the Pway and I feel like that probably gave it like a little
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bit of like a like, >> yeah, dust off your shoulder kind of thing. It was like, oh, okay.
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>> The Pwick Club wasn't that different from the countless other speak easys in Boston at the time. But after having
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been raided and found to be serving alcohol, all of a sudden, they jumped very quickly to the top of the Boston
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Police and Licensing Commission's list of establishments to keep a nice little eye on for that year.
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>> But doesn't that guy have a little connection? >> He does. All right. >> He sure does. Now, in fact, just hours
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after Max paid his fine at the courthouse, the Boston police arrived at the Pwick to undertake another raid.
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>> Oh, that's not cool. >> That isn't cool. Give him a second. >> He just paid. >> Give him a second. All right.
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>> Yeah, let him live. >> This time though, things would not go as smoothly as they had on the previous
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occasion. When they entered the club and announced themselves, the entire room erupted into chaos.
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>> Oh my god. By the time the whole thing came to an end, nine men were arrested
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on charges of public drunkenness. And one man, 29-year-old William Fitz Henry, was arrested for assaulting an officer.
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>> Damn. Of course, William Fitz Henry was arrested for assaulting an officer. >> William Fitz Henry in Boston assaulting
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a [laughter] police officer. >> Yeah, he's assaulting a police officer to this day.
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>> He's so Boston. >> Fitz Henry is the most [ __ ] Irish name Boston name I could ever hear. Now,
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according to the Boston Globe, Ken, [laughter] when the police quote dropped in unexpectedly at the club, there was
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considerable excitement. And that while the excitement was at its height, Fitz Henry struck the officer, knocking him
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down and almost rendering him [laughter] unconscious. >> Damn. If there's one thing Fitz Henry is
00:09:57
going to do, it's knock your ass out. >> That's one [laughter] thing. Now, less than a month later, the Pwick was back
00:10:03
on the front pages when a group of drunk young men led police on a two-mile car chase through Boston's narrow, winding
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streets until the pursuing officers managed to force the car off the road and take them into custody.
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>> They had all been drinking at the Pwick prior to getting in the car. And a few
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days after that, police were called to the club to the club when a fight broke out.
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>> They said everybody in the club is fighting. They are [laughter] now. The police had been called by a nurse from
00:10:31
the Hay Market Relief Station after she treated a man who told her he'd been stabbed in the leg during a brawl at the
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Pwick. >> Tim, the Picwick is nuts. >> The Pwick goes crazy. >> The Picwick does not [ __ ] around.
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>> When the officers arrived at the Pwick, they entered to find a room full of drunk and very belligerent. [laughter]
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I don't know why this is >> It just is cuz it's so [ __ ] Boston. >> It's just so Boston. Like this part is
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funny cuz it's just chaos >> and just everybody drank it. >> Yeah. It's just pure just chicainery.
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>> I love it. >> So they come in, they find a bunch of drug belligerent men who were no mood to
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see, much less talk to the police. According to the police report, one of the officers told the men to beat it,
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but no one made an attempt to leave. They all just stared at him. They were like, "Fuck off."
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>> They said, "You beat it, [ __ ] >> You beat it. Why are you in here?" Frustrated, one of the officers
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attempted to arrest one of the drunk men, which is when the scene just exploded into what the press described
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as quote >> a small riot in the Pwick club. >> Oh no. >> As one of the officers grappled with the
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drunk men, the other ran down the street to the nearest precinct for reinforcements, and the scene was
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brought into order a short time later. >> Damn. But with so many incidents in less
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than a year, >> this is all less than a year. >> That's the craziest thing. >> The Pwick had started to gain a
00:11:54
reputation with the public as >> maybe a little seedy, >> maybe a little uh tough spa, illreute,
00:12:01
you know, maybe whatever, what have you. >> Um, one reporter wrote, "Many people
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have regarded it as sort of an underworld social center." >> Obsessed. A place where bandits and
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their girlfriends might gather after the evening's work was over. Sign me the [ __ ] up.
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>> I said, "Are you trying to keep people away? Sign me up. [laughter] You might be invited."
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>> Bandits and their girlfriends. Here's the thing. When I was like 12 years old,
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I literally wanted to be a mob wife. I used to watch Mob Wives and I said, "Someday I will grow up and be Dria
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Deanzo." >> So back then, >> oh yeah. >> Before my frontal lobe was [laughter] developed. before your frontal lobe is
00:12:38
developed and you realize what that entailed. >> But back then, oh, I would have loved
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this. I would have been a bandit's girlfriend. >> Now, some of this reputation definitely
00:12:47
came from the numerous times that the club's name had appeared in the papers with arrests and criminal activity, but
00:12:54
at least a small portion of it was likely the result of the rumors of Timothy and Daniel Barry's connections
00:13:00
to organized crime figures as well. Whatever the case though, the reputation and the frequent visits from the BPD
00:13:07
started to take a toll on the Pwick's profits. And in March, Barry announced the club was going to be shutting its
00:13:13
doors for good >> or now the Picwick Club did in fact shut down in March, but the entire closure
00:13:20
kind of looks like it was like a little bit of theater. >> Was it a roose? >> It looks like it was a little bit of
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theater. >> Oh, in the the theater district as well. >> In the the theater district. maybe to
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rehab the club's image and kind of like rebuff the attention of local law enforcement.
