0:09

It's May twentieth, Nineteen Eighty Nine at

0:11

Wembley Stadium in London. and twenty eight

0:14

year old soccer player Ian Rush jobs

0:16

up the pitch while his red shirted

0:18

Liverpool teammate pass the ball among themselves.

0:21

In is one of the best forwards

0:23

in Liverpool history. He scored more than

0:25

two hundred goals for the clock, but

0:28

today he's late to the action. They're

0:30

brought onto the field as a substitute

0:32

in the final. The F A Cop

0:35

the premier tournament in English soccer right

0:37

now. Liverpool opponents Everton are holding. The

0:39

score even that to to and the game is

0:41

gone to extra time. Liverpool

0:44

patient passing has their opponents chasing the

0:46

ball, getting frustrated and one Everton player

0:48

fouls in an attempt to gain possession.

0:51

Liverpool takes the free kick and an

0:53

attacking player dribbles the ball down the

0:55

left hand side of the field, but

0:58

even that the Everton defenders nearby or

1:00

breathing heavily as a substitute, he has

1:02

fresh legs and takes advantage by sprinting

1:05

into the free space near the Everton

1:07

goal is teammate crosses the ball. toward

1:09

him and stoops as he follows.

1:11

the balls fly through the air

1:13

and then heads the ball low

1:15

toward the goal underneath the desperate

1:17

dive of the Everton goalkeeper and

1:20

internet. With

1:22

just minutes to go and the F A

1:24

Cup final, Liverpool is a. In.

1:29

Russia's goal wins the match and shortly

1:31

after the final whistle, his team captain

1:33

lifts up the F A Cup. Winning

1:36

trophies is nothing unusual for Liverpool.

1:39

For. The last fifteen years they've been

1:41

the dominant team and English soccer, but

1:43

this victory is an emotional one because

1:45

five weeks earlier, ninety five Liverpool fans

1:48

were crushed to death while watching their

1:50

team play. Although. This cathartic

1:52

victory finally gives the city of Liverpool

1:54

something to celebrate. Winning the F A

1:56

Cup will not and the grief of

1:59

the bereaved families. nor the suffering of

2:01

the survivors. Instead, they'll be

2:03

haunted by a tragedy for almost three decades

2:05

as they fight to prove the innocence of

2:07

the Liverpool fans who were wrongly blamed for

2:10

the deadly disaster that occurred at Hillsborough on

2:12

April 15, 1989. American

3:00

History Tellers is sponsored by the

3:03

podcast Expedition Unknown. Did you

3:05

know that there's proof that Robin

3:07

Hood might have been a real person

3:09

even using secret underground passageways to

3:11

rob the rich or that gold coins

3:14

discovered in Florida may be connected to

3:16

a Spanish treasure fleet? On the

3:18

Expedition Unknown podcast from Discovery, host Josh

3:20

Gates travels the world to investigate

3:22

these and more of history's greatest unsolved

3:25

mysteries. He'll take you looking for

3:27

art stolen by the Nazis, exploring mysterious

3:29

caves in Nepal, and deciphering giant

3:31

geolifts drawn into the earth in Peru.

3:33

Travel the globe with Josh Gates

3:35

as he investigates some of humanity's

3:38

greatest feats and most iconic legends.

3:40

Listen to Expedition Unknown wherever you

3:42

get your podcasts. History

4:09

is made every day. On

4:11

this podcast, every day, we tell the true stories

4:13

of the people and events that shaped our world.

4:16

Today is April 15th, 1989,

4:18

the Hillsborough Stadium disaster. It's

4:23

3 p.m. on April 15th,

4:26

1989, at Hillsborough Stadium

4:28

in Sheffield, England, a month

4:30

before Liverpool wins the FA

4:32

Cup. 38-year-old Liverpool manager Kenny Dalgleish

4:34

takes his dugout seat alongside the rest

4:36

of his coaching staff as the referee

4:38

blows his whistle to get the FA

4:41

Cup semi-final underway. Liverpool is

4:43

facing off against Nottingham Forest to see who

4:45

will advance to the final in a few

4:47

weeks' time. And as usual, the

4:49

semi-final is being played at a neutral

4:51

venue. The site selected for this game

4:53

is Sheffield's Hillsborough Stadium. Officially,

4:56

Kenny is Liverpool's player manager, although

4:58

he's 38 years old now

5:00

and hardly ever picks himself to play anymore.

5:03

Instead, Kenny trusts younger men for the

5:05

job and concentrates on running his team

5:07

from the sidelines. But since

5:09

this game has only just begun, it's

5:12

a little early for tactical tweaks. Kenny

5:14

is still watching and analyzing Liverpool's opponents.

