Boston’s Great Molasses Flood of 1919 | Morbid | Podcast | Forensic Files

hey weirdos I'm Ash and I'm Elina and this right here this little thing you're listening to
[Music] morbid this is morbid I was trying to sound like Victoria White Lotus thank
you there you go I think that's her name Parker Posey's character I have no idea
I haven't watched that yet oh I know I don't you trying it takes me a long time for I don't know if it's your bag I
don't every time someone mentions it I'm like maybe yeah I don't know why it doesn't I love it and I it's like a
great show I would rem recommend I would recommend it to most I going to say I don't know if I don't know if you would
love it you don't know if I like it no I mean maybe I'll give it a shot and see I
mean go for it you like do it you're your own person you're allowed live your best life [ __ ] but I love I'm liking
this season and I was just playing Alina a clip of uh Parker posies interview where she does all her weird voices her
southern accent Tsunami Tsunami oh that was a good one that was really good thank you I liked that thank you so much
uh no Ash has just gotten me into Yellow Jackets so I'm almost done with the first season and I dig it she's not yeah
she's not current so don't give her any spoilers because I will come for you yeah don't give me spoilers I'm trying
to I'm current yeah guys we're in the [ __ ] trenches the thick of it I'm trying to get there it takes us a long
time to get through a show John and I so they're coming up on episode seven of the first season so we are there's so
many things I want to say I was going to it's really good though I was going to signify something to the listeners but I
can't I love Christina RI the fire of a thousand Sons I would lay down my life for yeah I love her so
much that's that's all I can say about it but um also um I'm sure we're weeks out at this point but uh probably pretty
cool that Tobias Forge was on the show huh do you guys understand how hard it was for both of us to keep that from you
so hard she right now you're glowing I'm glowing it was so fun it was so fun he's
always a fun guest he's delightful he's a very very nice man he is delightful and we got to have Doug Bradley on I
love Doug congratulated me cuz he congratulated Tobias on his success he congratulated Elena on her book and he
said I didn't congratulate you on anything Ash I said that's fine I just exist and he congratulated me on being
wonderful wonderful he said thank you so much Doug Bradley forever I'll remember
that for the rest of my life Doug and his wife Steph are two of my favorite people they they're just delightful
people yeah uh but yeah that was a fun little like surprise we had cuz Tobias and Doug are are there so cuz he called
him Toby through the whole thing Toby it was amazing Bradley's voice is the most
calming voice heard in my life very soothing if I I I need to be like like can I call him when I'm having a panic
attack you should be like Doug why not just like calm me down he reads books on YouTube oh yeah so if you ever want to
hear Doug Bradley read a book boom you know you next time I have a panic attack just he can just read you a story there
you go uh but it was a lot of fun we got to talk about the new album which has finally been announc skeleta um very
cool and I got to hear it hear a little bit of a flex real early that's a big Flex I'm excited
about you guys are going to love it and I can't wait to see everybody at the shows this year so we can all freak out
together it's got a different vibe but it does but it's so [ __ ] it's cool I think it's a really cool Vibe it is so
[ __ ] good and you guys have heard satanized so fun uh music video for that is awesome we got to see papa papa
perpetua and we got some inside scoop on that music video so if you haven't listened to that episode you got to go
listen yeah you got to listen little there's a cool fun fact in there there is Toby confirmed Toby confirmed if I
may it was really cool though and you guys have been so sweet the comments on that video so far you guys are just
really sweet cuz you know how excited I am about it everybody's just been really
kind and I appreciate that as they should be Queen this is a win for all of us so and you're all going to [ __ ]
love the new album and I can't wait to see you and hang out with you at the ghost shows cuz I love running into
people who listen to the show at those as Ador says party party let's go so that's really fun we hope you dug it um
2025 has been pretty sweet uh outside of the entire world's crumbling well you just I think it makes you in my own
little bubble it's been it makes you cling harder to the things that are that are good that's the thing it's like the
winds you got to celebrate the winds right now because like cuz they're few and [ __ ] far between outside of
those it's it's it's rough so celebrate your wins yes and also be excited about the things you want to be excited about
exactly I saw Elise Meyers who like again who doesn't love Elise Meers uh I saw her say something about how she
almost got embarrassed because she got very excited about something and someone told her to like calm it down [ __ ] that
she was like I almost got embarrassed and then I said [ __ ] that like I am very
lucky to be excited about things so I'm going to continue to and why the [ __ ] are you on the planet like what does all
of this even mean you're not excited so just like about things not all the time excited about things if if something
excites you and gets you going and makes you excited be as excited as you want to
be and don't feel embarrassed about it and don't make because if especially if other adults are trying to be like
you're so weird you're so cringy that means that they've never had something to be that excited about and what we
should feel is pity for them and sure that you are excited about the things you should be because you have earned
your excitement what are we all everybody's just looking for something to be excited about what are we on this
planet for if you can't get excited about [ __ ] I thought you know like get excited and get excited about whatever
the [ __ ] you want to I'm excited and I hope you all have [ __ ] to be excited for
yes I hope you do big small medium in between doesn't matter be I'm manifesting that for all of y'all yeah I
got a new couch and I am [ __ ] stoked about it get excited about it go crazy I just start jumping on the couch Tom Cruz
celebrate that you just slide through the living room in your underwear I just might I just
might I love it was that Risky Business yeah risky business all all the Tom Cruz
you know what's so funny I'm of the age that that just makes me think of um Rob's character and Never Been Kissed oh
my God yeah that's also a great one a great movie but wow don't ever think too deeply about it no definitely don't um
take it for what it is it's pretty horrifying when you think about it at SC yeah watching that as an adult for the
first time you're like oh oh my God romance in love that's so cool and then I watched it as an adult for
the first time like a few years ago and I was like this movie is dark as [ __ ] it
is it's dark it's a horror movie at its core it's a horror movie that scene at the prom when they're
dancing to the it's um it's Rasin Erase and Rewind I have been obsessed with that song
since I was like 6 years old because of that movie that's a DI diabolical scene diabolic the thing that's the thing it's
rough it's different but you know what some I'm going to talk about something pretty terrible right now well it is
morbid um so coming off of a really um sneakily horrifying movie We're G to we're going to go into something that is
equally sneakily as horrifying oh is it molasses what yep like gingerbread cooking masses like straight up molasses
we're going to talk about Boston's great molass Fest flood of 1919 if you've ever
been on a duck tour you know they mention it come on to Boston we'll tell you all about it we will oh my God and
do a duck tour it's so fun do a duck tour if you come to Boston it's it's a lot of fun it you get a lot of nifty
little history facts you learn a lot you do also do some of the W I'm not try we're not being paid by like the city of
