BOSTON DANCE HALL CRASH.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LI, Issue 16805, 11 August 1925, Page 8

BOSTON DANCE HALL CRASH.

DEATH LIST GROWS AS RUIN?

ARE EXPLORED

PUGILISTS, GANGSTERS AND BOHEMIANS AMONG VICTIMS.

BOSTON, July 6.—The forty-fourth body was taken front the wreck of the Pickwick Club, once gay night resort, at 5.29 this morning, just fifty holirs after the throng of “night before the fourth” revellers Were flung down and buried with the collapse of the building. All. niglit long the search had gone forward. Under the 'concentrated glare of dozens of searchlights, an army of men had patiently worked, brick by brick, stick by (stick, making their way down through the mass of debris, pausing now and again to lift another unfortunate. By this morning they had found the bodies of nearly all who had been reported missing. “Ella's” body—Miss Ella C'auley—was brought out. In her dress they found the money for which she had smiled away the broad bandyings of the guests that she might realise her hope of marriage and a home. Frank Tillo and Ned Flanagan, who had won many focal ring battles, were found. Inspector Benjamin Alexander of the Boston police, who had thought to add another arrest to the several rnad'e at the club, died' in the wreck. Some of the bodies found were of persons paying their first visit to the club, others were those of habitues. Johnny Scales and John Duffy, for the last time, had wondered, singing between the tables while drinks were pressed upon them and silver showered oti the dance floor.

The debris whispered a strange stoiy. O'ne man, his wife’s picture in the pocket over his heart, was found dead in the arms of another woman. A bottlo of spirits or whisky, was picked! up unbroken. There were several untouched pockets that might hold bodies. Practically all of the bodies have been identified.

To-day, city, county and State open investigations to determine the cause of tho disaster.

The • body of a woman, severed at the waist, with shreds of finery of the dance that ended in tragedy still clinging to it, was taken from the ruins. Toiling with steam shovels and two motor trains to clear away the wreckage in which nearly 100 revellers were trapped in the early hours of Independence Day, firemen and workers feared that the work at any moment might disclose bodies of additional victims. Fire Chief Sinnott, hoarse and weary after directing the rescue and search parties for more than forty-eight hours, estimated that the final toll of dead would not exceed fifty. A score, taken from the terrible tangle of debris which spilled over into an adjacent excavation as the entire building crashed in, are in city hospitals and some of these may not live. The tragedy came swiftly in tho mid'st of an “all-night dance, attended 'by members of the Pickwick Club, which was famous for its “Bohemian” entertainment. Dancers thronged the floor of the ballroom, applauding for an encore. The club occupied the second storey of the structure, which is not otherwise tenanted.

Without warning, save a few preliminary rumblings that .scarcely sounded above the laughter and voices, the ceiling fell in upon the celeb rat-ois and tho floor gave way beneath their feet. Men and women were hurled together into a terrific vortex of flesh and splintered timbers and! tangled framework down to the basement of the structure, while the rest of the five storeys fell in on top of them. Those who Were saved clung to tottering walls or leaped from windows to safety, many being seriously injured. One man was shot and three others arrested as suspicious persons when police found; them rifling the cloak room of the chib. The room was in the corner of the building left, standing and was partially shielded by {he falling floors.