Nebraska Filly brings all sorts of interesting stories and notions to the blog and this one raised my curiosity—Donut Dollies—female volunteers in the war efforts.

From All That’s Interesting:

Meet The Donut Dollies, The Unsung Women Who Gave Out Sweet Treats On The Front Lines

By Jaclyn Anglis

Inspired by a simple idea from female volunteers in 1917, the work of the Donut Dollies spanned decades and helped boost the morale of American soldiers during World War II and beyond.

Throughout history, the roles that American women have played during times of war have often been overlooked and misunderstood. The Donut Dollies are no different. As a group of female Red Cross volunteers, the Donut Dollies officially began traveling with American soldiers during World War II. On a surface level, their roles seemed simple: provide wholesome entertainment and a “taste” of home to the young men fighting for their country.

But the Donut Dollies had so much more to offer than just sweet treats.

Who Were The Donut Dollies?

After the attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, the Red Cross quickly mobilized to supply aid to wounded soldiers as needed. One aspect of this aid was maintaining troop morale. Enter the Donut Dollies. Though the history of female wartime volunteers “who fried donuts and dodged bombs” actually dates back as far back as 1917, this practice was far more casual and relaxed during World War I.

By World War II, the American Red Cross sought out a very exclusive group of women to be Donut Dollies. Experts say the standards for these female volunteers were even higher than the standards of the actual military.  These women were required to be at least 25 years old, college-educated, and able to provide recommendation letters and pass physical exams. Oh, and they also needed to have an “outstanding personality.”

Only one out of six applicants made the final cut.

Once a new Donut Dollie was officially accepted, she would receive immunizations, get fitted for Red Cross uniforms, and undergo several weeks of basic training in the history, policies, and procedures of both the Red Cross and the U.S. Army. She also received a very specific dress code on how to wear her uniform — no earrings, hair ornaments, “brilliant nail polish” or “excessive use of cosmetics.”

After a Donut Dollie completed her training, she was sent overseas, where she would often operate a “Clubmobile,” which was basically a mobile army clubhouse that was able to travel directly to soldiers stationed at faraway bases or camps in the field.  These single-decker green buses were outfitted with the equipment Donut Dollies needed to make fresh donuts right on the spot for hungry troops.

The Donut Dollies Of World War II

During World War II, the Doughnut Corporation of America loaned 468 donut machines to the Red Cross. Each machine could yield about 48 dozen donuts per hour. Yet as the war raged on, the machines proved to be inefficient at keeping up with the high demand for the fried treats.  One volunteer, Clara Schannep Jensen, wrote in a letter to her family back home: “The day before yesterday we spent the whole day making doughnuts. They were pretty good, too.”

Eventually, the Red Cross was forced to open up a handful of centralized bakeries in order to keep the Clubmobiles stocked. According to one report from late 1944, a total of 205 women had served well over 4.6 million donuts to soldiers in Great Britain. As Jensen noted in another letter to her family: “[I] have quite a responsible job and am quite thrilled that they felt I could handle it.”

In addition to donuts, the Clubmobiles were also stocked with cigarettes, magazines, chewing gum, and newspapers that provided an additional sense of normalcy for all of the homesick soldiers.  To make up for the fact that those in the field were unable to visit more permanent recreation clubs in cities such as London, the buses were also equipped with speakers in order to play music out loud.  The back portions of the Clubmobiles could also open up into makeshift lounges, fitted with seats where soldiers could sit and talk amongst themselves and perhaps even flirt with the beautiful young women who made the donuts.

The Donut Dollies Of Vietnam And Korea

After World War II, Donut Dollies offered their services during the Korean War and the Vietnam War as well. A total of 899 Donut Dollies served in South Korea from 1953 to 1973. “Everywhere we went, we took donuts, fresh baked daily by Korean bakers, for the troops,” said volunteer Patricia Lorge. “This was, no doubt, meant to bring a little bit of home to the troops.” She added, “We went to the troops; we visited small, isolated locations, where they didn’t have a chance to go anywhere or relax.” Meanwhile, 627 women served as Donut Dollies in Vietnam from 1962 to 1973. During the Vietnam War, however, the focus began to shift from donuts to recreational activities.

“We really did not make donuts and deliver them to the field in Vietnam,” volunteer Debby MacSwain said. “In fact, I only saw one donut during my year-long deployment. It was given to me by an Army Sergeant and I ate it!” But even though the Donut Dollies stopped making their namesake pastries, they were certainly no less busy than they were before. They provided a wide range of entertainment, including sing-a-longs, ping pong, and pool tournaments. They were ready to serve up smiles — even when they didn’t feel like smiling themselves.

The Challenges And Dangers

“As ‘Donut Dollies’ our job was to lift the guys’ spirits,” said Jeanne Christie, who volunteered during the Vietnam War. “That was easier said than done. We brought a little bit of home with us, we’d listen to them. We’d play games and records at the base rec centers.” However, she acknowledges that the experience was far from perfect. “It wasn’t easy being a Donut Dollie,” Christie admitted. “Some people thought we were just there to tease men. We were wrong, or bad, because we were over there. If you got pregnant, it was your fault, you asked for it.”