Boston to do this I'm just like if you're those walking tours too my gosh I love those a lot of them are fun they
dress up like you know like they're from the period you know we about the yeah you know the revolution all the fun
stuff do it it's fun study the revolution this was not great at all uh and it's like one of it's remembered and
it's mentioned but I feel like it's lesser remembered and mentioned as we go on I didn't learn about this in school
which is pretty Terri actually the first time I ever learned about this was on a
duck tour yeah see and that's crazy the fact that we don't talk about this like it's a it's a wild story and it had a
high death toll this was a tragic tragic event that happened in I don't know a lot about it yeah it was it caused an
unbelievable damage to one of the city's oldest neighborhoods and it injured more
than 150 people damn and 21 people died including children there were children that died and I mean not you know like
in one life over the other but like it's awful yeah and again for for an event that's that was so like remarkable and
very strange like it's a strange event a Molasses Flood like that's weird it's still kind of unknown exactly what
caused it to happen it happened at the Purity uh the Purity Distilling Company um their molasses storage tank was the
one that burst and dumped its contents across the North End and it really is one of Boston's most bizarre pieces of
oh absolutely history and folklore to this day like it's so tragic and so bizarre Boston has like a lot of bizarre
history actually we're pretty bizarre we're bizarre Boston we're bizar kid so by the final months of 1918 Boston like
many other cities around the United States had been through it been through it that summer the influenza pandemic
hit the city really hard and there were more than 200 deaths by the end of the season um thousands more were going to
be lost before things were even under control it was really bad the pandemic had forced a lot of the theaters night
clubs and restaurants to close down we've seen that before we've seen that repeat Y and the city's cemeteries had
been forced to erect like circus tents essentially on the grounds in order to hide the backlog of unburied coffins
from public view yeah that's brutal yeah it was it was as though there was nowhere in the city that somebody could
go to just avoid reminders of tragedy loss and hardship it was not a good time yeah now in addition to the Calamity
caused by the flu the end of World War I presented a lot of challenges to those whose businesses had been forced to kind
of like pivot and reorient themselves to accommodate increased manufacturing needs of the military the United States
industrial alcohol company the usia is what I'll call them um for example they had been one of the nation's largest
producers of industrial alcohol for the military during the War years but with the demand for Munitions kind of
dropping in the final months of the war the usia kind of found themselves in a position of having to again pivot the
other way and develop new products and strategies just to remain in business now before the war a certain percentage
of USA's output was grain alcohol and many on the company's board felt that the shift back to producing grain
alcohol was precisely the type of quick pivot necessary to keep this company going at least for a short term yeah the
problem though was that ret tooling the Cambridge plant to produce grain alcohol
was going to take a lot of time and the production of the liquor itself took time and time was not something that a
lot of people had it was not of the essence yeah it was in short supply at that time the Constitutional Amendment
Banning the manufacturer and sales of alcohol in the US had passed both houses the previous December and was set to go
into effect in January 1920 oh no that meant usia would have just a little more than a year of production
before ceasing operations completely so they needed to get out all they could yeah they got to get out but the company
you know determined that if they could distill a sufficient amount of alcohol in the first quarter they would have
enough time to get it bottled and shipped out before prohibition went into effect thereby saving the company that
November USA's company secretary Arthur gel placed a large order for molasses from Cuba um this was going to be
scheduled to be delivered in mid janary anuary 1919 that gave gel and the company
enough time to retrofit the Cambridge plant you know like get it ready to do this kind of production to [ __ ] the
massive storage tank on Commercial Street which was on Boston's Warf and develop a schedule for round the-clock
production once the Molasses actually arrived now gel had been integral to the the operations and really all the
strategic planning of the company and had also been instrumental in guiding them through what was really like
uncertain in the war years like he helped them kind of stay the course so if anyone could pull off the temporary
re orientation of this plant it was going to be Jael maybe now to those who'd lost their jobs to the pandemic
closures or you know so weird to hear that it really is like history really does repeat itself it surely does and so
they either lost it to the the pandemic closures or they lost it for you know in
the downturn of demand for manufacturing the USA's new production strategy even if it was temporary was a welcome piece
of news to them because they were like I'll take anything at this point the retrofit of The Distillery and the
resealing of the tank meant dozens if not hundreds of new job opportunities were now arising which is great and
these were job opportunities for metal workers machine operators and plant hands all of whom were going to be
working like Round the Clock over time to get everything done on this like really tight turnaround timeline still
filling these positions wouldn't be as easy as it would be under normal circumstances because again the outbreak
of the pandemic had kind of Knocked Out countless ordinary able-bodied workers so it's not like everybody was ready to
jump back to work so gel was going to have to take what he could if he was going to have everything ready on time
he just had to work with it so already we're seeing like uhoh yeah not great to start out like that and I'm sure this
isn't shocking but unfortunately significant problems presented themselves almost immediately oh goody
the North End tank which was to hold the Molasses when it arrived had been pretty
hastily built in 1915 to meet the unexpected demands of War I feel like you don't want to hastily build a t a
giant tank yeah any kind of tank really no because of this when the metal workers from Walter fields and Suns
began cocking the seams of the steel tank the flaws were pretty apparent immediately according to author Steven
um poo I believe it's poo I hope I'm saying his name correctly sounded like you said his good name his good name I
don't want to ruin his good name Stephen I hope I'm saying your good name correctly uh so according to stevenh he
said quote molasses leaked from several different seams squeezing through the rivets and sliding down the steel walls
like lazy brown Rivers plopping onto the pl pavement below and spreading slowly into thick pools fun whenever the men
would hose off the Tank's exterior be of dark molasses would just reappear almost
immediately at the seams oh no we should probably empty that tank y'all yeah the
job was frustrating and pretty arduous as well but finally just one day before Christmas the tank was finished and it
was deemed ready for the Molasses shipment it's a Christmas miracle it's a Christmas miracle we can fill it with
molasses on January 12th 1919 the ship which was called the uh Malo arrived in Boston Harbor from Cuba carrying one .3
million gallons 600,000 gallons of which was going to be pumped into the USA's tank in the North
End of molass blink blink blink 1.3 million gallons came over on that ship damn 600,000 gallons was going into that tank
I don't think there's any way for me to actually appropriately conceive of that yeah I
just can't my brain won't conceive of it no it's a lot of classes oh on one boat
that came one ship it was like a big cargo ship Ian yeah of course but damn I know it's crazy uh so despite the
