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Thread: Beverly Hills Supper Club Fire

  1. #51
    pattykad Guest
    Man, that was a big place.

  2. #52
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    Quote Originally Posted by pattykad View Post
    Man, that was a big place.
    My cousins remembered the Beverly Hills Supper Club as huge, with maze-like hallways. They got lost frequently and they went to the club quite a bit. Could you imagine being in one of the dining areas (not the Cabaret Room) and having to find your way through smoky, dark hallways? It would've been a nightmare!
    "What if the Hokey Pokey is what it's really all about?" Jimmy Buffett

  3. #53
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    BY ROB KAISER
    The Cincinnati Enquirer

    [SIZE=1]Heroism: Fort Thomas firefighter Bruce Rath looks up into the glare of a news photographer's flash. Having pulled Karen Prugh out of the inferno, he successfully revived her and accompanied both her and her sister-in-law to the hospital. Both women survived.
    [/SIZE]
    On a hillside, hard by Interstate 471 in the Northern Kentucky town of Southgate, rusty sheets of pressed tin lie stacked amid the weeds. A muddy, white statue, separated from its head, lies in the brush like a slumbering ghost. Red-and-yellow fire hydrants stand as memorials to the night when they weren't nearly enough.
    This is prime property. But nothing has been built here since the Beverly Hills Supper Club burned 20 years ago this Wednesday, killing 165 people. It is a hillside lost, out of use and unchanged, a hole in space and time.
    Even now, it's May 28, 1977, on this quiet hill. The wind whispers: It's May 28, 1977, toward twilight, and the club's final act has begun. Comedians Teter and McDonald have been upstaged by a fire that will burn for 20 years -- first, in the rooms of the doomed supper club; later, in the chambers of a thousand hearts.
    The dead and dying lie everywhere.
    ''I need help!'' firefighter Bruce Rath screams.
    This woman sprawled near the club's wedding chapel, this Karen Prugh: She reminds Bruce of his wife. He leans into the lonely fight for her life, vowing to stay with her till she breathes again -- or till death do they part.

    [SIZE=1]Lobby destroyed: The plush lobby where patrons enjoyed cocktails at the bar was reduced to a mass of tangled wiring and charred timbers.
    [/SIZE]
    Karen Lee Prugh came to Beverly tonight to see John Davidson. The singer never took the stage.
    Instead, it was a fire that made the grand entrance, blowing open the double doors of the Cabaret Room with a theatrical bang as it burst upon the crowd in a dark cloud of smoke.
    The lights went out. Some of the people panicked. A man in front of Karen leaped up and began running across tabletops like a squirrel traveling from tree to tree. Martinis and ash trays tumbled to the floor.
    ''Stop pushing,'' a woman shouted.
    Now, as the stars come out over Southgate, black smoke billows from the doors of the supper club and rises to blot out the heavens. Many will be dead by sunrise, some still clustered around their tables as if waiting for the next act. Many others will relive this night repeatedly, incapable of fresh starts.
    For them, this is the last new day.
    Strange, now, to think how beautifully it began -- a gift, a grace, a bright spring morning full of promise. The world was ablaze with marigolds, begonias, impatiens, petunias. Time for the annuals to bloom.
    It was warm and humid in the way of Ohio Valley days, and as Karen and Terry Prugh dressed for their big night at the Beverly Hills Supper Club, Terry neglected to button his collar.
    ''You're not wearing a tie?'' she asked.
    ''Too muggy,'' he said.
    Terry, a tall, husky man, never liked dressing up. Karen finally convinced him he should put on a tie, but it took an argument.
    ''They won't let you in,'' she said.
    [SIZE=4]Last hope: Fireman 51[/SIZE]
    Here lies Karen Prugh, in the grass out back of a burning supper club. Is this where life ends? It depends on Fireman 51. Karen's last hope is Bruce Rath. He looks like a man in flames. His cheeks are ruddy, his arms orange with freckles. Hair the color of burnt sienna rolls back from his face like brushfire. His eyes are cinders. But it's the fire inside that makes Bruce what he is: indomitable and stubborn and tenacious and brave
    "What if the Hokey Pokey is what it's really all about?" Jimmy Buffett

  4. #54
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    [SIZE=4]Where Horror and Heroism Prevailed (continued...)[/SIZE]
    Bruce has been a volunteer firefighter since 1960, when he finally heeded the childhood call of those big, red engines like generations of other Fort Thomas men. His speech abounds with the imagery of his calling:

    [SIZE=1]Searching for causes: Firefighters search remains of the Zebra Room with state investigators several days after most of it was incinerated. A room for small occasions, its paper-veneered paneling looked like shiny rosewood. Investigators determined that the room became a furnace when flashover (simultaneous ignition of all combustible materials) occurred.
    [/SIZE]
    I just got burnt out.
    His face was red as fire.
    I'll tell you what sets me on fire: people parkin' in fire lanes at the mall.
    This fire, though: Nothing compares. Nobody's face. Nobody's temper. It's hell.
    Years later, when Bruce thinks back on this bright Saturday, he will remember how forgettable it seemed right up till the end. ''It was just a day of all days,'' he will say.
    This morning, Fireman 51 and the other volunteers went about their weekend routine. They hosed down the engine-room. They washed the trucks. They took the big engines out for a run.
    This afternoon, Bruce and his wife went grocery shopping; a car wreck snarled traffic at U.S. 27 and Temple Place; and a woman in labor checked into St. Luke Hospital East.
    She is there, still, that woman, as flames shoot out of the supper club two miles away. Everywhere lives hang in the balance. What of Karen Prugh, lying outside the blazing Cabaret Room? Bruce Rath, his lungs aching, takes a deep breath for her . . . Weekend Escape


    The Prughs of Dayton, Ohio, are supposed to be steeled against life's dark possibilities. All the men are police officers, all the women braced for the worst.
    But this . . .
    This weekend wasn't supposed to test their mettle.
    This was supposed to be a great escape: Karen's first time at Beverly; Terry's, too.
    The couple were wed 13 months ago. It's Terry's second marriage, Karen's third. You might say she's unlucky in love. A preacher named Bliss -- the Rev. Bliss B. Cartwright -- officiated at Karen's first wedding. It was cruel irony. The marriage, to a factory worker named William Gay, was rocky and short-lived, ending four years later. He got the '67 Chevy. She got the '64 Corvair.
    Karen's second marriage, to a Montgomery County, Ohio, sheriff's deputy named Nels E. Munson, lasted 4 1/2 years. She filed for divorce in July 1975, asking the court to restore her maiden name: Leonard.
    Karen started spending time with Terry, a co-worker at the Dayton police department. He's a detective; she enters records into the computer. Terry had just gone through a divorce, too. He and Karen dated only a short time before he asked her to marry him. It was Christmas Eve 1975. His proposal surprised her, coming on the heels of her divorce. ''I can't do this,'' she said.
    Three months later, they were standing in front of a judge. Karen, who had broken her leg in a car wreck, recited her wedding vows on crutches. Tenacity Learned Early


    Lives converge in the strangest ways, and nothing's the same forever. One night when Bruce Rath was young and his hair a brighter red, a girl named Nancy Edwards stood him up. That moment would translate into 20 years of marriage to another.
    Standing alone in the Highlands High School canteen, his eyes wandered to a girl leaning against the corner booth. She had blue eyes and long, blond hair, and he couldn't stop looking at her. Bruce Rath -- linebacker, running back, little-bit-of-everything -- was lost forever. This was who he would marry. ''Would you like to dance?'' he asked.
    "What if the Hokey Pokey is what it's really all about?" Jimmy Buffett

  5. #55
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    ''OK,'' Beverly Cruse said. The petite Highlands cheerleader recognized Bruce as the boy who went tearing past her down the stairs of the school each day at lunchtime, bolting out the door as if to a fire. ''Who the heck is that guy?'' she had asked her friends.
    That's Bruce Rath, they explained. He goes home for lunch. His mom waits for him there.