That was certainly a lot of pressure, especially since according to the book Beyond Combat: Women and Gender in the Vietnam War Era, the Donut Dollies were expected to be “nonsexual symbols of purity and goodness.” Add that to the pressure of trying to help fearful soldiers while feeling fearful of their own safety. After all, three young women had their lives cut short during their time serving the war effort overseas in Vietnam.

Hannah E. Crews died in a Jeep accident, Virginia E. Kirsch was killed by a U.S. soldier who was high on drugs, and Lucinda Richter died from a degenerative nerve disease known as Guillain-Barre Syndrome.

While Vietnam volunteer Linda Sullivan Schulte was lucky enough to avoid any serious issues overseas, she explained, “We all had incidents like getting gassed, watching occasional rockets come into the base, and sniper fire.” While the number of men who lost their lives on the battlefront far outnumbered the women, the Donut Dollies also showed tremendous courage and selflessness during times of vast national uncertainty.

Their Legacy Today

While donuts are a quintessential American culinary experience, the Donut Dollies are also an American phenomenon — full of phenomenal women. Inspired by a simple idea from female volunteers during World War I, the work of the Donut Dollies spanned decades thanks to the tenacity and kindness of American women. So they surely deserve recognition for their work in the same way that troops do. While nurses treated the physical injuries, Donut Dollies tended to psychological wounds. Long before the vocabulary surrounding PTSD came to be widely accepted, the Donut Dollies were there to listen, there to support, and there to try to understand. While they may not have brandished guns or crawled through the trenches, these women held the line on the emotional battlefield.

SOURCE: ALLTHATSINTERESTING;  Jaclyn Anglis

Today’s entry is an abandoned castle on the Hudson River in New York.

From: allthatsinteresting.com:

Built by an eccentric arms dealer on the isolated Pollepel Island, the Scottish-influenced Bannerman Castle looks like something out of a fairytale — but it has a spooky mythology all its own.

About 60 miles north of New York City, on the supposedly haunted shores of Pollepel Island in the Hudson River, sits the ruins of a 20th-century fortress known as Bannerman Castle. Originally built in the early 1900s as an army surplus arsenal, the castle was abandoned after it was damaged in a series of fires and explosions.

Francis Bannerman, the eccentric weapons tycoon who built the castle, was not your average arms dealer. A first-generation Brooklynite of Scottish descent, he was a pacifist who regarded his vast military collection a tribute to the lost art of weapon making. However, his castle and its grounds would prove to be his greater legacy.

Originally based in Manhattan, Bannerman’s business — and vast supply of flammable black powder — grew so large that the city of New York forced him to move out. His son discovered Pollepel Island while out canoeing on the Hudson, and Bannerman purchased it in 1900 to build a huge arsenal to store his weapons stock.

From there, he brought the baronial, Scottish-inspired Bannerman Castle into existence.

The Construction Of Francis Bannerman’s Architectural Oddity

Francis Bannerman was not an architect. That’s what makes the Gaudi-esque character of the castle and its accompanying buildings so astounding. Rather than work with professional architects, Bannerman designed the castle almost entirely by himself, often drawing up plans on the backs of napkins and envelopes to create the estate in the style of a Scottish fortress.

When Bannerman Castle was nearly finished, barges ferried cannons and artillery up the river for storage. But Bannerman and his wife Helen decided to keep building. They designed an additional castle to serve as a family summer residence, complete with lovely gardens, a dock, a moat, and even an outhouse built for two.

The Bannermans landscaped the gardens themselves, importing soil, digging winding pathways around the island, and building the garden walls. Helen Bannerman enhanced the terraces with plants, flowers, and shrubs — some of which are still alive today.

With Scottish, Moorish, and Belgian design influences, the castle was alive with intricate stone and brickwork. Everything was elaborately adorned with thoughtful details. Bannerman even had the name “Bannerman’s Island Arsenal” emblazoned on its façade.

“There is no way to describe something so eccentric,” said Thom Johnson, vice-president of the Bannerman Trust, according to the non-profit Historic Hudson River Towns. “Look at the north view — there’s no right angles on these buildings! Look at all these textures, all that he did with masonry. It’s a piece of sculpture! The style is almost gaudy, but somehow, he manages to pull it off. Bannerman knew exactly what he was doing, and he did it his own way.”

The Haunted History of Pollepel Island

Before Bannerman Castle, Pollepel Island had a spooky history all its own. The portion of the river surrounding the island had a reputation for violent storms and howling winds. According to local Hudson Valley legend, Dutch sailors in the 17th and 18th centuries attributed these storms to a sinister Goblin king who resided on the island.

The sailors named this being the “Heer of Dunderberg” — “Heer” meaning King, “dunder” meaning thunder, and “berg” meaning mountain. The Heer of Dunderberg was said to rule an army of imps, and had the power to summon the violent storms that wreaked havoc on passing ships.

According to believers, during these infamous squalls, you can still hear the captain of the ghost ship The Flying Dutchman barking orders to his crew.

However, it’s possible that this “folk legend” was invented by Washington Irving, author of The Legend of Sleepy Hollow. Irving’s literary success is due in part to his knack for writing tales of lore that sound like they could be true — and he detailed the legend of the Heer of Dunderberg in his 1822 short story “The Storm-Ship.”

