Episode 587: The Hartford Circus Fire

Wondery Plus subscribers can listen to Morbid early and ad-free. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app, or on Apple Podcasts. You're listening to a Morbid Network podcast.

Hey weirdos, I'm Alayna, I'm Ash, and this is morbid.

And I just waved at you.

You did, you waved at me, and it was, uh, it wasn't off-putting.

I didn't wave at you, I waved at the weirdos.

Well, that's the end of this episode. Because I quit, I'm done. She didn't wave at me, Fuck that, that was mean.

If it makes you feel better. I just knocked my standule over and all the ice shattered good.

Didn't spill on you, though. That was instinct, karma.

It was actually it would have been more karm, karm, karmithic, karmithic.

That's a great idea because it'll clang clang, clang, mm-hmm. Live updates with Ash and Bang, Bang, Bang.

Bang clang clang and bang bang, bang.

So yeah, bye. Um, what updates do we have? Do we have updates? uh....

We don't even know when this is going out, so nah.

We don't.

You should buy Alina's book, obviously.

Pre-order that book The Butcher Game. It's coming out September 17th. You can pre-order it anywhere. But thebutchergame.com has all the places. Uh, Barnes Noble, smaller bookstores, Amazon, all those places target.

There you go all of them. And by the time you're hearing this, we probably need another new TikTok, so go over to alinatothemax.

And go see that TikTok and, if it inspires you, pre-order that book.

And interact with the tickety-tockety with the tickety-tockety. It's fun. I did a shimmy, she did.

So it was a light shimmy.

Like, no, but like, it hurt right here, ooh, like under my armpits.

You're like, right here.

But I'm getting swole.

Swole.

Swole, swole, swole.

You know what else is getting swole because we've been in a humid heat wave, doors, all the doors.

Every door that existed on the East coast.

Every time you open a door in Massachusetts right now, it is like a it's like a crossfit event to open the door.

We had that problem at our apartment. It would get super-duper swollen in the summer and like, you'd have to, like, slam it, and then in the wintertime. It like, wouldn't like, latch properly when you closed it. Because I think it like, fucked up the alignment of it.

Oh yeah, that makes sense.

It's annoying.

So that's Swollen Doors with Ash and Alaina. It's a new segment that we're introducing today, where we just talk about all the swollen doors.

Look out for the next one.

You never did see, so today's episode is so sad.

I believe that.

It's so sad and it's a little local here, it's the Hartford Circus Fire, and yes, we're talking about Hartford, Connecticut.

I've been there.

You have been there, we've all been there. It's this is a really, it's from 1944..

Okay, so 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.

It's like the intro to all of your cases.

Yeah, unfortunately.

It's so unsettling, it's tragic.

It's all those things.

Horrifically sad. All of the above, yeah.

All of the above.

You're the realist.

I'm the realist. I never really liked the circus because 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, because I know one of my mom's boyfriends was like, let me impress this bitch and took me to the circus, like with my mom. And I'm trying to think, if animal....

Let's look it up.

Because, I mean, like, childhood trauma makes it so 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.

I feel like it was like, fairly recent. I'm trying to look, do you remember animals being there when you went to the circus?

I have.

Which is adorable. When your dad takes you, it's cool. yeah, when your mom's boyfriend takes you, you're like, Who's this fucker like?

Yeah, see, my dad did, like the he loved to do, just like the me and him hangout. I love that.

I'm just kidding, sorry.

It was great.

I will say, Papa did fun shit 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 point he did like the lights for the show.

He also did the lights for a Celine Dion concert. He did. And he took her in the 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 was a very, she was a very beautiful woman in person. she is beautiful.

I don't think I fucking knew that, yeah.

He took tons of pictures and he gave me all the pictures because I used to love watching the gymnastics. That's cool, yeah.

Damn, I don't know that, I knew that. Yeah, papa's the coolest.

He's pretty cool, he's done a lot. He was in a submarine, he was in, like thinking of him being in a submarine at the bottom of the ocean for like, months at a time.

Months at a time, actually wait. Can you tell the story? because I don't tell it perfectly, but how he hurt his back.

How he hurt his back. So the story is that my dad was, like, almost paralyzed in the military. Yeah, he was like, in horrible shape when he got out of it and some guy was about to fall down the ladder in, like the hatch.

Yeah, mom tells it sometimes.

But he grabbed the guy, and 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 fell down into the hatch. And he ended up like having to have like crazy surgeries on his back. He's got like a massive scar down his back, it's crazy, but he's like he walks around like it's nothing now.

I think he literally had to learn how to walk again.