5:17

But only four minutes after kickoff, Liverpool has

5:19

its first chance of the game. A

5:22

Liverpool forward shoots from distance and the

5:24

ball cannons off the crossbar. The

5:26

crowd shouts in excitement, and the fans

5:28

at Liverpool's end of the stadium surge

5:30

forward, but the wave of people causes

5:32

a section of metal fencing surrounding the

5:34

pitch to give way, causing fans to

5:36

spill out onto the graph. More

5:39

than 10 years earlier, professional soccer clubs

5:41

in Britain began to install cage fences

5:44

at their stadiums. These high

5:46

metal barriers were introduced after a spate

5:48

of pitch invasions and disorder at soccer

5:51

matches. Most top-flight teams had to

5:53

find a way to deal with soccer hooligans, the

5:55

minority of fans who traveled to games not to

5:57

just watch action on the pitch, but to get

5:59

an to fight with fans of the opposing team.

6:02

Now Hillsborough Stadium stewards hurry over to

6:04

contain the fans, where the fence is

6:06

broken down worrying that mischief is about

6:08

to break out. But the

6:10

stewards can't stem the flow and more fans make

6:13

their way onto the pitch. With

6:15

no prospect of the field being quickly cleared,

6:17

the game is halted by a referee. The

6:20

players return to the changing rooms while

6:22

order is restored, but as Kenny leaves

6:24

the pitch with his players, he's stopped

6:26

by Liverpool's goalkeeper, Bruce Grosbilar. Bruce

6:29

reports that the problem isn't hooligans, it's

6:31

a crush of bodies. While

6:33

Bruce was tending the Liverpool goal, he could

6:36

hear fans in the stand behind him shouting

6:38

for help. Kenny's stomach

6:40

lurches as he realizes that his 11-year-old son

6:42

is supposed to be watching the game from

6:44

that end of the stadium. So

6:46

he rushes toward the goal, and even from where

6:48

he is, Kenny can see that far too many

6:50

people are packed into the stand at that end

6:52

of the pitch. Fans are

6:55

climbing over the fence to escape and the

6:57

stadium stewards are helping them over. The

6:59

lucky fans who get out are in shock. Some

7:02

sink to the ground gasping for breath, others

7:05

stumble around disoriented and confused.

7:08

And after a few moments of terrifying panic,

7:10

Kenny is reunited with his son. But

7:13

as he hurries him away, Kenny sees

7:15

other fans ripping up advertising boards from

7:17

the side of the pitch and using

7:19

them as makeshift stretchers to carry injured

7:21

people to safety. It's

7:23

obvious that something terrible is happening

7:25

and soon emergency services confirm that

7:27

fans have been killed in the

7:29

crush. The

7:32

FA Cup semifinal is abandoned and Kenny

7:34

and his team prepare to return home.

7:37

The mood among Liverpool's players and coaching

7:39

staff is somber. Radio

7:41

and television reports soon reveal that 94 people

7:44

have been killed and the 95th will die

7:47

in the hospital a few days later. Many

7:49

of the dead are children. Chief

7:52

Liverpool's manager Kenny is the public face

7:54

of the club and reporters clamor to

7:56

ask him questions and the

7:59

demand for his opinion in. intensifies four

8:01

days after the disaster when the tabloid

8:03

newspaper The Sun publishes a shocking front-page

8:05

story alleging that Liverpool fans picked the

8:08

pockets of victims who they died, that

8:10

drunk fans urinated on police officers trying

8:12

to help them, and that one police

8:14

officer was assaulted as he tried to

8:17

resuscitate a fan. Kenny

8:19

and everyone else associated with Liverpool

8:21

are enraged by these unfounded allegations.

8:24

Kenny was there. He saw nothing of

8:26

what the newspaper claims. Instead, he only

8:29

saw Liverpool fans helping each other and

8:31

emergency services saving lives amid the chaos.

8:34

The false accusations further traumatized the

8:36

people of Liverpool. In the

8:39

days that follow, Kenny and his players will

8:41

attend as many funerals as they can, and

8:43

in their shared grief, the bond between the

8:45

team and its supporters will grow stronger. When

8:48

the soccer season resumes, Liverpool will

8:50

win the rearranged semi-final against Nottingham

8:52

Forest, then triumph in the FA

8:55

Cup final. But lifting the

8:57

trophy will not mark a fairy tale

8:59

end to the Hillsborough disaster. Instead,

9:01

allegations, recriminations, and legal wrangling

9:04

will drag on for more than two

9:06

decades as survivors battled to find out

9:08

exactly how and why the tragedy took

9:10

place and who was really to blame.

9:25

It's November 19th, 1990 at

9:27

Sheffield Town Hall, 17 months

9:29

after the Hillsborough disaster. 39-year-old

9:32

Anne Williams enters a packed meeting room and

9:34

finds a seat that's been set aside for

9:36

her. It's the first day of

9:38

the Coron Earth inquest, and Anne is here because one

9:40

of the 95 fatalities was

9:42

her 15-year-old son, Kevin. Within

9:45

only days of the disaster, the

9:47

British government commissioned Richard Taylor, a

9:49

high-ranking judge, to investigate what happened.

