0:00

Well , hello , my name is Anngelle

0:02

Wood and this is Crime of

0:04

the Truest Kind . Hey

0:24

everybody , welcome to the show . Thank you to

0:27

those of you who came out to Faces Brewing

0:29

last week in Malden . It

0:31

was a great show . I

0:34

got the audio today

0:36

from Faces and didn't

0:38

have time to really review it too much . It

0:40

definitely needs some editing

0:42

for sharing on the

0:45

feed . There

0:47

was a fair amount of

0:49

crowd

0:51

interaction but

0:54

none of it is captured

0:56

on the mic very well . But

1:01

Emily Sweeney and I talked quite

1:03

a lot about some

1:05

cold cases and I will share it with you . It'll

1:08

be a surprise episode

1:10

for next week . How does that sound ? Thank

1:14

you so much to all

1:17

of the show supporters

1:20

Welcome . Solid

1:22

gold , michelle , wicked cool . Amy . Wicked

1:24

cool . Courtney

1:30

, total gemorah . Brandy m , cindy

1:32

c v brandt . Solid golds , solid

1:34

gold . Pam k wicked cool . Brandy

1:37

s wicked cool

1:39

. Mark with a c Wicked

1:41

Cool . Devil Dog . Wicked

1:44

Cool . Rebecca L and

1:47

Superstar EPs Rhiannon

1:50

, lisa McColgan you rock

1:52

and you rule . And

1:54

also this week you

1:57

gave the dogs some

1:59

bones and I love

2:02

you for that . Beck and Bob

2:04

S , I will send you

2:06

some thank you packages if I have your address

2:09

. Things are going

2:11

pretty well in the find a new

2:13

job front . Maybe I'll

2:15

have some news I can share with you soon

2:17

. I mean , don't we all

2:19

wish we were independently wealthy

2:21

and we could just do

2:23

all of these projects

2:27

that we love morning

2:31

, noon and night and not have to worry about I

2:33

don't know , keeping the lights on or making

2:35

sure my dogs have food ? I know you

2:37

know . Thank you , everybody who

2:40

has contributed to the show this far has

2:46

contributed to the show this far . You will help send me to Denver for True Crime Podcast

2:48

Festival on July 12th , 13th and 14th , where

2:50

I will be hosting a

2:52

panel we

2:55

are going to talk about . Have you

2:57

Seen Andy , the HBO

2:59

documentary based

3:01

on the 1976 disappearance

3:04

of the nine-year-old boy from Lawrence Mass named

3:06

Andy Puglisi ? I

3:08

will be talking with Melanie

3:11

Perkins McLaughlin , who created

3:13

the documentary , put

3:16

years and years and years of

3:18

her time into the research

3:20

and production of that film

3:22

and also research and production of that film

3:24

, and also Faith Puglisi will join us , andy

3:27

Puglisi's mom , who now lives out

3:30

west . I'm looking forward to that

3:32

. Follow the show at

3:34

Crime of the Truest Kind . Support

3:43

the show . Patreon four tiers starting at $1 . Give the dogs a bone . Drop a tip in the jar

3:45

. Include your address if you would like me to send

3:47

you something as a thank you . This

3:51

is episode 67 . It

3:53

is high on history , so buckle

3:55

up . Death

3:58

by molasses , the

4:00

Boston Molassacre , the

4:03

Molastrophe Summer

4:13

in Boston , massachusetts , titletown

4:15

. Boston Celtics picked

4:18

up their 18th championship , one

4:24

more Then their adversaries , the Los

4:26

Angeles Angeles Lakers , and they hold the most championships in

4:28

league history . That

4:30

stinks for you and sometimes

4:33

for us . We

4:35

have had some really terrible

4:37

seasons . Like a lot of them , the

4:41

Patriots have not been at their

4:43

winningest as of late . And

4:45

that smells . And

4:50

it has been the season of bloom at the Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University . That

