NEPRONOMICON

 

Hellfire in Hartford

 

Part I:  BACKGROUND HISTORY

             On the afternoon of 6 July 1944, while our nation’s young men were away fighting the last stages of World War II, Connecticut’s worst disaster befall nearly 170 women and children in Hartford.  In the space of ten minutes, from the time the first flames were noticed until the main tent had been largely evacuated, many of these unfortunate circus-goers would be burned to death horribly by fire, asphyxiated in the smoke or press of bodies, or trampled to death by the panicked mob.  That more than two thirds of the dead were children, and most of the rest women, made the event especially tragic.  What made the event bizarre was the confession, six years later, of a deranged arsonist-murderer who claimed the fire resulted from his diabolical possession by a demon in the form of a Indian riding a flaming horse.

            It began at 2:40pm, when the first flames were noticed.  Approximately 8,000 people had gathered at the field on Hartford’s Barbour Street, for Ringling Bros. Barnum & Bailey Circus.  The main tent was crammed primarily with women and children.  The second act had just finished, as lion-tamer Alfred Court escorted his big cats back to their cages, and the third act, the high-wire acrobats known as the Flying Wallendas, were about to begin.

            The fire began on a sidewall behind Section A, originally believed to have been a carelessly disposed cigarette.  It rapidly became a column of roaring flame reaching the upper tent leaves, forty feet above.  The fire was aided in its rapid spread by the paraffin waterproofing of the tent, thinned with three parts gasoline, fresh paint on some of the tent equipment, inadequate fire-fighting equipment and other factors.

            The crowd began to panic as huge gobs of flaming canvas fell into the stands.  Panicked masses surged toward the tent center only to find their way blocked by wooden bleachers, and exits carelessly blocked with animal cages.  Many fell beneath the heals of the mob, to be trampled to death or smothered.  Others burned alive, screaming, or succumbed to smoke inhalation as they tried to cut makeshift exits through the canvas walls.  Many who made it to safety returned to the holocaust to seek out missing loved ones still unaccounted for, or to make heroic efforts extricating many of those still trapped inside.  Police, firemen and emergency services personnel rushed to the scene, displaying exceptional professionalism and heroism while risking their own lives in their (sometimes vain) efforts to save others.

            Within ten minutes, the worst was over.  Then main tent had collapsed and the majority of survivors had made it to safety, only to watch in horror while the blackened bodies of those less fortunate were pulled from the wreckage.  Hundreds were treated for injuries at makeshift staging areas, or transported to local hospitals.  Survivors made frantic phone calls to loved ones simply to tell them that they were all right.  Some remained behind, along with arriving family members, to identify bodies that were still recognizable.  Particularly upsetting were the gory masses in which individual arms and legs could not be definitively attributed to any one corpse.  In some cases, it was impossible to tell if a particular remains were even a single body or the combined remains of several.

            In the end, 169 people died at the circus fire itself or later from injuries received at the fire, most of them children.  The identity of one child’s body, known as “Little Miss 1565,” after the number assigned her body at the morgue, still to this day is a matter of debate.  Her name and story has been the subject of considerable investigation, research and debate (and the subject of two books).  She may or may not have been young Eleanor Cook from Massachusetts.

            The mystery of the source of the fire itself, originally believed to have been a discarded cigarette, took a startling turn in 1950, with the arrest of an Ohio man named Robert Dale Segee.  An admitted murder and arsonist from the age of six, who had been arrested in that state for seemingly unrelated arsons, Segee made a horrific confession.  The circus fire was not an accident at all, but a deliberate act of arson and mass murder, due to his supernatural possession by a demon Indian who rode a flaming horse.  His confession, he claimed, was finally prompted by his haunted dreams of a woman standing in flames who urged him to confess.  While Segee knew many particulars about the circus fire that had not been made public, he had a history of mental illness, which some believe casts doubt on his testimony.  He was sentenced to 40 years in prison, the maximum penalty for arson in Ohio.  To complicate the matter further, prior to his death in 1997, Segee recanted and claimed to have never set the fire.

            Whether Segee actually started the fire or not is as hotly debated as the identity of Little Miss 1565.  They are just two of the mysteries surrounding the Hartford Circus Fire of ’44.

            In 2002, the Hartford Circus Fire Memorial Foundation was established to create a permanent memorial at the site, for those killed in the fire.  It would serve as a more visible and permanent reminder than the small plaque then standing in the adjacent Fred D. Wish School and the small memorial marking the graves of five unidentified victims interred in Northwood Cemetery (also known as Soldier’s Field Cemetery).  Ground was broken for the memorial in 2004, and completed for the unveiling ceremony on the anniversary of the tragedy on Wednesday 6 July 2005.  More than 100 people attended, including visiting dignitaries, firemen, financial donors, family of victims and survivors of the fire.  The $125,000 memorial was impressive in its permanence and simplicity.  At the center ring of the Memorial (where the center pole of the main tent stood), four granite benches and inscribed bricks surround a large bronze disc that rises up from the ground.  The names of the victims and their ages are inscribed upon it.  Several brief inscriptions appear on the red bricks, one of which states simply:  “As close to hell as I want to get.”  On the north side of the Memorial winds a path toward the center ring.  Several granite pedestals along the way tell the events of that fateful day, along with a timeline.  Black and white photos of the tent fire are engraved upon sheet metal squares atop two of the pedestals.  Dogwood trees were planted to mark the locations of the side and end walls of the tent.