freezing temperatures and even colder windchill cuz remember we're in Baston in January honey it's cold the Molasses
which had been warmed in advance moved smoothly through the pump into the tank and by the following morning the
shipment was completed probably smelled so good in there oh so good like gingerbread cookies yeah exactly with
their job done the the ship left the docks headed for Brooklyn where they were going to deliver the remainder of
the Molasses now not long after the ship had left the Haba the Haba residents and
workers in the area of the warf began to hear some sounds they heard some loud cracking and pinging sounds that's never
a sound you really want to hear so this was a sound the warm molasses was mixing
with the cold thick molasses that was already in the tank oh now this was not entirely foreign to hear these kinds of
sounds because since being built several years ear earlier locals had grown accustomed to like some metallic groans
emanating from the tank as like different liquids settled yeah cuz it is a cold tank it's like you know you're
going to hear some sound yeah and especially mixing the warm with the cold exactly what the locals didn't know
though at this time was that the mix of old and new molasses increased the temperature inside the tank which set
off the fermentation process and produced gases in that process oh [ __ ] with the tank now holding a whopping
2.3 million gallons of molasses holy [ __ ] it was nearly at nearly at full capacity not even completely leaving
very little room for expansion and it couldn't TR it was just trapping the gases in this small amount of head space
remaining in the tank which is not good that's not good sometimes that happens with my sourdough starter and it sounds
like there's a gas leak in my house there you go Drew and I were literally sitting on the couch one night and it
was like I was like what the [ __ ] we literally searched everywhere we were like oh my God and it was my [ __ ]
sour day starter damn yeah that's scary that was very scary that's why I can't do sourdough I'm too scared there's so
many reasons you can't sourdough freaks it's feeding it it's the alen thinks it's too human it's that thing telling
you it's hungry and I just I can't I can't do it man so the first few weeks of January in Boston like normal had
been frigidly cold yep uh temperatures were as low as 2° but on the morning of the 15th as often happens we got a heat
wave they awoke to find an unseasonably warm day it's just suddenly like oh we're in spring now and unseasonably
warm for Boston in that time is like 48° we're like [ __ ] on flipflops babe holy
[ __ ] uh and oh and it eventually reached into the 40s I called it we were there a
true Bostonian that's it oh when it hits the 40s you're like you don't have to wear a jacket we're fine no I literally
stopped wearing my jacket sweatshirt yes we're just we're here for a light sweater day I don't know how warm it is
today but I've been rolling without a jacket it's gorgeous today gorgeous what let me I was just going to say we have
43 degrees it's 43 Dees and I'm like it's gorgeous I'm like oh my God it's also so [ __ ] windy out today it is
it's literally got like 90° 90 m per hour winds and we're like it's beautiful out yeah the wind gusts right now are 23
M an hour sorry 45 but we saw the Sun so there's that yeah we always look for that so yeah it's it's it's been
freezing in Boston but on this day the 15th of January it was unseasonably warm in the 40s
everybody wanted to go out huh everyone's outside because it's gorgeous and you got to get some air on the warf
the workers from usia the workers there began preparing for the days to come when the giant molasses tank would be
emptied onto railroad cars and taken to Cambridge where it was going to be fermented in process this was going to
be a big job so they were getting ready for it all right a little past 12:30 p.m. everyone on the warf was going
about the usual business loading unloading cargo Milling about on lunch breaks normal thing after such a long
period of freezing temperatures the warm weather you know like like we always say
it it's the 40s it's early spring here so like let's go and many of the residents and workers like we were
saying didn't want to miss a chance to be outside on such a lovely spring day CU you get so [ __ ] cooped up and
everything's dry and you feel like you just you get Cabin Fever that's what everyone's outside yeah like you like we
were saying everybody's outside it's a beautiful day then they heard the sounds oh God I can't The Sounds would freak me
the [ __ ] out these are loud scary sounds sounds it's like apocalyptic sound it's
awful and it was unlike anything they'd ever heard coming from the direction of the giant molasses tank later Boston
police officer Frank mcmanis would descri that is I'm I could not let that go Frank oh Frank
that's like yeah that's you know Frankie McMahon Ah that's my guy that's my gold
boy you know Frankie mcmanis obsessed you know he would describe it as quote a machine gun likee rat tatat sound and an
unearthly grinding and scraping a bleeding that sounded like the whale of a wounded Beast he should probably write
something Frankie McManus if you don't write a book Frankie McManus is a goddamn um that's [ __ ] terrifying
though cuz you're probably sitting there like what the [ __ ] is that did the side of
the earth just get cracked I just scared the apocal like the The Four Horsemen were on their way and they like what's
going on you hear the trumpets yeah oh I'm still waiting that idea scares the [ __ ] out of me that like happen
sometimes though the trumpeting yeah like people hear that [ __ ] I think it's all fake personally but I but I
appreciate it because it scares the [ __ ] out of me it's fake because otherwise
the end of the world would have happened like it's definitely fake but like the videos whenever they used
it was like we're hearing trumpeting in the sometimes people hear other things though that sound like it and it's still
scary as [ __ ] yeah no matter what appreciate how terrifying it is I don't want to hear [ __ ] like that no I don't
want that I don't that away from me uh Royal Albert Leman a Breakman for the Boston elevated railroad was driving the
train when quote his ears filled with the scream of tearing steel oh God Northend resident Martin clowery heard a
deep Rumble that woke him from his sleep Joseph Hiller was on his way back to work on the docks when he heard it and
he felt the rumble when he looked in the direction of the harbor he quote saw the
big tank open up and fall apart holy [ __ ] while the wall of molasses 50 ft high in the front rolled out over the
ground with a seething hissing sound 50 feet high and if you've ever baked with molasses goo just a jar of molasses it
is so viscous think of that and now think of like what that can do in it's like the blob it's literally
like a horror movie well and I assume like I mean it's rushing at you first of all oh yeah it's going to asfixiate you
a second you can't move and like you're it's like quicksand oh yeah you're stuck
in it think of how sticky that is and thick oh my God how I don't how did they even clean that up I know so later that
day the Boston Globe reported once the low rumbling sound was heard no one had a chance to escape oh that's horrifying
the scene on the docks which was very calm very Serene a few minut minutes earlier had been thrown into total chaos
and panic from his train car on the elevated tracks lhan who we talked about before looked out the window and saw
quote a black mass bearing down on him darkening the sky Jesus Christ just before he felt the tracks buckle and the
train begin to tip oh God in his bedroom on the third floor Martin clowy came to
to several feet of molasses and he said it didn't dawn on me that it was molasses I was in but it was already all
around me Martin he's in his apartment his broke through his [ __ ] oh my God Martin told a reporter from the globe I
thought I was overboard a pile of wreckage was holding me down and a little way from me I saw my sister oh my
God now the cloward's house had been hit by the Giant Wave of molasses and knocked from its
foundation oh take that in it had been knocked a house was knocked from its foundation so he like he came to where