4:52

part's new For the amorphophallus

4:55

titanum

4:58

, a blossom with the scent

5:00

of rotting meat . How romantic , known

5:03

around the Arboretum as

5:05

Dame Judy Stench , but

5:09

why so ghoulish ? The

5:11

potent smell it releases combines rotting

5:13

wounds , garlic cheese

5:16

, old sweat , all

5:20

to attract flies and beetles necessary

5:22

for its pollination , the sort

5:25

of insects that thrive by eating

5:27

flesh . The corpse flower

5:29

. It blooms an average of six

5:31

to eight feet tall , with a green exterior

5:34

and deep red interior . It

5:36

can reach heights of 20 feet tall

5:38

. The native range is Sumatra

5:41

, indonesia . It's considered

5:43

endangered . The corpse flower

5:45

has a lifespan of 30

5:47

to 40 years , but they bloom

5:50

very rarely . On

5:52

average every 7 to 10

5:54

years the corpse flower

5:56

at the Arnold Arboretum

5:59

blooms for

6:02

all of a day and

6:05

I missed it , catcha , in

6:07

seven to 10 years . We

6:10

often make jokes about

6:12

the MBTA here in the

6:14

Boston area . On hot days

6:16

the subway smells . On

6:18

other days it also smells and sometimes

6:21

it catches on fire . Now

6:24

when I research topics for

6:26

the show , it leads me to

6:29

many different places

6:31

and then I try to reel it in and

6:34

have it make some sort of sense . I

6:37

tap into historic things about Massachusetts

6:40

and New England . When

6:42

I make a connection to something

6:44

I get really excited about

6:46

it , like the Tot Finder

6:49

sticker we remember from

6:51

our youth . Well

6:54

, former Boston Fire Commissioner Leo

6:56

Stapleton is often credited

6:59

for the idea of the Tot

7:01

Finder sticker . The commissioner

7:03

I'm referring to is Leo D

7:05

Stapleton , not the Leo J

7:08

Stapleton as is mentioned

7:10

in a few places on the internet . I

7:13

could find no Leo J Stapleton

7:15

in relationship to the

7:17

Boston Fire Department or

7:19

the Totfinder sticker

7:22

. But what I do know is

7:24

that Commissioner Stapleton fought hundreds

7:26

of fires in his decades plus on

7:28

the Boston Fire Department , having seen

7:31

some of the worst of the worst

7:33

cases of loss of life , children

7:36

particularly during

7:38

his time . According to

7:40

several fire department sites , children

7:42

account for over one-third of the

7:44

nation's fire casualties . In

7:47

no wonder , in the confusion of

7:49

a fire , families often

7:51

become separated . All too

7:53

frequently the result is a child

7:55

trapped in their room , cut

7:58

off from rescue . So

8:00

that suggests to me parents

8:02

and families make

8:04

an escape plan . I know the thought of

8:06

it is dreadful . I

8:09

read that on a number of department sites

8:11

, including Merrimack , new Hampshire , where

8:13

I also learned that

8:15

about one in every four fires

8:18

is intentionally set and

8:20

almost half of these fires were

8:23

set by people under the age of 16

8:25

. I won't rabbit hole this

8:27

one too much I could . The American

8:29

Psychological Association says

8:31

there are types

8:34

of fire setters . Two include

8:36

curiosity , accidental

8:38

cry for help , delinquent

8:41

and severely disturbed

8:44

. And in true crime , the one

8:46

we talk about the most , the severely

8:48

disturbed , as

8:51

lore would have it . Commissioner

8:53

stapleton is said to have come up with the idea

8:55

of stickers on windows where children

8:57

slept to be able to find them

9:00

faster . This is due in

9:02

part to children being afraid to leave for

9:04

the smoke and the fire , the noise or possibly

9:06

the fear of the rescuers themselves

9:09

. I mean they are wearing a great

9:11

deal of equipment . The

9:13

oval-shaped , silver and orange reflective

9:16

sticker was to alert rescue

9:18

that a child was in that room and to go

9:20

directly to these windows in the event

9:22

a child is missing or unaccounted for

9:24

during a fire . No one has

9:26

more experience in this than a veteran

9:29

firefighter who's seen way

9:31

too many tragedies . The

9:33

story goes that the commissioner was impacted

9:35

by a fire in the 1970s where four

9:37

kids died from fire and

9:40

heavy smoke . They hid with no

9:42

way to get out . This reminds