Bannerman Castle Falls To Ruin

Unfortunately, Bannerman Castle has seen its share of catastrophe.

In 1918, Frank Bannerman died before the castle was 100 percent complete. Then, in 1920, the arsenal’s powder house exploded, lending credence to New York City’s decision to boot Bannerman from city limits.

“The explosion was heard from Poughkeepsie to Peekskill,” Steve Santangelo, a tour guide at the castle, said to the New York Times. And 6sqft reports that about 200 tons of shells and powder were involved in the blast.

The explosion damaged the castle, shattering the windows and jettisoning part of the tower into the river. The Bannerman family, narrowly escaping death, remained in the residence until about 1930. That’s when the castle began crumbling.

In 1967, the Bannerman family sold the island to New York State; two years later, it’s suspected that an arsonist set the mysterious fire that reduced the castle to ruins.

Eerily, seven years before the blaze, Frank’s grandson Charles had written prophetically: “No one can tell what associations and incidents will involve the island in the future. Time, the elements, and maybe even the goblins of the island will take their toll of some of the turrets and towers, and perhaps eventually the castle itself.”

For years, New York banned visitors from Pollepel Island because it was too dangerous. That didn’t stop people from illegally visiting and photographing the abandoned castle. Poison ivy ran rampant and snakes infested the grounds, but visitors still braved these hazards — and the choppy waters of the Hudson River — for a glimpse of the crumbling historic ruin.

However, this was not the end of Bannerman Castle’s story. In 1992, a Hudson Valley local named Neil Caplan founded the Bannerman Castle Trust, which has raised funds to stabilize the castle ruins, clear overgrown pathways, and revitalize the landscaping.

Today, Bannerman Castle is a haven for enjoying cultural events. Tours of the grounds run from April through October and include the boat ride over to the island. The Bannerman Castle Trust also hosts horror movie nights, theater performances, kayak tours, and farm-to-table dinner events. Last year, in an exclusive dining experience, the Trust even recreated an 11-course, first-class dinner that was served on the Titanic.

Over 100 years after Bannerman Castle was built, the historic Hudson Valley landmark is now closer to a museum than a bomb site. We can only assume that’s what Francis Bannerman would have preferred.

SOURCE: ALLTHATSINTERESTING.COM

Buffalo soldiers were African American soldiers who mainly served on the Western frontier following the American Civil War. In 1866, six all-Black cavalry and infantry regiments were created after Congress passed the Army Organization Act. Their main tasks were to help control the Native Americans of the Plains, capture cattle rustlers and thieves and protect settlers, stagecoaches, wagon trains and railroad crews along the Western front.

Who Were the Buffalo Soldiers?

No one knows for certain why, but the soldiers of the all-Black 9th and 10th Cavalry Regiments were dubbed “buffalo soldiers” by the Native Americans they encountered.

One theory claims the nickname arose because the soldiers’ dark, curly hair resembled the fur of a buffalo. Another assumption is the soldiers fought so valiantly and fiercely that the Indians revered them as they did the mighty buffalo.

Whatever the reason, the name stuck, and African American regiments formed in 1866, including the 24th and 25th Infantry (which were consolidated from four regiments) became known as buffalo soldiers.

The 9th Cavalry Regiment

The mustering of the 9th Cavalry took place in New Orleans, Louisiana, in August and September of 1866. The soldiers spent the winter organizing and training until they were ordered to San Antonio, Texas, in April 1867. There they were joined by most of their officers and their commanding officer, Colonel Edward Hatch.

Training the inexperienced and mostly uneducated soldiers of the 9th Calvary was a challenging task. But the regiment was willing, able and mostly ready to face anything when they were ordered to the unsettled landscape of West Texas.

The soldiers’ main mission was to secure the road from San Antonio to El Paso and restore and maintain order in areas disrupted by Native Americans, many of whom were frustrated with life on Indian reservations and broken promises by the federal government. The Black soldiers, facing their own forms of discrimination from the U.S. government, were tasked with removing another minority group in that government’s name.

The 10th Cavalry Regiment

The 10th Cavalry was based in Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, and commanded by Colonel Benjamin Grierson. Mustering was slow, partly because the colonel wanted more educated men in the regiment and partly because of a cholera outbreak in the summer of 1867.

In August 1867, the regiment was ordered to Fort Riley, Kansas, with the task of protecting the Pacific Railroad, which was under construction at the time.

Before they left Fort Leavenworth, some troops fought hundreds of Cheyenne in two separate battles near the Saline River. With the support of the 38th Infantry Regiment—which was later consolidated into the 24th Infantry Regiment—the 10th Cavalry pushed back the hostile Indians.

The cavalry lost just one man and several horses despite having inferior equipment and being greatly outnumbered. It was just one of many battles to come.

Indian Wars

Both the 9th and 10th Cavalry Regiments participated in dozens upon dozens of skirmishes and larger battles of the Indian Wars as America became obsessed with westward expansion.

For instance, the 9th Cavalry was critical to the success of a three-month, unremitting campaign known as the Red River War against the Kiowas, the Comanches, the Cheyenne and the Arapahoe. It was after this battle that the 10th Cavalry was sent to join them in Texas.