like he was he was the whole house was sent into the elevated train line oh my God yeah Martin said it seemed as if the
house had split in two when it hit the elevated structure and I was in one side and my people in the other what the [ __ ]
the clar's house was just one of the many structures in the neighborhood that was completely demolished by the wave of
molasses according to the globe the buildings seemed to cringe up as though they were made of
pasteboard as Mary musco looked out her window and across the street to the clow's house she said she saw the entire
building quote fly into the air oh my God yeah you can't even conceive of that you can't conceive of it no like it's so
it's so gnarly what happened here moving as fast as 35 mph the wave of molasses that flooded
the North End devast stated everything in its path of course it did six buildings in the immediate vicinity of
the tank were completely gone just totally demolished flattened within seconds and one of the steel beams
supporting the elevated Line train line was knocked down a steel beam the Public
Public Works horses who were kept in the Stalls near the warf were either smothered in the flood or quote so
severely injured as their Stables collapsed that they were shot by policemen to end their suffering oh that
breaks my heart yeah oh I hate that on Commercial Street a man walking underneath the elevated train line was
thrown from his feet and sent several feet into the air before landing hard on his face and hands oh God nearby Charles
Whitby was driving his wagon down Commercial Street when he was struck by the wave he was thrown from the cart as
he had flipped and it sent him into the break wall and killed his horse oh my God a few yards from him two train cars
had been knocked from the tracks and thrown into nearby lamp post knocking them free from the ground so
the lamp posts are flying like this is literally catastrophic disaster apocalyptic just things F houses trains
cars flying everywh and it's probably not occurring to anyone in the moment that it's so they're probably just like
what the [ __ ] is this seriously like how it would never occur to you that that's
molasses what the [ __ ] is this right at the diner on Commercial Street across from the warf Robert brunette was eating
lunch with his with his family when the tank burst he said there was a rumble no
roar or explosion that's what he told the Boston Post and he said I thought it was an elevated train until I heard a
swish as if a wind was rushing then it became dark I looked out the window and saw this great Black Wave coming it
didn't rush it just rolled slowly it seemed like the side of a mountain falling into space Oh god of course it
came quickly but we all had a chance to jump and run before the windows began to
crack then it poured molasses holy [ __ ] like what how do you even like look at that
and what do you how do you even do anything I'd be like what is happening right now be Frozen with fear yeah he
grabbed his family and they fled the restaurant but by the time they'd reached the front door the Molasses had
reached the top of the 14-step flight of stairs blocking the only exit oh no instead the brettes rushed up to the
roof where they watched in absolute horror as the entire neighborhood was overtaken by this flood just watched
from a roof now naturally those closest to the tanks suffered the worst of the damage a freight agent at the Boston and
Worcester Street Railway company hm dorly was working in one of the sheds about 15 ft from the tank when he heard
the giant loud massive crack and the ground shook he told Weir as you're saying that the wind is going and
shaking the house did dorly told the post the broken parts the tank missed our shed only by a matter of inches if
they had stuck it well I wouldn't be talking with you parts of the tank struck other houses and they crumpled
like eggs how we escaped I'm at a loss to explain little short of a miracle to say a house cracked like an crumbled
like an egg oh my God be Kingsley who was a worker at the base State Railway was equally as close to the tank when it
broke um he said where the tank stood there was no tank instead was a mighty wall of some kind a giant wave of
molasses and it was sweeping rapidly down upon the office gaining momentum every second I turned and ran into the
outer office calling a warning into the clerks there so he and his co-workers ran for the exit but it was too late
because a 15t wave of molasses hit the building and sent everyone and everything inside flying as the building
collapsed around them Jesus it wasn't just those working under the tank or near the tank that suffered though as
more than 2 million gallons of molasses was tearing through the very narrow streets it swept up everything people
animals everything hurling them several feet into the air just sucking them down
those not in the direct path of the flood still risked being hit by heavy Timbers and other debris that was flying
out of this flood when the cloward's house was toppled by the wave Martin's mother 65-year-old Bridget clowy was
picked up by the wave and thrown across the street oh my God Bridget landed hard
on the ground and then a large piece of the homes roof fell on top of her and crushed her to death oh my God it's
Unthinkable you live 64 years and that's how you go out yeah Jesus the other so violent oh it's awful it's brutal that's
the thing it's violent and what's crazy is this is sometimes looked at especially from like out people outside
of like Massachusetts or Boston as like oh the cre Mass like silly it used to smell like molasses in Boston afterwards
on hot days and it's like that's horrible cuz it's just you don't but nobody teaches anybody about it so it's
like you of course it sounds it sounds hilarious sounds hyperbolic the name the great Molasses Flood sounds hilarious it
sounds like it would be Whimsical and smell like ginger bread it sounds like it sounds like something that would
happen on [ __ ] Phineas and fur it does it just sounds silly yeah it wasn't it was very very very brutal it really
lost people people lost people that they loved and in horrible ways yeah the Other M of the clarity family made it
out of their house but it would be several hours before they learned the fate of their mother oh yeah the wave of
molasses struck the area hard but an equally serious problem was getting into the area to help those that were
affected by all of this people are just trapped because it's also just like it doesn't it Harden after a while too yeah
get like crusty and [ __ ] office our guy Frankie McManus he was he was working his usual beat you know Frankie's beat
of course I know Frank beats in the North End and was working there when the tank collapsed and he was the first to
report the disaster uh he made the report from an emergency call box 1 2 3 4 uh mcmanis reported an explosion on
the warf and requested fire Crews to be sent to the scene immediately roughly 15
minutes later mcmanis placed a second call this time from a different call box clarifying that the explosion had
destroyed the masses tank and released the entire contents into the street there were apparently 35 people injured
taking Tak to the relief Hospital in the ambulances of the police department wow
and mcmanis reported at the time that a onean 67-year-old John cerick was killed
at the time uh it would turn out that this was just the beginning of a very much larger uh death toll yeah in a
matter of just 5 minutes the entire five minutes the entire North End Waterfront
had been destroyed so much properly demolished and so much lives lost like it's so
tragic now that evening after everything had kind of settled a relief station for
those directly affected by the disaster was set up by in Hay Market Square MH rather than waste time taking the
injured across town to those ambulances ambulances and other vehicles were brought brought the injured to Hay
Market where you know they could just try to set up like some kind of field Hospital essentially um basically and
how they described it was struggling men covered from head to foot eyes and ears
and mouth with black molasses oh my God they received treatment there for various injuries in at least three cases