9:44

me of a story from my own childhood

9:46

where an uncle , uncle

9:48

Hermie my parents called him not

9:50

really an uncle I don't

9:52

even remember his real full name or

9:54

any of the kids' names to even attempt

9:57

to look this up , but I was told

9:59

he lost all of his kids in a house fire

10:01

somewhere in Massachusetts in the

10:03

1970s . I

10:05

wish I could look it up in news archives . I

10:08

have no idea , but

10:10

I do remember something about the kids

10:12

being in the rooms above adults

10:15

. I know many

10:17

, many parents are superstitious about that

10:19

very thing and

10:21

I also thought for a minute wow

10:24

, that must be why my parents got those tot

10:26

finding stickers . Then my

10:28

follow-up thought was oh

10:30

, they handed them out at school . That's

10:33

where they got them . But

10:35

the tot finder program was a hugely

10:38

successful safety campaign with

10:40

more than 35 million stickers distributed

10:43

by local fire departments . I

10:45

still see some fire departments post about Tot

10:47

Spotter and Tot Finder stickers . The

10:50

practice fell out of favor , though . First

10:53

because the stickers often remained on

10:55

windows long after a child had grown

10:57

and , predictably , this

11:00

is also said to be a beacon of

11:02

bad intentions . Creepers

11:05

see the sticker beaming like

11:07

a spotlight . My kids are sleeping right

11:09

in here . Yeah , there's truth

11:12

to that . Fire professionals

11:14

will say they have proven unnecessary , that

11:16

. Their training teaches them to perform a systematic

11:19

search of the entire house . And

11:22

the alternate spot for a Tot Finder sticker

11:24

is the bottom corner of

11:27

the door , where it would be reflective

11:29

with a flashlight . Not

11:31

a terrible idea . Now

11:34

, whether Commissioner Stapleton came

11:36

up with the Tot Finder remains unconfirmed

11:39

, but I do like sharing

11:41

his story and the history he

11:43

was a part of . He became

11:45

a chief officer in 1965 , commanded

11:48

firefighters at thousands of

11:50

fires , including what

11:53

has been called the Roxbury Riots of 1967

11:55

and the civil unrest that continued

11:57

in Boston and around the country . The

12:01

Harvard Crimson wrote this in June 1967

12:04

. The Harvard Crimson wrote this in June 1967

12:06

. Until June 2nd , boston's predominantly Negro

12:09

section of Roxbury remember this was 1967

12:12

, our language is very

12:14

, very different . Roxbury was a

12:16

peaceful community in the areas

12:18

of education , job training and

12:20

placement , recreation , welfare

12:23

, sanitation and housing . Its

12:29

residents were working quietly and steadily through various programs for the improvement of their

12:31

neighborhood and their lives . But on June 2nd

12:33

something happened . Three

12:36

days of rioting and violence followed a sit-in

12:38

demonstration by the Mothers for Adequate

12:40

Welfare MAW at

12:42

the Grove Hall office in Roxbury . Adequate

12:47

Welfare MAW at the Grove Hall office in Roxbury . A group of mothers and their supporters were doing

12:50

a sit-in at the local welfare office off

12:52

Blue Hill Ave for the third time in

12:54

eight days . They had

12:56

demonstrated the previous Friday , only

12:58

to leave in frustration . They had arrived

13:01

again the day before and stayed overnight

13:03

without incident . But

13:06

on June 2nd , a Friday , the

13:08

workers wanted to close the office for the weekends

13:11

and the mothers' grievances had not yet

13:13

been considered . Welfare director

13:15

Daniel J Cronin had not come

13:18

to the office to talk to the mothers . This

13:20

time Ma decided they would not be put off again . This time Ma decided

13:22

they would not be put off again . The

13:25

demonstrators used bicycle chains to

13:27

shut the double-setup exit doors to

13:29

the building . Policemen who

13:31

were stationed inside tried unsuccessfully

13:34

to cut the chains and called for

13:36

reinforcements . In the next

13:38

hour and a half , over 30 policemen

13:40

entered the building through a window , while

13:43

a large crowd gathered outside . When

13:51

Welfare Director Cronin arrived , after hearing that office workers were trapped inside the building

