Remembering the Victims and Memorialization

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Upfront payment of forty five dollars for three month plan, equivalent to fifteen dollars per month required. intntro rate first three months only, then full price plan options available. taxes and fees extra. Feful terms at mintmobile dot comot Mom, can you tell me a story? Sure. Once upon a time, a mom needed a new car. Was she brave? She was tired, mostly But she went to carvana dot com and found a great car at a great price, no secret treasure map required. Did you have to find a dragon? Nope, She bought it one hundred percent online from her bed actually. Was it scary? Honey, it was as unscary as carbine could be. Did a car have a sunroof? It did actually. Okay, good story. Carbineing you'll want to tell stories about. Buy your car today, on Delivery fees may apply. Hey, weirdos, I'm Elena. I'm Ash, and this is Morbid Yay And you know what's crazy? We don't have any business. No business No real business. No. and I sound more like a real person this time. Yeah. You know somebody literally said who narrated the last one And the thing is, this is why you need to listen to the beginning of the episode. because I told you This is where we tell you if one of us is sick, we might sound a little weird or like You know, I just love someone I was like, who the fuck was Ls like I'm sorry, okay I know. I don't know to tell you. And I think somebody else was like what happened to Ash's voice? And I was like, if you listen to the beginning, we said it. Well like babes, only so many things can happen. Yeah. I don't know. Ursula visited me in the night in tok it like was Listen to the beginning.. It's just us chatting with you. It's us trying to catch up with you. That's all I is. you're just going on. T trying to connect But that's all. We won't connect to this time because there's no business. I'm not sick. No anymore. J hot. The only thing I can say is get tickets to the live show while they're available. M they're hot Radio City music called june twenty seventh For some reason, I keep saying like, get it while it's hot And I keep thinking of exing this c thing. Get it well, it's hot. And it's one of the most fringy clips ever becausecause it's when she's dressed It's like a perusion. and is she buildolding the The McDonalds McDonald's right? Yeah. Get it while it's Hot. I don't know why. It's been like my vocal stem lately. I love that a lot. So get them whileather H U and picture us in Beracing. Yeah, do that. and preordder the Butcher Legacy. Yeah, get that whileall it's hot. whileile it's hot. do it. It's great It's I promise That's my guarantee That's great. Guaranteed great. It's a great You should put that on the cover. little P period to the trilogy. I like it. so so go. Not an ellipses, a period. Okay. tririlogy. Okay id't say to the series. Okay the trilogy. All right, I see what you're doing. It's its own little story. I like that. Yeah. All right, but that's it. So here we are. We're going to start All right today we're going to talk about somethinghing that needs to be taught to more people This thing that happened, especially people in Massachusetts because I didn't know about this and I was like, hi born and raised Am I gonna know about this? What? No, abbsolutely not. Okay. Beause like I don't think most people don't know. Yeah. becausecause the other thing about this, we're talking about the Pickwick Club disaster. and There's also what I found out at the end was there's no plaque or memorial for this. What the hell? Yeah, so I think we need to try to M that happen because I feel like it needs to happen. Yeah. a lot of people. Be even you're saying that I don't think I've heard of that. And I think that's why a lot of people don't know about it is because there's nothing no no that existed at all. That's really shitty So we need to make that happen. Yeah. I love you Boston. Let's do this. Let's do it. we'll try. For the coconut Grove fire. Yeah there is a memorial. Yeah. And like if you take a duck tour they talk about the coconut Grove, but I don't think they talk about the pickwick. There was a lot of people who died in this and it was pretty rough. Oh no. Yeah. again, I have not heard of this. Yeah, so let's begin, shall we?. On Beach Street in Boston's theater district. There. In nineteen twenty four, Hyman Bloomberg found himself Trying to sell off a now defunct Cafe Drefus What's a cafe, Drafus So the Cafe Drefus was a clerb. was. It was like a place where you could gather in nineteen twenty four. Okay. It was actually kind of like a speakeasyish kind of thing because we were on I the twenties? And it had closed amidst like kind of skin doll. And some legal issues. I don't love legal issues stuff going on. So after finding trouble getting anyone to bite at the building A man named Timothy Barry expressed interest. He said, I want to rent the first floor this place. And Barry told Bloomberg he and several of his investors were interested in opening a new social club. Social clerb? Social Cur wherey chat where you become social and have a little drink And they were only waiting on the city to approve their charter. So they wanted the building. And desperate for a tenant, Bloomberg wasn't in the position to turn anyone away. so he was like, hell, yeah, you can take that space. Okay. Now the Pickwick Club, social club opened in April and occupied the first floor, again, what had once been Cafe Drefus It's unknown whether Hyman Bloomberg