And now it's like you'd never know it happened. 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 wave or something.

Yeah, I was going to say there was a reason that, like, something happened that like, jostled everything where this person fell. Yeah, but he was trying to help that guy out and he grabbed him. That's our guy.

That's what he does.

That's our guy right there, but yeah, so he's a pretty big badass and he did the lights for the fucking circus.

Have you figured out when they got rid of the animals?

It's kind of hard to figure out. I feel like it was always kind of an, it was always a thing that people were up in arms about. Yeah, like, it always became a thing. Where people were questioning how these animals were treated and whether this was humane or not, the answer to me is no, it is not humane.

Did you ever watch that movie? Um water for elephants?

No, of course, I didn't watch that movie. Yeah, that tracks, it would make me cry, and I don't want that.

Oh, I can't watch it anymore, but I watched it one time and it made me absolutely sob.

Yeah, see that, and 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 like. I 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 to cry, but there's like certain movies that I'm like, I can't cry. I can't have that kind of cry.

Cause it's a different kind of cry when it's like, gut wrenching and you're like, now I just feel sad.

Yeah, and if I'm feeling sad for an animal, I'm not going to recover for days, and also elephants are my favorite animal, so.

Yeah, so that's just that's all bad, but getting into this, um. On July 6th, the 1944, an estimated 7,000 people, mostly women and children, gathered at the Barber Street Fairgrounds in Hartford, Connecticut, to see the Ringling Brothers. And Barnum and Bailey Circus. After the Lion show had just ended, tragedy struck.

Oh, no.

Within 10 minutes, the entire tent had burned to the ground. 139 people were dead and hundreds were badly injured, and in the weeks that followed, another 28 would die from their injuries.

Oh my god.

Yeah, it was like a massive loss of life at the time. The Hartford Circus Fire was one of the worst fires in American history, and it remains one of the biggest tragedies in the state's history. Especially.

I believe it.

So in the summer of 1944, um, 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 elderly people in in attendance to this one particular show. In the summer of 1944, um, as the Allied forces were beginning to overtake the Nazis across Europe, Americans at home were just trying to find ways to distract themselves from the horrific losses of life. Um, you know, the Normandy invasion, the battlefields, like you were hearing all kinds of awful stuff, yeah. And among the more popular summer pastimes in both 1944 and years before that, you know, were the things we think of the fairs, the carnivals, like you think of those old timey carnivals and stuff.

And they were newer too, you know, like at that point in time.

And circuses that traveled to small towns and big cities across the country. And each year, companies of, you know, varying quality would bring their animal shows, their games, their you know, their, their various big tops. You know, all those attractions to town. And locals could just pay a small fee and spend the day being entertained, eat some carnival food, ride some rides, you know?

One thing about me, I fucking love carnival food.

Oh, carnival food is top notch.

I thought you were going to say toxic.

No, absolutely, it is, but it's top notch.

Also toxic, yeah.

Like, toxic, yes.

Try throw me the fuck up.

You will never John loves a fried dough.

Yes.

That man, I feel like I should just like for one of his birthdays, just have like. Several food trucks of different fried doughs show up at the house.

Obviously you're going to invite me to that, but if you don't invite me to that, I'm going to kick you.

I'm going to kick your shins.

I'm going to kick you in the shins.

And honestly, that's a scary threat. So, but yeah, so. But when it came to the circus, there was none better, and at the time thought, none better quality. And more well known than Ringling Brothers and Barnum Bailey Circus, which everybody knows those names, yes, so the Ringling Brothers and Barnum and Bailey Circus officially began operating when the two businessmen businesses merged in 1919. Oh, wow.

Yeah, I didn't actually realize that.

Yeah, but their individual histories date back to the early 19th century, in one form or another.

Oh, fuck me. Then I was like, Yeah, this was a new thing, everybody.

I know when you said it, I was like, I have a sentence coming up that's going to rock your world, bitch. But within a decade, the organization had purchased other traveling companies and kind of consolidated them into one large exhibition that they dubbed, What did they dub it? Everybody? The greatest show on earth?

Oh, wow, was it?

So, uh, the circus generally traveled from one location to another by train, because, I mean, train was the way to travel. And it carried the entire operation. The train, performers, tents, animals, attractions, it all came on the same thing.

I saw water for elephants.

There you go. Following the merger, the company employed over more more than like a thousand people at that point. Yeah. And they all traveled with dozens of camels, large cats, bears, more than two dozen elephants, and over 700 horses and countless other animals.

Those poor animals.

Think about it, two dozen elephants when elephants are in like, short supply right now, and two dozen of them were just working for the circus.