            The small park and Circus Fire Memorial can be seen and visited today.  It is located behind the Wish School at 350 Barbour Street.  GPS coordinates are:

 

            N     41*47.760 latitude.

            W  072*40.495 longitude.

 

SOURCES:

 “Circus Dead at 153; Inquires Pushed,” The New York Times, July 8, 1944

 “Hartford’s Worst Calamity,” The Hartford Courant, July 7, 1944

 “Hartford’s 100 Worst Fires,” The Hartford Courant, December 31, 1961

 “Roustabout Says He Set Circus Fire,” The Hartford Courant, July 1, 1950

 “Text of Coroner’s Fire Finding,” The Hartford Courant, January 12, 1944

 “139 Die, More Than 225 Hurt in Circus Fire, Five Arrested on Manslaughter Charges,” The Hartford Courant, July 7, 1944

 “139 Lives Lost in Circus Fire at Hartford,” The New York Times, July 7, 1944

 Goldberg, Karen, “The Hartford Circus Fire,” The Concord Review, Inc., 1990

 Grant, Ellsworth S.  Connecticut Disasters; True Stories of Tragedy and Survival.  Guilford, CT: Globe Pequot Press, 2006.  Pg 123-132.

Silitch, Clarissa M., ed.  Danger, Disaster and Horrid Deeds.  Dublin, NH: Yankee, Inc., 1974.  Pg 98-102.

 

Part II:  THE INVESTIGATION

             I arrived at the Circus Fire Memorial on Hartford’s Barbour Street on Thursday, 21 December 2006, shortly after 8:00pm.  With me were Gail and one of our newest investigators, Tricia.  Due to concerns about the rough neighborhood (BEWARE: the area falls in Hartford’s crime-ridden North End, and is not the safest place to be after dark), I had contacted Hartford Police earlier in the evening and spoken to the shift lieutenant, who promised to have a patrol car in the area.  I had learned from past experience that contacting the local police department before conducting a night investigation was usually a good idea, especially in certain neighborhoods.  Unfortunately, the patrol car was just leaving as we pulled into the Wish School parking lot.  Fortunately, the weather was apparently too cold for anyone else to be out wandering.  We saw no other persons outside throughout our short investigation at the Memorial.

            Just two days prior to our investigation, on Monday morning, 18 December 2006, I had come to the Memorial alone to get good daytime photos of the site.  I photographed all the markers and the circle, in case I was unable to get decent pictures at the upcoming night investigation.

            Gail, Tricia and I exited my car into the biting cold wind.  Tricia took my Sony handycam with nightshot, to videotape while I brought only my Olympus digital voice recorder (DVR) and new Kodak digital camera.  As it was a fairly small area, most of our investigation entailed snapping photos and videotaping while recording Gail’s revelations.  Thus, we began.

            Gail first felt the presence of a mother and her small daughter, who had both perished in the fire.  The mother had been trying to protect the daughter, but had died first.  The daughter had fallen beneath her, surviving for only a few moments longer while she hid beneath her mother’s body.  The spirit entities were not in distress, however, merely telling their story.  Other entities were present, or spirit echoes, but children for the most part seemed to have moved on.  As Gail said, their spirits departed fairly quickly after death, it was fairly sudden for most.  Only a few adults seemed to remain in particularly disturbed states.  They felt, after all, that it had been their responsibility to protect their children.

            The next presence she felt was of a man whom she described as tall and having a mustache.  He died of asphyxiation from the smoke.  He was in some distress, though he knew he was dead (not all spirits do), because he felt he had failed to protect others.  He seemed to be seeking resolution.  I asked Gail for details about the man.  She said that he had an abnormality where his left leg was shorter than his right, thus he had been ineligible for military service, or perhaps he had been wounded in the war and sent home (she was unsure which).  He had come to the circus with his sister and her children.  He had no children of his own.  Gail believed his first name to be Joseph.  She took a few moments to silently communicate with him and try to get him to go to the Other Side.

            Meanwhile, I walked around and snapped more pictures.  It was during this time that something interesting happened with the photos.  While snapping pictures of the black and white picture of the circus fire on the 2:50pm pedestal, I noticed that a thick, bright red column appeared through the middle of the circus tent on my photo.  I would later compare it to the photos I snapped during the daylight on Monday morning, in which no red column appears.  Believing the anomaly to be a reflection of the flash from my camera, I stepped to the side to get another picture from a different angle.  The same anomaly appeared again.  Of course, it is difficult to declare such an anomaly paranormal.  Other naturally occurring factors, such as the camera flash, rust in the metallic picture placard, or reflections of distant Christmas lights could have caused it.  Still, it was unusual, and interesting, if not paranormal.