    [SIZE=1]In ruins: Looking north toward U.S. 27, the collapsed roof of Beverly Hills smolders the morning after the fire. In the top left corner is a round garden and, above it, the club chapel which served as a first-aid and temporary morgue during the fire. Still parked are most of the cars of patrons and club workers.
    [/SIZE]
    Margaret Rath inspired in her son a kind of tender devotion not often seen in teen-agers. When a rare disease invaded Bruce's left hip, bringing him to his hands and knees on the sidewalk one day as he walked home from first grade, it was his mother -- a tiny redhead barely five feet tall -- who carried that big boy the rest of the way home.
    Bruce had to wear a brace on his leg for six years, learning all the while how to rise above fickle circumstance. He surprised everyone by riding his Schwinn. The diseased hip would keep him out of the service; the U.S. Marine Corps refused to take him. But it didn't keep him from playing football or competing in track meets for Highlands.
    That night in the high school canteen, Bruce's hip was fine. His feet didn't even touch the floor as he danced with his dream girl. Bruce and Beverly cut a rug till her date cut in, but it soon became clear that Jim Crouse had lost his girlfriend forever. His friends exacted revenge, blackening Bruce's eye one night as he walked Beverly home. But it did no good.
    Beverly wore Bruce's ring, then his track medal for winning the state in pole-vaulting. An engagement ring replaced those childhood tokens of affection the Christmas after Beverly graduated. They were married in September 1957.
    The day of their wedding, Bruce worked himself to a frazzle preparing the couple's new apartment for the grand homecoming that would follow their honeymoon in the Smokies. He wanted everything to be perfect, but their apartment wasn't vacant till the day of their wedding.
    Frantically, Bruce washed windows, hung curtains and moved in furniture. Then he changed clothes and hurried to church.
    As Beverly walked down the aisle, she noticed the face of her betrothed was red as fire.
    ''What is wrong with you,'' she whispered when she reached the altar.
    ''I'm so tired,'' Bruce said.
    The reception was at the Summit Lodge, where so many entertainers have stayed while appearing at Beverly. Davidson Packs Them In


    The Beverly Hills Supper Club was a bit of Las Vegas in Northern Kentucky, a sprawling entertainment complex with its own resident chorus line and an enormous restaurant.
    It was a Northern Kentucky landmark, the self-styled Showplace of the Nation. Several weeks ago, Campbell County High School held its senior prom there. Last night, hundreds of patrons who had paid $13.95 for the Complete Dinner and Show Package -- appetizer through dessert -- packed the place to see John Davidson perform.
    Mr. Davidson, the crooner with the big teeth and bigger hair, gazed out from the stage and noted how crowded the Cabaret Room was. He opted not to venture out among the tables as he sang.
    Beverly was packed again tonight. A bankers group. A doctors group. A teachers group. A bar mitzvah. Lots of women. Women love John Davidson. He's the only reason Karen came. She was looking forward to tonight.
    With Karen were her husband, Terry; Terry's parents, Ethel and L.J., a retired Dayton police officer; Terry's brother, Gary; and Gary's wife, Shirley. It was the first night out for Gary and Shirley since the birth of their child three months ago. The six had dinner reservations at Alexander's, in Miamisburg, Ohio, after the show. When the group left Dayton this evening, Karen didn't have a care in the world -- except for her father-in-law's heavy foot.
    "What if the Hokey Pokey is what it's really all about?" Jimmy Buffett

  6. #56
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    ''I don't want to ride with Wick,'' Karen told her husband and his brother. She thought their father was the worst driver in the world. You know police officers. Think they own the road. But guess who drove?
    Karen's knuckles were white from Centerville to Cincinnati.
    When the Prughs arrived at Beverly, they were ushered down a long hallway. This is strange, Karen thought. Then, suddenly, they were in a huge room with a stage.
    The Cabaret Room.

    [SIZE=1]Piles of rubble: Dirty dishes remain stacked near the Garden Room with portions of the ceiling collapsed on them.
    [/SIZE]
    At first, they were seated near an exit. Gary balked. It was too far left of the stage. He asked for a table closer to the center, and the waitress showed them to seats near the back. The Prughs settled there happily and ordered a round of drinks.
    Onstage were comedians Jim Teter and Jim McDonald. Their schtick sometimes features a dummy of President Carter. The dummy's head is as big as a grown man's. Karen wondered: When does the real show begin? Beast Leaps From Hiding


    Nobody noticed the fire at first. It was like a movie where you have to wait to see the monster. Somewhere in a wall of the club's Zebra Room: an aluminum wire, a moment in time, a spark.
    John Davidson was shaving when his drummer burst into the dressing room. ''The building's on fire,'' the drummer told him.
    In the Cabaret Room, a young busboy appeared onstage. When he took the microphone from Jim McDonald, the comedian noticed the teen-ager was trembling.
    ''Everyone needs to exit the building,'' the busboy, Walter Bailey, said quietly.
    Karen Prugh looked at her husband. Was this part of the show? She never heard the busboy mention fire. Others didn't either. Confused patrons stood slowly and began filing leisurely out of the room, some with drinks in hand.
    Teter and McDonald went on performing. On his way past the stage, one patron cracked: ''Will the show go on when this is over?''
    ''We'll start again, I promise you,'' Jim Teter said.
    ''Will we have to listen to the same jokes?''
    ''No, I'll change my routine,'' Mr. Teter said.
    But there would be no second act. The doors through which Karen Prugh and her family had entered the Cabaret Room half an hour before suddenly exploded open, banging against the wall. The monster was upon them.
    It mesmerized some, the cloud of smoke-- froze them in place. In others it simply inspired fright: a sinking heart; a knotted stomach; the metallic taste of fear.
    Karen turned to Terry. ''I'm scared,'' she said.
    ''It's all right,'' he told her calmly.
    But as the man in front of them leaped up and began running frantically across tabletops, the lights went out -- even the exit signs -- and the screaming started.
    Table cloths caught fire. A strange smell filled the air.
    Karen Prugh struggled to breathe, but a sickening taste filled her mouth and her lungs burned. Before she knew it, she was swept up in the aimless throng.
    Terry, standing behind her, put both arms around his wife.
    ''I love you,'' she told him. Then she blacked out. Heeding The Call