13:53

, the protesters insisted on speaking to him over loudspeakers

13:55

through a window . He refused

13:58

. Groups of policemen made

14:00

their way in and around the building . Among

14:02

the chaos was a Harvard student who

14:05

must have retold the happenings to the

14:07

Crimson reporters , saying

14:09

how police rushed the people wielding

14:12

billy clubs and shouting . Another

14:14

group of policemen broke through the crowd outside

14:16

to reach the entrance and crashed

14:18

through the glass doors . While

14:21

the police were clearing the building , one of

14:23

the mothers shouted out of the window they're

14:25

beating our people in here . That

14:28

set off a response from the crowd outside

14:30

and they rushed the police . Police

14:32

used billy clubs to push them to the other side

14:34

of Blue Hill Ave . The Boston

14:37

Globe reported on the 50th anniversary in

14:39

2017 about the demonstration

14:42

of 30 women who comprised the Mothers

14:44

for Adequate Welfare , and how it went

14:46

off without incident Until

14:49

it didn't . It was a peaceful

14:51

protest that turned violent in

14:53

an instant . It created

14:56

a torrent of events that

14:58

consumed 10 blocks

15:00

and lasted for

15:02

three days . I

15:05

wonder how many Bostonians know about

15:07

that . One

15:09

of the high-profile fires Commissioner Stapleton

15:12

led was at the Prue , the 52-story

15:15

Prudential Tower , where on

15:17

January 2nd 1986

15:19

, about 1,500

15:21

occupants of the skyscraper

15:23

were rescued from the floors above

15:25

14 . That's where

15:27

a nine-alarm fire started that

15:30

forced hundreds of office workers to

15:32

run for the smoke-filled stairwells . A

15:35

radio station on the 44th floor

15:37

was knocked off the air . It

15:39

was W-E-E-I-A-M for

15:41

the curious . Twenty people

15:43

were injured and 7 firefighters

15:45

. All were treated for heat exhaustion

15:48

or smoke inhalation . The

15:51

fire started on the 14th floor that

15:53

was empty and under renovations

15:55

at the time . As a

15:57

result of this fire , the

15:59

Boston Fire Department sponsored state

16:02

legislation requiring all

16:04

high-rise buildings in the Commonwealth , including

16:07

more than a thousand in Boston , to

16:10

be retroactively equipped with automatic

16:12

sprinkler systems . It

16:14

passed and the mandatory installations

16:17

were completed in 1997 . The

16:20

same year , by the way , wzlx

16:23

midday , dj George Taylor

16:25

Morris , uncovered the mythical

16:27

connection between

16:29

the Wizard of Oz , the 1939

16:32

film , and Pink

16:34

Floyd's 1973 super

16:37

famous Dark Side of the Moon record

16:39

, the one that stayed on Billboard

16:41

200 from March 1973

16:45

until July 1988 . 800

16:47

plus weeks on the charts . It

16:50

sold more than 45 million copies

16:52

worldwide . That DJ was

16:54

here in Boston and WZLX

16:57

was in the Prue on the

16:59

24th floor from 1991

17:02

until 2007 , when

17:04

we moved to the Brighton building where WBCN

17:07

was at the time , and

17:09

we did have a long CD to play . If we were

17:11

ever forced to evacuate the building , I

17:14

don't know what was on it probably

17:17

a lot of Allman Brothers , and if

17:19

you are wondering what it is like to work

17:21

in the Prue Tower , it has

17:23

a magnificent view . Commissioner

17:31

Leo D Stapleton retired in 1991 . Firefighting ran

17:33

in his family . His father , john B Stapleton

17:35

, was a firefighter and chief of the department

17:37

in the 1950s . His

17:43

two sons , leo Jr and Garrett , also firefighters . Commissioner Stapleton

17:45

went on to write several books at

17:47

least 10 , including his biography

17:50

called Commish . He

17:57

passed away in 2021 at the age of 93

18:00

. Boston has faced many

18:02

disasters the busing

18:05

riots of the 1970s , coconut

18:07

Grove Fire of 1942 , the

18:09

Blizzard of 78 , the

18:11

Marathon bombings in 2013,

18:13

. Dianne Lane's accident in the Perfect Storm

18:16

, 2000 . But molasses , mass

18:18

killing . How is it possible that 21

18:21

people would end up dead by

18:23

molasses ? I

18:27

have pondered it more than once . The Great Molasses

18:30

Flood , the

18:34

Molassacre , the Molastrophe

18:37

, the Molaster All right , not

18:40

that one . Molasses has a history

18:42

Popular in the pre-20th

18:44

century , it was plentiful , affordable

18:46

and routinely used as sweetener

18:48

in cooking and baking , used

18:54

for brewing , beer and rum and well , all kinds of alcohol . And molasses

18:57

is vegan Not that anyone

18:59

knew what that meant in the olden times or cared

19:01

what that meant in the olden times . It

19:06

sounds sweet , but molasses has a grim history in the slave trade

19:09

. From the 1600s until the

19:11

first half of the 1800s

19:13

, traders sold slaves from Africa

19:15

to Caribbean sugar plantation owners

19:18

in exchange for barrels of molasses

19:20

. The molasses would then get

19:23

shipped up to Boston or New England

19:25

where it was made into pre-prohibition

19:28

rum . That rum was

19:30

carried to West Africa where

19:32

they used the liquor to barter for

19:35

slaves . That was all

19:37

to come to an end when President

19:39

Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation

19:41

in January 1863

19:44

. On June 19 , 1865

19:47

, two years after the president

19:49

emancipated slaves in America , union

19:52

troops arrived in Galveston Bay , texas , with

19:54

news of freedom . More

19:56

than 250,000

19:58

now former enslaved Americans

20:01

embraced freedom by

20:03

executive decree in what became

20:05

known as Juneteenth Freedom Day

20:07

. A

20:11

Dark Tide that's the

20:13

name of a 2004 book

20:15

by author Stephen

20:18

Puglio about the Great

20:20

Molasses Flood of 1919

20:23

. He writes around

20:25

noon on January 15th 1919

20:29

, a group of firefighters was

20:31

playing cards in Boston's North End

20:33

. They heard a

20:35

tremendous crash . It

20:38

was like a roaring surf , one

20:40

of them would say later . Like a runaway

20:43

two-horse team smashing through a fence

20:45

, said another . A third

20:47

firefighter jumped up from his chair

20:49

to look out a window . Oh my

20:51

God , he shouted to the other men Run

20:54

. A 50-foot tall steel

20:56

tank filled with 2.3 million

20:59

gallons of molasses had

21:02

just collapsed on Boston's waterfront

21:04

. Its contents as

21:06

a 15-foot-high wave

21:09

of molasses that

21:11

at its outset traveled at

21:13

35 miles an hour

21:15

. It demolished

21:17

wooden homes , even the brick

21:20

fire station . The

21:22

number of dead was not known for

21:24

days . It would be years before

21:26

a landmark court battle determined who was

21:28

responsible for this disaster

21:30

. How

21:35

can this be ? How

21:43

can molasses with a consistency thicker than maple syrup , almost like honey ? How does