And just like stuffed into train cars, and just like, like, they're fucking elephants and bears, and.

And like big cats.

Yeah, it's like.

Like lions, all these animals are like, endangered now, yeah.

And you wonder why? yeah.

Now, throughout the economic turmoil of the first half of the 20th century, you know, traveling circuses and Ringling Brothers, in particular, became really important opportunities for short and long term employment. Like, they offered a lot of opportunities for work, and especially those who were desperate just to do any kind of work, they could take it. In fact, by the early 1940s, their power and influence was so crazy. That President Roosevelt, recognizing the relief from wartime tensions that the circus could provide for the American public, granted them special rail privileges. Wow.

That's crazy, I didn't know that.

Yeah, well, others were restricted due to military activities. So like, they got this special privilege to go on the rail, like just to get to these places. Because he recognized, Listen, everybody needs a distraction, that's crazy, like we all need to be entertained by something.

I mean, yeah.

Yeah, now, despite their power and influence, or maybe because of it. Ringling Brothers and Barnum and Bailey were often targets of criticism for a number of issues. That included, you know, their frequently inhumane treatment of animals, which is just proven. There was exploitation of workers, there was a lot of lax safety protocols.

I'm sure.

And while there are always going to be, you know, some amount of risk, especially around such a large scale operation like this, particularly one with unpredictable wild animals. You know, other issues, like fire safety, was something that, like, management, should have had better control over. Like, you know, you're going to have risk, you have performers that are doing very, you know, very dangerous things that you can't necessarily control.

You have performers tossing fire into the sky.

Yeah, and it's 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 you're never really in control. No, but when it comes to the safety issues, you know like they should have been able to control some of these.

Yeah, that's fair.

You know, that's one of my favorite little like, Oh, I have a funny little joke for you. Have you heard about the Circus fire? And now I'm like, I 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 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. But in 1940, for example, a fire at the Clyde Beatty Circus, a stop in Rochester, Indiana, resulted in the death of a majority of the circus's animals. Including And this, just this will destroy you. SiX lions Six lions died in a circus fire.

That's horrible.

And like, I'm not saying like that, you know, one loss of life is worth more than the other. I'm not saying, like, Oh, I know. Humans died, but, like this one in particular, the animals were the ones who died. There was no human deaths. But six lions, two leopards, 15 antelope and 100 monkeys all died in that fire when the fire broke out in the animal pens.

Oh, my god, like, that's a lot.

That's hard, that's horrific.

That's, oh, my God, that makes me want to cry.

And again, so many of these animals are fucking in danger, they're going extinct, and it's like, what the fuck, six lions?

And you said, more than 100 monkeys.

At least 100 monkeys and a similar tragedy occurred during a 1942 Ringling Brothers show in Cleveland, Ohio. And that resulted in the death of dozens of animals and an estimated $125,000 in damage. Damn, and that was in 1942..

Most Americans think they spend about $62 per month on subscriptions. The real number is closer to $300. That's literally thousands of dollars a year, you guys, half of which you've probably forgotten about. And I know I did, but thankfully, I started using rocket money, they found a bunch of subscriptions that I had completely forgotten about.

We are so excited to be partnering with Embark, the provider of the most accurate dog DNA tests on the market. And honestly, the best gift to get the dog lover in your life. And right up at the top. We'd really love to thank EmbarkVet.com for supporting Morbid. Go to embarkvet.com to get free shipping and save $50 on the Breed Plus Health Test with promo code MorBiD. You guys know how much I love Sydney and Blanche, they are the lights of my life.

Because they just figured they could just get more animals, just keep going.

Yeah, we're just letting animals burn to death, it's not a big deal, no big deal. And then tragedy struck in 1944. That's wild.

We should cover some more of those we should. That'd be fun to look into.

Yeah, that would be an interesting one. But and this is one of those situations that you sit there and you go, well, fuck, because things were going wrong. And that morning, a late start out of Providence caused them to miss their first performance of the day.

They call that a sign where I'm from.

Well, that's something that superstitious members of the crew said. That's bad luck, the fact that we didn't get that first performance, that's bad luck.

Wow, I mean, I believe it.

Yeah, and once they arrived, the crew worked very quickly to get everything set up. Including the circus's big top, which was a 200 by 450 foot tent with 15 foot high canvas walls.

You see me, me 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 fucking thing up in the air. That is going to be responsible for holding many women and children, elderly animals, fire throwers, like all that kind of thing. Take as much time as you need.