    Bruce Rath's scanner quit barking and spraying just long enough to erupt.
    BooooooWOOOOOOOO-baaaaahhhhh.
    Bruce's eyes left the television and found his wife.
    ''Attention Southgate firemen.
    ''Fiiiire Beverly Hills.''
    Fireman 51 rose from his chair.
    Beverly Rath glared at her husband.
    Things were tense in the little, gray house on North Fort Thomas Avenue. Bruce and Beverly Rath hadn't spoken much all day, and when they had, the words were brittle. Beverly had wanted to go up on the hill tonight, wanted to see John Davidson. But Bruce refused. He'd seen the lines of people waiting to get in when he went there working late for the phone company.
    ''It's always too crowded,'' he had said.
    Now here she sat, stuck at home with a recalcitrant husband watching Saturday night reruns. Starsky and Hutch out to break up a mobster's ring. The fireman prefers adventure.
    BooooooWOOOOOOOO-baaaaahhhhh.
    The scanner shrieked again.
    ''See ya,'' Bruce told his wife.
    ''Where are you going?'' Beverly said.
    ''Southgate's tones dropped.''
    ''Yours didn't,'' she said.
    ''They will.''
    Beverly scowled. Watching her husband pull the suspenders of his bunker pants up over the new shirt she bought him, the beige one with the shoestring tie at the neck, she grew even angrier. He was going to ruin it. His new pants, too.
    This thing -- it was probably just a brush fire like last week, when construction crews building I-471 had piled debris on the hillside.
    ''If you leave, I won't be here when you get back,'' she snapped.
    Bruce jammed his feet into the boots he keeps in the closet by the door, and, heading out into the night, said:
    ''Yeah, right.''
    He was being stubborn, and his wife didn't appreciate it. But up on that hill, Karen Prugh's life depended on the wide streak of obstinacy in Fireman 51. The Run


    The Fort Thomas fire department is on a quiet street lined with small businesses and prim homes. Bruce Rath hurried there and jumped on the first pumper leaving.
    Hanging onto old No. 604 by the crook of one elbow, he wriggled into his fire coat as the pumper headed south on North Fort Thomas and turned right onto Highland Avenue. They sped west past houses in the twilight, past a savings and loan, past Gray's Deli, past a Gulf station and across Grand Avenue.
    On the right, a Boron Oil station flew past. Then the old girls home. And then Bruce Rath saw it: a whisp of black smoke. They descended the hill and turned left onto U.S. 27, losing sight of Beverly Hills for just a moment as they passed Evergreen Cemetery. Then, rounding the bend, they saw their destination: the doomed supper club, belching thick, black smoke against the darkening sky.
    "What if the Hokey Pokey is what it's really all about?" Jimmy Buffett

  7. #57
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    The Rescue


    Flames shot out of the Beverly Hills Supper Club. The wail of sirens from approaching fire trucks filled the air.
    ''We've got a hell of a problem up here,'' Ernie Pretot barked into his police radio.

    [SIZE=1]Governor's visit: An unshaven Kentucky Gov. Julian Carroll takes a break the morning after he led a convoy of state troopers to the scene of the worst fire in the commonwealth.
    [/SIZE]
    Those who could find their way out hurried now. A woman in a floor-length pastel evening gown tripped on her hem as she rushed past the hostess station. There was a loud poof, and a cloud of thick, black smoke billowed through the hallway after her.
    Against the tide rushed Bruce Rath, hell-bent on entering the burning building. People were trapped near the Cabaret Room. Lots of people. He lowered his head and plunged inside.
    After an especially tough night on the job, a firefighter's helmet is smoky dark on top but remains bright red on the underside of the brim. It's for protection, that helmet. Bruce Rath let it part the smoke ahead of him as he headed down the hallway, turning left first, then right.
    He saw the snarl of bodies near the double doors at the end of the hallway. People stacked higher than a grown man. The pile grew as he stared. Panic-stricken patrons in dinner jackets and evening gowns fell and dove, entangling themselves hopelessly. People screamed. Hands clawed at him. He heard a voice and grabbed a woman in yellow.
    Karen Prugh.
    Bruce carried her outside and set her in the grass. ''My family,'' she said. ''Breathe deep,'' he told her. Then he plunged back in.
    Over and over, Fireman 51 dragged people to safety, sometimes two at a time. His lungs started to ache. He saw a woman climbing across tables, her dress ablaze, and grabbing her, threw her down and patted out the flames.
    When he reached down to pick her up, a woman at the bottom of the pile suddenly reached for him. Her face was black with oil and soot. ''Please, please, get me out of here,'' she said. ''I have babies at home.'' Then, reaching out in a panic, she tore off his air mask.
    That was it for Fireman 51, who had been laboring to breathe even with the mask. Bruce Rath's world faded to black, and he collapsed inside the burning building. Out Of Air


    When Bruce Rath came to, his alarm was ringing. He was running out of air. A Covington firefighter stepped on his leg. Bruce was wide awake now, and he was staring right into the face of the girl he had been trying to rescue -- the one who had been scrambling across the tables.
    Taking a rope from his helmet, he tied her hands together, threw them over his neck, and dog-walked her across the floor to the door.
    Every muscle in his body felt as if it were torn. He couldn't breathe. Carrying 80 pounds of equipment and body after body had worn him down.
    ''Are you all right?'' Covington firefighter Jim McDermott asked.
    ''Get this damn mask off me,'' Bruce said. ''I can't breathe.
    Mr. McDermott rolled him over, took the woman from him, pulled his mask off and unfastened his bunker coat. Then the two of them rolled the woman onto Bruce's coat and dragged her across the grass to safety.
    It was Shirley Prugh.
    Bruce Rath rested briefly. A woman gave him oxygen from a bottle. He looked around, feeling better physically but now overcome emotionally. Everywhere he looked were bodies. How in hell could this happen?
    He started looking for the first woman he had saved.
    He started looking for Karen Prugh. 'She's Dead'


    When he finds her, she's on her back in the grass. He can't stop looking at her. Except for the black streaks in her hair, Karen resembles Bruce's wife. She's blond. She's small.
    ''She's dead,'' a doctor says, straightening up.
    Anger flashes hot across Bruce's brain. He just pulled this woman out of the fire. She was alive. She was worried about her family. How can this guy say she's dead?
    ''Bullshit,'' Bruce says.
    The doctor bristles.
    ''I should know,'' he says.
    But Bruce is through listening. He searches carefully for a pulse, pressing his broad, blunt fingers against her pale neck. Nothing. Against her thigh. Is that a glimmer of life? The doctor's long gone.
    ''I need help!'' Bruce screams, then begins mouth-to-mouth resuscitation.
    For half an hour, maybe more, he stays there, determined to save this woman, working, working, working -- now blowing into her mouth; now pumping her chest. He gets her back, he loses her. He gets her back, he loses her. He keeps this up, oblivious to the chaos all around him, until finally the spell is broken.
    ''Hey, fireman,'' someone yells. But there are fireman all around. Bruce pays no attention, concentrating with all his might on finding a flicker of life in Karen Prugh.
    ''Fireman 51!''
    Bruce looks up. Fooomp, a flash.
    His picture will be in the morning paper.
    The Wait


