1918 Circus Train Disaster

[Paintman]

100 years ago the worst circus train wreck in U.S. history happened in Gary, Indiana | Northwest Indiana History | nwitimes.com
The so many new members here ( whippee !) I thought I would post some items from today's newspaper about the circus train disaster. The Paranormal slant, not mentioned in the article, are the ghosts of exotic animals still seen to this day. Anyway here are a bunch of auxiliary links about the disaster. And because this is written in a local paper I will fill you in on some places that are common knowledge to us residents.
The dead were buried in Woodlawn Cemetery in Forest Park, a suburb of Chicago. You can't swing a cat around there without hitting a ghost,orbs, or something very unexplainable.
In the summer of 1918 America was on a war-footing. Gary and Hammond Indiana were pumping out gasoline and steel to beat the Hun. The circus was a great diversion for families that had to watch their breadwinner work double shifts, while their loved ones were off in Europe fighting World War 1.
Peru Indiana is the winter headquarters for the circus. The injured were sent to St Margarets Hospital in Hammond. I was born there.
Gallery: Hagenbeck-Wallace Circus train wreck

 

[Paintman]

Hammond author revisits 'The Great Circus Train Wreck of 1918'
This guy has a lot of good things to say, but where I think he drops the ball is when he said no animals died. They were on another circus train. So I actually did a little bit of investigative investigation.
Strike one. There were local reports published that there were animals on the loose and dead. Yes there was a separate train for the animals. Strike 2 is how train cars are often cobbled together when they're going in the right direction and at the right stop. (I got to thank my neighbor for his insights and who does this for a large railroad in Chicago - it's the same thing as hopping a flight.) So essentially you can have staterooms car, sleeper cars, elephant cars, clown cars, and bearded lady cars all on the same train. Mixing and matching is how the rail business works. Still does. 3 designated trains does not mean that they're all pulled by the same engine.

 

[Debi]

Hammond author revisits 'The Great Circus Train Wreck of 1918'
This guy has a lot of good things to say, but where I think he drops the ball is when he said no animals died. They were on another circus train. So I actually did a little bit of investigative investigation.
Strike one. There were local reports published that there were animals on the loose and dead. Yes there was a separate train for the animals. Strike 2 is how train cars are often cobbled together when they're going in the right direction and at the right stop. (I got to thank my neighbor for his insights and who does this for a large railroad in Chicago - it's the same thing as hopping a flight.) So essentially you can have staterooms car, sleeper cars, elephant cars, clown cars, and bearded lady cars all on the same train. Mixing and matching is how the rail business works. Still does. 3 designated trains does not mean that they're all pulled by the same engine.

Paint, I'm so glad you put this out there for everyone! The stories about this are still told in Da Region (which is what we locals call it) and Paint's right....the hauntings in that cemetery and around the area are well known and still occuring. ( For new people, I grew up in that area so I know it well and Paint always makes me homesick talking about the place...lol) The ghost animals are well known, and even as a child I heard stories of the circus animals that died that day.

 

[Armand]

I remember this I posted it somewhere a long time ago, Joe Coyle was known as the Sad Clown.

The victims
Joe Coyle Sr., one of the circus clowns, had gotten permission to have his family travel with him. He fought the fire with his bare hands as his wife and children were dying in the flames.

“Papa, help me out,” were the last words young Joe Coyle Jr. said before he died, The Lake County Times reported that day.

Porters on the otherwise empty troop train ran up to the crash site and helped as much as they could, Lytle said.

“A couple of them got sent to the hospital with burns,” he said.

One circus employee, a seamstress, had her injured shoulder reset and was back with the circus the following day, Lytle said.

 

[Paintman]

The author hit up on the clown Joe Coyle. What a haunting story. I also like the story of the clown with the $10. The boss man says go to town and get milk and bread. He left for good, pocketed the money and got a better-paying job at a dairy farm. Two years later the circus came back to town. He sought out the boss man. And gave him bread and milk and the rest of his change.

 

[Paintman]

So, I will keep on with my investigative investigations. This sort of goes back to when John Dillinger got killed. Well I know for a damn fact that the FBI was nowhere around. The FBI gave them a tip: local bunch of detectives to hit on the guy. And it was East Chicago, IN, policeman. Those policemen were on flat-out Revenge for the killing of one of their officers at the Riley Bank in East Chicago Indiana.
And how do I have proof ? My FBI uncle had a photocopy signed letter giving the reward for the capture or kill of John Dillinger to the East Chicago Police Department. My uncle was in the Chicago Bureau. Only then was he only able to get proof. That thing sits in my safe.
And the local museums rejected those documents because it screwed up their narrative. (This was one of my high school teachers. What a bad joke of a lfe. )
So I guess this brings up modern News to old-time old-time fake news. J Edgar Hoover had a bunch of Hollywood writers writing his script for public consumption.
PS I got to shoot that gun. And then my idiot cousin sold it off.

 

[Armand]

So, I will keep on with my investigative investigations. This sort of goes back to when John Dillinger got killed. Well I know for a damn fact that the FBI was nowhere around. The FBI gave them a tip: local bunch of detectives to hit on the guy. And it was East Chicago, IN, policeman. Those policemen were on flat-out Revenge for the killing of one of their officers at the Riley Bank in East Chicago Indiana.
And how do I have proof ? My FBI uncle had a photocopy signed letter giving the reward for the capture or kill of John Dillinger to the East Chicago Police Department. My uncle was in the Chicago Bureau. Only then was he only able to get proof. That thing sits in my safe.
And the local museums rejected those documents because it screwed up their narrative. (This was one of my high school teachers. What a bad joke of a lfe. )
So I guess this brings up modern News to old-time old-time fake news. J Edgar Hoover had a bunch of Hollywood writers writing his script for public consumption.
PS I got to shoot that gun. And then my idiot cousin sold it off.

We all have idiot cousins.

 

[7Critter]

I am enjoying this thread.

 

[Lynne]

Thanks Paint. Enjoyed this too