But they worked quickly because they had a late start. And when it was fully assembled, the big top stood 40 feet 48 feet tall and included the three rings for the performers. Two stages, a large hippodrome and multiple big seating areas, like big like balcony. Bleacher kind of thing. And that July, it was super, super hot, like now, retweet. And so the freshly cut grass, hay and wood shavings where the tent was going to be raised upon, super dry, very dry.

Oh, and that's terrible.

So that's not good for anyone to be breathing, so they would soak it to try to keep it dry or keep it wet. So with everything in place, the management was able to get the gates open for the evening show. And the next day, and that one went okay. And actually, the next day, the papers announced that audiences found that show to be bigger, better, and smarter than ever.

Think of that like in the 1940s.

That's in that kind of thing fascinating, totally. I'll watch people do that kind of stuff. I don't want to see the animals.

Like Cirque du Soleil kind of vibes, yeah.

Like those kind of things we were talking about this earlier, there's something called Cirque du Soleil, I think it's called I've never seen it.

Wait, am I fucking nuts? Or was Bridget in Cirque du Soleil? Was she wasn't that an episode of Girls Next door?

I know she was in one of the Cirque du Soleil things, but maybe she was, maybe I'm forgetting one, but I need to know if Cirque du Soleil is still around.

Okay.

So Bridget trained with Cirque du Soleil because I think she was in the particular one that was like, Oh, and it had like water in it. It's like, Cirque du Soleil. Oh yeah, because they have like different versions of Cirque du Soleil. I think you're right, like, they love and stuff, so we looked up some shit.

Yeah, truly, but somebody call Dave, I don't know.

Dave help. But there is something called cirque berserk.

And it's the one with the Z that we're thinking of.

It's got like burlesque-y kind of things going on, it's very, it's like spooky carnival vibes and that looks cool, and I kind of want to see it. There's also something I just saw called Paranormal circus or Paranormal cirque, and it looks really cool too.

We still have to go to that. Remember, it's like that, like abandoned fairgrounds. You covered it, like when we were in the laundry room. I want to go to there.

We do need to go to there.

It starts with an S.

It popped into my head and then left.

Me too.

Yeah, shawnee whoa.

You got at least that one that was incredible.

Hey.

I wasn't looking at anything you could ask, I was literally just touching my temple with my eyes.

She was touching her temple with her eyes closed and going shawnee.

I was like, It's there, it's there, it's there.

All right, continue with the story. This is giving old school morbid, and I'm loving this.

This is which every once in a while that is just, but yeah, so sounds like this was awesome, the cloud ballet so cool.

That's crazy, so cool.

And Victoria, Rieta and Frank, who hold a giant swing from their teeth while a young woman does assorted turns in midair.

Can you say that one more time?

Victoria, Rieta and Frank, who hold a giant swing from their teeth.

From their teeth, you guys.

While a young woman does assorted turns in midair.

From their teeth, from their teeth. I try to hold my keys in my teeth, which is gross and you shouldn't do that, and that is hard.

It's still hard, weird. But the positive reviews in the Morning Papers on July 6th was going to ensure that the next performance was going to be pactful.

Big old crowd.

And that next performance was scheduled to begin at 2 p.

Fuck a whole bunch of that, unless I'm, like, near a body of water.

I don't even want that I'm inside with the AC. Fair enough, all the shades pulled, too sunny.

If it's 90, I feel like you need a cloud in the sky.

Yeah, I know I need clouds, but the grounds had been watered earlier that morning, so they were keeping up with that. But by the time the audiences started arriving at the gate, around 1 p...m. they had dried already.

That's not great.

No, and it being, you know, the war years at the time, a significant number of American men were sent to Europe and in the Pacific. So that's why the audience was mainly comprised of mostly women, children and elderly people, right? Because, like a lot of men were overseas.

Oh man, that sounds horrible.

Now the show began as it always did, with Merle Evans big show band performing the opening number, which was the star spangled banner Let's Go and that, says. Ringmaster Fred Bradna led a parade of horses, elephants and other performers into the ring to welcome all the guests.

Cool, I guess.

It's everything you think of for a circus. Yeah, you know, the ringmaster coming in with all the animals.

Yeah.

And once everyone was seated, the opening act started, with dozens of showgirls dressed in flashy military costumes performing a lion-taming act. The opening act led into other animal shows, including Big Cats, Great Danes and even Polar Bears The Fuck Polar bears in 90-degree heat.

Oh, those poor babies.

That's fucked up.

That's fucked up, of course it is, and also fucking polar bears.

Polar bears will fuck you, You think a lion is scary? A polar bear is going to fuck your shit up just for fun. Aren't they just for shits and giggles?