the victims were so heavily Co in molasses that it took some time in cleaning before emergency providers
realized they were already dead oh God cuz they were just so heavily coated now further complicating matters was the
large crowd that had gathered at the relief station in the hours after the tank collapse as soon as the news of the
disaster started making its way around the city City concerned residents many with friends and loved ones who worked
on the warf showed up at Hay Market looking for confirmation that they were safe right one report said some of these
remained throughout the afternoon waiting for definite news and long into the night these relatives continued to
come into the station for information oh that's so sad to think that people went
that long without knowing what happened yeah now this is really sad this next one among those who were seeking hor
horrific answers was the family of and Antonio distasio two North End kids who had been out on the warf on their school
lunch break to collect firewood for their father oh my God just before the tank collapsed Antonio was crouched
behind the tank watching as his sister was reprimanded by two railroad workers for playing near the docks the last
thing Antonio remembered was seeing the horrified looks on the men's faces as from behind Maria distasio they watched
the support beams under the Molasses tank Buckle oh God Antonio recalled seeing something large moving out of the
corner of his eye and then everything went black now the children's parents learned that Antonio had been at the
relief station but had since been taken to City hospital for treatment no one at
the relief station had seen or heard from Maria oh later they would learn the horrific fate of their daughter when the
tank broke open Maria had been standing directly in the path of the giant wave and was engulfed
immediately she was 10 years old oh my God 10 years old and she was immediately asphyxiated by the Molasses the only
thing that you can say there is at least it was immediate thank goodness but that
she didn't suffer at all I just can't even 10 years old and what's even even sadder a few hours later a firefighter
spotted Maria's quote tangled hair swirling in a sea of dark molasses and he pulled her from the liquid it was
immediately apparent that they could not save her right um Antonio on the other hand
was the least bit more fortunate he his injuries were severe he had a fractured skull and a concussion my god um but a
firefighter managed to grab him and pull him out of the Molasses before he was completely consumed by it so like thank
goodness for those firefighters seriously straight up Heroes yeah police and fire officials arrived to the scene
quickly following the call from officer mcmanis and having heard reports of an explosion were immediately confused by
like a lack of fire right um but they immediately began combing the neighborhood looking for survivors
pulling people from you know the Molasses from ruins of houses businesses warehouses anywhere they were just
trying to find anyone that survived this meanwhile the fire department began blasting the streets with water hoping
to wash the Molasses into the drains but the sheer quantity of this sugary thick
syrup yeah you're not just going to wash it away yeah it just wasn't working they
got a little bit but it's like it's going to be tedious and it's going to take a lot of time right while emergency
responders worked to pull people to safety and removed all the you know dangerous debris from the streets
medical workers soon arrived at the scene to provide emergency treatment Parker Hill hospital for example sent a
full surgical staff and more than 80 medical privates and 10 ambulances to provide first aid wow in another place
near the North End the nurses from the Metropolitan chapter of the Red Cross wasted no time waiting into kneee
molasses to reach injured survivors they just [ __ ] incredible yeah and they would carry them out on stretchers to
the Relief Center or nearby hospitals for treatment led by Mrs Carlile Emery within a half hour of the collapse
emer's team of Red Cross volunteers had mobilized more than a dozen ambulances wow and those who weren't involved in
the transport or treatment of injured people still stayed at the scene to provide information and just Comfort
victims or to serve coffee and meals to Firefighters and police officials Community came together in a
big way um these those working in the areas nearest to the tank were obviously likely the most in danger both during
and after the collapse and after the initial wave of the Molasses had moved inward from the docks the men working in
the freight houses of the base State Street Railway company they they had been hit really hard the flood had hit
the buildings even harder they had Knocked Down the Walls they' buried several workers under the debris I mean
it was like the the closer you got in the worse this this became right those who weren't pinned down by debris were
stranded they just couldn't get out I mean there's like a whole river of molasses you can't go swimming in it and
they could really do little to help their more seriously hurt co-workers so they were just kind of stranded and
helpless right um according to HP Palmer who was an accountant with Bay State tides of molasses were rushing in all
directions and people who heard the cries of the injured and dying were prevented from going to their aid by the
Molasses ultimately axmen would spend hours cutting away debris to reach the injured just to think that there was
Tides tides of molass tides of molasses going everywhere and they're hearing screams of people dying and injured and
like they can't help anybody they're just all you're like being stranded in like a the middle of the sea surrounded
by sharks yeah you just can't do anything yeah although the wave of molasses had subsided at this point
Rescuers had come to the scene many people were still in danger of being discovered Too Late by surv by uh
workers rescue workers the firemen of engine 31 for example were trapped inside the station when the wave hit my
God it knocked the building in on itself and trapped the firemen inside oh yeah while several were able to pull
themselves out of the rubble several others remained pinned down by debris with the tide of molasses slowly Rising
around them oh my God that's [ __ ] yeah that's horrific you can't oh my God the the building had collapsed in such a
way and at such an angle that the Molasses was able to just flow in you couldn't even write that in a movie it's
crazy so the Molasses can flow into this building that's collapsed on itself but
the only means of it flowing out was a small hole in the side of the building and as a result the men inside face the
very real possibility of just drowning and M being smothered which is what would happen
unal as one of the few who had freed himself firefighter Bill Conor worked tirelessly to keep the others calm as
the sticky molasses is just crawling over every inch of their bodies and threatening to kill them yeah and he's
staying there trying to calm his co-workers and trying to help at the relief center suffk County Medical
Examiner Dr George McGrath worked slowly and methodically to provide whatever support he could later he would describe
the injured bodies saying quote they looked as though they were covered in heavy oil skins their face of course
their faces of course were covered with molasses eyes and ears mouths and nose filled with it like God that's so awful
when they say smother they mean you smother yeah McGrath and the other medical providers spent much of their
time just washing the injured with sodium bicarbonate and hot water eventually revealing their identity and
the extent of their their injuries cuz like people would come in and they wouldn't even know what they were
injured with because they couldn't see it cuz they're cated yeah the extent of the damage caused by the collapse of the
Molasses vet was far-reaching and honestly difficult to articulate at this point the collapse of many buildings and
the destabilization of the warf was a very real danger to everyone on the scene everything was destabilized you
didn't know if you were standing on something that was going to collapse but that was really only one piece of the