            Gail sensed other confused presences, for whom time seemed to have stopped.  When they actually stopped to communicate with her, they seemed surprised by the changes in their surroundings.  I asked if anyone had actually witnessed the fire start (I was curious about the arson vs. accident mystery), but the majority of spirit presences seemed to feel that the fire was a terrible accident.  I asked Gail if anyone communicating with her remembered any specific performances at the circus.  Nothing specific, but she felt the presence of one little girl who reminded Gail of the actress Dakota Fanning.  Gail said the girl was fascinated with giraffes, and had come to the circus in the hope of seeing some.  I asked for specifics about the girl.  Gail said she was perhaps five or six years old, wide-eyed and curious.

            Other spirit visitors included persons who had not actually died in the circus fire but many years later, and returned either to visit loved ones or because the painful memories of that day brought them back.  Gail explained that “the ground retains the memory of the fire and spirits are drawn to it.”  While talking, we slowly worked our way along the path toward the central circle of the Memorial.

            Sadly, the bronze circle and granite benches were wrapped in tarp and bound with rope.  I was unable to get good photos.  Obviously, these measures were to protect the area from inclement weather.  A weird coincidence of the rope being stretched across the giant circle, however, gave the appearance of some diabolist’s summoning circle.  The lines of rope almost appeared in the form of a pentacle, at least to our imaginations.

            In the center, Gail again declared that “the ground remembers” and that “the experience is still fresh in the land.”  She went on to say that some of the spirits, particularly the few children, communicate with the living children that play in the park.  I had wondered about this, since the elementary school is adjacent to the area, and the park where this tragedy occurred and over a hundred children died horribly, now serves as a play area for similarly aged living children from the school.  The thought is a creepy one.  I wondered how many of the living schoolchildren have “imaginary” friends who play or talk to them when they come out to the park.  I asked Gail about this, and if any of the spirit children have “friends” at the school.

            She said that one spirit girl talks to a girl named “Megan” at the Wish School.  Apparently Megan is Sensitive enough to feel and communicate with her.  Megan, Gail said, was a special friend because she was not afraid when she came out play.  Some of the schoolchildren who can feel their presences fear and avoid the area.

            Gail then felt a group of women who did not speak English.  She said that they seemed to be nannies.  I asked what language she thought they spoke, and she said that she believed one to be Swedish and one German.  I knew from my research that some women immigrants among the dead had been from Argentina and Lithuania.  I wondered if these could be the ones she felt.  She said that they were difficult to understand because, in their panic which still lingered from that day, they reverted to their original languages.  Since Gail does not actually speak any foreign languages, she found it difficult to reassure and help the women.  She said the women were still huddled together and seemed trapped in the moment.  She felt their fear and panic.  At one point, Gail said that she felt that they were praying.

            While Gail silently communicated with the women, I wandered off a short distance and began speaking out loud to try and provoke EVPs for my recorder.  I asked several questions.  About twenty minutes into my recording, I had asked “Would anyone here like to speak to us?” and “Is anyone looking for someone?”

            Of course, I heard no response at the time.  Upon later review of the recording, however, I heard a very distinct “Noooo…” after I had asked “Is anyone looking for someone?”  I played it back for Matt the next day and he agreed that it certainly sounded like an EVP, and a very clear one at that, but that we would have to further analyze it to be certain.  We ran the short sound tape through Adobe Audition software to measure the Hertz range of the “phantom voice.”  This would tell us if the range was within levels more appropriate to those of a living human.  Only if they were significantly below 1,000 Hertz, could we say with any certainty that it was a true EVP, since a living person could not have voiced whatever was said.  Unfortunately, as it turned out, analysis proved that what I had recorded was not an EVP after all.  It was actually Tricia shivering nearby, who involuntarily said “Ooooo…” because she was cold.  The incident is one that is typical on investigations, and serves as a reminder of why it is so important to speak clearly and in your normal tone of voice while on investigations.

            Gail then felt the presence of someone who was looking for “Margaret.”  When I asked who was looking, she said she believed it to be her older sister.  Gail did not feel that anyone named Margaret was still there, that if a Margaret had died in the fire she had since moved on.  I asked if she could tell me the name of the older sister who still sought Margaret.  Gail said it began with an “L,” possibly Lima, Liza, or Lisa.

            Standing in the center circle of the Memorial, where the center of the circus tent would have been, Gail occasionally felt the deeper coldness of spirits pass.  Unfortunately, I had not brought my ambient thermometer with me to confirm any temperature changes with hard data.  It was a cold night, and we had only the three of us.  My hands were full with camera and DVR, Tricia’s with the Sony handycam.  Gail generally does investigations hands-free, since apparatus can be distracting from what she does best and since equipment, she says, has a tendency to malfunction when she communicates with spirits.

            Our entire investigation of the Circus Fire Memorial lasted just over forty minutes.  By then, the chill and the biting wind forced us back into the car.  We said our goodbyes to any presences who lingered and headed home.

            Though we gathered very little hard evidence from our investigation, we all felt the experience had been worthwhile.  Tricia got some good training on the equipment and Gail felt she had helped some souls in need.  I, of course, always find that visiting historic sites is worthwhile in itself.  We all felt a heightened awareness of those significant, though tragic, events of that fateful day in 1944.