knew anything about his newutant before he offered Barry police. Oh no. But if he did, he probably wouldn't ve been so eager. pererhaps In nineteen twenty four, Timothy Berry was, according to author, John Keefe known as quote A man who had many friends in bost in political, legal and newspaper circles. In other words, he was a man tower strongly suspected of having ties to organized crime Oh. Now Oing the business at the height of the prorohibition era The Pickwick was officially a social club, quote unquote, because those were like official things. Okay. But in truth It was really a spepeak easasy. Okay L it was a Speak easasy. Yeah. In fact, as a social club, the Pickwick, like by definition as a social club was supposed to have strict rules for membership. That's what a social club had. I'm obsessed. But in reality, anyone could get in. I love that. As long as they knew what to say to the man at the door topoping which is spe Easy. I'm so obsessed with that. Now ever been to a Speak Easy? Yes I so much fun speakey. It's just it's got such a vibe. That's the thing. L it feels dangerous. We're like like not great for, like many people. Mh, not great. Uh, The vibe though The aesthetic aesthetic honey. That's all I say when I say I love the twenties. Yeah. I don't wantan to be there. No. I want to visit I want I want us to like dress like we're in the twenties again and for places to look like we're in the twenties. That's what I want. But to have modern day respect and understanding of community and culture. I want what that's exactly what I want. I want what we thought the two twenties was gonna be. Remember when we all entered twenty twenty and we said It's the Rar and twenties. You sent a shiver down my spine. And we all said, I'm so excited. It's the Rar and twenties back again. Yeah. And then all of a sudden COVID was like, fuck y'all. Literally. I wantan to do that. I want tona do the original things like we want because that sucked. Yeah. But yeah, the nineteen twenties, the aesthetic is just Barnard, Chef'scy, the best the dress And the hairstyle, the way men dressed. Oh my God, I know. I can't get over it. I love it. I don't love the makeup, I will say It depends. I don't hate it. I don't like the eyebrows. The eyebrows leave something to be desied. I really don't like the eyebrows. But for someone with Really light eyebrows that are like sparse. Yeah, I think I would do okay. All right. 'use I really have to fillm mine in. You have good eyebrows. So I feel like thank you. I fill them in. Good. They look good. I wouldn't have to in the twenties. That's true. to draw a lines. It's literally just a line. Wh so And it expands a lot of your forehead. Hell yeah Now at first, the pickwick garnered little attention from anyone outside of the neighborhood. Then in january of nineteen twenty five, the club appeared in the headlines for the first time When a police raid turned up dozens of cases of rum, whiskey, and gin hidden in the basement. Yikes. They arrested the bartender, Max Malmatt. and shut the place down for a few days. But by early February, Max got off with a small fine and the pickwake opened its doors for business again Now the pickway and I feel like that probably gave it like a little bit of like a Yeah, dust off your shoulder. Exactly. It was like, o, okay The Pickwick Club wasn't that different from the countless other speakeasies in Boston at the time But after having been raided and found to be serving alcohol All of a sudden they jumped very quickly to the top of the Boston Police and Licensing Commission's list of establishments to keep A nice eye on for that year. But doesn't that guy have a little connection? He does. All right. sure does. Now, in fact, just hours after Max paid his fine at the courthouse, the Boston police arrived at the pickwick to undertake another raid Oh, that's not cool. That isn't cool. He just paid. Give him a second.. let him live. This time though, things would not go as smoothly as they had on the previous occasion. When they entered the club and announced themselves, the entire room erupted into chaos. Oh my go. By the time the whole thing came to an end, nine men were arrested on charges of public drunkenness. and one man, twenty nine year old William FitzHenry, was arrested for assaulting an officer. Dam, of course, William Fitzenry was arrested for assaulting Fitz Henry in Boston' assaulting a policeer. He's assaulting a police officer to this day. so bost Fith with Henry is the most Fuckking Irish name. Boston name I could ever hear. Now, according to the Boston Globe, Kid when the police dropped in unexpectedly at the club, there was considerable excitement And that while the excitement was at its height, FitzHenry struck the officer, knocking him down and almost rendering him uncomous. If there's one thing Fitz Henry iss gonna to do, it's knock your asset. That's one thing.. Less than a month later, the pickwick was back on the front pages when a group of drunk young men led police on a two mile car chase. Through Boston's narrow winding streets, u of the pursuing officers managed to force the car off the road and take them into custody. They had all been drinking at the pickwick prior to getting in the car. And a few days after that, police were called to the club to the club to and fight broke out. They said everybodydy in the cls fight ting. They are. Now, the police had been called by a nurse from the Haymarket relelief station after she treated a man who told her He'd been