Washington, DC

Knickerbocker Theatre Disaster

January 29, 1922

WASHINGTON DEAD NEAR 110; APPROXIMATELY 200 INJURED

CAPITAL AGHAST AT GROWING DEATH LIST, WATCHES RESCUE WORKERS CUT WAY TO VICTIMS

With Unknown Number of Living Still Entombed Under Debris, Police, Firemen and Soldiers Struggle Frantically to Reach Them – Whole City Given Over to Saving Those Still Under Ruins and Caring for Close to 200 Injured.

By GENE FOWLER.
WASHINGTON, Jan. 29. – Tonight the capital, stunned by disaster, watched fearfully the ever-growing list of dead and dying. From the entangled struts, supports and beams of the Knickerbocker motion picture theatre.

The total number of know dead in the Knickerbocker theatre disaster was close to 110 at midnight.

This includes 84 whose bodies were recovered from the ruins and taken to the improvised morgue in the basement of the Christian Science church and 24 others who died at local hospitals.

Search for Diplomats.
Search is being made for three persons prominent in the Diplomatic corps who are believed to be among the unidentified dead or still in the ruins of the Knickerbocker theatre.

They are Madame Virginia Kuraud, sister of Dr. Julio Bianchi, Guatemalan minister to the United States.
L. M. Price, Attache of the Venezuelan legislation.
Tomasso Asserto, of the Belgian Embassy.

Believe All Bodies Out.
Officers in charge of the search for bodies in the ruins of the Knickerbocker theatre announced at 11:45 p. m. that they were convinced that all bodies had been removed.

The body of Dr. SHEA was the last take out at about 9 o’clock tonight. No living person was found in the ruins are 1 o’clock this afternoon when a man whose body was badly broken was rescued. He died a few hours later at a hospital.

Consternation resulted at the day progressed because of the circulation of false rumors to the effect that cries and moans were heard coming from the ruins. One rumor was to the effect that five persons had been trapped in a room which had been blocked off and made inaccessible to the rescuers.

In every instance the rumors were investigated by army officers and found to be false. The condition of the ruins was such, the officers declared, late this afternoon, that no person could live under them.

Still Entombed Under Debris.
Agonized cries, echoing faintly from the pile of fallen masonry and twisted superstructure of the building indicated that several persons are entombed by the debris. Officials estimate that eight are thus imprisoned. Frantic efforts were ing [sic] made to save the unfortunates.

In two instances, the sufferers were located beneath a mass of material. Unable to release them from their torment, rescue workers passed tubes to the victims through apertures made with picks and acetylene torches. Through these tubes warm milk and stimulants are being administered.

The number of severely injured is estimated at more than a hundred. An equal number are believed to have been hurt in minor ways. It is a city of clanging ambulances, hurrying surgeons and nurses, grim-faced citizens and pitiful incidents attendant on the most appalling theatre tragedy since the Iroquois fire.

Soldiers on Guard.
The exclusive Mt. Pleasant section is under military control. Constantly gathering crowds held back by soldiers from Fort Myer, policemen, firemen and volunteer rescuers, give an impression that all Washington has gathered there.

Frequently from the fringe of the swaying crowd that is not permitted to come nearer that a deadline one block and a half from any side of the wrecked playhouse, there starts a cry. It is but another relative or friend who struggles to escape the vigilance of the military outposts.

Despairing Relatives Wait.
Men with tears streaming from their eyes are among the watchers. Many of them have been here since the first news of the collapse of the room of the handsome edifice in Washington’s official residence district traveled like a sinister breath of tragedy through the city. Wives, daughters, some are among the missing.

Medical men, most of whom have been working since the collapse of the film house at 9:20 o’clock last evening are in attendance. Nurses from Walter Reed hospital aid the tired physicians and surgeons there. Many of the nurses were summoned while on relief. There is no faltering here.