    Beverly Rath stays out on the neighbors' porch talking for a long time before returning home to tuck the kids in bed. She turns out the lights in their rooms, then descends the stairs to watch the news.
    She thinks her husband is invincible, thinks he can do anything. She trusts in him so deeply, people think she's crazy. That time he went out fishing on the Ohio River with her cousin's husband and daughter and their own two oldest sons: They hadn't come back till after dark.
    ''What're you worried about?'' Beverly asked her cousin. ''Bruce would never let anything happen. He'll take care of everybody.''
    It was after 10 when they returned that night, unharmed but in for trouble. Bruce's mother, Margaret, and Beverly's cousin, were waiting at the dock in Wilder. And they were furious.
    But the guys at the fire house could tell you: If they go into a fire, they want Bruce with them. He looks out for his partners.
    Beverly lies down on the couch. For once, doubt creeps into her heart. Doubt and fear. Where is the man who stood waiting for her red-faced at the altar?
    Where is the boy who took a beating for her one summer night on a quiet street in Fort Thomas? Two Lives Saved


    Bruce Rath lifts Karen Prugh as she starts to sputter. She coughs, spits up thick, black mucous, then wraps her arms around Fireman 51, clinging to him for dear life. She will ride all the way to the hospital that way. Shirley Prugh will share the ambulance with them.
    Having saved Karen and Shirley and delivered them from the hillside, Bruce returns to the fire. He is exhausted, spent. He sits on a wall in front of what used to be the Beverly Hills Supper Club, waiting for a van to take him back to the fire house.
    He is dazed, desperately in need of sleep. As he sits there idle, the night begins to catch up with him. They're carrying people past -- some in wire-mesh stokes baskets, others on army stretchers. One after another. A macabre parade. This one to the hospital. This one to the morgue.
    A gust of wind that should be refreshing on this muggy night instead plays a horrible prank. It lifts the corner of a sheet off a woman's head, and for a moment, Bruce Rath is staring into the face of death. It is blistered and peeling. The hair is crinkled from heat.
    Softly at first, Fireman 51 begins to cry. Then the weeping turns to sobbing, then to nausea. Bruce vomits. One of the other firefighters says: ''How the hell did we get involved in this? When I came out as a firefighter, I thought I'd come out and put out a fire and everybody would say, 'Hey, thanks.' And we'd all go home.''
    "What if the Hokey Pokey is what it's really all about?" Jimmy Buffett

  8. #58
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    Another says: ''Man, state police got here fast.''

    Bruce looks up and sees two state cruisers coming up the drive, lights flashing. A limousine follows them. From that car, a silver-haired man in a dark suit approaches, tie yanked loose at the neck.
    ''You all right, son?'' Gov. Julian Carroll asks. He was getting ready for bed at the governor's mansion in Frankfort when he heard about the fire.
    ''I don't know,'' Bruce says.
    ''What're you crying for?'' Mr. Carroll asks.

    [SIZE=1]Karen Prugh Leonard, today.
    [/SIZE]
    ''I can't stop,'' says Fireman 51.
    ''Get him a pick-me-up,'' Mr. Carroll says. Yessir, Gov. Carroll, the trooper says, and heads back to the car.
    When he returns, it's with a whiskey bottle, and he pours a shot for Bruce. Fireman 51 doesn't drink whiskey straight, and it goes down like fire. He gasps and coughs.
    ''Give him another,'' Mr. Carroll says. ''He needs it.''
    The second cuts through the gunk in his throat. He feels better.
    ''Is it as bad as it looks?'' the governor asks, gazing over the hill.
    ''It's pretty bad,'' Bruce says. 'Here's The Hero'


    When Beverly Rath wakes on the couch, it's to the sound of someone coming in the front door.
    She smells him before she sees him: the overpowering, acrid odor of the fire. She's always hated that smell. Usually, she makes Bruce take off all his gear downstairs whenever he comes back from a run. But this morning she rushes to him and takes him in her arms.
    ''Whatsa matter?'' he says.
    ''We were told you got killed in the fire.''
    ''They said my name?''
    ''No, they just said two firemen got killed.''
    ''Well, I don't know anything about that.''
    ''You're not going out anymore.''
    ''I've got to,'' he says. There's always the chance there might be another fire, somewhere else in town. Someone has to man the station.
    He goes upstairs, showers once, twice, three times. The oily, black goop won't come off. It's caked on his skin, in his hair. So much for the new shirt.
    He puts on a clean uniform, heads back out.
    When he gets to the station, some of the guys are wandering around the trucks doing the routine, peering at the gauges, checking the air bottles to make sure they're full. Others are in the watch room reading the newspaper.
    ''Hey, here's the hero now,'' one says. They've seen the picture, the one that newspaper photographer shot while Bruce was working on Karen. Fireman 51! Foomp. It ran in The Enquirer, for all the world to see, damsel and white knight, together forever. Bruce Rath, faithful husband, rock-steady Baptist, now has another woman in his life. One night on a hillside, he made a life-and-death commitment to Karen Prugh, and for the rest of his days, those who know the two of them only from the famous photo will connect them, will think of them together when they think of them at all.
    But Bruce Rath does not feel like a hero. He is drained. This is the first day of many over the next few weeks that will pass without his being able to keep anything on his stomach.
    ''You clowns didn't put the flag up yet,'' he says, spotting the Stars and Stripes still folded up atop the filing cabinet.
    ''You did everything else tonight,'' another firefighter says. ''You put the flag up.''
    Tomorrow will be Memorial Day. Bruce Rath flies the flag every day at his house; he has to buy a new one about every two years. But Memorial Day weekend is a must for flag-flying. Bruce has known men who died at war. He picks the flag up gingerly and heads toward the door.
    Outside, the sky is growing bright. It's going to be a clear morning, beautiful in the way a summer day can break your heart, and as he walks out of the station the day opens up before him. The day, the weeks, the months. The years after that. Forever After