00:13:33
>> Okay. >> Just a few weeks after the club supposedly closed for good, a new establishment, the Greenwich Village
00:13:40
Club, opened in its place. >> Okay. >> With a large number of invitations going out to prominent members of the
00:13:46
community. In reality, this was just a facade to hide the fact that the Pwick Club had simply moved to the second
00:13:53
floor and guests who appeared to be visiting the Greenwich Village Club were in fact going to the Pwick Club.
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>> I'm so obsessed with that. >> Like, it's it's so shady. >> I love a Roose. >> Now, unfortunately for the patrons of
00:14:04
the new Picwick Club, the second floor of the building had no restrooms. So, clubgoers had to either go to the first
00:14:10
or third floor to go to the bathroom. >> Okay. And at some point in late March, a
00:14:14
fire broke out at the Taylor shop that was on the third floor. >> Oh no. >> The fire caused a lot of damage to the
00:14:21
upper floors and required about 3,000 gallons of water to put out. >> Holy [ __ ]
00:14:25
>> Fortunately, the first and second floors of the building were relatively unharmed. So, the Pwick Club was able to
00:14:31
remain open. >> Okay. >> That said, the firefighters had to chop large holes. I almost Because we're
00:14:38
talking about Boston. I feel like my soul I almost just said large holes >> large holes
00:14:44
>> but I've I've curbed it for this podcast like I feel like talking >> I know >> I've trained myself not to be like full
00:14:51
>> but you can >> that this one feels like I'm like chop large holes >> you have to [laughter] it's it's the
00:14:56
ambiance >> it just feels right. The firefighters had to chop large holes >> they just did
00:15:02
>> in various parts of the floor uh just to allow the water >> to drain properly into the basement.
00:15:08
Okay. >> A few weeks later, Timothy Barry hired a carpenter to just patch over the holes
00:15:12
so the club could reopen. >> I feel like we could have done better than that. Now, the Greenwich Village
00:15:17
Club never reopened after the fire, and the tailor whose shop had the started the fire had moved elsewhere, leaving
00:15:24
the Pway Club the only business in the building in the summer, which is like, "All right, let's go."
00:15:28
>> Yeah. >> The next time the club appeared in the press, it was to be for far more
00:15:33
shocking reasons than a small fire or a uh quote unquote small riot. Oh no. Now on the evening of July 4th, it was like
00:15:41
July 3rd into July 4th, 1925, the Picwick Club opened its doors for the Before the Fourth Dance. Okay.
00:15:48
>> Being held [clears throat] that evening in celebration of, you guessed it, Independence Day,
00:15:52
>> Amar's birthday. >> Yeah. Having Amara having hired a fivepiece orchestra and freshly
00:15:58
decorated for the occasion. >> That doesn't sound seedy at all. >> No. Barry expected a large crowd that
00:16:03
evening and once the evening got going, his expectations were exceeded. Okay. It
00:16:08
was just to the gills, >> bustling. >> Now, that evening, 29-year-old May Lawson was out on a date with John Owen,
00:16:15
and things were going well. >> Hell yeah. >> Uh, what John told reporters later was,
00:16:20
"Mrs. Lawson had recently separated from her husband. They hadn't been married very long, and she was brokenhearted,
00:16:26
and I knew she liked to dance, and I urged her to accompany me to the club." Oh, no. Now, John wasn't much of much of
00:16:33
a dancer himself, so he had no objections. When another man came over to the table and asked me to dance, he
00:16:38
said, "Sure, you can dance." >> A >> that's a that's a man right there. >> That's nice.
00:16:42
>> Um, it was after midnight and the band had just begun playing 12th Street Rag,
00:16:46
a song perfectly suited for the Charleston, which was the most popular dance. >> I love the Charleston.
00:16:51
>> Everybody do the Charleston real quick. >> Obsessed. >> Now, at as the band wound up, couples
00:16:56
from every corner of the room were going to the floor. The room was shaking with
00:17:00
the enthusiasm of so many people jumping, moving, dancing, doing the same moves. So, the same jumps, the same
00:17:08
stomps all at the same time. >> No. >> Uh John Owen recalled later, "It was pretty wild in there. Horns and rattles
00:17:15
and firecrackers, too." >> Firecrackers lighting and throwing them all night >> inside. [snorts]
00:17:22
>> Yeah. >> You guys all right? >> No. >> No. The light-hearted mood in the Picwick that night was kind of uncommon
00:17:29
for this place, as I'm sure you can tell, >> cuz usually people were just like, >> like gregarious just like enthusiastic
00:17:37
jaunty kind of mood. Since the first raid in January, there was always the potential for the police or some other
00:17:43
city authority to come by anytime and break up a party. So things were generally fairly chill before this. But
00:17:50
that night, everyone was in good spirits. There was no sign of the police anywhere and a raid was kind of like the
00:17:56
furthest thing from anyone's mind. Finally, >> they were busy. You know, >> they were having fun. It sounds like it
00:18:00
was a great time. Now, the party was scheduled to shut down at 4:00 a.m. >> Damn,
00:18:05
>> that's a party. >> I was going to say Boston doesn't do that anymore. >> No, they do not.