They're also fucking massive, aren't they?

They're massive. Yeah, they are huge.

I don't need to see a polar bear in person.

I don't need to, I don't want to, I don't request to. So, as the animals and their trainers slowly exited the ring through a very special tunnel that they used to get the animals inside and out. You guys might recognize, people listening, might recognize this name, the flying Walendas, maybe.

This is essentially kindling on the ground.

So this was just behind a row of audience members seated in the bleachers. And from what he could tell, the fire was about five feet up on the panel and hadn't reached the ground yet. So Gwinnell ran to get the other ushers. And the three of them grabbed the water buckets, like special water buckets for fires, and started to douse the flames. But that didn't work. Oh, shit.

Oh my god.

They realized that the fire buckets were not going to work. So when they tried to pull the panel off, it was secured too tightly to the roof panels and they couldn't pull it away. Oh no, normally they could, but they had done it too tightly, too quickly.

Okay.

For most of its existence, Ringling Brothers safety protocol for fire was pretty simple, like I was just explaining. Ushers were tasked with monitoring the big top for any signs of smoke or fire, which would be like a dropped cigarette or a dropped cigar. And when one was spotted, one or more of the ushers would grab the red and silver fire safety buckets from under the front row of seats and extinguish the flames. In the event that they couldn't do that, with just the water in the buckets. The panel or panels would be pulled down or cut down, and then they would be smothered on the ground. Which, you know, if that thing was able to, as we see, if it's able to spread to the top of the tent, that's when catastrophe strikes.

That's leaving a lot to chance.

Yes.

Because also fire moves so rapidly and so unpredictably.

Oh, wait until you hear what this big tent was covered in. Oh no, for weatherproofing, oh no. So in the event that the fire couldn't be brought under control through either of those two things, either with the buckets of water or by cutting the panel down. Two ushers, or, excuse me, any of the ushers that they could find would evacuate the tent. And the local fire department would be called emergency responders, and they would take care of it.

I mean, you can understand why people thought that it's unpredictable.

Yeah. While the ushers worked quietly to evacuate the audience on the southwest side, one of the men notified the band leader, Merle Evans. And he was instructed to play Stars and Stripes forever, which is the circus's so-called disaster march.

Oh.

Now, the disaster march was something that signaled all circus staff and performers that there was a catastrophic emergency happening. Oh, fantastic in the circus and other parts of the theater industry. This is very normal. That song was a universally recognized signal of an emergency that could be used without starting a panic among the audience in a tight space. And so confusion, desperation, panic is not good to have.

Like, everybody that works there.

Without getting everyone upset, everyone that works there so that they can all jump into action without getting everybody freaked out. I'm going to need to play you a quick little piece of this. Because imagining this playing as what happened, like the tent is literally burning down around you or starting to, you know, is really horrifying. So this is what the disaster March was.

And the walls are just burning down around you.

As like, fire is starting to consume.

And people are like, running out of the tent.

And this is having to be played to, like, not panic, everybody, I'm panicked.

I'm panicked. But also, you can understand why people thought that it was part of the performance because they're still playing the fucking circus music.

And it feels very circus-y, very like entertainer, very like, you know, everything's happy, everything's fine, which, again, is the intent, right.

Like upbeat music.

Yeah, like, something like that is just so much scarier, I hate it.

Scammers are best known for living the high life until they're forced to trade it all in for handcuffs and an orange jumpsuit once they're finally caught. I'm Sachi Cole and I'm Sarah Hagee. And we're the host of Scamfluencers, a weekly podcast from Wondery that takes you along the twists and turns of some of the most infamous scams of all time. The impact on victims and what's left once the facade falls away? We've covered stories like a Shark tank certified entrepreneur who left the show with an investment but soon faced mounting bills. An active lawsuit filed by Larry King. And no real product to push.

But either way, they started playing this. And at this point, the fire was still contained to the west side. And the rest of the audience hadn't become aware of it yet. So there was still the possibility for an orderly evacuation. Which is why they started playing that. But as the band began playing the song and the emergency call began to register with the performers inside the tent, it was already too late. Years later, members of the Walenda family recalled hearing the song being played and scanning the tent from their position. Because they were high above the crowd, waiting to do their act.

I'm sorry, what I thought you said was gasoline.

Yep, you heard that, right? And paraffin wax two highly flammable substances.

I don't have words. Yeah. Also, a paraffin wax, I'm pretty sure. That's like what they put on your heels during a pedicure to, like, rip your dead ass skin off.

And it's weatherproofing, apparently, that's some crazy shit, it weatherproofed big tops.

