The Mysterious Deaths Of Mary Morris And Mary Morris

The 1944 Hartford Circus Fire & Little Miss 1565

June 14, 2023

The Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus was the biggest circus in the United States during the mid-20th century. Due to the country’s involvement in World War II, the circus began experiencing shortages of personnel and equipment. 

Because of this the circus dealt with frequent malfunctions, on August 4, 1942, a fire had begun and it killed a number of the circus’ animals. On July 5, 1944, the circus made it’s way to Hartford, Connecticut, however the trains were late that day so one out of two shows had been cancelled for the day. 

There is a common superstition among circus folk that when the circus misses a show, it’s bad luck, and because of this, many of the circus performers and employees were on edge during the one show that night. However, the show ran smoothly with no issues. 

The next day on July 6, 1944, the crowd for the 2:15 pm circus show was mostly filled with women and their children. The exact number of people at the circus that day is unknown, but there has been an estimate of about 7,000 people. 

The big top could seat 9,000 people around the three rings and it measured 200 feet wide by 450 feet long. The sidewalls were 15 feet high and the roof was 48 feet high. The tent’s canvas had been coated with 1,800 pounds of paraffin wax that was dissolved in 6,000 US gallons of gasoline. This was a common way for circus tents to remain waterproof at the time. 

There was a main entrance to exit the tent along with 8 other small exits. It was later said that during the fire many of these smaller exits were blocked by circus wagons or other things which made it impossible for people to escape. 

After the lions had performed a small flame had started on the southwest sidewall of the tent, during the Flying Wallendas performance. A bandleader named Merle Evans was believed to be the first person to notice the flames, and she directed the band to begin playing, “The Stars and Stripes Forever” which was a song that signaled distress to all circus personnel. 

A ringmaster named Fred Bradna tried to get the audience to not panic and to exit the tent in an orderly fashion, however the fire had shorted out power, no one could hear him. Fred and an usher tried to put out flames with big water jugs that were in the tent, but to no avail so they began to help evacuate the panicked crowd. 

There was almost no animals in the big top at the time the fire broke out, except for the big cats that were trained by May Kovar and Joseph Walsh. The cats were herded through the chutes to cage wagons and were unharmed, with some only experiencing a few minor burns. 

Most people were able to escape the fire, however there was lots of hysteria happening. Some people claimed individuals were just running around in circles trying to find their loved ones instead of trying to escape the fire. Others initially escaped the fire, but ran back into the tent to look for loved ones. Some stayed in their seats thinking the fire would have been put out quickly. Some of the exits were blocked by chutes to get animals out. 

The paraffin wax which had been used to waterproof the tent helped the flames spread extremely quickly, and the wind also did not help. Many people were burned from the melting paraffin wax which began to rain down from the roof. 

The tent collapsed in 8 minutes according to witnesses, which trapped hundreds of people underneath it. In many newspapers there was a photo of a clown named Emmett Kelly holding a water bucket, naming the event “the day the clowns cried.” 

Some burned to death while others died from the chaos. The true number of causalities is unknown but many believe it was between 167-169 people, with over 700 sustaining injuries. That is only the number of people who actually received or sought out treatment the day of, the number is believed to be higher as many people went home without seeing or doing anything about their injuries due to shock most likely. 

The number of people who died is also believed to be higher as there was not great residency records in rural areas and many smaller remains were never truly identified or claimed. Free tickets were also given out that day to drifters who would not likely have been reported as missing by their families or friends. 

Some people died from injuries they got from jumping from high areas to escape the bleachers, others were trampled to death in the crowds, some were asphyxiated under piles of people who fell over. Many dead bodies were found in piles by congested exits. Some people actually survived the fire by being underneath some of the piles of people.

Eunice Groark was among one of the survivors who later went on to be the first female lieutenant governor of Connecticut. 

One of the most known victims from the fire was a young blonde little girl who wore a white dress. She became famously known as “Little Miss 1565″ which was the number assigned to her body. She was known to be extremely well preserved. 

Little Miss 1565 was buried without a name in Hartford’s Northwood Cemetery and her identity has been a debate for many years. Despite her picture being displayed repeatedly in magazines she was never claimed. 