00:18:09
>> You get out of there at 1:00. >> Yep. No. So, around 3:30 a.m. the orchestra leader, Billy Glennon, which
00:18:16
of course Billy Glenn. >> I was like, yeah, we all knew him. >> Yeah, I was going to say I think I knew
00:18:21
Billy Glennon. >> Who doesn't? Uh he started looking through his sheet music for one last
00:18:24
song to send everybody on their way. >> Nice. >> Um he later said, "I was just about to
00:18:29
pick out the last piece we were going to play when Rocco yelled at me that the lights look dim." I said, "Gee, yeah,
00:18:35
they do." Then the porter said to me, "Look at the sand coming down from the ceiling."
00:18:40
>> Uh what? >> Glennon's brother, Jimmy, was the manager of the club. Of course, Jimmy
00:18:44
Glennon was the manager. >> Yeah, duh. So Billy knew about the fire and how the firefighters had hacked
00:18:50
holes into the floors to allow for drainage and that since then the holes had been covered over with cheap trap
00:18:58
doors to allow for drainage of heavy rain. >> Okay. [laughter] >> It had rained heavily in recent days. So
00:19:03
Billy figured the dust and plaster drifting down from the ceiling must have been caused by the recent rains and the
00:19:10
building was just resettling, you know. >> Yeah. How great. >> Billy Glennon went back to sifting
00:19:14
through his sheet music. Then just a few seconds later, he heard an alarming sound shoot through the room. He later
00:19:21
said, "In a couple of seconds, there was a ripping, tearing noise and I saw the ceiling start to fall in and the wall on
00:19:29
the left of at the front of the room seemed to move." >> What? >> Then the lights went out and there was a
00:19:34
ter terrible crash. >> Oh my god. Now, Cambridge cab driver Tom Garvey had arrived just before the
00:19:41
collapse and was standing uh at the far side of the room waiting on a fair who had gone to get their coat from the coat
00:19:47
check. He said, "I looked over at the corner and I saw everyone jump up. I thought it was a fight at first and all
00:19:54
of a sudden there was a big noise and the lights went out. The next thing I knew I was lying down with things
00:19:59
pressing onto my back and sides. >> Oh god. He tried to get up, but he was pinned to the floor by something heavy
00:20:05
and his face was pressed into the floor and he's like choking on dust and debris.
00:20:10
>> What the [ __ ] >> He said a lot of things went through my head. I could hear people fighting to
00:20:14
get out when someone grabbed hold of me. Tom Garvey was close to the door, so it
00:20:19
was easy for whoever grabbed him to pull him to safety, which like good, >> but those stuck inside were in a much
00:20:25
more dire situation. Uh John Owen, who we talked about before, said a second after the collapse, the room was filled
00:20:32
with shrieks, and the floor on one side started to give way, and the dancing couples were thrown into a gaping wound
00:20:39
in the floor. >> What the hell? >> I turned around just in time to see Mrs. Lawson and her partner disappear through
00:20:46
the floor. >> Oh my god. >> He made his way to where his date was or had just been, but when he looked into
00:20:52
the hole in the floor, he said all he saw was blackness. just a black hole. He said he turned to crawl back to where he
00:20:59
had just been and he found there was nothing for him to hold on to as the floor beneath him started to crumble.
00:21:05
Seconds later, he too was swallowed up by the cavernous hole. What the hell is going on? Having been in the Pwick
00:21:12
countless times before this, Billy Glennon knew the layout and was able to get himself and several others to the
00:21:18
office near the back of the club. He said, "I don't remember just how I got out through the office window or who
00:21:24
went before me. Johnny Donovan, our drummer, got out." All right. And so did Frank Mulvy, the piano player. Outside,
00:21:32
he looked around for his brother Jimmy and the rest of the band, but he couldn't see any of them anywhere. Then
00:21:37
to his absolute horror, he said he looked back at the disaster where he just escaped from, and the entire
00:21:43
building collapsed on itself. "Oh my god," >> he said. After the thing went down,
00:21:48
there was absolute silence. That was one of the darnest things about it. No yelling or anything after the
00:21:56
place settled. We knew there must be a lot of people in there, but none of them let out a yip. It was just as still as
00:22:02
if the place was shut up. >> That's a nightmare. >> Isn't that bone chilling? >> That's a nightmare. At a certain point,
00:22:10
the stories of the survivors all kind of sound similar. Like one person watches in horror as their date, their friend or
00:22:16
a stranger who had just been sitting next to them loses their balance and disappears into the dark cavernous hole
00:22:22
in the floor. Eddie Whan watched helplessly as his friend John Mclofflin slid into the hole in the floor. The
00:22:29
same was true for Frank and Virginia Vera. The couple had just been in the hall when this floor started to give
00:22:34
way. Virginia managed to make it to the front door unharmed, but when she turned
00:22:39
back to grab her husband, Frank was gone. Oh, Virginia Vera was very likely the last person to make it out through
00:22:46
the front door when the building came down. >> Wow. >> Now, in the darkness of the wreckage on
00:22:50
the first floor, it took some time, but eventually John Owen regained his senses
00:22:55
and came out of the days that followed the fall. He said 5 minutes went by, which seemed like hours to me, when
00:23:01
finally the police rescued me, and I was taken to safety with the cries of injured and screams for help coming from
00:23:07
all corners. Now, being in the heart of the city, it didn't take long for emergency responders to arrive at the
00:23:13
scene. Seconds after the collapse began, the dorman, Rocco Scarpardo, ran out into the street and started shouting for
00:23:20
help before running back inside to help get others out. Rocco was in the building when the floor gave way and
00:23:26
suffered a minor injury to his knee. >> But his yelling in the street prompted a
00:23:30
local beat officer to trigger the alarm box on Mason Street, which drew the men from the local firehouse to come.