stabbed in the leg during a brawl at the Pickwick. Tim, the pickwick is not The pickwick goes crazy. The pickwick does not fuck around. When the officers arrived at the pickwick, they entered to find a room full of drunk and very belligerous. I don't know why this is It just is because it's so fucking Boston. It's just so Boston. Like this part is funny because it's just Chaos. It just everybody drank it. Yeah. It's just pure just She cananery. I love it. so they come in, they find a bunch of drug belligerent men who are in no mood to see, much less talk to the police According to the police report, one of the officers told the men to beat it But no one made an attempt to leave. They alost just stared at him. They were like, fuck I said, you beat it, bitch. You beat it. Why you in here? Youat Fustrated. One of the officers attempted to arrest one of the drunk men, which is when the scene just exploded into what the press described as, quote a small riot in the Pickwick club. Oh no. As one of the officers grappled with the drunk men The other ran down the street to the Dareres precinct for reinforcements and the scene was brought into order a short time later.. But with so many incidents in less than a year. Yeah. This is all less than a year. That's the craziest thing. The Pickwick had started to gain a reputation with the public. I say so. Maybe a little seedy. Yeah, maybe a little Tough spot. ill repute, you know, mayaybe. It ever. What have you? One reporter wrote, Many people have regarded it as sort of an underworld social center. Obsessed. A place where bandits and their girlfriends might gather after the evening's work was over Sign me, the fuck I so, do you try to keep people away? Sign me up.ite be it's in their girlfriends. Here's the thing. When I was like twelve years old, I literally wanted to be a mob wife. I used to watch mobwives and I said Someday I will grow up and be Dreita toanzo. Yeah. So back then, o yeah. before my frontal lobe was developed before the frontal lobe was developed and you realizeed what that me. back then I would have loved this. Yeah. I would have abanded itss girlfriend. Now some of this reputation definitely came from the numerous times that the club's name had appeared in the papers Yeah with arrests and criminal activity. but at least a small portion of it was likely the result of the rumors of Timothy and Daniel Berry's connections to organized crime figures as well Whatever the case though, the reputation and the frequent visits from the BPD started to take a toll on the Pickwick's profits And in March, Barry announced the club was going to be shutting its doors for good. Or no Now the Picky cllub did in fact shut down in March. the entire closure Kind of looks like it was like a little bit of theater. Was it a ruse? It looks like it was a little bit of theatater. Oh just theanta district the theanta District maybe to rehab the club's image and kind of like buff the attention of local la enforcement. Okay Just a few weeks after the club supposedly closed for good. a new establishment, the Greenwich Village Club opened in its place. Okay with a large number of invitations going out to prominent members of the community. in reality This was just a facade to hide the fact that the Pickwick Cub had simply moved to the second floor. And guests who appeared to be visiting the Greenwich Village Club were in fact going to the Pickwick cllub. I'm so obsessed with this. L it's so shady. You love a ruse. Now, unfortunately for the patrons of the new Pickwick cllub The second floor of the building had no restrooms So clubgers had to either go to the first or third floor to go to the bathroom. Okay. And at some point in late March, a fire broke out at the taillor shop that was on the third floor. Oh no. The fire caused a lot of damage to the upper floors and required about three thousand gallons of water to put out holy shit. Fortunately, the first and second floors of the building were relatively unharmed. So the pickwick club was able to remain open. Okay. That said, the firefighters had to chop large holes. I Almost becausecause we're talking about Boston, I feel like my I almost just said lodge holes. Lge holes. But I've curbed it for this podcast. L I feel like talking. I know. I've trained myself not to be like full. But you can that this one feels like I'm like chop Lodge holle. You have to. it's the ambiance. It just feels right Firefighters had to chop large holes. They just did in various parts of the floor just to allow the water to drain properly into the basement. Okay. A few weeks later, Timothy Berry hired a carpenter to just patch over the holes so the club could reopen. I feel like we could have done better than that. Now the Greenwich Village Cub never reopened after the fire, and the tailor whose shop had the started the fire had moved elsewhere, leaving the Pickwick Cub the only business in the building in the summer which is like, all right, let's go. Yeah. 