Officers of the military, themselves fatigued to the point of exhaustion, bark their commands hoarsely. They literally lash their men to renewed efforts to extricate the bodies of the dead and particularly of those yet living from the jumbled mass of material that was catapauled [sic] on the heads of a helpless audience last night.
One hospital was established in a nearby candy store. The spirit of the men who were dragged from the ruins in a conscious condition illustrated here. Hospital internes [sic] were making ready to lift one to a stretcher. One of his arms had been amputated by a falling beam, he said, speaking calmly and coolly, “Forget About Me.” “I am dying. I will be gone in a few minutes. Just forget about taking me in an ambulance. I forbid you to put me in an ambulance. I will appreciate it, gentlemen, if you will please go away immediately and let me die. Your services are required in there where you can save a poor soul. Leave me at once.”

The man closed his eyes in death.

Firemen worked all night with their picks and shovels. Despairingly they endeavored to remove the concrete of the inner shell of the ceiling roof and walls that had crumbled so suddenly beneath the thousands of pounds of the snow that buried the streets and roofs of the city. Soldiers from Fort Myers were detailed with [illegible] torches to cut through the twisted mass of steel and aid in the rescue.

Could Not See Victims.
Inside the buckles walls of the theatre, the early arriving rescuers reported that they were unable to see a single member of the audience when work began. The ceiling had literally engulfed the crowd, variously estimated at between 800 and 1,500 persons. The widespread balcony, extending over nearly half of the lower floor of the ill-fated auditorium was sheared away as though by the scythe of death.
Those who were seated in the balcony were partly protected by the fact that the debris was most under them rather than over them. Peculiarly enough, although the walls are bulged outward, not a window was broken in the theatre. The blanket of tragedy, white with the heaviest snowfall in the city’s record since the late ‘60’s, had all fallen straight down.

Bolt Upright, Dead.
Bassett Prudigan, a volunteer rescue worker, late this afternoon uncovered a man who sat bolt upright in his seat. The debris had formed an arch over him. There were no marks on this man to indicate injury. He was dead. His eyes were open. His whole appearance was indicative of the fact that he had been gazing at the picture that began the performance and that the shock had killed him.

Scores of volunteers have called hospitals and relief stations, offering to undergo blood transfusions for those who suffered a loss of limbs or other wounds. Guests to exclusive hotels have offered to share their rooms with relatives of out-of-town victims who are reported to be coming from New York. So deep to the clutch of this amazing blizzard are the rail and motor highways leading into it that delays are being encountered by persons who have been notified of the deaths or injury to their kin.

Wires Overburdened.
Telegraph and telephone service already hampered by the record storm, are overburdened with communications concerning the tragedy and the victims thereof.
Shortly after the news of the collapse of the theatre roof beneath twenty-nine inches of snow, the local telephone company voluntarily notified every hospital and every medical ma nin [sic] the directory. The response was immediate.

The Bridgeport Telegram, Bridgeport, CT 30 Jan 1922

CONGRESSMAN IN SEARCH FOR SON LEADS IN RESCUE

Barkeley, Kentucky Representative, Brings Out Numerous Victims.

FINDS A CRUSHED BODY

With Superhuman Effort, He Frees Victim Still Alive. – Not His Son.

WASHINGTON, Jan. 29. – Among the leaders in the work of rescue amid the ruins of the Knickerbocker theatre throughout the night was Representative Alben W. Barkley, Democrat, of the first Kentucky district.

Those about him, striving frantically to dig through tons of re-enforced concrete, broken steel girders and piles of snow, while piteous cries and shrieks for help came from those pinned beneath the debris, saw in their tall, heavy-set co-worker only a calm deliberate fearless leader.

They knew not that down in his heart he strove to keep back a conviction born of fear that the next body reached every time would be that of his own fifteen-year-old son, Murrell.

In the street outside, hysterical, praying, Mrs. Barkley waited – with what emotions only a mother can understand.

Young Murrell had left for the theatre only half an hour before the roof caved in. Word of the disaster quickly reached the Barkley home, a block and a half distant, and mother and father rushed madly to the scene.