whole Devastation larger pieces of infrastructure like the girds of the elevated train line had also collapsed
serving as an impediment to the cleanup efforts yeah in the days that followed huge teams of men worked slowly carrying
debris away or pulling the larger pieces away with trucks but it was slow going once the debris had been moved a second
team came in behind the first to just look for more injured survivors in some cases Rescuers ared just in time to
prevent somebody from being overtaken by the m like literally their head and face
barely in the surface and they would just get to them in time and this would be like days of somebody sitting in
molasses oh my God waiting to be either smothered to death or rescued and just sitting there being cognizant about the
entire time that this could be it oh in the days after the flood the men working
to clear the area would continue to find bodies among the ref wreckage as well by
the 18th the death toll had risen to 13 as those who are the most injured in the
flood succumbed to their injuries as well a day later two more bodies were discovered among the wreckage and they
said they were so battered and glazed over by the Molasses that identification was difficult oh that's awful among the
last to be discovered was 17-year-old Eric lared who was a Teamster from Charlestown who was working on the docks
when the tank collapsed lar had been working in one of the freight houses when the flood hit and his body was
wedged so tightly under the front axle of a car that workers had to jack up the truck and saw pieces of the wreckage
before they could retrieve the body Jesus Christ 17 years old it's really sad now ultimately it would take nearly
a week a full week to clear away most of the large debris with men working around
the clock spraying down the neighborhood with jets of water from fire trucks and
nearly every hydrant in the north and was being used I mean it was just like the Molasses had covered several blocks
of the city in depths of 2 to 3 fet so once the syrup had been washed away large teams of men would follow behind
scrubbing every surface with stiff bristle brushes to try to get it all CU it's just sticky [ __ ]
now by the time everything had been cleared away the flood was determined to have caused millions of dollars in
property and infrastructure damage imagine injured more than 150 people and killed the following 21 people 21 People
Patrick Breen William Brogan Bridget CL clowy Steven clowery John Callahan Maria
destasio William Duffy Peter Francis flamino gallerani Pascal lenosa Michael cinate James Kennedy Eric leair George
Ley James Lennon Ralph Martin James McMullen Caesar Nicolo Thomas Nunan Peter shaunessy and John cerick it's so
sad we have I mean from we have people in their 60s we have a 10-year-old we have a 17-year-old we
have some 20year olds we have or we have two 10-year-olds Pascal lenosa is also a
10-year-old uh Peter shaunessy is 18 years old Peter Cate is 78 years old oh my God yeah it's just it's devastating
it is it's tragic now once the initial shock and Trauma of the event had subsided and this you know they could
survey the damage what everyone wanted to know was what the fu how the [ __ ] did
this happen what happened like it was it sounds like it was just built too quickly and they didn't know
that so everybody's like what the [ __ ] happened did an explosion happened Looking Back Now yeah when he visited
the disaster Zone in the North End the day the tank collapsed mayor Andrew Peters told the Press quote Boston is
appalled at the terrible accident that occurred today in the North End on behalf of her citizens I extend to the
families of those who were injured and of those who lost their lives are most heartfelt sympathy An Occurrence of this
kind must not and cannot pass without AIG investigation to determine the cause of the explosion not only to prevent a
reoccurrence of such a frightful accident but to place the responsibility where it belongs yeah now Peter's
statement was exactly what one would have expected from a politician in the wake of a tragedy absolutely but it
turned out that determining the cause of the collapse and identifying a responsible party was going to be a
little more challenging than anyone had anticipated by the following day the Massachusetts District police's
explosive expert Walter wedger stated he was quote strongly inclined to the belief that there was an explosion
rather than just a collapse okay according to wedger quote if there was only a collapse fra fragments of the
tank would not have been hurled against the elevated structure and caused such wreckage there nor would the vehicle on
Commercial Street have been blown to atams I guess that makes sense while the Boston police conducted their
investigation the usia announced they would be conducting their own investigation under the direction of
Arthur gel and led by professors Arthur Arthur Gil and Arthur Miller so many Arthur I love that it's just a committee
of arth Arthurs and they were professors of Harvard and MIT respectively I mean I
believe them uh yeah so uh a representative from usia told the Press we feel sure there was no explosion and
if there was it was caused by some out outside force and not from within the tank well it could have been within the
tank because the tank is so pressurized exactly that's the thing like it I don't
think there has to be an outside explosion no in the weeks after that the USA's investigation focused on their
theory that quote an anarchist climbed a ladder and dropped a pipe bomb into the
fermentation vent and that's what caused the tank to explode that's quite the leap just an anarchist like what kind of
anarchist gets that I don't think I don't think most people would say you know what I'm going to do today I think
I'm going to explode the Molasses tank down the street strange like I don't know how that would occur to you even a
strange message to send exactly are you trying to say now the thing is as we can
make we can be like that's silly business but it wasn't totally out of the realm of possibility okay because in
the early Decades of the 20th century anarchists around the United States did use bombings or the threat of bombings
to take a stand against anti-immigration politicians and corporations they believed were exploiting
workers so like we it's silly to like think about like somebody climbing a l his tank and throwing a pipe bomb but
you can see why they at least threw the theory out there yeah yeah because also they just don't understand how this is
all working well you got to start somewhere exactly um so usia attorney Henry Dolan said we know beyond question
that the tank was not weak and you have to remember they're saving their own ass
yeah cuz that's a whole they lie maybe it just broke and burst they have to blame it on something like an anarchist
cling thing he said we know that an examination was made of the outside of the base of the structure a few minutes
before its collapse and he insisted that whatever happened it was not the company's fault despite usia certainty
that they were not to blame district attorney Joseph Peltier took the Cur the case to the grand jury seeking an
indictment against usia for 19 counts of manslaughter clearly believing they were
to blame for the disaster I kind of get it on February 13th the grand jury reviewed the case and found that while
the tank did not completely comply with the law fixing a minimum factor of safety there was insufficient evidence
to justify the indictment um yeah okay simply put the court and the states investigators
rejected USA's bomb theory and believed that shoddy craftsmanship was at least partially to blame for the tank collapse
but that there wasn't enough evidence to prove it so they said no we don't think
somebody threw a bomb into the thing we do think there was some structural issues but we don't think there was
enough to prove that I would feel I feel like the um entire Molasses Flood should
be enough evidence to prove that some of those faulty bits there had uh like that that's all you really need
well and in the months and years that followed the courts would rule against the company in civil cases ordering them