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That's betteretterhelp hLp dot com slash morbid Chilling crime cases are mysterious, but finding coverage shouldn't be With the state Farm persononal price plan, you have options and can personalize your plan to help create an affordable price. So you can get back to cracking all of life's bigger cases Talk to a state fararm agent today to learn how you can choose to bundle and save with the personal price plan. Like a good neighbor, state Farm is there. Head to statefarm d. com to get a quote Prices are based on rating plans that vary by state, coverage options are selected by the customer, availability, amount of discounts and savings, and eligibility vary by state Now on the evening of july fourth, it was like july third into july fourth nineteen twenty five. The Pickwick Club opened its doors for the before the fourourth dance. Okay being held that evening in celebration of you guessed it, Independence Day. Almarika's birthday. Yeah. Hving Almarica. haaving hired a five piece orchestra and freshly decorated for the occasion. That doesn't sound seedy at all. No, Barry expected a large crowd that evening. and once the evening got going His expectations were exceeded. o? It was just to the Gills Bustling. Now that evening, twenty nine year old Maay Lawson was out on a date with John Owen and things were going well. Hell yeah. What John told reporters later was Mrs. Lawson had recently separated from her husband. They hadn't been married very long. And she was broken hearted, and I knew she liked to dance, and I urged her to accompany me to the club. Oh no. Now John wasn't much of a dancer himself So he had no objections when another man came over to the table and asked me to dance. He said, sure, you can dance. That's a man right. That's nice. It was after midnight and the band had just begun playing twelfth Street rag, a song perfectly suited for the Charleston, which was the most popular dance I love the Charleston. Everybody doew the Charleston Obsessed. Now as the band wound up, couples from every corner of the room were going to the floor The room was shaking with the enthusiasm of so many people jumping, moving, dancing, doing the same moves. so the same jumps, the same stomps all at the same time. No. John Owen recalled later, it was pretty wild in their horns and rattles and firecrackers too fire been lighting and throwing them all night inside Yeah. You guys are right? Now, the lighthearted mood in the Pickwick that night was Kind of uncommon for this place. Yeah as I'm sure you can tell because usually people are just like lighting like gregarious just like jaunt enthusiastic jaunty kind of mood. Since the first raid in January, there was always the potential for the police or some other city authority to come by anytime and break up a party. So things were generally fairly chill before this. but that night, everyone was in good spirits. There was no sign of the police anywhere. and a raid was kind of like the furthest thing in from anyone's mind busy, you know They were having fun. It sounds like it was a great time Now the party was scheduled to shut down at four AM That's a party. I was gonna say Boston doesn't do that anymore. No they do not. you get out of there at one. Yep. No, so around three thirty AM, the orchestra leader, Billy Glennon, which of course Billy Boston. was like, yeah, we all I think I knew him. Yeah I was gonna say I think I knew Billy Glennon. Who doesn't? He started looking through his sheet music for one last song to send everybody on their way Nice. He later said, I was just about to pick out the last piece we were going to play when Rockco yelled at me that the lights looked dim I said, Gee, yeah they do Then the porter said to me, lookook at the sand coming down from the ceiling. U what? Glennon's brother Jimmy was the manager of the club. Of course Jimmy Glennon was the manager. Yeah So Billy knew about the fire and how the firefighters had hacked holes into the floors to allow for drainage And that since then the holes had been covered over with cheap doors to allow for drainage of heavy rain. Okay It had rained heavily in recent days. So Billy figured the dust and plaster drifting down from the ceiling must have been caused by the recent rains and the building was just resettling, you know Yeah, how great. Billy Glennon went back to sifting through a sheet music. Then just a few seconds later He heard an alarming sound shoot through the room He later said, in a couple of seconds, there was a ripping tearing noise and I saw the ceilings start to fall in And the wall on the left at the front of the room seemed to move. Then the lights went out And there was a terrible crash Oh my God. Now Cambridge cab driver, Tom Garvey had arrived just before the collapse and was standing at the far side of the room waiting on a fair who had gone to get their coat from the coat check He said, I looked over at the corner and I saw everyone jump up I thought it was a fight at first and all of a sudden there was a big noise and the lights went out. The next thing I knew I was lying down with things pressing onto my back and sides. Oh Godd. He tried to get up, but he was pinned to the floor by something heavy and his face was pressed into the floor and he's like choking on dust and debris. What the fuck? He said a lot of things went through my head. I could hear people fighting to get out when someone grabbed hold of me Tom Garvey was close to the door, so it was easy for whoever grabbed him to pull him to safety, which like thank goodness they did. But those stuck inside were in a much more dire situation John Owen, who we talked about before, said, a second after the collapse, the room was filled with shrieks And the floor on one side started to give way, and the dancing couples were thrown into a gaping wound in the floor I turned around just in time to see Mrs. Lawson and her partner disappear through the floor. Oh my go. He made his way to where his date was or had just been, but when he looked into