Troops H and I of the 10th Cavalry were part of a team that rescued wounded Lieutenant-Colonel George Alexander Forsyth and what remained of his group of scouts trapped on a sand bar and surrounded by Native Americans in the Arikaree River. A couple of weeks later, the same troops engaged hundreds of Indians at Beaver Creek and fought so gallantly that they were thanked in a field order by General Philip Sheridan.

By 1880, the 9th and 10th Cavalry Regiments had minimized Indian resistance in Texas and the 9th Cavalry was ordered to Indian Territory in modern-day Oklahoma, ironically to prevent white settlers from illegally settling on Indian land. The 10th Cavalry continued to keep the Apache in check until the early 1890s when they relocated to Montana to round up the Cree.

About 20 percent of U.S. Cavalry troops that participated in the Indian Wars were buffalo soldiers, who participated in at least 177 conflicts.

Buffalo Soldiers Protect National Parks

Buffalo soldiers didn’t only battle Native Americans. They also fought wildfires and poachers in Yosemite and Sequoia National Parks and supported the parks’ infrastructure.

According to the National Park Service, buffalo soldiers billeted at the Presidio army post in San Francisco during the winter and served as park rangers in the Sierra Nevada in the summer.

Buffalo Soldiers in Other Conflicts

In the late 1890s, with the “Indian problem” mostly settled, the 9th and 10th Calvary and the 24th and 25th Infantry headed to Florida at the start of the Spanish-American War.

Even facing blatant racism and enduring brutal weather conditions, buffalo soldiers earned a reputation for serving courageously. They fought heroically in the Battle of San Juan Hill, the Battle of El Caney and the Battle of Las Guasimas.

The 9th and 10th Cavalry Regiments served in the Philippines in the early 1900s. Despite proving their military worth time and again, they continued to experience racial discrimination. During World War I, they were mostly relegated to defending the Mexican border.

Both regiments were integrated into the 2nd Cavalry Division in 1940. They trained for overseas deployment and combat during World War II. The 9th and 10th Cavalry Regiments were deactivated in May 1944.

SOURCE: HISTORY.COM

Passed by Congress June 13, 1866, and ratified July 9, 1868, the 14th Amendment extended liberties and rights granted by the Bill of Rights to formerly enslaved people.

Following the Civil War, Congress submitted to the states three amendments as part of its Reconstruction program to guarantee equal civil and legal rights to Black citizens. A major provision of the 14th Amendment was to grant citizenship to “All persons born or naturalized in the United States,” thereby granting citizenship to formerly enslaved people.

Another equally important provision was the statement that “nor shall any state deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.” The right to due process of law and equal protection of the law now applied to both the federal and state governments.

On June 16, 1866, the House Joint Resolution proposing the 14th Amendment to the Constitution was submitted to the states. On July 28, 1868, the 14th amendment was declared, in a certificate of the Secretary of State, ratified by the necessary 28 of the 37 States, and became part of the supreme law of the land.

Congressman John A. Bingham of Ohio, the primary author of the first section of the 14th Amendment, intended that the amendment also nationalize the Bill of Rights by making it binding upon the states. When introducing the amendment, Senator Jacob Howard of Michigan specifically stated that the privileges and immunities clause would extend to the states “the personal rights guaranteed and secured by the first eight amendments.” Historians disagree on how widely Bingham’s and Howard’s views were shared at the time in the Congress, or across the country in general. No one in Congress explicitly contradicted their view of the amendment, but only a few members said anything at all about its meaning on this issue. For many years, the Supreme Court ruled that the amendment did not extend the Bill of Rights to the states.

Not only did the 14th Amendment fail to extend the Bill of Rights to the states; it also failed to protect the rights of Black citizens. A legacy of Reconstruction was the determined struggle of Black and White citizens to make the promise of the 14th Amendment a reality. Citizens petitioned and initiated court cases, Congress enacted legislation, and the executive branch attempted to enforce measures that would guard all citizens’ rights. While these citizens did not succeed in empowering the 14th Amendment during Reconstruction, they effectively articulated arguments and offered dissenting opinions that would be the basis for change in the 20th century.

AMENDMENT XIV

Section 1.
All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.

Section 2.
Representatives shall be apportioned among the several States according to their respective numbers, counting the whole number of persons in each State, excluding Indians not taxed. But when the right to vote at any election for the choice of electors for President and Vice-President of the United States, Representatives in Congress, the Executive and Judicial officers of a State, or the members of the Legislature thereof, is denied to any of the male inhabitants of such State, being twenty-one years of age, and citizens of the United States, or in any way abridged, except for participation in rebellion, or other crime, the basis of representation therein shall be reduced in the proportion which the number of such male citizens shall bear to the whole number of male citizens twenty-one years of age in such State.

Section 3.
No person shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress, or elector of President and Vice-President, or hold any office, civil or military, under the United States, or under any State, who, having previously taken an oath, as a member of Congress, or as an officer of the United States, or as a member of any State legislature, or as an executive or judicial officer of any State, to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof. But Congress may by a vote of two-thirds of each House, remove such disability.