00:23:36
>> That was good. When the building came down, there was roughly a hundred or so
00:23:40
people in the Pwick. >> Oh my god. >> By the time rescue crews came, about half of those inside had made it out,
00:23:46
but many, many more remain trapped in the rubble with four stories of building on top of them. Now
00:23:52
>> that is unthinkable. >> The men were quickly to reach the injured who they located now from the
00:23:57
screams that were finally happening beneath the debris. The sound of those trapped beneath the rebels was among the
00:24:03
most troubling aspects of of the scene. According to everybody who talked about it later, I'm sure
00:24:09
>> um survival Ethel Conlin said, "I couldn't get them out of my mind for days. They were just awful."
00:24:15
>> The PTSD that you would suffer after something like that. >> I can't even imagine.
00:24:18
>> No. It took nearly 100 men, hours of digging in near pitch dark conditions, but finally the first bodies. Four men
00:24:27
and two women were found in a pocket in the corner of the building. A short time
00:24:31
later, Boston Mayor James Curley arrived at the scene and seeing the catastrophe
00:24:36
sent a request for 100 more firefighters. Now, at the time of the collapse, rescue workers were limited in
00:24:42
terms of the equipment available to really help recover survivors. Um although motorized vehicles did exist,
00:24:49
few if any were strong enough to handle the incredible weight of four stories of
00:24:54
trapped debris and 50 people underneath it, >> right? >> Instead, workers had to move slowly and
00:25:01
methodically through the wreckage looking for survivors. And when they found one, they had to remove whatever
00:25:06
debris they could by hand and try to pull the individual out. Larry Doyle of Ladder 8 had been working for about half
00:25:14
an hour when he came upon um a rusty chiba. He was alive but pinned beneath two giant timbers that left no room for
00:25:22
Doyle to get a hold of him. Instead, Doyle tied a rope around his waist and attempted to pull him out. But
00:25:28
immediately after he started pulling, uh Chiba cried out, "Stop! You're tearing me apart. You're going to kill me."
00:25:34
>> Oh my god. He stopped and he tried to kind of like him a little bit and with no other ways of getting him out of
00:25:41
here, he waited a few seconds and then he gave the rope one more yank and ultimately he did free him.
00:25:47
>> Okay, good. >> But the and the timbers did allow for him to like squeeze him out kind of
00:25:51
thing. Like just like >> he didn't get torn in half. Now >> he probably had so many broken bones
00:25:57
that's probably why he felt like that. >> Exactly. And it was probably like actually pulling him apart at that
00:26:01
point. So after he had saved Chiba, he Doyle climbed back into the debris and began feeling his way through looking
00:26:08
for survivors. And after a few minutes, his hand fell upon what felt like a woman's leg. And he called out to her,
00:26:14
but he got no response. >> A few minutes later, he'd removed enough debris to get up beside her, which is
00:26:19
when he realized the woman was dead. And he said this woman's spine was snapped backwards at a 90° angle.
00:26:26
>> Oh my god. >> Which I can't imagine. >> I can't even picture that. After more
00:26:31
than an hour digging around, an hour digging around looking like through the rubble for survivors. Yeah.
00:26:38
>> Larry Doyle had breathed in an incredible amount of dust and debris and he was having trouble breathing.
00:26:44
>> But he insisted there were more people trapped inside and he was ready to go back in. It was only after he collapsed
00:26:51
from exhaustion and respiratory trouble that he finally agreed to be seen by a doctor at the nearest hospital. And even
00:26:58
then, it took four other firefighters to keep him from going back into the wreck
00:27:02
after they let him out. >> What a hero. >> Yeah, >> Larry Doyle. >> For real. >> Now, given the size and scope of the
00:27:08
disaster, the rescue operation quickly turned into what the press called a quote all helpers volunteer event.