the hole on the floor, he said all he saw was blackness Just a black hole He said he turned to crawl back to where he had just been, and he found there was nothing for him to hold ono as the floor beneath him started to crumble Seconds later, he too was swallowed up by the cavern' hole. The hell is going on? Having been in the pickwick countless times before this, Billy Glennon knew the layout and was able to get himself and several others to the office near the back of the club He said, I don't remember just how I got out through the office window or who went before me Johnny Donovan, our drummer got out all right, and so did Frank Mulvey, the piano player Outside, he looked around for his brother, Jimmy and the rest of the band, but he couldn't see any of them anywhere than 'is absolute horror He said he looked back at the disaster where he just escaped from and the entire building collapsed on itself. Oh my God. He said, after the thing went down, there was absolute silence That was one of the darnest things about it. No yelling or anything after the place settled We knew there must be a lot of people in there, but none of them let out a yip. It was just as still as if the place was shut up. That's a nightmare. Isn't that Bone chill. That's a nightmare At a certain point, the stories of the survivors all kind of sound similar. Like one person watches in horror as their date, their friend, or a stranger who had just been sitting next to them, loses their balance and disappears into the dark cavernous hole in the floor Eddie Wayland watched helplessly as his friend John McLauoughlin slid into the hole on the floor The same was true for Frank and Virginia Vera. The couple had just been in the hall when this floor started to give way Virginia managed to make it to the front door unharmed, but when she turned back to grab her husband, Frank was gone Virginia Vera was ery likely the last person to make it out through the front door when the building came down K in the darkness of the wreckage on the first floor, it took some time. But eventually John Owen regained his senses and came out of the days that followed the fall He said five minutes went by, which seemed like hours to me, when finally the police rescued me, and I was taken to safety with the cries of injured and screams for help coming from all corners being in the heart of the city It didn't take long for emergency responders to arrive at the scene. That's good. Seconds after the collapse began, the doorman, Rocco Scarparto, ran out into the street and started shouting for help before running back inside to help get others out Rocko was in the building when the floor gave way and suffered a minor injury to his knee. But his yelling in the street prompted a local beat officer to trigger the alarm box on Mason Street, which drew the men from the local firehouse to come. That was good. When the building came down There was roughly a hundred or so people in the pickwick. Oh my God. By the time rescue crews came, about half of those inside had made it out but many, many more remain trapped in the rubble fourour stories of building on top of them now. That is unthinkable. The men were quickly to reach the injured, who they located now from the screams that were finally happening beneath the debreez The sound of those trap beneath the rubbs was among the most troubling aspects of the scene, according to everybody who talked about it later. I sure. Survival Ethel Conlin said, I couldn't get them out of my mind for days. They were just awful The PTSD that you would suffer after something like that. I can't even imagine. No It took nearly one hundred men, hours of digging in near pitch dark conditions, but finally the first bodies Four men and two women were found in a pocket in the corner of the building A short time later, Boston mayor, James Curly arrived at the scene and seeing the catastrophe, sent a request for one hundred more firefighters Now at the time of the collapse, rescue workers were limited in terms of the equipment available to really help recover survivors Although motorized vehicles did exist, few, if any, were strong enough to handle the incredible weight Four stories of trapped debris fifty people underneath it. Right. Instead, workers had to move slowly and methodically through the wreckage looking for survivors. And when they found one, they had to remove whatever debris they could by hand and try to pull the individual out Larry Doyle of Wder eightight had been working for about half an hour when he came upon areusty Chiba. He was alive, but pinned beneath two giant timbers. that left no room for Doyle to get a hold of him. Instead, Doyle tied a rope around his waist and attempted to pull him out. But immediately after he started pulling, Chiba cried out, stop, you're tearing me apart. You're going to kill me. Oh my God. He stopped and he tried to kind of like ish him a little bit And with no other ways of getting him out of here, he waited a few seconds and then he gave the rope one more yank And ultimately, he did free him. Okay, good. But the and the timbers did allow for him to like scooz him out kind of thing. like like Like It get torn and half Now he probably had so many broken bones. That's probably why he felt like. Exactly. And it was probably like actually pulling him apart at that point. So after he had saved Chiba, he Doyle climbed back into the debris and began feeling his way through looking for survivors. And after a few minutes, his hand fell upon what