What?

Yep.

Gasoline and wax.

Yep.

Why just get a waterproof tent?

It gets so much worse, too, with that wax. Oh no, because I don't know if anybody's anticipating what's going to happen with that. I sure am. But when the fire reached the fringe on the roof, it ignited in a literal flash.

Trampling.

Not the least of which are the live animals that are typically present in the tent. In a fire, a frightened lion or tiger can make this a lot worse.

Yeah.

Fortunately, when this fire broke out, the one fortunate thing. Mae Kovar, who had just finished her Lion act, had seen the fire early. And managed to get the cats and all the other animals out of the tent early, through that tunnel underneath the audience that housed the animals, oh wow, so she was able to, like, corral them all out.

That's good.

The people, on the other hand, were much less fortunate. Not long after the roof caught fire, This will give you chills. Not long after the roof caught fire, the generator blew so it cut the power and plunged the entire tent into darkness. What the fuck so?

And just flames fucking everywhere.

And flames, the only thing that's going to light the way is flames.

Oh my god.

Now, ringmaster Fred Bradna tried desperately to calm the crowd and try to get them orderly out of the tent and was encouraging them. Please move towards the exit in a quick and orderly fashion so we don't hurt people. But the power went out.

So you can't see anything.

He couldn't be heard over the screams of the crowd. Oh my God, because the power's out, so he's trying to scream it to everyone, but everyone's screaming.

Oh my god.

To make matters worse, and this is the part that I was like, holy shit as the paraffin wax on the ceiling canvas heated.

It's burning people.

As the increasingly desperate crowd of mostly women and children are rushing around towards the exits, large droplets of lethal molten paraffin wax started falling on. The fucking audience below.

Oh my god.

So they are now being pelted with lethal molten, like literal lava wax is falling on them. It caused catastrophic burns and only increased the panic, because now they're being rained on by essentially lava.

Oh my god, oh my God.

In the dark.

Oh my God, just to think of people like you said, mostly women and children and elderly people.

Yep.

Just piled on top of one another, covered in fucking paraffin wax.

Yeah.

Oh my god.

By herself in this situation.

I'm not kidding you, that just made my stomach flip.

She said I remember somebody yelling and seeing a big ball of fire near the top of the tent, and this ball of fire just got bigger and bigger and bigger. And like many of those who made it out relatively unharmed, she jumped down from the grandstands and was able to get out over most of the obstructions. And in the confusion, she was able to make her way to an exit. And she said, there was a young man, a kid, and he had a pocket knife.

So there are, like heroes in attendance this day.

Oh, there's many heroes in here now. Some workers and performers heard stars and stripes forever and came running, while others only smelled the smoke and followed it back to its origin. Regardless of what made them come running when they finally reached the tent, and this was like, people outside of the....

Yeah.

But when they finally reached the tent, none of them were prepared for what they saw. A clown, a well-known clown named Felix Adler, said I thought the menagerie fire in Cleveland was the worst thing I could ever see. But no one in the circus business had ever seen anything like this. Wow, now. Outside the tent, the crew and bystanders watched in absolute horror as audience members crawled out from under the tent. Walls attempted to break through the canvas. And toxic smoke is just pouring out of every crack in this tent.

And you're just hearing people fucking screaming.

Oh, and it even gets. It's even worse now, according to John Davis, who was a writer for the Hartford Current. He said circus men were forced to restrain parents from dashing back into the fire to search for missing children.

Oh, no, no no no no, no no.

Yeah, that's fucking terrible, because they were just trying to save whoever they could now. Meanwhile, other circus workers and performers gathered around the edges of the flaming tent to try to usher and, in some cases, pull people out of the tent. Until they were eventually forced back because of the heat and the smoke, they just couldn't stand it anymore now. Within a few minutes of the roof catching, the fire had burned through much of the wax and the gasoline-soaked canvas. And had made its way to the ropes that held the support beams.

Stop it.

Once the ropes caught, it was only a matter of seconds before the entire big top collapsed on top of those remaining inside. And, as one reporter put it quote, the shrieks of the dying and injured were muffled.

That's so dark and chilling.

It is haunting, haunting now. It's unknown how many people exactly were there that day, but most agree the number was nearly 7,000 people.

Holy shit.

By 2.

And this had started at 2, right?

And the show started at 2.

That's what I mean.

It took less than 10 minutes to burn the entire thing to 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 estimated at 136 people. But the total was expected to rise as hospitals all over Connecticut were just flooded with people injured by this fire. And, by most accounts, those who managed to escape the fire relatively unharmed had been in the upper tier of the bleachers and were able to jump or climb over the metal cages. And, you know, other obstacles that blocked a lot of the exits, so you were in better shape if you were up there.