Section 4.
The validity of the public debt of the United States, authorized by law, including debts incurred for payment of pensions and bounties for services in suppressing insurrection or rebellion, shall not be questioned. But neither the United States nor any State shall assume or pay any debt or obligation incurred in aid of insurrection or rebellion against the United States, or any claim for the loss or emancipation of any slave; but all such debts, obligations and claims shall be held illegal and void.

Section 5.
The Congress shall have power to enforce, by appropriate legislation, the provisions of this article.

SOURCE: NATIONAL ARCHIVES

From: Paul Andrews at lost-in-history.com:

One of the worst train wrecks in U.S. history happened with, of all things, a Circus Train.  It was carrying over 400 performers when another train rear-ended it in the dead the night; and they burst into flames. The horrific tragedy happened to the famous Hagenbeck-Wallace Circus at Dutchman’s Curve near Hammond, Indiana on 22 June 1918.  The circus train was stopped on the tracks for repairs. The circus train wreck killed 89 performers and roustabouts, and injured over 150 more.   How could such a terrible disaster have occurred during the Golden Age of railroads?  

The Hagenbeck-Wallace Circus was the third-largest in the U.S., a Midwestern version of the Barnum & Baily Greatest Show. The H-W Circus had some of the most excellently trained animals, well-known trapeze artists, and spectacular equestrian routines.  By 1918, the company employed around 250 performers – acrobats, trapeze artists, clowns, and wild animal tamers; not to mention all the roustabouts who kept it going.  Circus owner Benjamin Wallace purchased the Carl Hagenbeck Circus in 1907.  In just a decade, the combined circus grew into a million-dollar extravaganza, which even owned its own trains. 

The circus required two, 28-car trains to transport all the tents, performers, animals, and midway across the U.S. The expansion of railroads in the latter half of the 1800’s fueled a Golden Age for circuses, as well as railroads. By 1900, nearly 100 circuses traveled between U.S. towns and cities. Back then, live circuses were an unmatched spectacle of daring, humor, and shear amazement. When the circus came to town, it was an unofficial holiday, schools and stores were closed and even factories shut down.

The Hagenbeck-Wallace Circus Side Show performers

The Hagenbeck-Wallace Circus had just wrapped up 2 successful shows in Michigan City, Indiana.  They were now enroute overnight to Hammond, only 45 miles away. The first train contained the performing animals, tents, midway and most of the circus workers.  The second train carried the performers and the remaining roustabouts. It was standard to send the animals in the first train ahead of the performers. That way, the animals could be unloaded, penned, and fed. This practice saved all the circus animals, but doomed the performers.

The first train made it safely to Hammond that night without incident.  But engineers on the second were forced to stop that train to fix a “hotbox” or overheated axle bearings – a serious problem if not addressed. They were able to pull the first cars off on a side track, but five of the rear ones, including 4 sleeper cars, remained on the main track.  This should not have been a problem as the rail line was aware and turned on red warning lights along the tracks.

Around 4 o’clock in the morning on Saturday, June 22, an empty Michigan Central train, led by an experienced railroad engineer, Alonzo Sargent, was rapidly approaching on the tracks behind them.  He and his train were headed to the west coast to pick up U.S. army soldiers for The Great War in Europe (World War I).  Sargent knew he was following 2 circus trains that were going much slower than his empty train.

As the crew worked, and the performers slept, the empty train came barreling towards them.

The engineer blew past several red stop signals AND the frantically waving lanterns of the circus train’s engineers. All his experience and knowledge was for naught as Sargent’s train inexplicably slammed into the back of the stopped circus train at close to 45 mph. The collision was so loud that farmers asleep in the countryside were startled awake.  They dressed and went to see what on earth had occurred.  

When the Michigan Central train rammed into the red caboose of the circus train, it splintered the caboose like kindling.  Then it continued on into the four wooden sleeper cars, filled with sleeping circus performers. The empty troop train’s massive engine and steel Pullman cars tore easily through the 4 wooden cars as well. Dozens were killed instantly.

Henry Miller, the assistant lighting manager, was a survivor thrown from the wreckage with minor injuries. “I was in the last coach, and was asleep when we were hit. I woke to the sound of splintering wood … Then there was another crash, and another, and another … The train buckled on itself.”

To make matters worse, the circus cars were lit inside with kerosene lamps hanging on the walls.  They smashed and exploded, spewing flames across the shattered wood, rapidly igniting the 4 cars.   Wherever the oil splattered, the fire followed.  Some survivors not killed instantly managed to claw their way out of the debris.  Others desperately cried out for help before the hungry fire engulfed them.

All four sleeping cars were completely engulfed in flames in a matter of minutes.

Survivors from the front of the train were knocked out of their berths when their cars jumped the tracks.  They climbed outside into the dark night and saw the rear of the train ablaze.  They ran back to the shouts and screams of their surviving coworkers.  The uninjured survivors risked their own lives trying to rescue their companions trapped in the burning wreckage.  One acrobat, trapped beneath the wooden walls, was pulled out by a clown just as the flames were licking his legs.  But most weren’t so lucky.

Fire engines from both Hammond and Gary, Indiana rushed to the scene.  But delivering enough water to fight the huge fires was next to impossible.  The only supply came from the shallow marshes aside the tracks. Hammond also brought in a wrecking crane to dig people out.  But it couldn’t be used because the fire’s heat was too intense. The survivors could only stand back helplessly and watch the four train cars burn.