felt like a woman's leg And he called out to her, but he got no response. A few minutes later, he'd removed enough debris to get up beside her, which is the when he realized the woman was dead And he said this woman's spine was snapped backwards at a ninety degree angle. Oh my God. Yeah, whichich I can't imagine. I can't even picture that After more than an hour digging around an hour digging around looking like through the rubble for survantness. Yeah Larry Doyle had breathed in an incredible amount of dust and debris And he was having trouble breathing But he insisted there were more people trapped inside and he was ready to go back in It was only after he collapsed from exhaustion and respiratory trouble that he finally agreed to be seen by a doctor at the nearest hospital And even then, it took four other firefighters to keep him from going back into the rreack after they let him out. What a hero. Yeah Larry Doyle for real Now, given the size and scope of the disaster, the rescue operation quickly turned into what the press called a quote, all Hers volunteer event meananing anyone with expertise was encouraged to come out and lend a hand Well most who pitched in were emergency responders, city workers, construction crews, There was also a lot of doctors, nurses and paramedics that came to the site as first responders in one case, Dr. Michael Garty, of Boston City Hospital crawled down to a man who was trapped under the rubble as a result of his finger being hopelessly stuck between two pieces of concrete. Oh my Godd. This is insane After applying a local anaesthetic doctor Garrty was able to amputate his finger and the man was pulled to safely and taken to the hospital. You gotught to be kidding me Dror Garady Crawled into the rubble. And safely performed an amputation. That's next nineteen twenty five. In total darkness. In total darkness. That's next fucking. That's incredible That's a fucking doctor. Other doctors from the city hospital were at the scene performing similar rescues in near darkness, all while several hundred or even thousands of pounds a precarious rubble ominously cracked and groaned around them. and they're performing amputations to save people. Y. That's incredible Now eventually the cries and pleas from the injured started to quiet until finally they couldn't be heurard at all By the time the sun came up, there were still at least fifty people reported missing, but the consensus belief was that if they were still in the rubble, they probably wouldn't be found alive That morning, the first report of the collapse went out on the front page of the Boston Daily Globe announcing twelve confirmed dead But by the time the rescue operation was complete The death toll rose to forty four with countless others injured Now, when news of the accident started spreading around the city, some people showed up to volunteer or offer support, like Reverend Lawrence Morris from Stt James Church arrived at the site to provide last rights to the victims, while others brought food and other essentials to help volunteers There were many others, however, who simply showed up to the scene to Take a look. That's so gross. The work of digging out the ruins went on for several days. and by the second day, thousands had come to see the scene someome in hopes of finding a missing relative, of course But most just to see the wreckage. Looky lose. Yeah. Now according to the press, quote, there was no disorder, no wild attempts to break the police line, no noise. That's good. Somehow the crowds even forebore to push and elbow each other to get a better point of advantage So they were at least like Now they were just there to take in the tragedy of an unimaginable that happened I don't know why you would want to see that. When asked for comment about the crowds, one officer tasked with guarding the site said, If they had to do this for pay, they'd wish they were somewhere else. They can't see anything and they are far too far away to even hear what's going on So he's like, get the phg out. He's like, what's the point Now before the first day was even over Serious questions of accountability were being raised by those in positions of power. Yeah. Building commommissioner John Mahoney had long lamented the crumbling buildings in Boston and suspected that might be the cause. I would think that would beast part of it. Mayor James Curly, on the other hand, blamed the collapse on overcrowding. pub in a statement to the public, he said Considering the fact that no official with authority to prevent overcrowding was present in the building, It is most probable that the club management taking advantage of the night before crowds, seeking unrestrained freedom in their pursuit of pleasure, readily accepted all who came to the club after the closing of the property licensed amusement places in Boston. Now at the time, it would have been impossible for the mayor or anyone else to make such a definitive statement on the cause of the accident since an investigation into the cause had not even begun. Yes, everybody was just kind of guessing. But his statements, James Curly's statements reflect the widespread very conservative perspective in Boston that viewed nightclubs, dance halls, and other similar spaces as contributing to immorality. Ryan Reynolds here from MidMobile, with a message for everyone paying Big wireless way too much. Please for the love of everything good in this world, stop. With Mint, you can get premium wireless for just fifteen dollars a month. Of