00:27:14
Meaning anyone with expertise was encouraged to come out and lend a hand. Uh while most who pitched in were
00:27:20
emergency responders, city workers, construction crews, there was also a lot of doctors, nurses, and paramedics that
00:27:27
came to the site as first responders. In one case, Dr. Michael Gity of Boston City Hospital crawled down to a man who
00:27:35
was trapped under the rubble as a result of his finger being hopelessly stuck between two pieces of concrete.
00:27:42
>> Oh my god, this is insane. After applying a local anesthetic, Dr. Gity was able to amputate his finger and the
00:27:51
man was pulled to safely and taken to the hospital. >> You got to be kidding me.
00:27:55
>> Dr. Gity crawled into the rubble and safely performed an amputation. >> That's next.
00:28:03
>> In 1925 >> in total darkness. >> In total darkness. >> That's next [ __ ] incredible [ __ ]
00:28:10
doctor. Other doctors from the city hospital were at the scene performing similar rescues in near darkness. All
00:28:16
while several hundred or even thousands of pounds of precarious rubble ominously
00:28:21
cracked and groaned around them. And they're performing amputations to save people. Y
00:28:27
>> that's incredible. >> Now eventually the cries and pleas from the injured started to quiet
00:28:33
>> until finally they couldn't be heard at all. >> Mhm. By the time the sun came up, there
00:28:38
were still at least 50 people reported missing. But the consensus belief was that if they were still in the rubble,
00:28:44
they probably wouldn't be found alive. That morning, the first report of the collapse went out on the front page of
00:28:50
the Boston Daily Globe, announcing 12 confirmed dead. But by the time the rescue operation was complete, the death
00:28:57
toll rose to 44 with countless others injured. [sighs and gasps] Now, when news of the accident started spreading
00:29:04
around the city, some people showed up to volunteer or offer support, like Reverend Lawrence Morris from St. James
00:29:10
Church arrived at the site to provide last rights to the victims, >> while others brought food and other
00:29:15
essentials to help volunteers. There were many others, however, who simply showed up to the scene to take a look.
00:29:23
>> That's so gross. >> Uh, the work of digging out the ruins went on for several days, and by the
00:29:28
second day, thousands have had come to see the scene. Some in hopes of finding a missing relative, of course,
00:29:34
>> but most just to see the wreckage. >> Lucky lose. >> Yeah. Now, according to the press,
00:29:38
quote, "There was no disorder, no wild attempts to break the police line, no noise."
00:29:43
>> That's good. >> Somehow, the crowds even forbore to push and elbow each other to get a better
00:29:47
point of vantage. So, they were at least like chill. >> Yeah. >> Now, they were just there to take in the
00:29:53
tragedy of an unimaginable thing that had happened. >> I don't know why you would want to see
00:29:57
that. When asked for comment about the crowds, one officer tasked with guarding the site said, "If they had to do this
00:30:02
for pay, they'd wish they were somewhere else. They can't see anything, and they
00:30:06
are far too far away to even hear what's going on." So, he's like, "Get the [ __ ]
00:30:09
out." >> He's like, "What's the point?" >> Now, before the first day was even over,
00:30:13
serious questions of accountability were being raised by those in positions of power.
00:30:18
>> Yeah. >> Building Commissioner John Mahoney had long lamented the crumbling buildings in
00:30:22
Boston and suspected that might be the cause. I would think that would be at least part of it.
00:30:27
>> Mayor James Curley, on the other hand, blamed the collapse on overcrowding. In
00:30:31
a public in a statement to the public, he said, "Considering the fact that no official with authority to prevent
00:30:37
overcrowding was present in the building, it is most probable that the club management taking advantage of the
00:30:43
night before crowds, seeking unrestrained freedom in their pursuit of pleasure, readily accepted all who came
00:30:50
to the club after the closing of the property licensed amusement places in Boston. Now, at the time, it would have
00:30:56
been impossible for the mayor or anyone else to make such a definitive statement
00:31:00
on the cause of the accident since an investigation into the cause had not even begun.
00:31:04
>> Yeah. So, everybody was just kind of guessing. But his statements, James Curley's statements reflect the
00:31:09
widespread very conservative perspective in Boston that viewed nightclubs, dance
00:31:14
halls, and other similar spaces as contributing to immorality. >> Mhm. Now, the following day, The Globe
00:31:21
offered a different perspective and potential cause of the collapse. This time from someone who was inside the
00:31:27
building when it came down. >> According to Frank Decker, one of the singers performing in the club that
00:31:32
night, it was quote, "The steady swaying of the dancers and their stamping of feet as they all performed the
00:31:38
Charleston that could have caused the collapse." He said, "Imagine the force of 50 couples leaping up and down in
00:31:45
unison. The heavy trampoline set the floor swaying. Then it cracked. I paid no attention to this shark crack at the
00:31:52
moment as I thought someone had set off a firecracker, but the real meaning of it came to me a moment later. Now, in
00:31:59
retrospect, Frank Decker's theory that dancing had caused the collapse might seem like kind of silly since most
00:32:05
buildings are designed to withstand a far greater shock than a few dozen people dancing.
