Swede and Fay Lewis had always been a stormy one, and Fay was finally tired of it. When she finally decided to end it and filed for divorce, Swede was enraged. To what depths would he descend when he didn’t get his way? Sources Former Brazil Man Kills Wife; Ends Own Life. The Brazil …
Fayette, or Fay for short, was 17 years old and living in Brazil, Indiana, when she met Swede, a young coal miner. Several years before, large deposits of coal that was ideal for iron construction and manufacture were found in the region. After the pork production industry had largely been moved to larger meat …
The fire had started at around 2 a.m. in the early morning hours of January 7, 1950. Half an hour later, St. Elizabeth’s Mental Hospital would be engulfed in flames. Firemen and other rescuers hacked at the iron bars covering the windows to the patient’s rooms. Many of the patients screamed desperately into the …
Beyond Recognition: What Started the St. Elizabeth’s Fire? Read More »
In this, the second part of the tragic story of the St. Elizabeth’s Mental Hospital Fire of 1950, people across America were shocked by the disaster that had claimed the lives of 41 people. Fire and police investigators were eager to find out what had caused the blaze. When they did, the truth was almost …
Episode 100: Beyond Recognition: What Started the St. Elizabeth’s Fire? Read More »
In the early hours of January 7, 1950, flames illuminated the night sky around Mercy Hospital. An orderly was one of the first to see a mental hospital on the grounds engulfed in fire, but he would be far from the last. By the next morning, it would be one of the worst hospital fires …
Episode 99: Plain Hell: The St. Elizabeth’s Hospital Fire of 1950 Read More »
Lucille Kalloway checked the clock. It was just before 11 p.m. The patients had been safely in their rooms since about 9 p.m., which was the normal time for them to turn in. Mentally, she ticked off her responsibilities for the end of shift. Lucille had started working at the facility in the summer …
Plain Hell: The St. Elizabeth’s Hospital Fire of 1950 Read More »
Earl Albert Nead was born on November 13, 1937. By Christmas Day, he was dead, the victim of a horrible accident. But as police looked into things, the more it appeared that Earl’s death was deliberate. What had happened in that small Wisconsin apartment that Christmas? Sources Boy of Nine Years is Fatally Injured. …
Episode 98: Haunted Christmas: The Death of Earl Albert Nead Read More »
On Christmas Eve, 1937, Gertrude and Willard Shaw were at their Wisconsin home, anticipating the holiday festivities the next day. Near midnight, Gertrude noticed bright lights out in the yard, right in front of one of their windows. The couple thought that it must have been a car, so went outside to see who it …
Haunted Christmas: The Death of Earl Albert Nead Read More »
Line shaft technology may have revolutionized industry, but they posed a very real danger to the workers who toiled around them. In 1922, nine-year-old Frank Nead found that out in a tragic and horrific accident. Sources Met Tragic Death. The Courier, 4/25/1907 Boy of Nine Years is Fatally Injured. Stevens Point Journal, 3/8/1922 …
Frank Nead smiled, his shoes slapping hard on the concrete floor of the automobile shop. He ran with all of the boundless energy of a nine-year-old as he chased his friend, determined to catch him. Frank’s legs ached and his lungs burned, but still he ran. The boy could see his friend, occasionally glancing back …
