The Hartford Circus Fire | Morbid | Podcast | Forensic Files

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

On July 6, 1944, an estimated 7,000 people, mostly women and children, gathered at the Barbour Street fairgrounds in Hartford, Connecticut to see the Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Baily Circus. Inside the big top tent, the lion show had just ended, and the Flying Wallendas were getting ready to begin their performance when the tent caught fire, sending the large audience into a panic as the spectators and performers rushed to get to safety. The tent, which had been coated in paraffin wax, was quickly engulfed in flames and by the time the fire was put out, 139 people were dead and hundreds were badly injured. In the weeks that followed, another twenty-eight would die from their injuries. 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.

Thank you to the incredible Dave White of Bring Me the Axe Podcast for research!

References Cavanaugh, Jack. 1994. "The Hartford fire, 50 years later." New York Times, July 3: CN1.

Daily Boston Globe. 1945. "7 Ringling officials held responsible by coroner for Hartford circus fire." Daily Boston Globe, January 12: 12.

—. 1950. "Circus holocaust, 4 N.E. murders laid to N.H. man." Daily Boston Globe, Juky 1: 1.

—. 1950. "Psychiatrist to examine youth who thinks he set Hartford circus fire." Daily Boston Globe, May 21: C29.

Davis, John. 1944. "Circus Fire is described by witness." Hartford Courant, July 7: 3.

Ensworth, Bob. 1944. "Quick-witted show folks saved many, soldier declares." Daily Boston Globe, July 7: 1.

Glaberson, William. 1991. "Our towns." New York Times, August 2: B2.

Hartford Courant. 1944. "113 children, mothers not yet located." Hartford Courant, July 7: 1.

—. 1944. "'Flying Wallendas' on high wire when flames swept through tent." Hartford Courant, July 7: 1.

—. 1944. "Negligence facts found says Alcorn." Hartford Courant, July 8: 1.

—. 1944. "Panic and blaze trap hundreds." Hartford Courant, July 7: 1.

—. 1944. "Thousands attracted by circus here." Hartford Courant, July 6: 1.

—. 1944. "Tossed cigarette blamed for fire by ushers, police." Hartford Courant, July 7: 1.

Kelley, Robert. 1945. "The strange case of Little Miss No. 1565 still baffles police." Daily Boston Globe, July 16: 1.

Linscott, Seymour. 1944. "136 die in circus fire." Daily Boston Globe, July 7: 1.

Los Angeles Evening Citizen News. 1950. "Quiz firebug suspect in '44 circus tragedy." Los Angeles Evening Citizen News, May 19: 1.

Morning Edition. 2007. Remembering the Horror and Heroes of a Circus Fire. July 6. Accessed July 2, 2024. https://www.npr.org/2007/07/06/11768511/remembering-the-horror-and-heroes-of-a-circus-fire.

New York Times. 1950. "Arson killer sane, psychiatrists find." New York Times, November 2: 47.

—. 1950. "Arsonist imprisoned; admitted 172 deaths." New York Times, November 4: 34.

—. 1944. "Children caught in frenzied mass." New York Times, July 7: 11.

—. 1950. "Some doubts raised in arson confession." New York Times, July 2: 27.

Ross, Leonora. 1944. "Hartford tragedy leaves cricus artisits staggered." Daily Boston Globe, July 8: 2.

Skidgell, Michael. 2019. The Hartford Circus Fire. Mount Pleasant, SC: Arcadia Publishing.

Smith, John Henry. 2024. 80 years ago, a gas-soaked roof and WWII created a perfect storm for the Hartford circus tragedy . July 1. Accessed July 1, 2024. https://www.ctpublic.org/news/2024-07-01/80-years-ago-a-gas-soaked-roof-and-wwii-created-a-perfect-storm-for-the-hartford-circus-tragedy.

Tuohy, Lynne. 2004. "Back to the circus." Hartford Courant, May 16: 69.

United Press. 1942. "Scores of animals killed in $125,000 circus fire." Brooklyn Citizen, August 4: 1.

Wallenfeldt, Jeff. 2024. Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus. May 31. Accessed July 1, 2024. https://www.britannica.com/topic/Ringling-Bros-and-Barnum-and-Bailey-Combined-Shows/Ringling-Bros-and-Barnum-Bailey-Combined-Shows.

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Brief Summary

The episode recounts the tragic Hartford Circus Fire of 1944, which killed 169 people, mostly women and children.

Key points

Introducing Swollen Doors. A humorous new segment where Ash and Elena discuss the challenges of swollen doors in summer.
The Hartford Circus Fire. On July 6, 1944, a tragic fire at the Hartford circus claimed 139 lives and injured many more.
The Cloud Ballet. A stunning aerial performance featuring dozens of girls on swings and trapezes.
Fire Breaks Out. A small fire ignites on the tent wall, quickly escalating into chaos.
Disaster March Played. The band plays a disaster march to signal an emergency without causing panic.
Molten Wax Rains Down. As chaos ensues, molten paraffin wax begins to fall on the audience.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

That's our guy, that's what he does!

Ash's admiration for her dad's bravery.

6:57WatchAug 1, 2024

Tension

85/ 100High tension

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