course, if you enjoy overpaying, no judgments, but that's weird. Okay, one judgment Anyway, give it a try at mintmobile d. com slash switch. Upront payment of forty five dollars for three month plan, equivalent to fifteen dollars per month required intro rate for three months only, then full price plan options available taxes and fees extra. Safal terms at MintMobile. com. What is that?? Oh yeah, it's a World Cup Holder Like the soccer tournament World Cup? Holder. For the world It fits every car, holds every cup. It has a Carvana logo. Carvana made it. They buy and sell cars, so they made a car cup holder So, u gotot any good cups lately? I used to. I just couldn't figure out where in the world to put them. The World Cup Holder, brought you by Carvana, proud sponsors of the World Cup holder. Sign up today to win yours at cup dash holder twenty six dot comotuthorized to endored by FFA, not a product for paritying forty purposes only. Parents, have you heard your kids say, I'm not a math kid? Well, with mathnasium, every kid can be a math kid. They customize their math instructions so kids who are struggling are able to catch up and get ahead. And advanced kids are challenged to reach higher Mynasium makes math fun, so kids learn to love it. Parents say that mynasium has not only improved their kids' grades, it's given them a new level of confidence. In math and in school overall, visit mathnasium. com to find a location near you Now the following day, the globe offered a different perspective and potential cause of the collapse This time from someone who is inside the building. a new guy. According to Frank Dcker, one of the singers performing in the club that night It was, quote, the steady swaying of the dancers and their stamping of feet. as they all perform the Charleston That could have caused the collapse. He said, Imagine the force of fifty couples leaping up and down in unison. The heavy trampling set the floor swaying, then it cracked. I paid no attention to this sharp crack at the moment, as I thought someone had set off a firecracker But the real meaning of it came to me a moment later Now in retrospect Frank Decker's theory that dancing had caused the collapse might seem like kind of silly Since most buildings are designed to withstand a far greater shock of hse A few dozen people dancing. But what we know now that there was like trap doors and that kind of thing. That's the thing. At the time It seemed intuitive to Bostonians following the story in the press And remained a popular urban legend long after the real cause had been revealed that it was dancing the the t that caused this collapse. No no so another the turlest room was cursed. Yeah, it was cursed. Now during one of the trials that followed the incident, one of the structural engineers tasked with evaluating the building testified and said, As the steady pounding of feet continued, the wooden jaouse under the linoleum floor began to vibrate Structural engineers use the term mechanical resonance to describe what was happening Under certain conditions, a suspended beam or cross member will vibrate violently when subjected to steady rhythmic oscillations. Those vibrations have been known to cause catastrophic failures in bridges, buildings, and even airplanes. The Pickwick Club dancers knew nothing about residents. They had no idea what was going on under their feet Of course, before anyone could arrive at the at an accurate explanation for why the building collapsed City workers needed to clear away the rubble, which proved more challenging than expected In addition to the expected difficulties of moving, you know several tons of debris The large crowd surrounding the area was like a big challenge. Yeah. And while most of them were orderly and complied with police directions, others were less respectful. People are always going to people. This is gonna enrage you onn july sixth justust days after the collapse. Police arrested one of the workers, Angelo Cook. after he was seen stealing cash from the pockets of the few remaining dead bodies in the rooms. You gotta be fucking here. going to dead people's pants pockets and stealing their money. That's ab piece or shit. There's a special place and lowest type of low. Yeah That's the karmic retribution on that. it will it will reverberate through generations of his family. Wow trly. L Wow On july seventh, the majority of the ruins had been cleared from the scene and the last of the bodies had been removed to go to the morgue for identification Meanwhile, across the city, a grand jury was being convened to hear testimony and evaluate the evidence. That afternoon, after hearing some survivor testimony, District atttorney Thomas O'Brien Led the guy that was going to be in O'Brien It was got to be. He led the grand jury to the site so they could see the space for themselves and view the foundation of the building By that time, structural engineers had begun evaluating the building and suspected the collapse had not been caused by dancers, but by a structural issue with the party wall. and I'll tell you what a party wall is. Okay. It's basically the shared wall between the building that housed the pickwick and the building next to it. Oh. Now in the era when the Drefus was built Buildings were often built to lean against one another as a source of stability. They were very close to each other And that shared wall was the party wall between them. It was almost like like a condo or. It was just like, They were just almost like a