21:45

this turtle of a sauce come racing through the city streets like a tsunami wave ? In

21:48

January , january in Boston , I

21:50

learned a little bit about dynamics of fluid

21:53

. A 26 million

21:55

pound dark wave of stickiness surged

21:58

through the north end of Boston , seemingly

22:00

gaining strength as it rolled , headed

22:03

for Boston Harbor . That swell

22:06

would topple telephone poles . It

22:09

twisted metal trolley tracks . It crushed

22:11

freight cars . It flooded basements

22:13

and ripped buildings from

22:15

their foundations . Chest-deep

22:19

molasses that was warmed from the

22:21

above-average temperatures that day

22:23

thinned out into a coating

22:25

three feet deep that would grab

22:27

people like human flypaper

22:29

, and animals struggled

22:32

to get free of it , only sinking further

22:34

. 2.3

22:36

million gallons of molasses was

22:39

set free onto Commercial Avenue , moving

22:41

at a surprising clip . The

22:44

giant molasses tank located at 529

22:47

Commercial Street had erupted , giving

22:49

way Property of

22:52

the Purity Distilling Company , a

22:54

subsidiary of the United States

22:56

Industrial Alcohol Company . The

22:59

tank and its contents were valued at

23:01

$250,000

23:03

in 1919 , with

23:05

an estimated total property loss

23:07

of around $500,000

23:10

. Property

23:18

loss of around $500,000 . Today's equivalents $4.5

23:20

million and $9 million respectively . The 50-foot-tall storage

23:22

tank was built by the United States Industrial

23:25

Alcohol Company , the

23:34

USIA , in 1915 to serve its Purity Distilling Company subsidiary

23:36

, which fermented molasses to produce industrial alcohol for

23:39

war . World

23:41

War I was raging across Europe

23:43

and industrial alcohol

23:45

was in high demand to produce cordite

23:48

, a smokeless gunpowder

23:50

used in ammunition and artillery

23:52

shells . No

23:54

one cares enough about home cooking to have 26

23:57

million pounds of molasses lying around

23:59

. It made them big

24:01

dollar bills in war times . See

24:04

where this is going , with

24:07

many lucrative war contracts on the table

24:09

. Usia needed that

24:11

towering tank and slapped it up in

24:13

record time , and

24:15

the inspection officials supervising the tank's

24:18

construction were both outmatched

24:20

and ill-equipped to spot any

24:22

major problems . The

24:25

USIA was in such a hurry

24:27

that the first shipment of molasses

24:29

arrived from Cuba before

24:32

the tank could be tested for leaks . No

24:35

safety checks . Now

24:38

this tank had been filled nearly

24:40

30 times since its first

24:42

use in 1916 . Only

24:46

near its capacity four of

24:48

those times . That

24:50

added weight stretched to an almost

24:53

breaking point and contributed

24:55

to this disaster . It

24:57

is a bizarre story and

25:00

unbelievable when you first hear it , and

25:03

of great interest to anyone who

25:05

has an interest in engineering disasters

25:07

, like me . Hi , the

25:10

discovery of an archive at Lehigh

25:12

University that belonged to a consultant

25:15

who testified in the trial was

25:17

a treasure trove . The

25:20

firm that built the tank was reputable

25:22

. It didn't make sense to engineers

25:24

or anyone why the

25:27

company who built the tank made

25:29

the decisions that they did during construction

25:31

. The builders , very

25:34

likely under pressure to build the

25:36

tank quickly , never

25:40

went back and reinforced any of it . Stephen Puglio , author

25:43

of Dark Tide , the Great Boston

25:45

Molasses Flood of 1919

25:48

, said

25:51

the tank was rushed to completion and never inspected Immediately showed

25:53

signs of disrepair . He said it

25:56

was leaking from day one . Every

26:01

time it was filled it groaned and shuddered . In response to complaints

26:03

, the company painted the steel

26:05

blue tank brownish red , presumably

26:13

to camouflage the leaks , the

26:18

strategy ineffective . The author said the sounds of that tank

26:20

moaning and groaning under pressure was common for the neighborhood . It

26:23

was so stuffed with thick brown

26:26

goop that it leaked from

26:28

its ribbits and seams . Kids

26:31

ran with buckets to

26:33

collect the molasses as

26:35

it dripped out . But instead

26:37

of fixing it , usia

26:39

ordered that tank painted brown . Just

26:42

days before the flood , 600,000

26:46

gallons of molasses were pumped

26:48

from a ship in Boston Harbor of

26:54

. Molasses were pumped from a ship in Boston Harbor , nearly

26:56

filling the storage tank to capacity Within

27:01

the next few days . The plan was for USIA to transfer the molasses via railroad tank to its