Which is crazy because you wouldn't think so.

And like I said, the piles of the dead were found really huddled around those blocked exits or had been crushed by stampeding crowds rushing the exits. According to the press quote. Many escaped through the heroism of circus performers and refreshment vendors. We either led them to the nearest of 10 exits or through lifted sidewalls. And others did their part to mitigate the disaster by leading the animals away from the fire to avoid further tragedy. Because, again, you can't have a lion running in the middle of this crowd.

And imagine knowing like your loved one or your kid went to the circus that day.

And now you have to go see if you can recognize them. And unable to accommodate that many bodies, the coroner was like, we can't house this many people, like, I don't have this.

Oh my God, that must have been to have to.

I can't even imagine.

To have to clean up that scene and like, collect all those bodies, yeah, and go through them.

Children, like so many children attending the circus, they came to the circus like, that's what that's I'm like for a kid that's like the most innocent.

And so exciting.

And they were so excited, I'm sure it's the greatest show on earth, like, so excited. And a lot of these are like kids whose dads are away at war, too. And it's like, and the mom is just trying to take them out for a day to like.

Or their Oh my God.

Or their mom, or their dad.

And you're just looking across a sea of bodies.

Burnt bodies How do you identify your loved one?

How do you ever recover? Like, I can't? The PTSD people must have suffered.

Oh, it must have been unbelievable. Yeah, unbelievable. Meanwhile, local police were overwhelmed by reports of missing children and adults who were supposed to be in attendance that day. And by late that evening, at least 113 mothers and children had been reported missing.

I just couldn't leave them in this chaos, I needed to help this baby.

Oh my god. But by the evening time, they had still not figured out how to find these parents.

Tragedy isn't even the word.

No, it's really not. While countless state workers and volunteers tried to deal with identifying the dead, state and local authorities started investigating what the fuck caused this fire. To begin with. In a statement to the press, Ringling Brothers publicity agent Roland Butler told reporters he believed the fire was caused by defective wiring, resulting in a short circuit in the men's room near the main entrance. Butler added that, in addition to the human cause, the human loss of life, the fire also resulted in more than $100,000 in property damage. And the circus would be canceling the remainder of the season and returning to their headquarters in Florida.

I mean, I can't imagine anybody wanting to go to the circus after that.

The show mustn't go on at that point now. Despite Butler's claim about faulty wiring, there were other theories about the origin of the fire, according to Ken Gwinnell, the usher who first attempted to put out the fire, he said the blaze originated.

I wonder if they just didn't want people like hunting down this guy, and that's why they were like, faulty wiring.

Now, as police officials continued to investigate what caused the fire.

Wait, what?

The Circus chief of Police, I think they have their own thing to keep order. I couldn't find exactly what it was, but he was literally listed as the Circus Chief of Police.

But, like, did the police see them as the police?

No, I don't think it's the same thing. I shouldn't say no, but I think it's like its own thing.

Okay, interesting.

Yeah, George Smith, who was the general manager, and Leonard Aylesworth, who was the boss. Canvas man. Quote unquote.

I would not want to be the boss canvas man that day.

All four men were charged with manslaughter.

Just standing in your backyard.

17 tons.

I'm Dan Taberski. In 2011, something strange began to happen at the high school in Leroy, New York.

I was like, at my locker and she came up to me.

And she was like, stuttering, super bad. I'm like, stop around.

She's like, I can't.

A mystery illness, bizarre symptoms and spreading fast, like doubling and tripling. And it's all these girls with a diagnosis. The state tried to keep on the down low. Everybody thought I was holding something back.

Yeah, well, yeah, it's hysteria, it's all in your head, it's not physical. Oh my gosh, you're exaggerating.

Is this the largest mass hysteria since the Witches of Salem, or is it something else entirely? Something's wrong here, something's not right.

Leroy was the new dateline.

Hysterical Follow Hysterical on the Wondery app, or wherever you get your podcasts, you can binge all episodes of Hysterical early and ad-free right now by joining Wondery Plus.

Now, according to Ensworth, he said many of the circus performers were burned considerably about the hands and arms as they rushed patrons to safety. Children were tossed from Totboro bleachers down 15 feet to workmen outside the blazing tent. They're catching children being thrown to them as their hands and arms are burning, he said. It was early evening before stage workers stopped to have their burns and wounds treated.

And at that point, when it was all happening, they probably don't even realize that their hands are burning because of adrenaline.