Dashes Into Ruins.
Stationing his wife in a safe spot, and pleading with her to be brave, Representative Barkley dashed into the ruins and placed himself at the head of one of the groups of rescuers. Three hours and a half he forgot all fatigue and cold, though he had trudged four miles through the snow from the house office building to his home only a short while before, as he brought out numerous victims, mangled but alive, and took turns as stretcher bearer when a dead body was found.

When a light fell on the face of one body, the Congressman helped carry our, he saw his friend and colleague of several years ago, former representative Barchfield, of Pennsylvania.

Between 12 30 and 1 a m. the Kentuckian’s heart stopped. There before him was his boy so far as identification was possible. A lump rose in his throat.

A Crushed Body.
Only the head and an arm were visible. A twisted girder on top of broken concrete and almost covered in snow crushed the remainder of the body to the floor.
The hair was the color or Murrell’s. The eyes were his. The coat was like Murrell’s.
But blood and dirt on the upturned face made positive identification difficult.
With his own almost superhuman effort, aided by those about him, to whom he then revealed his discovery, the debris was lifted sufficiently to release the lad, unconscious but breathing faintly.

Stretch-bearers took the boy to the street, the Congressman keeping pace, smoothing away the matted hair from the forehead, and anxious to tell the waiting mother her boy lived.

One close look under the lights of the street and back again into the utter depths of despair. The lad was not Murrell.

Hears a Voice.
Another half an hour of work among the ruins gave him the task of stretch-bearer several times. Shortly after one o’clock as he emerged from the collapsed structure he heard a voice.

“Hey, daddy, hey, daddy”

Murrell stood in the street, clasped in his mother’s arms, unhurt.

He had discovered on his arrival at the theatre that he had seen the picture once in a downtown theatre so he went around to spend the evening with a friend, a son of Representative Joseph W. Burns of Tennessee nearby. He had gone home the minute he heard of the disaster, but his parents were gone in search of him. He knew where they where and what were their fears. But in the confusion he had been unable to find wither his mother or father earlier.

The Bridgeport Telegram, Bridgeport, CT 30 Jan 1922

Two Girls Found Asleep Beneath the Debris.

WASHINGTON, Jan. 19 – (Associated Press) Sleeping peacefully beneath the debris in the wrecked Knickerbocker theatre, two little girls, aged about four and six were found early today by rescuers, ten hours after the playhouse roof had fallen in. Apparently neither of the children was badly hurt. They were taken to a hospital without identification.

Four hours earlier a five year old girl was found unhurt, seated between the bodies of two women. Her life evidently had been saved by her falling between the seats and the protection given her by the bodies of the two women who were killed beside her.

The last person to be taken from the ruins was Dr. Scott Montgomery of Washington, who was rescued 12 hours after the roof collapsed. He was pinned by his legs underneath a beam which killed the young woman whom he had escorted to the theatre.

The Bridgeport Telegram, Bridgeport, CT 30 Jan 1922

Edward Shaughnessy, of Chicago, second assistant postmaster general, who was one of the most critically injured in the Knickerbocker collapse, was reported steadily improving tonight. His wife and two daughter also were injured.

The Bridgeport Telegram, Bridgeport, CT 31 Jan 1922

E. H. SHAUGHNESSY DIES FROM INJURIES AT KNICKERBOCKER

Washington, D. C., Feb 2. – Second Assistant Postmaster General E. H. Shaughnessy died early today at the Walter Reed Hospital, a victim of the Knickerbocker Theatre disaster. He made a game fight against death and the physicians tried hard to ward off the end. Blood transfusions taken from strong soldiers made him rally for a time but the injury to his pelvis was so severe that it was impossible to save his life. In another Shaughnessy’s wife and daughter are slowly recovering from their injuries.

Clearfield Progress, Clearfield, PA 2 Feb 1922

Articles transcribed by Jenni Lanham.  Thank you, Jenni!

List of Dead and Injured in the Knickerbocker Theatre Disaster

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