9:52

Judge Taylor examined nearly 4,000 witness

9:55

statements and watched more than 70 hours

9:57

of video footage. In doing so,

10:00

Taylor saw through the sensationalist headlines

10:02

that blamed Liverpool supporters for the

10:04

disaster. And his report concluded

10:06

that the crush was not the result

10:08

of fan behavior, but was instead caused

10:10

by poor crowd control. According

10:13

to Judge Taylor, the game's kick-off should

10:15

have been delayed when thousands of Liverpool

10:17

fans were left stuck outside the turnstiles.

10:20

Instead, the police opened the stadium's

10:22

gates and allowed a mass influx

10:24

of fans into the stands without

10:26

proper direction. The fans

10:28

unknowingly crowded into already full sections

10:31

of the stadium, resulting in the

10:33

deadly crush. In his

10:35

report, Judge Taylor was highly critical of

10:37

the police response and recommended a series

10:39

of changes to make soccer stadiums all

10:41

over Britain's favor. But

10:43

the judge did not comment on individual deaths.

10:46

That responsibility belonged to the local coroner

10:49

and Sheffield. So now, almost

10:51

a year and a half after the disaster,

10:53

the inquest is finally getting underway and Anne

10:55

Williams has traveled to the city where her

10:58

son died to attend the hearing. The

11:01

coroner opens proceedings by defining the scope

11:03

of his investigation. He announces

11:05

that he won't consider anything that occurred

11:07

beyond 3.15pm on the day of the

11:10

disaster, arguing that all the victims were

11:12

already dead by then. This

11:14

makes Anne furious. She knows

11:16

there are eyewitness statements that show her son

11:18

was still alive at 4pm and Anne believes

11:20

more could have been done to save him.

11:23

As the disaster unfolded, too little was

11:25

done to help the fans escape the

11:28

crush and police also delayed some ambulance

11:30

crews from accessing the stadium. Despite

11:33

this evidence, the coroner won't budge. By

11:36

imposing this arbitrary time limit, he does

11:38

not even consider the response of police

11:40

or emergency services might have prevented some

11:43

of the victims being saved. So

11:46

it's little surprise when the coroner eventually

11:48

concludes that the Hillsborough fatalities were accidental

11:50

deaths and that police actions were not

11:52

to blame. That's not good enough

11:54

for Anne and many other families of the victims.

11:57

Anne is convinced that the Hillsborough disaster was not a

11:59

crime. not a tragic, unforeseeable accident,

12:01

but the direct result of police

12:04

negligence, and she's determined to prove

12:06

it. Despite having no

12:08

legal training and little money, Anne begins

12:10

a campaign to demand her son's case

12:12

be reexamined. Other families

12:15

launch their own campaigns with the same

12:17

goal, to pressure the government to reopen

12:19

the inquests. But initially these

12:21

campaigns have little success, and as the

12:23

years pass, the tragedy only grows larger.

12:26

In 1993, four years after the

12:28

crush, a 96th victim dies

12:30

in hospital, having never regained consciousness.