00:32:11
>> But what we know now that there was like trap doors and that kind of thing. >> That's the thing. At the time, it seemed
00:32:17
intuitive to Bostononians following the story in the press and remained a popular urban legend long after the real
00:32:23
cause had been revealed that it was dancing the Charleston Charleston that caused this collapse.
00:32:27
>> Oh no. So now the Charleston was cursed. >> Yeah, it was cursed. Now during one of
00:32:30
the trials that followed the incident, one of the structural engineers tasked with evaluating the building testified
00:32:36
and said, "As the steady pounding of feet continued, the wooden joust under the lenolium floor began to vibrate.
00:32:43
Structural engineers use the term mechanical resonance to describe what was happening. Under certain conditions,
00:32:49
a suspended beam or crossmember will vi vibrate violently when the when subjected to steady rhythmic
00:32:56
oscillations. Those vibrations have been known to cause catastrophic failures in
00:33:02
bridges, buildings, and even airplanes. The Pwick Club dancers knew nothing about resonance. They had no idea what
00:33:09
was going on under their feet. Of course, before anyone could arrive at the accur at an accurate explanation for
00:33:14
why the building collapsed, city workers needed to clear away the rubble, which proved more challenging than expected.
00:33:21
In addition to the expected difficulties of moving, you know, several tons of debris, the large crowds surrounding the
00:33:27
area was like a big challenge. >> Yeah. >> And while most of them were orderly and
00:33:32
complied with police directions, others were less respectful. People are always going to people. This is going to enrage
00:33:39
you. On July 6th, just days after the collapse, >> police arrested one of the workers,
00:33:46
Angelo Cook, after he was seen stealing cash from the pockets of the few remaining dead bodies in the ruins.
00:33:53
>> You got to be [ __ ] kidding. >> He's going to dead people's >> wallet, >> pants pockets, and stealing their money.
00:34:00
>> That's a piece of [ __ ] There's a special place in >> the lowest type of low. Yeah, that's the
00:34:06
karmic retribution on that >> that it will it will reverberate through generations of his family. Like, [ __ ]
00:34:14
that. >> Wow. >> On July 7th, the majority of the ruins had been cleared from the scene and the
00:34:19
last of the bodies had been removed to go to the morg for identification. Meanwhile, across the city, a grand jury
00:34:25
was being convened to hear testimony and evaluate the evidence. M that afternoon,
00:34:30
after hearing some survivor testimony, District Attorney Thomas O'Brien >> led the there was going to be an
00:34:36
O'Brien. >> Uh he led the grand jury to the site so they could see the space for themselves
00:34:41
and view the foundation of the building. By that time, structural engineers had begun evaluating the building and
00:34:47
suspected the collapse had not been caused by dancers, but by a structural issue with the party wall. And I'll tell
00:34:53
you what a party wall is, >> okay? Um, it's basically the shared wall between the building that housed the
00:34:59
Pwick and the building next to it. >> Oh. >> Now, in the era when the Drafus was
00:35:04
built, uh, buildings were often built to lean against one another as a source of
00:35:08
stability. They were very close to each other. And that shared wall was the party wall between them. It was
00:35:14
>> almost like a like a condo or like >> it was just like they were just almost like a condo except it's not all the
00:35:20
same building. There's the buildings that are so close to each other they lean on each other for support.
00:35:25
>> That's wild. >> Yeah. Now, in this case, the building next to the Pwick had recently been torn
00:35:31
down. >> Oh. >> Thus removing a potentially significant source of support in the party wall.
00:35:38
>> Stop. >> Based on their initial observations, the engineers suspected that that could have
00:35:42
been the reason for the collapse. Yeah. >> Testifying before the grand jury, Harry
00:35:46
Haven, one of the engineers in charge of the project uh to be built next to the Pwick, said there were concerns about
00:35:53
the structural integrity integrity of the Pwick building itself, and that those concerns had been shared with the
00:35:59
property owners, but nothing had been done about it. >> Mhm. >> Now, after several days of testimony and
00:36:05
evidence, the grand jury indicted six individuals in the Pwick case. The following were indicted on charges of
00:36:11
manslaughter. Timothy Barry, the owner of the club, George Funk, the architect in charge of the building's repair
00:36:18
project following the fire, and Hyman Bloomberg, the owner of the building. Three others associated with the Picl
00:36:25
Club were indicted on like lesser charges. Fair enough to me. Now, a few days later, the grand jury reconvened
00:36:32
and returned six more indictments for manslaughter against the architects involved in the restoration and
00:36:37
construction projects, including Fritz Nathan, John Pulz, John Tobin, Edward Romer, James Hendrik, and Lawrence
00:36:46
Perkins. All nine men pleaded not guilty, and their trials were scheduled for the following uh following months.
00:36:53
>> Okay. Now, given the high-profile nature of the Picway case, everyone from the
00:36:58
district attorney to the mayor urged a speedy trial for those accused of manslaughter, if for no other reason
00:37:03
than to demonstrate that the city took the matter of unstable infrastructure very seriously.