condo, except it's not all the same building buildings that are so close to each other, they lean on each other for support. That's wild. Yeah Now in this case, the building next to the pickwick had recently been torn down Thus removing a potentially significant source of support in the party wall Based on their initial observations, the engineers suspected that that could have been the reason for the collapse. Yeah. Testifying before the grand jury, Harry Haven, one of the engineers in charge of the project to be built next to the pickwick said there were concerns about the structural integr integrity of the Pickwick building itself and that those concerns had been shared with the property owners, but nothing had been done about M. Now, after several days of testimony and evidence, the grand jury indicted six individuals in the Pickwick case The following were indicted on charges of manslaughter Timothy Berry, the owner of the club George Funk, the architect in charge of the building's repair project following the fire. and Hyman Bloomberg, the owner of the building Three others associated with the Pic Club were indicted on like lesser charges Fair enough to me. Now a few days later The grand jury reconvened and returned six more indictments for manslaughter against the architects involved in the restoration and construction projects, including Fritz Nathan, John Polz, John Tobin, Edward Romer, James Hendrick and Lawrence Perkins All nine men pleaded not guilty and their trials were scheduled for the following following months. o. Now given the high profile nature of the pickwick case Everyone from the district attorney to the mayor urged a speedy trial for those accused of manslaughter. if for no other reason than to demonstrate that the city took the matter of unstable infrastructure, very seriously. Now just one week after the grand jury returned indictments for the accused, the trial against all twelve of the men. began at Suffolk County Superior Court The first to testify was Chief of police Daniel Sennett, who, among several other individuals who testified, they were testifying to the level of destruction caused by the fire that had occurred on the third floor several months earlier. Okay. The consensus among those who spoke on the effect of the fire was that while the third floor had been, quote, very badly burned, the building itself remained structurally sound. Okay Now we're kinding of hard to It is like to I don't know, to feel comfortable with. Yeah, yeah, exactly. Thank you. Now, according to Guy Emerson, the expert for the prosecution He said the collapse of the Pickwick Cub was due to a failure of the concrete piers under the foundation due to a lack of lateral bracing on the easterly side Now after the building beside the pickwick was torn down actively making the party wall useless Bloomberg hired a construction firm to add to the concrete peers to provide structural support. Okay you knew the party wall was going to be weak. But also you probably should have closed on the club before while that was going to happen. Well also, the peiers were very poorly built and weren't capable of supporting the hundred thousand pounds that they were required to support. So that was useless. According to one of the evaluating engineers, one of the peers was quote The rottenous piece of concrete I ever saw There were pockets of gravel in the mixture. The cement was of poor quality, and there wasn't enough of it The shoddy craftsmanship of the peers creating the perfect conditions for a kind of quote domino like collapse under the right circumstances Now That's what's crazy about this is it's like this somewhat strange twist where it turned out that it wasn't one single theory. that was correct. A lot of them. Several were kind of working in combination with each other. R. The concrete piers had been poorly made and unprofessionally installed So when the music and the dancing reached its peak, it caused the pockets into which the peers had been placed crble and the piers to fall. Without the support from the concrete piers, the building simply collapsed into itself, unable to withstand the weight. Just picturing that is like so scariest thing, just like a building swallowing itself. Truly. It's like when do you see videos of like sinkholes? Yeah sink scar shit me so scary. I hate it Now given the number of things that had to go wrong in order for the Pickwick club to collapse, the jury was unable to agree that any of the men on trial were directly responsible for the tragedy and all were found not guilty. Hmm It's because there was so many things that contributed to this. I think they didn't know who actually was at f here.ike maybe we can just say that everybody was then. Now after the verdicts were read, Judge Lomis addressed the jury. He said, If I had been a member of the jury, I would have joined in your verdict There never was sufficient evidence that these defendants had been willfully, recklessly or wantonly negligent. Okay Now the acquittal of all twelve men was definitely a disappointment to the victims' families. Just hope to see someone responsible for the loss of the lives at the club that night.ight. In the years that followed, a number of civil suits were filed in total six point one million dollars, which is roughly ninety million doars in twenty twenty six. Wow. But the plaintiffs eventually settled for around forty thousand or. one thousand dollars per life lost at the Pickwick Club I feel like that happens too often. It does.