    There's a hillside lost. Out of circulation. Good for nothing. Those cleaning up after the fire will leave traces of the nightmare as if they couldn't abandon the site fast enough. Five, 10, 15, 20 years will pass, but nothing will change on that lonely hill. Not even time.
    Karen Prugh will discover her marriage died in the fire. She and Terry will drift apart, and in three years they will get a divorce. Terry, who lost his mother, father and brother in the fire, never will be able to talk about what happened up on that hill, though Karen will need to -- at first, anyway. And she will make up her mind not to marry again because it's just too painful feeling alone when you're right next to your husband.
    She will panic one day in a grocery in Florida, running out of the store when the lights go out in a storm. She will shy away from movie theaters, too. She will become a nurse and move away to Phoenix, Arizona. But she will never tell most of her new friends what happened that night.
    She will resolve never to go back to Ohio. She will turn down a job at a hospital in Cincinnati because she doesn't want to be anywhere near that hill. She will think of Bruce Rath every time a firefighter brings someone into the hospital. She will see that fire coming through the doors and the man scampering across those tables.
    She will always remember the day she died.
    But the fire will not change Bruce Rath. Nothing ever will. He will live long and full. Some firefighters will quit in the days and weeks ahead, ruined by last night. But Bruce will fight fires for another 19 years, until he retires, and not once will he make a run that defeats him.
    The Beverly Hills fire will haunt him awhile. He will look for the exit signs whenever he goes out to eat. He will dream of a hand reaching up and pulling off his air mask. He will wake jabbering and thrashing, throwing elbows until his wife protests. But as time passes, he will bounce back and the dreams will stop. And that hand will stop reaching up to pull off his air mask.
    Beverly Rath is the only woman who can take Bruce's breath away. Twenty years later, when they are grandparents, Bruce will look one day at a picture of her as a girl in a satin dress and tell her: ''You haven't changed a bit.''
    And she will say: ''Yeah, right.''
    But before any of that comes to pass, Bruce must do one thing.
    He stands at the flag pole outside the fire house, snaps the Stars and Stripes into the eyelets there, then lets it go. This much he can do for his grieving, little town. If life is worth saving, it's sure as hell worth living.
    During the darkest hours of the fire, the lone woman in labor at St. Luke had her baby early this morning, at 1:01 -- one small hope after midnight. That should be enough. The human heart burns with a fire all its own.
    Bruce gives it a crank, and the flag unfurls against the brightening morning, rising:
    Up, up, up: Into the radiant sky of a brand-new day.
    "What if the Hokey Pokey is what it's really all about?" Jimmy Buffett

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    Wow! What an amazing addition to this story! Thank you Alanwench. The person that wrote that story is incredibly talented. I hope they won some kind of literary award for it.
    "So many faces in and out of my life. Some will last, some will just be now and then. Life is a series of Hellos and Goodbyes, I'm afraid it's time for Goodbye again. "

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    Thanks, I agree the reporter should've won an AP Award at the least, but I don't know if he did. It has all the ingredients for a good feature: Detail, dialogue and description.
    "What if the Hokey Pokey is what it's really all about?" Jimmy Buffett

  11. #61
    hoxharding Guest
    My Parents were supposed to go there that night-I can't recall why they didn't. I think my Mother got sick or something.

  12. #62
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    What part of Indiana do you live in, Hox? There was a brother and sister who lost both parents in the fire and were raised by their grandparents. The father was a volunteer fireman and one of the victims he carried out was his wife. He kept making rescues until the smoke killed him.
    "What if the Hokey Pokey is what it's really all about?" Jimmy Buffett

  13. #63
    hoxharding Guest
    Quote Originally Posted by Alanwench View Post
    What part of Indiana do you live in, Hox? There was a brother and sister who lost both parents in the fire and were raised by their grandparents. The father was a volunteer fireman and one of the victims he carried out was his wife. He kept making rescues until the smoke killed him.

    How awful-poor children!
    I live next to the Indiana/Ohio border-we get Ohio tv stations and Indiana stations.
    More than often, Ohio news tends to report our town news more than Indianapolis does for some reason. Just a month ago I was on channel 7 website and found a woman had driven into a pond in town.

  14. #64
    STsFirstmate Guest
    Alanwench thanks for bringing back some distant memories. I can remember Al Shottlecotte (Cincinnati's Walter Cronkite) reporting from the scene.
    No one had any idea how many people were in there and I remember they had to wait until the next day to bring in a crane and pull the fallen roof off of the caberet room. That was where they found the final remains including several still seated at tables. That tells you how fast things went south. Lots of simiarlitys to the Coconut Grove fire in Boston decades earlier. Lots of people died where they sat there as well.
    Again thanks for taking the time to post this info.
    Regards,
    Mary

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    Quote Originally Posted by STsFirstmate View Post
    Alanwench thanks for bringing back some distant memories. I can remember Al Shottlecotte (Cincinnati's Walter Cronkite) reporting from the scene.
    No one had any idea how many people were in there and I remember they had to wait until the next day to bring in a crane and pull the fallen roof off of the caberet room. That was where they found the final remains including several still seated at tables. That tells you how fast things went south. Lots of simiarlitys to the Coconut Grove fire in Boston decades earlier. Lots of people died where they sat there as well.
    Again thanks for taking the time to post this info.
    Regards,
    Mary
    It seems that the difference between life and death was down to a few minutes or even seconds. Those who heeded Walter Bailey's advice were more likely to make it out alive. The people who thought he was part of the comedy act or hesitated to join the others in leaving the building were essentially doomed.
    "What if the Hokey Pokey is what it's really all about?" Jimmy Buffett

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    http://www.local12.com/mediacenter/l...video.wkrc.com
    This is part 1 of a five part special that includes actual news footage of the fire. Nick Clooney (George's dad) is the reporter in this special.
    "What if the Hokey Pokey is what it's really all about?" Jimmy Buffett

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    "What if the Hokey Pokey is what it's really all about?" Jimmy Buffett

  18. #68
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    "What if the Hokey Pokey is what it's really all about?" Jimmy Buffett

  19. #69
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    "What if the Hokey Pokey is what it's really all about?" Jimmy Buffett

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    http://www.local12.com/mediacenter/l...video.wkrc.com
    The same website where this is shown also has the entire news broadcast covering the night of the fire. It's listed right below these specials.
    "What if the Hokey Pokey is what it's really all about?" Jimmy Buffett

  21. #71
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    Alan you rock!!!!!
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  22. #72
    RogerV Guest
    I need to re-think my standard approach (though I've never been in an emergency this severe). I usually stay put at first and scope out the situation before making any moves, and in the case of fire, that may not be the best idea.

  23. #73
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    Quote Originally Posted by RogerV View Post
    I need to re-think my standard approach (though I've never been in an emergency this severe). I usually stay put at first and scope out the situation before making any moves, and in the case of fire, that may not be the best idea.

    That is totally true. Think of The Station nightclub fire. The entire place with engulfed in 3 mins. They have said that those who did not leave within 30 seconds of the initial flames are the ones who did not make it. 30 seconds.. that is what is most frightening. 30 seconds in between life and death due to quick thinking. The average person would take 30 seconds to analyze what is going on and what they are seeing.
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  24. #74
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    Thanks, Miho. I stumbled across the special and the news footage a few weeks ago. Reading and seeing all that stuff is making me take in layouts of buildings and knowing where all exits are located. If it's down to a few seconds, I want to make the right decision and come out alive.
    "What if the Hokey Pokey is what it's really all about?" Jimmy Buffett

  25. #75
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    Quote Originally Posted by Alanwench View Post
    Thanks, Miho. I stumbled across the special and the news footage a few weeks ago. Reading and seeing all that stuff is making me take in layouts of buildings and knowing where all exits are located. If it's down to a few seconds, I want to make the right decision and come out alive.