to pay millions in Damages yeah so they basically yeah the biggest problem investigators had when it came to
identifying the party or parties responsible for the collapse was that it was impossible to say with certain what
had caused the tank to explode right in fact to this day it's still pretty unclear what precisely happened to
unleash that giant of an explosion though there were several plausible theories the most prominent and most
likely scenario and the one that investigators had considered in their early investigation is that the dramatic
increase in warm weather triggered the fermentation process causing a buildup of carbon dioxide inside the small head
space of the tank yeah and if the tank had been properly constructed and held to high standards of safety it likely
could have withstood that buildup of gases but in gel's race to beat prohibition he had allowed the tank to B
build pretty quickly and kind of poorly and under the circumstances the tank walls were unable to withstand that
pressure build yeah and when it became too much the entire structure just exploded I mean that's what pressure
does that makes the most sense pressure cooker there's two million 2 million right 2.3 million 2.3 million gallons
gallons of [ __ ] molasses in there so it's not like it just exploded and like some molasses oozed out it makes sense
that that much chaos exactly that that much like tragedy fell cuz molasses is also a thick viscous liquid if it's
exploding it's taken out everything cuz it's thick it's got some Mass behind it it's not like this is just something
with nothing behind it it's not like a water tank yeah like even and even that would cause damage like and you look at
how thick molasses is in comparison to yeah of course and heavy exactly and just think of a pressure cooker how much
damages those can do I mean think of it that's essentially what it was it was a pressor cooker I was just going to say
now when considering the entire scenario author Steven poo wrote my his good name
good name author Steven with his good name I don't want to mess up his good name no he wrote the substance itself
gives the entire event an unusual Whimsical quality yes allowing for it to easily fall into the category of
folklore that's you know like half told half seriously year to year uh in fact one of the more light-hearted facts of
the story is that for decades After the flood the North End still smelled of molasses on warm days and people will
say even now they'll be like oh even now on warm days you can just smell molasses
and it's like also you can't um but imagine how triggering that was for people who had
lost a loved one or like themselves been injured yeah yeah and that's the thing and it's like so
that was always like the thing that was like a funny thing like oh on warm days you can still smell the ELA so much
leaked into the landscape but like the reality of the flood was anything but humorous or whimsical it just wasn't no
uh because of its chemical makeup molasses like we said is real thick real goopy and given the right amount of
stress stress and pressure it can pick up momentum very quickly and move at insane speeds M 35 M an hour like you
you drive in your car at that [ __ ] speed Ferris Jaber wrote in Scientific American because of this physical
property a wave of molasses is even more devastating than a typical tsunami wow yeah wow yep like we said moving at
speeds 35 like nearly 35 miles hour the flood grabbed everything in its path because it was also sticky could grab
onto things Y and it would toss it into the air or crush it under the immense weight of the liquid itself and once
it's settled the liquid return to a more gelatinous state which would trap people
animals and property in like an iron vice grip oh even more terrifying is the fact that because of its viscosity it's
almost impossible to move much less swim in molasses right so if you found yourself dragged under the wave you
would have died a terrible death cuz you couldn't move exactly you were just being eaten by it essentially it is only
due to the incline of cops Hill that the flood slowed down at all like thank goodness there was an incline because if
the landscape had been a downhill slope the death toll would have been considerably higher it would have taken
out hundreds of people despite the horror of this whole thing there was some good that came out of it at the
time of the flood Americans were pretty accustomed to courts ruling in favor of corporate interests over those of the
people and as such most people likely assumed no one would be held accountable for the disaster even though the
evidence was strongly suggesting lack safety protocols and sloppy work but to everyone's great surprise bostonians
soon learn that sometimes the courts will do the right thing all right in the yearslong civil suits that followed
judge hi Ogden repeatedly ruled in favor of victims over the usia hell yeah frequently awarding more to those
victims whose suffering had been substantial too Ogden basically awarded $6,000 or nearly 600,000 today wow to
people who were killed immediately like 10-year-old Maria Daio cuz she was killed instantly so he would award that
to her family they deserve um and according to my my my good man Steven good man good name he said then he gave
$7,500 to people who suffered before they died like George Ley he was trapped in the basement of a firehouse in this
little 18inch crawl space and tried to keep his head above Molasses for 4 hours before he was expiated oh
my God what a horrific way to die horrific horrific you can't put like a price on that oh no you can't but the
disaster also had a significant influence on the realm of Public Safety both in Massachusetts and around the
country uh following the flood new regulations were put in place that you know a lot it did a lot but it would
also require Architects and Engineers to show their work and get their plans signed off on by building inspectors and
safety regul that's crazy that that wasn't already a thing that was happening my good man Steven said The
Great Boston Molasses Flood did for building construction standards what the Coconut Grove Fire did for fire
standards it's so wild because the entire time we've been talking about the Molasses blood I've been thinking about
the Coconut Grove CU that was also a devastating event that changed the history of Boston of course yeah now all
those who experienced the Molasses Flood firsthand have since died in these days
the story kind of rare comes up in discussion of Boston's history it really doesn't but thanks to my good men Steven
poo and local journalists those who lost their lives in the great Molasses Flood
of 1919 remain remembered today thankfully because they won't let them forget no
that's an important story to tell and it's um Steph P pello I think it is I believe it is I think that's what you
had said I I said it around I apologize if I said it wrong my good man stevenh wow we we're linking all his sources in
the show notes so you can definitely go go take a look at what he has to say go support my good man Steven with his good
name wow that is a tragic [ __ ] tale D it's a very tragic tale and it really is
interesting though wild that they don't there should be in Massachusetts at the very least it should be a whole section
in history I mean think of how much time which again we should we spend on the Salem Witch Trials because we're in the
area and I never ever learned about this teach people about this because it's also it's a good lesson in how doing
things quickly and cutting Corners yeah can lead to Absolute catastrophe yeah disastrous events yeah wow so that is
the tale of the great Molasses Flood in Boston well thank you so much for that as tragic as it was it was definitely
fascinating tale little yeah you can read up more about it yeah a little deviation from like murder which is
always nice yeah it's just it's it's a different kind of tragedy one that is interesting and needs to be talked about
more yeah cuz those people need to be yeah for sure but as always we hope you continue no what we hope you keep
listening and we hope you keep it weird you know how weird to keep it yeah just don't cut Corners no don't H whole
ass everything don't half ass things yeah [Music] [Music] [Music]

