Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About Medford mail tribune. (Medford, Or.) 1909-1989 | View Entire Issue (Dec. 2, 1958)
10 MAIL TRIBUNE, Mtdford. Parents Gather at Rectory To Learn Fate of Children ChIcago-4UPD-"Does anybody know anything about my little boy." The slender woman in the eamel's-hair coat walked into the little candy store across the alley from Our Lady of Angels rectory Monday night. She looked hopefully, at Te rese Gorski, who works part time at the store after school. "Does anybody know any- - thing about my little boy?" she repeated, this time giving his name and grade. Terese, one of the children who escaped the blaze that killed more than 85 of her schoolmates, replied she thought everyone in the boy's class escaped. Taken To Rectory A policeman walked up to the woman and, speaking softly, led her to the rectory wnere me rtea v-russ nau sei i n. j l J 4. up a missing children's desk She took her place in line with mothers and fathers who had come to look for their children. "We'll notify you as soon as we learn something," the heavy-set man with the small .mustache said, taking names and telephone numbers. The men and women parad- oi miaaie-ciass street aiure, Their accents were . Polish, Italian, Irish and just plain midwestern American. "We'll notify you as soon as we learn something," the man said to each parent, trying to make it sound a little differ ent each time. Thousands Watch Ruins. They nodded silently, then stepped outside Into the mill ing throngs. Flood lights still bathed the brick school build ing. Thousands of people had gathered to look at the ruins. Except for the broken win dows, the - firehoses and the aerial ladders it looked like a parish carnival. A ladder rested a couple of feet from the cross atop the school. Firemen, . policemen and newsmen stood in little groups around the building, occasionally looking up at it. Across the street, beyond the ropes, stood the curious Vatican Shocked By School Fire Vatican City (DPD News of tfc rfisactrnue firm n th Ro man Catholic elementary school in Chicago was re ceived with shock and deep sorrow in the Vatican today, a high church spokesman said. Pope John XXIII was in formed of the fire by Secre tary of State Cardinal-elect Domenico Tardinl during the customary morning audience. XieiUi C wiuiuianuig w xua private chapel to pray for. the victims the Pope instructed Cardinal Tardini to wire pa pal condolences to Msgr. Al bert Gregory Meyer, arch bishop of Chicago. V The secretary of state also was instructed to wire the apostolic delegate in Washing ton. Cardinal-elect Amleto Cigognani, asking that he leave immediately for Chi cago or send an emissary to convey me .rope s sorrow xo the families of the victims. A Vatican source, comment- ing on arson rumors, said "it does not seem possible that anyone could take such action against innocent children. We refuse to believe this and we are inclined to think that it was an accident." FOR YOU Costs only $6.05, if repaid In 3 monthly pay merits of $35.35 each! Phone ahead for fj. your loan . . . then pick up money on first visit! e Oregon Finance Co. OUR 30th YEAR g 45 South Central SP 2-4433 Gene Thomas, Manager i Home Owned Central location Friendly Hlilllllflili!l?fflflll!l.if o m reeon, Tuesday, Deeember 2, 1938 shoulder to shoulder and 10 deep at spots. They didn't talk, just looked. Parents made their way through the crowd, then stopped at the church with its drab exterior. Inside, it was beautiful and still. Boys Questioned In School Fire; No Suspicions (Continued From Pag 1) Deputy Chief of Detectives Frank Pape and his squad questioned two 13-year-old boys duringt he night. He said the boys, Daniel O'Shea and Patrick Machaj, told of car rying rubbish to the basement shortly before the fire broke out. 1 Authorities sought a third boy who was in the basement with O'Shea and Machaj, and planned to question other boys assigned to carrying the trash to the basement. "It would seem to me that some youngster was smoking down there and flipped the cigarette away when he heard someone coming," Pape said. However, he emphasized that4 no one was under sus picion at the moment. FBI Offers Cooperation "At the present time the origin of the fire is still un determined," Pape continued. He said it didn't "make sense that a child would set the fire deliberately" and then return to his class room. The FBI offered its cooper ation in the probe in the ev ent investigators turned up evidence of arson. Authorit ies, said they had not ruled out arson as