    Always good to stay away from the one that you came in from. People's instinct is to take them that way out even if it isn't the closest exit.
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  26. #76
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    That mindset killed people in The Station fire and the folks in the Cabaret Room at the Beverly Hills Supper Club.
    "What if the Hokey Pokey is what it's really all about?" Jimmy Buffett

  27. #77
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    Quote Originally Posted by Alanwench View Post
    That mindset killed people in The Station fire and the folks in the Cabaret Room at the Beverly Hills Supper Club.
    Yep. It takes an active effort to control your mind in a panic situation to not do what instinct tells you to do.

    In The Station Fire there was a close exit to the stage, but it was on fire. People could have still gotten out, but their instincts kept them away from that door. It could have saved many lives.
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  28. #78
    RogerV Guest
    One thing to keep in mind in restaurants and clubs is the fact that the kitchen always has its own outside door. It obviously can't be an "official" exit, but it could still be a lifesaver (assuming the fire isn't in the kitchen).

  29. #79
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    Quote Originally Posted by hoxharding View Post
    How awful-poor children!
    I live next to the Indiana/Ohio border-we get Ohio tv stations and Indiana stations.
    More than often, Ohio news tends to report our town news more than Indianapolis does for some reason. Just a month ago I was on channel 7 website and found a woman had driven into a pond in town.
    The man and woman killed in the Beverly Hills Supper Club fire had the last name of either Sikes or Sykes. The man was a boilermaker and his wife was in the ladies' auxiliary for the local fire department.
    "What if the Hokey Pokey is what it's really all about?" Jimmy Buffett

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    Businesses have talked of making offices, etc. on the hillside, but the deals have always fallen through. As of now, someone is planning to build a nursing home on the site.
    It's strange for me to protest things being built there because, thank God, I didn't lose relatives or friends, but I feel that hillside is sacred ground.
    "What if the Hokey Pokey is what it's really all about?" Jimmy Buffett

  31. #81
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    Quote Originally Posted by Alanwench View Post
    Businesses have talked of making offices, etc. on the hillside, but the deals have always fallen through. As of now, someone is planning to build a nursing home on the site.
    It's strange for me to protest things being built there because, thank God, I didn't lose relatives or friends, but I feel that hillside is sacred ground.

    I'm surprised they never did a formal memorial. Does anyone know why?
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  32. #82
    RogerV Guest
    Quote Originally Posted by Miho View Post
    I'm surprised they never did a formal memorial. Does anyone know why?
    I would hope that if something is built on the site, they will at least put a bronze plaque on the side of the building. I THINK the site of the Coconut Grove Nightclub is now occupied by a parking structure, and there is some kind of a memorial plaque on the side of it.

  33. #83
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    Where it stood.


    Plaque
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  34. #84
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    Tomorrow is the 32nd anniversary of the fire at the Beverly HIlls Supper Club. I'm hoping that someone will have plans underway for the memorial plaque I've read about that's supposed to be at the base of the hill next to the winding driveway that used to lead to the club.
    "What if the Hokey Pokey is what it's really all about?" Jimmy Buffett

  35. #85
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    Wow.. 32 years already. Thanks for the reminder.
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    "I will be buried in a spring loaded casket filled with confetti, and a future archaeologist will have one awesome day at work."

  36. #86
    STsFirstmate Guest
    I was watching TV on my screened in porch on my farm in Mount Orab Ohio when they broke in with the news.
    It was just awful. Everyone started calling people they knew that might have gone there. The place was big , popular and had so many function halls several events could be held at once as was evident that night, caberet, dining rooms and fashion show among others.
    My cousin was a Cincinnati cop and a first responder ( a new concept back then). He ended up over there and he would never really talk about it other than to say it was really bad.
    It was a bleak holiday for a lot of families. Thanks for the prompt to stop and remember.
    Regards,
    Mary

  37. #87
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    Quote Originally Posted by STsFirstmate View Post
    I was watching TV on my screened in porch on my farm in Mount Orab Ohio when they broke in with the news.
    It was just awful. Everyone started calling people they knew that might have gone there. The place was big , popular and had so many function halls several events could be held at once as was evident that night, caberet, dining rooms and fashion show among others.
    My cousin was a Cincinnati cop and a first responder ( a new concept back then). He ended up over there and he would never really talk about it other than to say it was really bad.
    It was a bleak holiday for a lot of families. Thanks for the prompt to stop and remember.
    Regards,
    Mary
    No problem, Mary. I'm sure my cousins will reflect at some point today on how the death of my great-grandfather kept them from going to the Beverly Hills Supper Club.
    "What if the Hokey Pokey is what it's really all about?" Jimmy Buffett

  38. #88
    seberly Guest
    I don't really believe in the arson theory. From everything I've read the place was a disaster waiting to happen. No sprinklers, smoke alarms, nothing was fire retardent, wiring, and the additions to the club was done in a piecemeal fashion. It would be difficult now to determine if arson was the cause since nothing stands there anymore. The club dates back to 1937 when it was an illegal gambling house and is where the mob ideas come from, in my opinion. The Schilling family took over ownership in the early 70's and all the additions were completed by 76.

    Here's a youtube link that is pretty interesting. The first 30 seconds are a bit creepy, but after that it's pretty good.. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rsCTBHn2KIc

    also a pdf on how the fire spread...

    http://www.enquirer.com/beverlyhills/bevhills.pdf contains

  39. #89
    seberly Guest
    BEVERLY HILLS SUPPER CLUB FIRE

    Introduction: A group called “the Beverly Hills Survivors for Justice” has requested Governor Steve Beshear to consider re-investigating the Beverly Hills Supper Club fire that occurred in 1977 and killed 165 people; in making this request, the Survivors for Justice expressed a belief that the fire resulted from arson rather than accident . Governor Beshear requested that the undersigned group (hereinafter called the Governor’s Review Team) meet with the Survivors for Justice and then give him an opinion as to whether investigation of the 31 year old tragedy shouldbe reopened by the Commonwealth of Kentucky in order to determine if the fire resulted from arson (as alleged and believed by the Survivors for Justice).

    Preliminary Inquiry: In an effort to provide Governor Beshear the advice he seeks, the Review Team conducted on its own the following preliminary inquiry:

  40. #90
    seberly Guest
    (A) As requested by the Governor, the Review Team met with the Survivors for Justice in order to give the Survivors group a full opportunity to explain their beief in the need for re-investigation of the fire. The group that appeared for this meeting included seven people (some firemen, a retired building inspector, a fire school professor, two former employees of the Beverly Hills Supper Club, and a spokesman for the Survivors group); only one of the seven (a former employee) claimed to have any personal knowledge of the facts supporting the Group’s belief that the building was deliberately burned don on May 28, 1977. The Survivors gave to the Review Team a modest amount of written materials concerning the fire, set out the basis for their belief that the fire involved arson rather than accident (as described below), and expressed a firm belief that the Commonwealth of Kentucky “had rushed to judgment” in its 1977-1978 investigations of the fire. At the end of this meeting (which lasted for more than half-a-day), the Survivors were invited to submit to the Review Team any and all additional information thought to be pertinent to their reuest for a re-investigation of the fire.