27:03

distillery in Cambridge . That

27:06

transfer never happened . The

27:09

pressure proved too great for

27:12

this hastily built uninspected

27:14

death trap . On

27:17

the mid-afternoon of January

27:19

15th there was that rumbling

27:21

, followed by the sound of

27:23

metal ripping as the walls

27:25

let loose . Anyone

27:27

or anything in its path would

27:30

be buried in its ooze . Unsuspecting

27:33

victims were smothered or

27:35

washed into the harbor . It

27:39

was a violent explosion , a sudden

27:41

rise in temperature , the tank being

27:43

faulty and hanging on by

27:46

loose rivets and metal Half-inch

27:49

steel plates of the molasses

27:51

tank were torn apart . The

27:53

force sent those steel plates in all directions

27:56

, hard enough to cut the

27:58

girders of the elevated railway , a

28:01

tremendous vacuum was created . Molasses

28:04

was being sucked into buildings which

28:07

had initially withstood the blast

28:09

. The vacuum picked

28:11

up a truck , dragging it across the street . An

28:15

elevated train was lifted off the rails

28:17

and fell onto the ties . People

28:21

who were caught in its path were pummeled

28:23

as the dark wave dragged things

28:25

along . Others

28:28

were stuck in basements that rapidly

28:30

filled with the speed of rushing

28:32

water . Adding

28:35

to the difficulty was identifying people

28:38

who had been coated and suffocated

28:40

by molasses . Rescuers

28:44

spent days pulling through wreckage

28:46

searching for anyone . Anyone

28:48

who may have initially survived was

28:51

unlikely to be found alive

28:53

. Once rescuers could reach them . The

28:56

consistency of the molasses wasn't

28:58

something they were used to . No one

29:00

was , and

29:02

the last victim recovered was pulled

29:04

from the harbor . In May . Cleanup

29:17

crews spent an estimated 87,000 hours cleaning streets , buildings , trains and everything