But they're just trying to save kids, just trying to get people out.

And hearing this, like, imagine hearing that song.

Oh my God, I can't. That must trigger something just dark inside of you.

Probably send you right back to that moment.

So viewing of the bodies resumed at the armory the following day, and by midnight, all but 15 bodies had been identified and claimed.

Wow.

And the unidentified that still remained were moved to a facility with better refrigeration, and by the end of the weekend, all but six had been identified.

That's incredible.

Among those still remaining was a little girl that the press dubbed Little Miss number 1565, which was a reference to her identification number assigned by the coroner. That's horrific. Of all the victims, this little Miss number 1565 really stood out and really stood out to a particular detective, Detective Edward Lowe said. I remember when the little girl was brought into the state armory at about three in the morning after the fire, she was practically unmarked. A beautiful little girl with honey-colored hair.

Is it possible that her family died in the fire?

It's possible, and there is a little bit of a theory, a conclusion with that, so don't worry. Eventually, detectives came to believe that the girl's family had actually mistakenly claimed another child as their own. And little miss number 1565 was eventually buried in Windsor cemetery, and the moniker that everyone had used for her was what she was buried under. And ultimately, six victims did remain unidentified.

Stop it.

In his statement to the press, state's attorney, James Kennedy, told reporters he has evidence that the circus failed to provide adequate firefighting equipment or sufficient personnel to operate it. And that the 520-foot canvas tent itself was a dangerous fire hazard, having been treated with paraffin diluted with gasoline.

Can you fucking-?

Which is like, undeniable. Whose idea was that? Yeah?

Like, I'm sorry, but like, you knew that, that, like, Sure, that's, that's waterproofing it.

Yep.

But it's literally making it the perfect, the perfect spark for a fire.

Yeah, exactly so. Hickey's investigation focused mostly on the six ushers who first noticed the fire and tried to extinguish the flames. After hearing their version of events and visiting the site again with them, Hickey determined that they were telling the truth. But he remained unable to determine whether the fire had in fact been caused by a cigarette. There were also two stories that concerned Hickey. The first was from a food vendor who claimed that the fire could have been prevented if the fire extinguishers had actually worked.

I love it, I fucking love it.

I don't know why I love that.

Because it's spying, and spying is fun.

It's so down and dirty, detective 1940s kind of detective work, you know what I mean?

You see it in your head as like a movie.

And you see the hats they're wearing and everything listening to these conversations while drinking, like, a little, you know, stout, some whiskey, you know, alcohol.

Alcohol.

Now, by the end of the year. The Fire Commission had completed its investigation, as had the coroner's office, and both determined that several Ringling Brothers staff were quote guilty of such wanton or reckless conduct, either of commission or of omission, where there is a duty to act, which makes them criminally liable for the deaths, yeah. Based on those findings, investigators arrested James Haley, the vice president and director of the circus, George Smith, the general manager. Leonard Aylsworth boss, canvass man, Edward Versteeg, the chief electrician, David Blanchfield, a superintendent of rolling stock. William Cayley, who was an usher, and Samuel Clark, who was another usher, according to the coroner's report. Cayley and Clark, the ushers quote, left their places under the bleachers when it was their duty to remain there and watch for fires that might occur. The fuck?

Stop it, stop it.

Now, during his initial interview, he told investigators that he had been working as a rustabout, which is like a casual laborer with Ringling Brothers in 1944.

Oh.

But he had nonetheless confessed to a very serious crime, so he was held for further questioning. Okay, but Chief Charles LaMonda told reporters We're gone as far as we can with him. Psychiatrists will have to work him out now and I think we'll get the Hartford case cleared up now. Robert Sege continued talking to investigators. And by July, he'd confessed to four murders and also said that he had set more than 80 arson fires.

Nine-year-old cover up murder for that long?

It's an awful crime, I looked it up, It's awful. She was a nine-year-old. She was assaulted and murdered. And she was killed with a rock at a railroad track and was found with a clump of her attacker's hair in her hand.

What the fuck?

And it's like,-.

Did he go home with a clump of hair missing?

That's what I'm like. I wish we could have figured that out.

Oh.

And her name was Barbara Driscoll. It's really sad now, while Ohio law enforcement officials had already begun claiming credit for capturing a serial killer. And the person responsible for the Hartford fire. Because he's a serial killer. At this point, he's saying he murdered four people and then also set these fires that killed other people.

Hundreds and hundreds.

Many like the Portsmouth, Portsmouth. That's really hard to say.

Portsmouth is hard to say.

Portsmouth police officials remain skeptical of his claims.