In 1981, one of the police officers who spent years trying to identify her, his widow publicly announced that he had identified her and contacted her family but they requested no publicity on the matter. 

In 1987, someone had left a note on the gravestone that read, “Sarah Graham is her name! 7-6-38 DOB, 6 years, Twin.” There were notes nearby on gravestones that said her twin brother and relatives were buried close. 

In 1991, an arson investigator named Rick Davey claimed the little girl’s name was Eleanor Emily Cook in a book he published, and that she was from Massachusetts. The book also claimed Eleanor’s brother Donald Cook contacted police in 1955, believing that the girl was his sister but nothing further happened.

Donald, the brother, believes family members were shown the wrong body in the morgue due to all the confusion that day with numerous bodies being brought there. Donald worked alongside Davey to identify Little Miss 1565, and in 1991 she was identified as 8 year old Eleanor Emily Cook. 

Eleanor’s aunt and uncle did not believe the body fit the description of Eleanor that they had provided after examining the body. Hair samples were compared and the consensus was that they had probably come from the same person. Her body was exhumed in 1991 and buried next to her brother, Edward, who had also died in the fire. 

Various people do not believe Little Miss 1565 is Eleanor Emily Cook. Writer Stewart O’Nan who also published a book about the fire, states the obvious that the deceased girl who had been found had blonde hair, Eleanor was brunette, the shape of their faces are different, their heights and ages don’t match and their dental features don’t match. 

Even Eleanor’s mother, Mildred Corintha Parsons Cook saw a photograph of Little Miss 1565 and did not believe that was her daughter. She believed it was not her daughter until her death in 1997. Mrs. Cook was unable to claim her two children and was so traumatized by the events she could not try to identify them later. 

She was told Eleanor had not been in any of the locations where bodies were kept for identification. Her mother believed she had been burnt beyond recognition and was one of the victims who would always remain unidentified. O’Nan believes Eleanor may be body number 1503. Many believe it is likely that Eleanor was wrongly identified by another family and is buried under another child’s name. 

What began the Hartford Circus fire in 1944 remains a mystery. Some investigators think it was started just from a flicked cigarette, while others believe someone purposely started it. In 1950, Robert Dale Segee, from Ohio, who was a 16 year old roustabout for the show from June 30 to July 14 confessed to starting the fire but was never tried and later recanted the confession. He claimed that he had a nightmare where an American Indian riding on a “flaming horse” told him to set fires. 

Segee also claimed his mind went blank after this and by the time he came to, the fire had already started. 

In November 1950, Segee was convicted in Ohio for unrelated arson charges and was sentenced to 44 years in prison. There were doubts over his confession as he had a history of mental illness and he could not be confirmed as being in Connecticut when the fire happened. 

On July 7, 1944, 5 officials and employees of Ringling Bros were charged with involuntary manslaughter. Out of the five, four had been charged and sentenced to prison, though shortly after being convicted they were pardoned. 

In 2002, the Hartford Circus Fire Memorial Foundation was established, and a permanent memorial to those killed in the fire was created. 

Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey did actually go to Hartford during their final tour, with the final performance occurring on April 30, 2017. 

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Texarkana is a sleepy town that is split between both Texas and Arkansas. Over the spring of 1946, a ruthless serial killer held the citizens of Texarkana in a state of perpetual fear. Even to this day, even the thought of the “Texarkana Moonlight Murders” sends a chill down the spine of the residents. This elusive killer predominantly targeted young couples parked on lovers’ lanes; their final attack, however, was committed against a middle-aged couple in their own farmhouse. Despite an abundance of theories and suspects, the identity of the “Phantom Killer” still remains unknown.

It all began on the night of February 22, 1946, when Jimmy Hollis, 24, and his girlfriend, Mary Jeanne Larey, 19, were parked in a secluded corner on a lonely road just off Richmond Road in Texarkana. The young couple had spent the evening at the cinema and decided they would stop down the lovers’ lane for some alone time before Jimmy dropped Mary back home. Out of the darkness, a man wearing a white cloth mask – presumably a pillowcase with eye holes – appeared at the car window and shone a flashlight into their eyes.