29:20

else . The sticky syrup touched , and life

29:22

for the survivors did go on . Horses , pedestrians

29:24

, curious looky-loos

29:27

, tracked the brown mess throughout

29:29

the entire city . The

29:33

investigation that followed showed that the tank had not

29:35

been properly pressure tested . Residents

29:38

knew it leaked . They sent their

29:40

kids with buckets , and

29:43

the heat only added to the problems

29:46

. Bolts holding the

29:48

bottom of the tank exploded . A

29:51

huge dark wave roared , wrecking

29:54

everything in its path , and

29:56

the warmth of that January day in Boston

29:59

added to the problems

30:01

. Now , if it was

30:03

a seasonably cold January

30:06

day in 1919

30:08

, maybe , just maybe

30:10

, what happened that day wouldn't

30:13

have happened , but it would have

30:15

happened on another warm

30:17

day in Boston . The

30:22

first on the scene were cadets from a training

30:24

ship in the harbor 116

30:27

of them . Rescue

30:29

was difficult . The thick , sticky

30:31

substance held people captive

30:33

. No fight could free

30:36

them . The

30:38

search went on for at least four days

30:40

until they were certain . Everyone

30:42

was accounted for 21

30:45

people and dozens of animals

30:47

were killed . Major property

30:50

lost and dozens of animals

30:52

were killed . Major

30:54

property lost , wages , income . A

30:56

65-year-old woman died when her house collapsed under the wave

30:59

of molasses flooding her North End home . Her

31:01

children were injured in the flood and

31:05

survived , though . Her son died

31:07

months later at the Boston

31:10

State Asylum for the Insane

31:12

as a result of his injuries

31:14

. I need to know

31:16

more about the Boston State Asylum

31:18

for the Insane . Update to follow

31:20

. A firefighter

31:22

drowned in molasses after being

31:24

trapped in debris . A

31:27

railway foreman died days after

31:29

the flood from internal injuries and infection

31:31

. A 69-year-old

31:33

blacksmith died of a fractured

31:36

skull and other injuries after being

31:38

crushed by debris while

31:40

working next to the ruptured storage tank died

31:54

of a fractured skull and other injuries after he was crushed by debris . Working

31:56

in the area of the molasses tank , a 44-year-old man

31:59

died of pneumonia and internal injuries

32:01

after being swept into Boston Harbor

32:03

and a 61-year-old

32:06

teamster had no chance of escape

32:08

while he was working at the city's

32:10

north end paving yard adjacent to

32:13

the USIA storage tank . There

32:15

are more , many more . It

32:18

took weeks to clean the molasses from the streets

32:20

of Boston . How does one remove

32:23

molasses ? Is it like

32:25

pitch ? You know the stuff on

32:27

the hands of feral children when

32:29

you're out running the streets and through the woods

32:31

, touching all the trees all summer long . Because

32:33

none of the kids in the neighborhood were

32:35

being watched by anyone , just

32:39

me . Boston

32:41

Harbor was brown for many , many

32:43

months after . We are

32:45

known for dirty water , but that's

32:47

supposed to be about the infamously filthy

32:50

Charles River . The

32:52

molasses flood was huge

32:54

news in Boston and

32:57

made the cover of the seven

32:59

daily newspapers at the time

33:01

. Boston had seven daily

33:04

newspapers in 1919

33:06

. It knocked everything from the front pages

33:08

the Prohibition Amendment which

33:10

essentially passed the night of the Molossus

33:12

flood , the Versailles peace talks

33:15

, the talks that ended World War I . The

33:18

Boston Molossus lives on in

33:20

North End folklore . 105

33:23

years later , there is no trace

33:26

of where the towering tank once

33:28

stood . Parks and a ball field are

33:30

in its place . Just

33:35

a small green plaque acts as a historical marker , not unlike the Coconut

33:38

Grove fire site where

33:40

the residents of condos built where the club

33:42

was . Don't want to think

33:44

about what happened there ? Well , I'll

33:46

tell you 492

33:48

people died in a fire due

33:51

to criminal negligence

33:53

. Trapped inside because

33:56

they cover doors or

33:58

chain them shut , a

34:01

memorial for the Coconut Grove fire

34:03

is being built . Not

34:06

many people seem to know the bizarre

34:08

story of menacing molasses

34:11

in Boston . And

34:13

what got me onto this bullshit ? I'm

34:15

always on some bullshit . Ayo

34:17

Adebri . She mentioned

34:19

it in a recent appearance on Seth Meyers

34:21

the TV show when they were

34:24

talking about Boston . He's from New Hampshire . Ayo

34:27

is a Boston girl from

34:29

Dorchester Sidebar

34:31

, the Bear season . Three out

34:33

now Haven't watched it yet . Don't tell

34:35

me anything . The company

34:37

was quick to point the finger , naturally

34:40

. Why would they want to be held

34:42

responsible for their criminal negligence

34:44

? They said

34:46

sabotage , anarchist

34:49

, terrorists . They faced

34:51

years of litigation . There

34:54

were 119 lawsuits

34:57

as a result of the molasses

34:59

flood of 1919

35:01

. Oh , and the company ? Quick to

35:04

point their finger , naturally

35:06

. Why would they want to be held responsible

35:08

for their criminal negligence . And

35:11

where did that finger point ? To

35:13

sabotage Anarchist

35:15

terrorists ? Those

35:18

families faced years of litigation

35:20

. You know , get them good and tired of the

35:22

fight . An auditor

35:25

was appointed by the Massachusetts Superior

35:27

Court . Colonel Hugh

35:29

Ogden was to oversee this

35:31

very complicated case . The

35:34

facts of the flood emerged from those lawsuits

35:36

that swamped the city . Litigation

35:45

took six years , involved some 3,000 witnesses and so many lawyers

35:47

that the courtroom couldn't hold

35:49

them all . At

35:51

question was the nature of

35:54

the disaster . Three

35:56

explanations arose of

36:03

the disaster . Three explanations arose An explosion inside the tank , in which