The aftermath of the Hagenbeck–Wallace Circus Train Wreck in Hammond, Indiana

By dawn’s pink light, the burning cars were consumed down to blackened metal wheels and smoking heaps of ashes.  The engineer, Alonzo Sargent, and his fireman were uninjured and arrested by local police. Most of the dead were burned beyond recognition. The task of identifying the corpses was hopeless. Some survived the initial crash but succumbed to their injuries at the Hammond and Gary hospitals. Many of the dead were simple circus roustabouts, people who joined the traveling circus doing odd jobs.

The circus kept few records on their roustabouts, most of whom were immigrants.

When reports of the circus train wreck made the newspapers, scenes of unspeakable horror were retold to a shocked country.  89 people were killed and more than 150 injured. Railway investigators believed most victims died within the first minute after the collision.  Among the dead were some famous circus performers – wild animal trainer Millie Jewel, “The Girl Without Fear”; Jennie Todd, an aerialist in the Flying Wards; bareback rider Louise Cottrell; Wild West rider Verna Connor; the strongmen Derickx brothers; and the wife and sons of head clown Joe Coyle.

Five days later, 53 were buried in a mass grave plot.  As luck or fate would have it, the Showman’s League of America, a fraternal order, had purchased an area of Woodlawn Cemetery in Forest Park, IL, for circus performers. When the coffins arrived, more than 1,500 mourners gathered to pay their final respects.   Only 5 of the 53 victims were identified.  Most were marked as “unknown,” or under markers like tent man, smiley clown, or 4 horse driver.

Mass grave for Hagenbeck-Wallace Circus train wreck victims.

The Showman’s League memorialized the mass grave with a statue of a stone elephant, its head and trunk drooping in sorrow. Today, that portion of Woodlawn Cemetery is known as Showman’s Rest.

In the aftermath, families of the deceased struggled with who they should blame. The circus company?  The railway? The engineer?  All of them pointed fingers at the others. Engineer Alonzo Sargent and his fireman Gustave Klauss were criminally charged with manslaughter. Sargent reportedly had fallen asleep and therefore responsible for the crash. In the 1910s, there was no oversight of train conductors.

Sargent had been awake on the job for over 24 hours, driving trains across the Midwest. A few hours before the accident, he’d eaten a heavy supper and taken some medication.  All that, plus driving a train in the dark of night, he dropped into a deep sleep. He had known circus trains were in front of him, but didn’t know one had stopped for repairs. Sargent slept through two warning signals as well as the waving lanterns from the frantic circus train engineers.

At the trial, the jury was dead-locked, and a mistrial declared.

The Indiana prosecutor decided NOT to re-try the case and all of the charges against the two men were dismissed. The Interstate Commerce Commission investigating the accident cited the use of wooden train cars as a contributing factor to the deaths. “We discourage the use of wooden cars on passenger trains and urge the substitution of steel ones. That is all we can do.”

What became of the Hagenbeck-Wallace Circus? Its owner and the surviving performers decided to continue the show, for no other reason than to honor their dead companions.  Despite the physical and psychological toll of the accident, the Hagenbeck-Wallace Circus missed only two performances in its summer schedule.  Thanks to other circuses providing spare equipment and crew, they were able to continue their mid-west tour. The remaining members, and those from circuses from around the country, all pitched in. 

SOURCE: LOST-IN-HISTORY.COM PAUL ANDREWS

On June 21, 1964, three civil rights workers disappeared.  The following article on the history.com website details the disappearance, the investigation and the discovery of the remains.

From: history.com:

The remains of three civil rights workers whose disappearance on June 21 garnered national attention are found buried in an earthen dam near Philadelphia, Mississippi. Michael Schwerner and Andrew Goodman, both white New Yorkers, had traveled to heavily segregated Mississippi in 1964 to help organize civil rights efforts on behalf of the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE). The third man, James Chaney, was a local African American man who had joined CORE in 1963. The disappearance of the three young men led to a massive FBI investigation that was code-named MIBURN, for “Mississippi Burning.”

Michael Schwerner, who arrived in Mississippi as a CORE field worker in January 1964, aroused the animosity of white supremacists after he organized a successful boycott of a variety store in the city of Meridian and led voting registration efforts for African Americans. In May, Sam Bowers, the Imperial Wizard of the White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan of Mississippi, sent word that the 24-year-old Schwerner, nicknamed “Goatee” and “Jew-Boy” by the KKK, was to be eliminated. On the evening of June 16, two dozen armed Klansmen descended on Mt. Zion Methodist Church, an African American church in Neshoba County that Schwerner had arranged to use as a “Freedom School.” Schwerner was not there at the time, but the Klansmen beat several African Americans present and then torched the church.