a possible cause. Sgt. Drew Brown of the arson detail said 'the thick smoke, at first believed to have been ' oil, apparently came from thick wax on the school floors. Flames Spread Quickly He said the flames spread quickly when second floor windows were opened by panic-stricken youngsters seek ing an escape route and suck ed the smoke and flames up through the stairwell to the upper floor. He said the fire could have been smoldering for some time in tightly packed papers under the stairwell before it broke out. The building had only one outside fire escape. Heroic nuns and men who dashed into the burning build ing from the street helped to save most of the 1,300 chil dren in the school. Firemen carried down others on lad ders from upper floors. A crowd of 10,000, many of them hysterical parents, swarmed around the burning building. They had to be re strained by police cordons. The officers wept openly. Worst Since 1903 ' It was the worst school fire in Chicago's history and the city's most tragic blaze since the Iroquois theatre fire kill ed 575 persons in 1903. The school, formerly a church, is located in Chicago's teeming West Side in a neigh borhood made up largely of working people of Italian, German and Irish descent. In recent weeks, a number of Chicago schools have had bomb threats and scares, tied in with Negro-white integra tion.. There were no Negro students in Our Lady of the Angels. - our new HOLIDAY LOAN PLAN GET 100 CASH NOW Parents Gather at Chicago Morgue Dn Attempt To Ddentnffy Children Chicago -DPD- A morgue at tendant gently lifted a sheet from a charred body and said, "this is a boy." John Jakowski Sr., leaned over, looked intently at the lifeless form and screamed. "Oh, my God, my boy, my boy." Upstairs in the crowded main hall at Cook County Morgue, a deputy coroner in toned into a megaphone: "We are looking for the parents of" an 1 1-year-old girl with a medal and cross about her neck. She wore a full school uniform with long black stockings. She can be identified." A little woman in a tan coat cried out then sobbed un trollably into the ends of her scarf. A blue-clad student nurse guided the woman to a seat in a smoky meeting room. A Boy, Thinking How He Would Look Dead, Rescued by Firemen Editor's note: Tommy Ray mond, 12, a seventh grader, was trapped (or 20 minutes in his second floor classroom at Our Lady of the Angels school. Here is his story. By TOMMY RAYMOND As Told To UPI Chicago-(UPD-I hesitated on the window sill thinking about jumping and how I would look dead when fire men shouted to me to wait and they'd save me. Most of my other classmates had got out - and I was the last one. But when I walked into the hall the smoke was ' ii. ; i -r , , i ai so imcK j. ran oacK into me room. I ran to a window in the room and threw some books out through the glass to break the windows. It's funny but I remember the books reader and some text books. Thought About Jumping After the window broke I got on the sill and began thinking about jumping. That's when the firemen down below started shouting at me not to jump, but they'd come and get me. So I got back off the sill. Now that I think back to SSM RUSSIAN PROPOSAL Soviet Premier NiHta Khruslt chev stands before microphones, speaking at his first news conference held in the Kremlin. In his speech, Khrushchev outlined Russia's proposal that West Berlin be made into a demilitarized free city. He said the pro posal is not an "ultimatum." Four Children Perish in Fire Snyderville, Utah-flJPD-Four children burned to death early today when fire swept their two-story frame farm home in this tiny community three miles northwest of Park City in the northeast section of Utah. -, - The victims were Christine, 8, Paul, 6, Mart, 4, and Rex, about 2, sons and daughters of Dale and Betty Durrant. The fire apparently started from a small space heating stove in the kitchen of the home. The house was heated by a coal furnace in the base ment 'but it was not believed to be the cause of the fire. Durrant, 28, a farmer, had made the fire before begin ning his morning milking chores. Mrs. Durrant, 25, was still in her bedroom when WATCH HOLIDAY TABLE'' AUDREY SIMS demonstrates and shows you how to make HOLIDAY DECORATIONS & ARRANGEMENTS. This week: "Down Christmas Tree Lane" THURSDAY, 4:30, on KBES-TV . Courtesy of Sims Cycle & Hobby Shop - policeman led her husband past ,20 other anxious parents and relatives and down the long steps to the bodies in the basement. Difficult To Identify In the noisy lobby, Vincent Mucci tugged ' at the sleeves