00:37:09
>> Now, just one week after the grand jury returned indictments for the accused,
00:37:13
the trial against all 12 of the men uh began at Suffach County Superior Court. The first to testify was Chief of Police
00:37:20
Daniel Senate who among several other individuals who testified um they were testifying to the level of destruction
00:37:27
caused by the fire that had occurred on the third floor several months earlier. >> Okay.
00:37:32
>> The consensus among those who spoke on the effect of the fire was that while the third floor had been quote very
00:37:37
badly burned, the building itself remained structurally sound. >> Okay. It's kind of hard to
00:37:44
>> It is >> like to I don't know to >> to feel comfortable with that. >> Yeah. Yeah. Exactly. Thank you.
00:37:49
>> Now, according to Guy Emerson, the expert for the prosecution, he said the collapse of the Picwick Club was due to
00:37:55
the a failure of the concrete peers under the foundation due to a lack of lateral bracing on the easterly side.
00:38:02
Now, after the building beside the Picwick was torn down, effectively making the party wall useless, Bloomberg
00:38:08
hired a construction firm to add to the concrete peers to provide structural support because he knew the
00:38:14
[clears throat] party wall was going to be weak. >> But also, you probably should have
00:38:16
closed down the club be like while that was going to happen. >> Well, also the peers were very poorly
00:38:22
built and weren't capable of supporting the£100,000 that they were required to support.
00:38:27
>> So, that was uh useless. According to one of the evaluating engineers, one of
00:38:32
the peers was quote, "The rottenest piece of concrete I ever saw. There were pockets of gravel in the mixture. The
00:38:39
cement was of poor quality, and there wasn't enough of it. The shoddy craftsmanship of the peers creating the
00:38:45
perfect conditions for a kind of quote dominoike collapse under the right circumstances."
00:38:51
>> [sighs] >> Now, that's what's crazy about this is it's like this somewhat strange twist
00:38:56
where it turned out that it wasn't one single theory. That was correct. >> A lot of them.
00:39:00
>> Several were kind of working in combination with each other. The concrete peers had been poorly made and
00:39:05
unprofessionally installed. So, when the music and the dancing reached its peak,
00:39:10
it caused the pockets into which the peers had been placed to crumble and the peers to fall. Without the support from
00:39:16
the concrete peers, the building simply collapsed into itself, unable to withstand the weight.
00:39:21
>> Just picturing that is like so scariest thing. Just a like a building swallowing
00:39:26
itself. >> Truly. >> It's like when you see videos of like sink holes. >> Yeah. Oh, sinkholes. Scar me out.
00:39:33
>> So scary. >> I hate it. Now, given the number of things that had to go wrong in order for
00:39:38
the Picwick Club to collapse, the jury was unable to agree that any of the men on trial were directly responsible for
00:39:45
the tragedy and all were found not guilty. >> H it's because there was so many things
00:39:50
that contributed to this. I think they didn't know who actually was at fault [laughter] here.
00:39:55
>> I'm like, maybe we can just say that everybody was then. >> Now, after the verdicts were read, Judge
00:39:59
Lumis addressed the jury. He said, "If I had been a member of the jury, I would have joined in your verdict. There never
00:40:04
was sufficient evidence that these defendants had been willfully, recklessly, or wantingly negligent.
00:40:10
>> Okay. >> Now, the acquitt of all 12 men was definitely a disappointment to the
00:40:14
victim's families who just hoped to see someone responsible for the loss of the lives at the club that night.
00:40:20
>> In the years that followed, a number of civil suits were filed. >> In total, $6.1 million, which were is
00:40:26
roughly 90 million in 2026. >> Wow. But the plaintiffs uh eventually settled for around $40,000 or $1,000 per
00:40:36
life lost at the Vic Picwick Club. >> I feel like that happens too often. >> It does.
00:40:41
>> Now, in the years that followed, the building was eventually repaired and reopened.
00:40:45
>> Uh from the 1960s into the late 1980s, the building was home to the famous Naked Eye Cabaret.
00:40:52
>> Oh. >> Until it was torn down and a parking garage was built on the site and still
00:40:56
remains. >> Not a parking garage. Um, as of now, there is no plaque or memorial to
00:41:01
indicate the 44 people whose lives were lost that night. >> That's such [ __ ] >> And again, few people remember or are
00:41:09
aware that this actually happened. >> Well, the fact that it just became Don't me either. And the fact that it just
00:41:14
became a parking garage. >> Yeah. >> I just feel like more should have been done to protect the site.