On June 20, Schwerner returned from a civil rights training session in Ohio with 21-year-old James Chaney and 20-year-old Andrew Goodman, a new recruit to CORE. The next day—June 21—the three went to investigate the burning of the church in Neshoba. While attempting to drive back to Meridian, they were stopped by Neshoba County Deputy Sheriff Cecil Price just inside the city limits of Philadelphia, the county seat. Price, a member of the KKK who had been looking out for Schwerner or other civil rights workers, threw them in the Neshoba County jail, allegedly under suspicion for church arson. After seven hours in jail, during which the men were not allowed to make a phone call, Price released them on bail. After escorting them out of town, the deputy returned to Philadelphia to drop off an accompanying Philadelphia police officer. As soon as he was alone, he raced down the highway in pursuit of the three civil rights workers. He caught the men just inside county limits and loaded them into his car. Two other cars pulled up filled with Klansmen who had been alerted by Price of the capture of the CORE workers, and the three cars drove down an unmarked dirt road called Rock Cut Road. Schwerner, Goodman and Chaney were shot to death and their bodies buried in an earthen dam a few miles from the Mt. Zion Methodist Church.

The next day, the FBI began an investigation into the disappearance of the civil rights workers. On June 23, the case drew national headlines, and federal agents found the workers’ burned station wagon. Under pressure from Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy, the FBI escalated the investigation, which eventually involved more than 200 FBI agents and scores of federal troops who combed the woods and swamps looking for the bodies. The incident provided the final impetus needed for the 1964 Civil Rights Act to pass Congress on July 2, and eight days later FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover came to Mississippi to open a new Bureau office. Eventually, Delmar Dennis, a Klansman and one of the participants in the murders, was paid $30,000 and offered immunity from prosecution in exchange for information. On August 4, the remains of the three young men were found. The culprits were identified, but the state of Mississippi made no arrests.

Finally, on December 4, nineteen men, including Deputy Price, were indicted by the U.S. Justice Department for violating the civil rights of Schwerner, Goodman, and Chaney (charging the suspects with civil rights violations was the only way to give the federal government jurisdiction in the case). After nearly three years of legal wrangling, in which the U.S. Supreme Court ultimately defended the indictments, the men went on trial in Jackson, Mississippi. The trial was presided over by an ardent segregationist, U.S. District Judge William Cox, but under pressure from federal authorities and fearing impeachment, he took the case seriously. On October 27, 1967, an all-white jury found seven of the men guilty, including Price and KKK Imperial Wizard Bowers. Nine were acquitted, and the jury deadlocked on three others. The mixed verdict was hailed as a major civil rights victory, as no one in Mississippi had ever before been convicted for actions taken against a civil rights worker.

In December, Judge Cox sentenced the men to prison terms ranging from three to 10 years. After sentencing, he said, “They killed one n*****, one Jew, and a white man. I gave them what I thought they deserved.” None of the convicted men served more than six years behind bars.

On June 21, 2005, the forty-first anniversary of the three murders, Edgar Ray Killen, was found guilty of three counts of manslaughter. At eighty years of age and best known as an outspoken white supremacist and part-time Baptist minister, he was sentenced to 60 years in prison. Killen died in 2018.

SOURCE: HISTORY.COM

Today is the 57^th anniversary of the assassination of RFK.  This article, from History.com., details the information available at the time.

From: History.com:

Shortly after midnight on June 5, 1968, Senator Robert Kennedy is shot at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles after winning the California presidential primary. Immediately after he announced to his cheering supporters that the country was ready to end its fractious divisions, Kennedy was shot several times by 24-year-old Palestinian Sirhan Sirhan. He was pronounced dead a day later, on June 6, 1968.

The summer of 1968 was a tempestuous time in American history. Both the Vietnam War and the anti-war movement were peaking. Martin Luther King Jr. had been assassinated in the spring, igniting riots across the country. In the face of this unrest, President Lyndon B. Johnson decided not to seek a second term in the upcoming presidential election. Robert Kennedy, John’s younger brother and former U.S. Attorney General, stepped into this breach and experienced a groundswell of support.

The Assassination of RFK

The assassination of Robert Kennedy was another tragic incident in a year marked with unrest.

Kennedy was perceived by many to be the only person in American politics capable of uniting the people. He was beloved by the minority community for his integrity and devotion to the civil rights cause. After winning California’s primary, Kennedy was in the position to receive the Democratic nomination and face off against Richard Nixon in the general election.

As star athletes Rafer Johnson and Roosevelt Grier accompanied Kennedy out a rear exit of the Ambassador Hotel, Sirhan Sirhan stepped forward with a rolled-up campaign poster, hiding his .22 revolver. He was only a foot away when he fired several shots at Kennedy. Grier and Johnson wrestled Sirhan to the ground, but not before five bystanders were wounded. Grier was distraught afterward and blamed himself for allowing Kennedy to be shot.

Sirhan, who was born in Palestine, confessed to the crime at his trial and received a death sentence on March 3, 1969. However, since the California State Supreme Court invalidated all death penalty sentences in 1972, Sirhan has spent the rest of his life in prison. According to the New York Times, he has since said that he believed Kennedy was “instrumental” in the oppression of Palestinians. Hubert Humphrey ended up running for the Democrats in 1968, but lost to Nixon.

SOURCE: HISTORY.COM

RFK JR. however, does not believe Sirhan is his father’s murderer.  This is a recent article in the NY Post:

Robert Kennedy Jr. has long maintained that Sirhan Sirhan, who has spent nearly 60 years in prison for killing his father, is innocent of the crime — and that a second gunman was involved in the assassination of Sen. Robert Kennedy in 1968.