of coroner's deputies and newsmen - anyone with a slip of paper in his hand-seeking word of his niece, Elaine Pe soli. "She's 9," he said, "wearing red bobby sox and black suede shoes. My brother and I were taken down into that hell hole to see if we could find her. My brother thought one body was her's, but I didn't. I don't see how anyone can identify anyone down there." Hours later, Elaine's name was posted on the official death list in the Our Lady of Angels school holocaust. The small bodies, covered when it started, I remember we were having a singing lesson. We didn't know any thing about the fire until all of a sudden we heard a lot of screams. We couldn't make out what the screams were for a moment, then we knew it was the eighth graders yelling "Fire, fire, fire:" We started leaving ' the room like we had practiced in fire drills. You know we had two or three fire drills al ready this winter because this is an old school and some body always figured it was going to burn down some day. For a while I was all by myself in the room apd then some girls came running in. They were from another room. I yelled at them to lie down on the floor, because that's what I remember from fire drills to do when there's a lot of ' smoke. Kids Form Line The girls said kids from other rooms were hanging on one another's belts to form a line to get to the stairs be cause the smoke had made it as dark as night on the sec ond floor. A man came run- she smell ed smoke. She said the doorway lead ing to the rest of the house was blocked by flames by the time she reached the kitchen. She then ran outside in her nightclothes to find her hus band. Both parents ran back into the house but were unable to reach the ground . floor bed room where two of the chil dren had been sleeping and could not climb the stairway to the upstairs bedroom where two - other children perished. Portland-DPD-Sen. Richard L. Neuberger D-Ore.) will be keynote speaker at the Ore gon Wheat Growers League meeting here Thursday through Saturday. with blankets, were carried into the morgue from ambu lances and squad cars that drew up 10 and 12 deep in the street outside. Police carried the bodies into a waiting room and put them gently down on the cold concrete floor. They arrived faster than morgue attendants could carry them to the r ele vator and take them to the basement. Administer Last Rites Police officers wept as the rows of childrens' bodies grew longer and longer. Priests administered last rites to each victim as the stretch ers were placed down. As fast as the stretcuers were sent back up to the en trance door, the ambulances sped back for more victims. The tragic cargo moved in faster than carpenters could build benches. The bodies ov- ning through the door and we we could see flames on the other side of the building. The man grabbed a few girls and led them back out with him. But I stayed by the win dow, and I was scared. Then the firemen came up and led me down the ladder. I'm sorry about all the others. School Fire Among Worst Disasters By United Press International The Chicago school fire on Monday was among the worst such disasters ever to strike in the United States. . According to the World Al manac, the worst school trag edy occurred on March 18, 1937, at New London, Tex., when an explosion destroyed a schoolhouse, killing 294 per sons. The almanac says a total of 174 children and two tea chers were killed in a fire and panic at the Lakewood school in Collinwood, Ohio, a Cleve land suburb, on May 17, 1923 and at Hobart, Okla., killing 35 persons on Dec. 25, 1924. Save time! Save money! Fly UNITED AIR UUES, -. - enjoy "extra (are" Radar-equipped United Mainliners are scheduled to your convenience, fly you to your destination with extra care and hours to spare, often cost you less than driving or rail fare! , Convenient Malnliner departures to: Portland, Seattle, San Francisco Los Angeles, Denver Chicago, New York CALL Medford SPring 3-6233 or your travel agent GET EXTRA CARE AT THE REGULAR f ARE ON UNITED, THE RADAR AIRLINE erflowed onto the floor along the west wall, into a room across the hall, finally into a third room. - Morgue attendants moved about, determining a child's sex, writing descriptions of any clothing that remained, searching for lockets or other trinkets that would aid iden tification. It was two hours after the bodies started arriving before the first relatives arrived. "It's only natural," Deputy Coroner George Connor said. "They're trying all the hos pitals first, hoping for the best. They come