00:41:20
>> Yeah. >> You know, >> and let me just now that we're at the end of this, I'm going to read the 44
00:41:24
people's names. Uh Benjamin Alexander, Ella Cali, Bert Chapman, William Cochran, Ralph Congen, Michael Chafalo,
00:41:34
Charles Dostas, Francis Driscoll, Pauline Duca, Gelato Lombardi, Wayne Maher, Mary Mcern, Lillian McIsac, John
00:41:44
Mclofflin, Francis Mclean, Thomas McManis, Mary Moore, Max Melmmet, John Duffy, Mabel Dixon, Edward Flanigan,
00:41:54
Clara Frederick, Patrick Galvin, James Glennon, El Arthur Graham, William Grossman, Paul Howerin, Stuart
00:42:01
Henderson, Edith Jordan, Loretta Keegan, Peggy Lawson, Margaret Murphy, John Murphy, William Murray, James Murray,
00:42:10
Bart O'Donnell, Carl Posel Jr., Joseph Fanif, John Scales, Doris Stern, Frank Tlo, Frank Vera, Charles Whan, and
00:42:20
Esther Wilson. It's so sad that that many people lost their lives that like >> Yeah, it is.
00:42:26
>> It's just It's really getting to me that there's no memorial. That's nuts. >> And these these are all like ranging
00:42:32
from age 20 to >> We have a 43y old, we have a 42y old, everything in between. >> Yeah, I think it's like 43. It's like 20
00:42:44
to ages 20 to 43. Everything in between. >> That's crazy. >> Yeah. A lot of 30 year olds. a lot of,
00:42:50
you know, like people just having fun. >> Yeah. Just young people. >> Like it sucks. They weren't doing
00:42:55
anything wrong. They were just there >> celebrating a holiday. >> Yeah. >> It's really sad. And I really hate that
00:43:01
it doesn't have a plaque. I think that that parking garage needs to have a plaque.
00:43:06
>> I think we should write to Mara Healey. >> I was like, we I was looking up how to
00:43:10
petition to do this and I think we are going to try to petition to do this. I just think it's right.
00:43:14
>> I do too. >> And I don't like that I didn't know that this was a thing. >> Yeah. We should learn about this in
00:43:18
school cuz you I mean you do learn about the coconut grove >> and like the molasses flood, you know,
00:43:22
like you should like people lost their lives in this [clears throat] stuff. We should know
00:43:27
about it. >> Absolutely. >> Especially you're just parking in a garage. >> We don't know that like underneath was
00:43:32
the sight of a >> I really do. It should be something else. That's >> We're going to see what we can do to
00:43:37
petition. >> Yeah, we're going to we're going to try to talk to Mara. >> We're going to get some get some
00:43:41
signatures and stuff. >> Let's go. Maybe we can start something up. We'll we'll get some information
00:43:45
gathered and hopefully update you next episode. >> Yeah, we'll let you guys know how it's
00:43:49
going. That's that's our new right now. We're going to do this. >> Yeah, we're planning a live show and
00:43:53
we're planning a memorial. >> Exactly. >> So, I like it. >> Fun fact, Play-Doh was originally used
00:43:59
as wallpaper cleaner, >> huh? >> Yeah. >> You just rub it all over your wall, >> I guess. So,
00:44:05
>> does it still work? >> I don't know. >> I wonder. >> Let's Let's look a little more into
00:44:09
this. >> That's an interesting one. Wallpaper cleaner. It was originally invented as
00:44:14
wallpaper cleaner. In the 1930s, Coutal Products in Cincinnati uh Cincinnati, Ohio created a pliable, non-toxic putty
00:44:22
used to lift coal soot off of wallpaper home. Uh when homes switched to cleaner heating after World War II, the company
00:44:28
re uh repurposed the cleaner as a toy, which became Play-Doh. >> Wow. >> Isn't that fun?
00:44:32
>> Damn, that's cool. >> So, it was like an accidental toy. >> Look at Play-Doh. I love accidental
00:44:36
inventions. >> I do, too. Remember eating Play-Doh when you were little? eating Play-Doh.
00:44:40
>> It was so salty. >> It Oh, [clears throat] yeah. I did. I remember. >> Play-Doh.
00:44:44
>> Yeah. And I just remember the smell. Really? >> Oh, I can smell it like right now.
00:44:48
>> Cuz like the kids have Play-Doh. So, I can still smell it. >> Play-Doh. That's crazy cuz you I mean it
00:44:52
was after World War II that they switched and made it a toy. And our kids are still playing with it.
00:44:56
>> They're still playing with Play-Doh. >> Like that's nuts. >> And it's so simple.
00:44:59
>> Yeah. >> See, it's the simplest stuff. It really is. >> I think high-tech [ __ ]
00:45:03
>> Oh, and I love when you got like the Play-Doh sets where you can like make it
00:45:06
like noodles. Yeah. It's like spaghetti. I love smooshing it through something. Let's go play with Play-Doh right now.
00:45:11
>> Let's do that. >> All right. Well, um we hope you keep listening >> and we hope you
00:45:15
>> keep it >> weird. But not so weird that you don't go buy some Play-Doh right now and smush
00:45:20
it. >> Yeah. >> Just don't eat it anymore [music] cuz like I don't think you're supposed to.
00:45:24
>> I'm sure it's not. >> It's probably fine, but like I don't know. [music] >> [music]
00:46:00
[music] [music] [music] [music] [bell] [music] [music] [music] [music]