𝐑𝐞𝐚𝐝 𝐌𝐨𝐫𝐞:

Morbidology

The Texarkana Moonlight Murders • Morbidology

Over the spring of 1946, a ruthless serial killer held the citizens of Texarkana in a state of perpetual fear. The identity of the so-called

“The Hands Resist Him” - a haunted painting.

According to Stoneham this painting is of himself as a five year old boy. Those spooky hands on the door depict another world with other lives and possibilities. The glass panes represent the thin veil of separation between this world and the world of dreams. The doll is a guide who will take the boy through the veil to the other world.

In February 2000 the painting appeared for sale on eBay.com with a lengthy description detailing that the painting had been found abandoned, behind a building. The seller then went on to claim that whilst the painting was in their house, the family’s daughter started to see the boy and girl moving inside the painting, they soon took to leaving the painting, and appeared to be fighting. The owners then set up a motion detector camera, which happened to show the movement.

If the couple is to be believed, the characters in the painting became animated in the night, sometimes even left the canvas! The boy and the doll, however, didn’t disappear from the view. The painting doesn’t just affect the owners. Even those who saw the painting online reported that they started feeling sick and nauseated. Some claim that the children who saw the painting ran away screaming; while others were said to be touched by an invisible force. A person who tried to print the image had his printer malfunction.

Stoneham didn’t help the legends by adding that the gallery where the painting was originally displayed and sold at, and a Los Angeles Times critic, who reviewed the painting in an article both ended up dead within a year of the showing.

Many people report strange feelings and strange events after seeing the picture, some have reported children freaking out when seeing the painting or prints of it.

Follow @mecthology for more spooky lores and myths. DM for pic credit. https://www.instagram.com/p/CSha_bTImRg/?utm_medium=tumblr

Perhaps one of the most mind-boggling unsolved cases to the FBI is Ricky McCormick’s encrypted notes. On June 30th, 1999, the 41-year-old’s body was discovered in a Missouri corn field after having been missing for a whole three days. Police found the location of his body to be strange, as it was 15 miles from where Ricky lived and he did not own a car, nor were there any public transportation served in that area. Since his body was already in its early stages of decomposition, police ascertained he had been dead for at least a few days, but there were no indications that he was murdered. In fact, his cause of death appeared to be a mystery, so police initially ruled out homicide. That was until twelve years later, when the FBI announced that Ricky McCormick was indeed murdered. But then they revealed a shocking clue that they had never disclosed to the public before: inside Ricky’s pockets contained two cryptic notes in his handwriting, which investigators believe were written three days prior to his death. The notes consisted of ‘’a jumble of letters and numbers occasionally set off with parentheses’’. This also struck police as odd, considering that all who knew Ricky claimed Ricky was an illiterate and only knew how to write his name. The FBI was convinced that the cipher messages would point toward whoever was responsible for the murder, but all attempts made to decipher their meaning led to failure. To this day, the two coded notes are listed as one of the FBI’s Cryptanalysis and Racketeering Records Unit’s top unsolved cases.

On March 20, 2012, a concerned relative requested the police in Waller, Texas to conduct a welfare check on the Sesler family as they could not get in touch with them. 

Upon arrival at the family’s home located in the 2400 block of Farr in Waller County, the officers knocked on the front door and announced their presence, but no one answered. Upon further investigation, they looked through one of the windows and noticed that the house was in complete disarray. As they looked through another window, they saw a body, indicating that the home was now a crime scene.

The responding officers kicked in the front door and searched the rooms one by one. It took them just a matter of seconds to take in the gruesome scene. In the master bedroom, Lawton and Rhona Sesler were found surrounded by a pool of their own blood. In the bathroom, they discovered the lifeless body of their 26-year-old son, Mark.

One person was missing from inside the home, the couple’s other son, Trey Sesler, a 22-year-old successful YouTuber known as “Mr. Anime.”

𝐑𝐞𝐚𝐝 𝐌𝐨𝐫𝐞:

https://morbidology.com/mr-anime-the-massacre-of-the-seslers/

There are 5 temples in Kyoto, Japan, that have blood stained ceilings. The ceilings are made from the floorboards of Fushimi Castle where Torii Mototada and his remaining 380 samurai warriors killed themselves, in 1600, after a long hold-off against an army of 40,000 for 11 days

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