36:05

case the fermentation of the molasses would be to blame . A

36:07

bomb , not completely implausible given the times

36:09

Following the Russian Revolution in

36:11

1917 , america was

36:14

on high alert , fearing

36:17

communist revolutionaries like the

36:20

Bolsheviks led by Vladimir

36:22

Lenin . Prelude to the Red

36:24

Scare . In spring of 1919

36:26

, a series of bombs targeting government

36:29

and law enforcement officials were discovered

36:31

. A package

36:33

bomb had been delivered to a former US senator

36:35

in Georgia . It exploded . They

36:38

survived , but not without serious

36:41

injury . June 1919

36:43

, a bomb exploded at the home of a New York

36:46

City judge , killing two people

36:48

and the Palmer Raids followed

36:50

a series of violent raids directed

36:52

at leftist radicals and anarchists

36:54

in 1919 and 1920

36:56

, beginning a period of unrest

36:59

known as the Red Summer Palmer

37:02

Raids , named after Attorney General

37:05

A Mitchell Palmer , with

37:07

assistance from J Edgar Hoover

37:09

. The raids and subsequent

37:12

deportations proved disastrous

37:14

and ignited the debate about

37:17

constitutional rights and

37:20

Russian bombs . Is a sexy historical

37:22

theory . But no , it

37:25

was a structural failure of

37:28

a four-year-old tank . United

37:31

States industrial alcohol was liable

37:33

. Following the flood

37:35

, those 119 plaintiffs

37:37

took up a civil lawsuit against US

37:39

industrial alcohol . It

37:42

is the first case in which expert

37:44

witnesses were called , to a great

37:47

extent Engineers

37:51

, metallurgists , architects

37:54

, trained professionals to speak

37:56

to the technical aspects of this

37:58

disaster . Those

38:01

hearings resulted in a 25,000-page

38:03

transcript and numerous

38:05

reports to accompany damage awards over

38:08

a five-and-a-half-year period . Usia

38:12

was negligent and they were

38:14

ordered to pay the victims of the Great Molasses

38:17

Flood $1 million , the

38:20

equivalent to $18

38:22

million today . The

38:24

worse suffering a person experienced

38:26

, the more money their family was

38:28

awarded this disaster

38:31

. The molaster led to

38:33

new regulations for the permitting , inspection

38:35

and maintenance of large storage tanks

38:37

. Many years

38:39

following the Great Flood , north

38:42

End residents said they could still

38:44

smell molasses on

38:46

warm days . I love to tell

38:48

these stories . I love to learn about history

38:50

of Boston and Massachusetts

38:52

and New England . Boston

38:54

has been known as Beantown for

38:57

as long as I can remember . We don't

38:59

use it Only when we're making

39:01

fun of something , we

39:03

being the greater Boston region , but

39:07

it goes way , way back . Baked

39:10

beans are a part of Boston dating

39:13

back to the 17th century Puritans

39:15

. They would cook them in a big

39:17

bean pot . 17th

39:20

century Puritans they would cook them in a big bean pot also still the name of the

39:22

annual Boston Bean Pot hockey tournament between BC , bu , harvard and

39:25

Northeastern . They

39:28

cooked the beans on Saturdays , they

39:30

being the Christians readying

39:32

them for Sunday , the Sabbath

39:34

, where they were supposed to abstain from everything

39:37

. I bet they stank up the place . Boston

39:40

became home to the Bean Eaters . Part

39:43

of the National League in the 1880s

39:45

, now the MLB , they eventually

39:47

became the Braves . Baseball

39:49

teams had such silly names the

39:52

White Stockings , I mean , come on . And

39:56

the media liked the bean eaters . The name

39:59

worked due to the city's long association

40:01

with the legume . Boston

40:04

embraced it for some time , using

40:06

assorted bean symbols to promote the city

40:08

. And then sometime in the 1990s

40:12

a slogan surfaced you

40:14

don't know beans until you come to Boston

40:16

. This was

40:18

to draw tourists to the

40:20

city . They even

40:23

made a postcard . I

40:26

sought out a recipe for what is being called

40:28

the ultimate Boston baked

40:30

beans recipe , and it comes

40:33

from a pretty revered

40:35

place . It's from Durgan

40:37

Park , a legend in their own right

40:39

. Durgan Park , the centuries-old

40:42

Boston restaurant whose origins

40:44

date back to the American Revolution

40:46

. It is famous for

40:48

many things , including

40:51

its Boston baked beans . It

40:54

thrived for years in Faneuil

40:56

Hall a landmark for sure , with

40:59

a sign at the entry that read Established

41:02

before you were born . In

41:05

1827 , two

41:07

men who were food merchants in

41:09

Faneuil Hall's marketplace , john

41:12

Durgan and Eldridge Park , decided

41:15

to open a restaurant for the merchants

41:17

who came to buy produce and meats

41:19

in the stalls . Durgan

41:21

Park was born . I could

41:23

go on and on about just Durgan Park

41:25

. I will spare you , but

41:28

it all came to an end on January

41:30

12 , 2019 . Another

41:32

victim of the times and a

41:34

little gentrification Durgan

41:37

Park closed permanently . 192

41:41

years . That is a long-ass

41:44

run . In

41:46

closing , what sets Boston

41:49

baked beans apart from any

41:51

other kind of baked bean ? Well

41:54

, molasses , of course . Thank

41:58

you for listening . My name is Angela

42:00

Wood . This is Crime of

42:02

the Truest Kind Massachusetts

42:04

and New England crime stories and

42:06

regional history . Storytelling

42:08

and advocacy focused

42:11

. Follow the show at Crime

42:14

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crime-loving friends . Share it with your

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42:36

me an email and tell me about a story

42:38

that you would like me to cover . It

42:41

just occurred to me that 4th of July is

42:45

a few days away . I must be going

42:47

now . Lock your goddamn doors , we'll be right

42:49

back

43:55

. We'll see you next time .