That belief has fueled division between him and the majority of his siblings as well as their mother, Ethel, when she was alive. And it’s sure to heat up again as Sirhan, 81, could be eligible for parole again next year.

“I believe Cesar killed my father,” Kennedy Jr. wrote in a 2021 San Francisco Chronicle op-ed of security guard Thane Eugene Cesar, who died in 2019 and was never charged. “Sirhan,” Kennedy Jr. wrote, “is not my father’s killer.”

It was revealed Wednesday that Kennedy Jr., the current US health and human services secretary, sent a letter to then-US Attorney General Eric Holder in 2012 requesting a new investigation into his father’s death and the two-gunmen theory. The letter to Holder, who served under President Barack Obama, came to light in documents on the assassination declassified by the Trump administration.

When Kennedy Jr., 71, recommended to the California Board of Parole Hearings that Sirhan be given parole in 2021 — the 16th time he faced the board — six of his siblings, led by their mother, slammed the move.

“Our family and our country suffered an unspeakable loss due to the inhumanity of one man,” said Ethel in a Sept. 7, 2021, post on her daughter Kerry Kennedy’s X account — adding: “He should not have the opportunity to terrorize again.”

Ethel passed away on Oct. 10, 2024, at age 96.

Her children Joe, Courtney, Kerry, Chris, Max and Rory have opposed Sirhan’s parole. Son Douglas, like Kennedy Jr., is in favor.

Daughter Kathleen Kennedy Townsend told the Washington Post in 2018 that Kennedy Jr. “makes a compelling case” about Sirhan not acting alone, but has not commented on the matter since.

Kennedy Jr.’s 2012 letter to Holder included a three-page “Summary of Evidence for the New Investigation” compiled by Paul Schrade. A former labor leader and confidant of RFK, Schrade was among five people wounded in the fusillade of bullets that resulted in Kennedy’s death at Los Angeles’ Ambassador Hotel following his Democratic presidential primary victory in California.

Schrade, who was shot in the head by Sirhan during the melee, spent years trying to prove his theory that there were two gunmen involved in the assassination.

“Paul and his team of nationally prominent attorneys including former US Attorney Rob Bonner strongly believe this new evidence is conclusive and requires a new investigation,” Kennedy Jr. wrote in his letter to Holder. “I agree and support his request for a new investigation.”

The request was based on “new forensic tests on a journalist’s audiotape recorded during this crime and found in the FBI’s files,” said Schrade in his own letter to Holder dated July 29, 2012.

An acoustics expert who examined the recording maintained that 13 shots were fired. Sirhan fired all eight shots from his .22-caliber Ivar Johnson revolver and did not reload, said Schrade in his letter to Holder.

Schrade, who died in 2022 at age 97, also pointed to the autopsy report that showed that RFK was shot from behind. Eyewitnesses said Sirhan had stood in front of the candidate.

“I have been a strong advocate for the release of Mr. Sirhan B. Sirhan since I learned of evidence that was not presented to the court during his trial,” said Kennedy Jr. in an August 27, 2021, letter to the Board of Parole Hearings. “After years of careful investigation, I arrived at the conviction that the story of my father’s murder was not as cut and dried as portrayed at trial.

“While Sirhan clearly fired shots at my father, overwhelming evidence suggests that these were not the shots that took his life.”

Cesar, hired as a security guard for the night, “was in the exact position to fire the shots as described in the autopsy. Three witnesses saw him draw his gun — which he later admitted — and one said she saw him fire it,” Kennedy Jr. wrote in 2021. “The Los Angeles police never bothered to examine the gun. Cesar, who was moonlighting that night from his high-security clearance job at the Lockheed plant, acknowledged a loathing for the Kennedys and their race-mixing sympathizers.”

Sirhan has consistently maintained that he does not recall the events that took place on the day of the assassination.

Other recently released files on the assassination released by Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard revealed numerous menacing handwritten notes in Sirhan’s bedroom in the Pasadena, Calif., home he shared with his mother and three siblings.

“My determination to remove RFK is becoming more the more of an unshakeable obsession,” read one of the scribbled notes included in the file.

When Sirhan was up for parole in 2021, the Kennedy family fight over his impending release led to one side “double-crossing” the other, inside sources told The Post at the time.

The family members against Sirhan’s release had promised that they would not make a statement to the parole board, sources told The Post.

“The night before the hearing I got a letter from the parole board via the LAPD,” Sirhan’s lawyer Angela Berry told The Post in 2021. “It read, ‘On behalf of the Kennedy family, we oppose the release of Sirhan.’  [Kennedy Jr.] had been staying out of it specifically on the assumption that his family was going to stay out of it … I got ahold of him right away letting him know what happened.”

In response, Kennedy Jr. stayed up late writing a letter in favor of Sirhan’s release that barely made it into the hearing, sources said.

“The parole hearing started at 8:30 a.m. and Robert’s letter streamed in at 10:30 a.m.,” Berry said. “It read in part, ‘I have to assure you that the letter you got is not on behalf of the whole Kennedy family.’ That was the very last thing the hearing officer read into the record.”

SOURCE: NYPOST.COM