here when they have nowhere else to go." , Idaho Youths Face Sentences Weiser, Idaho-(DPD-Three of four Weiser teen-age boys to day faced stiff sentences for their part in a recent crime spree in Idaho and neighbor ing Washington state. Larry Eisenbarth, 16; Ross Manser, 16; and Larry Martin, 16, all of Weiser, were sen tenced Monday by District Judge Gilbert C. Norris to not more than eight years in the Idaho state penitentiary. The fourth youth, Eugene Coffelt, 15, who had shown some remorse for his part in the crimes, received an 11 month sentence in the Wash ington county jail. All four were sentenced on a charge of first degree bur glary ; in connection with a break-in at the Midvale mar ket in Midvale in which am munition, candy and ciga rettes were taken. The sheriff's offices here said the youths also admitted various other burglaries, van dalism and shootings. Child, 2, Killed . When Hit by Truck Salem (UPD N a n c y Lee Smith, 2, daughter of Mrs. Phylis Claudine Smith, was killed Monday when struck by a mail truck on Hoodview road in frnt of a neighbor's home. The accident occurred just northeast of the Salem city limits, state police said. JUNTTUDiy Banker Held On Embezzlement Los Angeles - (UPD - A mild mannered bank vice president today was held in jail on fed eral charges ' of embezzling more than $800,000 from the Sun Valley National Bank. John E. Petersen, 49, father of two children, was arrested Monday by FBI agents at his home in nearby Van Nuys on a complaint issued by U.S. Commissioner Theodore Hocke charging him with a false entry in the bank rec ords. Total bank shortages might amount to more than $1 mil lion, D. K. Brown, special agent in charge of the FBI Los Angeles office, said. Au diting of the books continued today. "I don't have any of this money. I'd like to know where it is." - The former cashier and vice president said he resign ed from the bank, where he had worked since 1952, about 10 days ago at the request of bank officers when federal bank examiners noted a dis crepancy in the bank books. Oregon Apple Crop Estimate Declines Portland (UPD Oregon's 1958 apple crop is estimated at 2,400,000 bushels, down 700,000 bushels from last year. The Department of Agri culture's crop reporting serv ices aid the 1958 Oregon crop was about 110,000 bushels be low the 10-year average. Washington's 1958 apple crop is down 2,800,000 bu shels to 30,400,000 bushels, the USDA said. MINHY your long distance calls get the .,, ....ygiyyBy.;.. """"" Limmmj ' " ' ' ' " Your voice needs a boost to keep it each outpost does its job. If trouble threatens, from fading on a long distance call. So every well even trek up a mountain in a winter storm few miles we give it an electronic lift at a. to head it off. We keep food supplies at some repeater station. YouTl find these stations stations just in case of bad weather. And all wherever your calls go on desert wastelands this is only part of the care we give your calls or high mountain tops. Men like Frank Wiley, along the way. Just one of many things we do top picture, check them closely no matter iiow to make sure that you get the best possible remote they are. These men make sure that service for your telephone dollar. . Working together to serve you better Murder, Suicide Charged To Youth Saddle Rock, N.Y.-IUPD-A "quiet, obedient, helpful" 14- year-old boy shot his mother and sister to death Monday night in - their fashionable home and then killed himself, police reported. Three rifle blasts brought neighbors running to the $60, 000 home of Max Weiner, wealthy New York advertis ing man. They found the body of James - Wiener, a' junior high school student, lying just inside the front door, a .22 rifle clutched in his hand. The body of James' mother, Mrs. Dorothy Weiner, 47, was sprawled at the head of the stairs leading to the split level bedroom wing. Laurie Wiener, 27, James' sister who taught art at a nearby high school, was found dead in the basement: Chief of Detectives Stuyvesant Pinnell said, it was obviously a double mur der and suicide. ORDER NOW! NAME IMPRINTED CHRISTMAS CARDS Largest Selection to Choose From i On The Balcony at . . . ffrorTrfo I BOOKS GIFTS RECORDS 1 1 &p(mmm timsmm) OPEN TONIGHT TIL 9 P.M. H IN - hnw The men and women of B Pacific Telephone Year D.D.D. (Delayed DeSoto Display DEC. 5 Dick Knight Co. BRILL METAL WORKS Commercial Industrial Residential Sheet Metal Work Stainless, Galvanized and Copper Fabrication ' 2287 West Main PHONE SP 2-4440 we make sura lift they need V" , 9 miiAt N. larltet Sf f-i-o i u