January 15, 1919 was an unusually warm day in Boston, a welcome change from the typically cold temperatures Bostonians had experienced in the previous days. A little after 12:30 pm, the residents of the city’s North End neighborhood were going about their usual routines when all of the sudden they felt the ground shake, followed by a loud rumbling roar, as though the train had gone off the tracks. Then, without warning, a wave of molasses—reportedly fifty feet high—flooded the neighborhood with more than 2.5 million gallons of syrup, destroying buildings, toppling the nearby elevated train line, and killing twenty-one people.

One of the lesser told and remembered stories in Boston’s history, the great molasses flood of 1919 caused untold damage to one of the city’s oldest neighborhoods and injured more than 150 people, in addition to the twenty-one dead. Yet for an event so remarkable and strange, it is still unknown precisely what caused the Purity Distilling Company’s molasses storage tank to burst and dump its contents across the North End, making it one of Boston’s most bizarre pieces of folklore.

Thank you to the Incredible Dave White of Bring Me the Axe Podcast for research and Writing support!

References Boston Daily Globe. 1919. "Death toll from tank disaster 13." Boston Daily Globe, January 18: 1.

—. 1919. "Martin Clougherty awoke in a sea of sticky molasses." Boston Daily Globe, January 16: 7.

—. 1919. "Molasses tank explosion injures 50 and kills 11." Boston Daily Globe, January 16: 1.

—. 1919. "No Bill returned in tank disaster." Boston Daily Globe, February 13: 3.

—. 1919. "Official police report of North End disaster." Boston Daily Globe, January 16: 7.

—. 1919. "Scenes of anguish at relief station." Boston Daily Globe, January 16: 7.

Buell, Spencer. 2019. "Anarchists, horses, heroes: 12 things you didn't know about the Great Boston Molasses Flood." Boston Magazine, Janaury 12.

Daily Boston Globe. 1919. "Explosion theory favored by expert." Daily Boston Globe, January 16: 1.

—. 1919. "Mayor appalled, promises probe." Daily Boston Globe, January 16: 1.

Dwyer, Dialynn. 2019. "What people saw and felt in the first moments of Boston's dead Great Molasses Flood." Boston Globe, January 13.

Jabr, Ferris. 2013. "The science of the Great Molasses Flood." Scientific American, August 1.

Park, Edwards. 1983. "Without warning, molasses surged over Boston 100 years ago." Smithsonian Magazine, November 1.

Puleo, Stephen. 2004. Dark Tide: The Great Boston Molasses Flood of 1919. Boston, MA: Beacon Press.

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Brief Summary

The episode recounts the Great Molasses Flood of 1919, detailing its causes, chaos, and tragic human stories.

Key points

Celebrating Wins in Tough Times. In a world full of challenges, it's crucial to celebrate the small victories.
The Horrifying Molasses Flood. Exploring the bizarre and tragic event of the Boston Molasses Flood of 1919.
A Warm Day in January. A sudden heatwave in January led to disastrous consequences for a molasses tank.
Unseasonably Warm Day in Boston. On January 15th, Boston experienced an unusually warm day, prompting residents to enjoy the outdoors.
The Sounds of Disaster. Residents heard terrifying sounds from the molasses tank, signaling impending chaos.
The Molasses Wave. A massive wave of molasses swept through the North End, causing destruction and panic.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

Celebrate your wins right now because they're few and far between.

4:49WatchMar 24, 2025

Tension

75/ 100High tension

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