  41. #91
    seberly Guest
    (B) During the months following the above described meeting, the Survivors for Justice submitted additional information to the Review Team for review

    and evaluation. It consisted of depositions and parts of depositions (from the extensive civil litigation that occurred in the court system in the early years after the fire), sworn statements obtained by the Kentucky State Police in its 1977 and 1978 investigation of the fire, unsworn statements obtained by Survivors for Justice in support of their beliefs in arson and their request for re-investigation, newspaper stories about the fire, identities of people for possible interviews about the fire, and other miscellaneous matters. The Survivors group attached to their submissions what they believed to be the connection of the submitted materials to the psitions earlier stated in the meeting with the Review Team. Each and every one of these submissions was carefully reviewed for content, scrutinized for credibility, and weighed in conjunction with the materials provided during the meeting described above.

    (C) In conjunction with all of the information gathered from the Survivors group, the Governor’s Review Team took account of the most important investigative reports published about the fire immediately afte it occurred.
    This included the report to the then existing Governor by the Kentucky State Police, the report of an investigation of the fire conducted by the National Fire Protection Association, and a report by a Special Prosecutor appointed by the Governor in 1978 to review these other investigations alongside an invesigation conducted by a Campbell County Grand Jury. It must be noted that in none of these reports was there any mention whatsoever of the possibility that the Supper Club involed arson; and the same is true of the written products of the extensive civil litigation that followed the fire.

  42. #92
    seberly Guest
    At the end of this preliminary inquiry, the basis for the belief by the Survivors for Justice that the Beverly Hills Supper Club fire was arson rather than accident ws clear.

    The Belief and Accusation: The Survivors for Justice rest a lion’s share of their belief and accusation that the fire was arson on the words of two forer employees of the Club who were in the building on the day and at the time of the fire. One of the two was 21 years old at the time of the fire and working for the Club as a waitress in the room where the fire strted (known as the Zebra Room) and the other was an 18 year old at the time of the fire and working for

    the Club as a busboy. The following is a brief summary of the information provided by the two employees:

    (A) On the day of the fire (some hours before the fire), they saw two men in the Zebra Room “who were not supposed to be there,” who were working in the ceiling area of that room, and who “falsely claimed” to be working on the air conditioning system. Additionally, the former waitress saw the men wiping down the walls of this room (where the fire started) with some kind of substance. Their descriptions of the unusual activities they observed in the Zebra Room are very similar . However, the waitress states additionally that she saw two women and one other man (all of whom she connects to the two men in the Zebra Room) wiping down the walls of the corridor outside the Zebra Room on this same day (the corridor running through the building to the showroom where most of the victims were killed).

    (B) One of the two employees (the 21 year old waitress) told of overhearing a threatening conversation between two men in pin-striped suits and the owners of the Club (Richard Shilling, Jr. and his two younger brothers); this conversation is alleged to have taken place sometime on April 20, 1977 (about 5 weeks ahead of the fire). The waitress said that the two men sought to purchase the Club from the Schillings, were told that the Club was not for sale, and in response thereto told Richard Schilling, Jr. and his brothers that they would not have the building long if they did not cooperate (i.e., sell the Club to the men). This employee says that the two men in the pin-striped suits who threatened the Schilling brothers were the same two men she saw in the Zebra Room (working in the ceiling and wiping down the walls with some kind of substance) on the day of the fire. The other employee (the former busboy) does not claim to have overheard this conversation but does provide a description of the men he saw in the Zebra Room that mathes the description given of the men by the waitress.

  43. #93
    seberly Guest
    The two employees do not claim to have seen the two men install incendiary devices in the ceiling of the Zebra Room nor do theyclaim to know the nature of the substances rubbed on the walls. But they claim that the two men perpetrated arson at the Supper Club and killed the 165 people who died in the fire, though the Survivors Group as a whole splits over what they believe to be the motivating force behind the arson. One segment believes that the building

    was burned by men angered by a refusal of the owners to sell them the building while the other believes that the building was brned by men angered over being fired by the Club’s owners.

    An Independent Inquiry: How do you bridge the obvious and huge gap between the claims provided by the Survivors for Justice (that there were two men in the Zebra Room on the day of the fire pretending to be working on the Club’s air-conditioning system) and the conclusion that they choose to draw from their claims (that the two men deliberately burned the Supper Club and killed 165 people)? Why would persons intent upon deliberately burning an important building like the Beverly Hills Supper Club enter the buildin in the middle of the day while it was heavily occupied and spend hours in the midst of people who could identify them as arsonsts rather than burning the building in the darkness of night and in the absence of witnesses? Looking for help with these questions (and a third that is described below), the Review Team decided to request an outside/independent evaluation of the information set out above by one of the state’s professional investigative agencies. Because the Survivors for Justice had requested that further investigation of the fire be done without involvement of the Kenucky State Police, the Review Team sought and obtained the independent inquiry they wanted from the Office of Inspector General of the Kentucky Pblic Protection, Environment and Energy, and Labor Cabinets (hereinafter called the Office of Inspector General).

    The Office of Inspector General (employing a combination of investigators and a lawyer) carefully evaluated the information provided by the Survivors for Justice and then extended the inquiry described above by conucting a series of investigative interviews (some face-to-face under oath and some by telephone)
    with persons thought to have information pertinent to the question of whether to reopen the investigation of the fire. Most importantly, the professionals of this Office conducted lengthy face-to-face interviews of the former employees upon whom the Survivors for Justice so heavily rely and they conducted a telephone inteview of Richard Schilling, Jr. The following is a brief summary of what the professionals of this Office found and reported to the undersigned (see attached Report of Beverly Hills Supper Club Fire by Office of Inspector General):

  44. #94
    seberly Guest
    (A) Former Employees: The former waitress and busboy were questioned under oath for two-to-three hours each, with the interviews preserved on videotape. The former employees provided almost the same information to this Office that they earlier provided to the Review Team (i.e., saw two men in the Zebra Room working on the air-conditioning system and wiping down the walls). They were invited and encouraged at the end of the questioning to provide any additional information they had that would suggst that the fire was arson rather than accident; the busboy added nothing to his earlier statement and the waitress added that the two men in the Zebra Room had made statement she considered threatening. Both former employees said that notwithstanding the concerns they felt on the day and evening of the fire they made no reportof their observations to the Club’s managers.

    (B) Third Question: The information upon which the Survivors for Justice rely for their beliefs and accusation seems to have been hidden from te eyes and ears of investigators for more than 30 years; at least, it attracted no attention in the official investigative reports on the fire and appears not to have surfaced in any of the lenthy litigation over the fire . Why? Both of the former employees were questioned about the fire by the Kentucky State Police in the days and weeks after the fireand both gave depositions in the fire litigation. The professionals from the Office of Inspector General questioned the former employees on this subject and got almost the sam
    explanation from both.