12:33

No matter how much the traumatized

12:35

survivors and bereaved families demand action,

12:38

the British authorities stand by the

12:40

coroner's verdict. But the

12:42

more these campaigns dig into the events of

12:44

the day, the more evidence they discover that

12:46

the police mishandled the situation and demand for

12:48

the case to be reopened grows. The

12:52

campaigning families are supported by the soccer

12:54

club and other fans. A

12:56

memorial service is held at Liverpool's Anfield

12:58

Stadium every April, and barely a match

13:00

goes by in which Liverpool fans don't

13:02

chant as one, justice for

13:05

the 96th. That

13:11

support keeps the Hillsborough campaign going, even

13:13

more than 18 years after

13:15

the disaster. And

13:17

in 2007, Anne Williams is among the crowd of

13:19

4,000 people who marched to

13:22

the Prime Minister's residence in London to

13:24

hand over a petition calling for a

13:26

new investigation. Finally, as

13:28

public pressure mounts, the government will

13:30

order a new and independent inquiry

13:32

into the Hillsborough disaster. The

13:34

nine-person Hillsborough independent panel will take

13:36

two years to re-examine the evidence,

13:39

but when it finally reports back,

13:41

their findings will stun not just

13:43

the city of Liverpool, but the

13:45

entire country. It's

13:59

October, 2015. 22, 2012

14:01

at the House of Parliament in

14:03

London, 23 years after the Hillsborough

14:05

disaster. Member of Parliament

14:08

Maria Eagle rises from her seat and clears

14:10

her throat. She knows the

14:12

speech she has planned is highly contentious,

14:14

but thanks to parliamentary privilege, she can't

14:16

be sued for defamation or libel for

14:18

anything said in the chamber, and she's

14:20

determined to have her say. One

14:23

month ago, the Hillsborough Independent Panel

14:26

published its long-awaited report, and its

14:28

contents caused public outrage. The

14:30

report backed up earlier verdicts that Liverpool

14:32

fans were not to blame for the

14:34

crush of 1989, and that

14:36

it was police mismanagement that led to the

14:39

disaster. But the independent report

14:41

went further than any previous inquiry. It

14:44

concluded that almost half of the victims

14:46

could have been saved had the emergency

14:48

services responded properly, and that the police

14:50

then deliberately covered up their failings. It

14:53

was senior officers who fed the

14:55

false allegations about Liverpool fans to

14:57

newspapers. One hundred sixty-four witness

14:59

statements were tampered with. Officers

15:02

ran blood alcohol checks on the dead bodies

15:04

of fans, even the children, and they

15:06

searched police databases for criminal convictions to try

15:09

to find material that could be used to

15:11

smear the victims. If that

15:13

wasn't shocking enough, now Maria wants the

15:15

full truth to be known. This

15:19

falls over the chamber as Maria accuses

15:21

a police officer involved in the Hillsborough

15:24

disaster response of boasting about his role

15:26

in the cover-up. Maria's

15:28

words are shocking, because the same man has

15:30

risen in the years since to become one

15:32

of the most senior police officers in Britain.

15:35

The accusations are incendiary and denied by

15:37

the officer, but he still

15:39

resigns the day after Maria's speech. That's

15:42

far from the only impact of the Independent Panel's

15:45

report, though. With

15:47

public opinion now firmly on the side

15:49

of the Hillsborough victims, the British government

15:52

finally orders a new coroner's inquest. This

15:54

time, there are no arbitrary time limits

15:56

imposed. This second inquest

15:58

concludes that the victims that the Hillsborough

16:00

disaster did not die in an accident. They

16:03

were unlawfully killed, the

16:05

verdict that leaves a complicated legacy. The

16:08

relatives of the victims welcome official confirmation

16:10

that police in action and not fan

16:13

behavior was at the root of the

16:15

tragedy. But only one person

16:17

is successfully prosecuted for their part in

16:19

the disaster, and that's for relatively minor

16:21

health and safety violations. And

16:24

for most, even that small comfort comes

16:26

too late for survivors and campaigners. Among

16:28

them is Anne Williams, who passed away

16:30

from cancer before the second inquest even

16:33

began. And in 2021,

16:35

a 97th victim finally succumbs

16:37

to the life-changing injuries he suffered

16:39

in the Hillsborough disaster. Today,

16:42

Liverpool remains one of the most successful

16:44

and popular soccer teams in the world.

16:46

Most of its players weren't even born when

16:49

the Hillsborough disaster took place. But

16:51

they are reminded every day of what happened,

16:53

in the long fight for justice that followed

16:55

by the Liverpool Club Crest, which now features

16:57

two eternal flames in remembrance of the fans

17:00

who went to a soccer match and never

17:02

returned on April 15, 1989. Next

17:12

on History Daily, April 16, 73 CE. The

17:16

fall of the fortress of Masada brings an

17:18

end to the first Jewish-Roman war. For

17:30

Noiser and Airship, this is History Daily,

17:32

hosted, edited, and executive produced by me,

17:35

Lindsey Graham. Audio editing by

17:37

Mohammad Shazi. Sound is being made

17:39

five minutes in here. Music is wrong.

17:42

This episode is written and researched by Scott

17:44

Leaves. Edited by Dorian Marina.

17:47

Managing producer Emily Burry. Executive

17:49

producers for William Simpson for Airship.

17:52

Pascal Hughes for Noiser. Wondery

17:58

Plus subscribers can... Binge American

18:00

History Tellers early and ad-free right

18:03

now. Join Wondery Plus in

18:05

the Wondery app or on Apple Podcasts. And

18:07

if you enjoy American History Tellers, be sure

18:09

to give us a five-star rating and leave

18:11

a review. I read every one of them.

18:13

I also have two other Wondery podcasts you

18:16

might like, American Scandal and Business Movers. Follow

18:18

American History Tellers on the Wondery app,

18:21

Amazon Music, or wherever you get your

18:23

podcasts. You can binge all

18:25

episodes of American History Tellers early and ad-free

18:27

right now by joining Wondery Plus in the

18:29

Wondery app or on Apple Podcasts. And before

18:32

you go, tell us about yourself by completing

18:34

a short survey at

18:36

wondery.com/survey. And to find

18:38

out more about me, including my

18:40

other podcasts, go to notthatlindseygram.com. That's

18:44

notthatlindseygram.com.