    The busboy said that on the day after the fire his mother told him to keep his mouth shut about seeing the two men in the Zeba Room or he would get himself and his family killed. The waitress said that on the night of the fire her mother told her that for her own safety she should never say anything abot the men in the Zebra Room or the threat to the Schillings.
    Both said they had maintained their silence out of fear for their own safety and the safety of family members; the waitress said that she had received numerous anonymous telephone threats on this subject over a period of years after the ire (although she had made no effort to record any of them and had made no report of the threats to police).

    However, the busboy said that shortly after the fire (in an interview with the Kentucky State Police) he pushed his fears aside, that he told the State

    Police about the two men in the Zebra Room, that the State Police told him they had no interest in the subject (and even told him to keep his mouth shut about the matter), and that the Police did not report what he told them about the unusual activities in the Zebra Room. He also said that when he was deposed in the litigation over the fire (after his encounter with the State police) he told lawyers about the activities in the Zebra Room and that the lawyers told him that they had no interest in the subject nd thus never asked him any questions about the Zebra Room activities he had observed.
    And the waitress said much the same. She pushed her fears aside shortly after the fire, told the State Police about the events in the Zebra Room and the overheard threat to the Schilling brothers by the men in the in-striped suits, but the State Police did not include in their written report of the interview what she told them on these subjects; she also said that when giving a deposition in the litigation over the fire she disclosed the two events described above but tat the court reporter failed to include this part of her testimony in the deposition transcript (an omission that seems not to have drawn any attention from lawyers involved in the litigation).

  45. #95
    seberly Guest
    (C) Richard Schilling, Jr.: Richard Schilling, Jr. is the oldest of three sons of the deceased owner of the Beverly Hills Supper Club and the one most heavily involved in the maagement of the Club at the time of the fire. The Office of Inspector General interviewed Mr. Schilling by telephone shortly after concluding the face-to-face interviews with the former busboy and waitress. Mr. Schilling said that he had never had a conversation in the barroom (or any other part of the Club) like the one reported by the former waitress. He said that he had never received an offer to buy the building accompanied by a threat to destroy it and that he had receive no threat of any kind to burn the building before the 1977 fire. He further stated that he had absolutely no reason to believe that the fire was anything other than an accident.

    In reporting these matters (and much more) to the Review Team, the Office of Inspector General indicated full concurrence with the conclusion reached by the undersigned and reported below.

    Conclusion: The Beverly Hills Supper Club tragedy occurred more than thirty years ago. It was fully, carefully, and competently investigated shortly

    after it occurred (simultaneously by the Kentucky State Police and by some of the best fire investigators in the country from the National Fire Prtection Association); and it was investigated by the Campbell County Grand Jury and was fully reinvestigated by a Special Prosecutor for the State o Kentucky. On the heels of these investigations, the tragedy entered the court system to be subjected to unbelievable scrutiny by parties with much at stake and sufficient resurces to hire the best lawyers, the best investigators, and the best experts available; in this very important litigation, which lasted for years, the one issue that predominated over all others was the issue of causation. What was the cause of the fire and the tragedy? And, in examining this crucial issue, none of the investigations conducted near the time of the fire and none of the litigation of the fire uncovered and reported asingle shred of evidence indicating that the fire resulted from acts of arson.
    Now, more than 30 years after the fire and claiming that the tragedy flowed from arson rather than accident, the Survivors for Justice ask for another investigation of the fire (with the fire site gone, with memories faded, and with potential witnesses dead or otherwise unavailable). In making their request,
    the Survivors for Justice delivered to the Governor and to the Review Team a very tiny shred of evidence of arson and a huge muntain of conjecture,
    unsupported speculation, and personal opinion. With full conviction and no hesitation, the Review Team and the Office of Inspector General have concluded that the information delivered to Governor Beshear falls may miles short of the kind of proof that would be needed to justify a very lengthy, very difficult,
    and predictably unproductive re-investigation of a tragedy that was carefully and competently investigated and re-investigated three decades ago.

    _________________________
    Cecil Dunn

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    Alan - thanks for this. This is truly a great (and horrid) find. I've really enjoyed reading and researching about this. You rock!
    For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Romans 8:38-39

  47. #97
    STsFirstmate Guest
    Quote Originally Posted by SheBoss View Post
    Alan - thanks for this. This is truly a great (and horrid) find. I've really enjoyed reading and researching about this. You rock!
    As I said in an earlier post my Mom almost worked there but was put off by the 100 foot concrete tunnel that the waitstaff had to walk through between the kitchen and the caberet room. She was sure that no one would get out in a fire and passed on the job.
    I don't think it was arson but I do think the contractors were negilent with the cheap aluminum wiring, even if it did meet code at that time.
    The Schilling family is still a big name on the Cincinnati restarunt and club scene.
    I remember that night so vividly. Frankly I am surprised that many people got out. My late cousin who was a cop and a first responder sent from Cincinnati to try to help said people had gravitated in the dark to the light coming in from the windows in the rear of the club. Once there they could not break the heavy safety glass. They tried with chairs and table legs.
    People were just piled up against those windows on top of each other.
    This was before battery backup for exit signs and requirements for emergency lighting.
    There was an African American Choral Association fashion show in another function room near the zebra room. It was primarily spring bridal fashions. Almost none of the mainly women got out.
    There is a white paper on line from FMEA that actually talks about the chances of a woman getting out of a crowd like that in 1977 and now. Their chances then were poor because of the tendancy for women to defer to others in exiting and their general lack of physical conditioning. Now women would have a muc better chance because they would not "wait for rescue" and are better able physically to compete while exiting the building. They point to the gender mix for those who died and those who escaped the Station Fire in Rhode Island. There was much more gender parity in the statistics. I found that facinating.
    Regards,
    Mary
    Last edited by STsFirstmate; 10-30-2009 at 03:21 PM.

  48. #98
    RogerV Guest
    The biggest arguments against the arson theory are: 1)Why case the place and set incendary devices IN FRONT OF WITNESSES? and 2) If you want to get even with the owners, WHY kill a bunch of uninvolved people in the process?? Torch the place very late at night when it was closed, or at least after most people had left.

    Others have mentioned how the complex was a disaster waiting to happen. A fire could have been started by a number of things, and the outcome would probably have been the same: A dropped cigarette; a candle knocked over; any number of electrical faults; faulty cooking equipment or a grease fire in the kitchen; a gas leak, though I don't think there was any indication of an explosion.

  49. #99
    seberly Guest
    In case anyone is interested I found this website that has a lot of official reports regarding the Beverly Hills...

    http://fefdic.ning.com/group/whatact...age=1#comments

  50. #100
    Join Date
    Dec 2007
    Location
    Ohio
    Posts
    4,652
    Quote Originally Posted by SheBoss View Post
    Alan - thanks for this. This is truly a great (and horrid) find. I've really enjoyed reading and researching about this. You rock!
    You're welcome. My name actually isn't Alan, I'm a female Alan Rickman fan.
    "What if the Hokey Pokey is what it's really all about?" Jimmy Buffett

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