Michigan Italian Hall Disaster: Accident or Murder?

When prepping this episode about the Michigan Italian Hall Disaster, I was so, so excited because I knew I would have a special guest on this episode, my cousin Emily Berry. I let Emily choose which disaster we would cover when she was my guest, and she brought me this real humdinger, which I had never heard of. I am betting you’ve never heard of it either, and it’s baaaaad. I am hoping you’ll listen to the episode before you read this, but whether you do or not, let’s get into it.

The Michigan Italian Hall Disaster Took Place on Christmas Eve 1913

Ugggh, is there anything worse than a disaster at the holidays? The Italian Hall in present-day Calumet, Michigan was the site of a Christmas party for the children of the town’s copper miners, who had been on strike for 5 months. I can imagine that the moms of these children were so relieved that their kiddos were going to be getting a Christmas present, since they had been struggling to put food on the table without their husbands’ wages. About 600 people were gathered on the upper floor of the Italian Hall for a night of Christmas cheer when the unthinkable happened. Someone, and to this day it remains a mystery who that someone is, yelled “FIRE!” and a stampede to get down the stairs that led to the building’s only exit ensued.

Accident or Mass Murder?

Seventy-three people, including fifty-nine (59!!) children died within minutes as the crowd of 600 tried to exit the building on the steep staircase. Their bodies were piled up to the hall’s ceiling. And here’s the thing that compounds this tragedy: there was no fire. Someone yelled “FIRE!” – that is undisputed. But there was never a fire, and 73 people died for absolutely no reason. So, who called out causing the panic? To this day it remains unknown. Did someone really believe that there was a fire? What is an honest mistake, or, as many believe, the attempt of an anti-union agitator to disrupt the holiday cheer of the miners’ families? We just do not know, but at the time the feeling among the pro-union faction was that the anti-union side had purposefully caused the tragedy. If that is true, then it is definitely manslaughter at minimum. However, all investigations by law enforcement and even congress were inconclusive.

The Italian Hall Disaster Rumors Have Persisted

One of the rumors at the time of the disaster (and as you can imagine, there were many), is that the reason the pile-up on the staircase happened is that the Italian Hall doors opened inward, and people couldn’t get them open and get out. Although that was immediately and demonstrably false, that rumor persisted for decades. It even made it onto the plaque at the official Italian Hall Disaster Memorial until a local historian advocated to have it changed. Yikes! Another rumor, popularized by a Woody Guthrie song about the disaster, is that anti-union gangsters held the hall doors closed so people could not escape. That is also false. The fact is that someone fell on the staircase in the rush to get out of the building and it caused a deadly pile-up. And the most important fact is, there was never any reason to escape the building at all. UGGGH!

Most of the Italian Hall Disaster Victims Were Immigrants

Emily and I discuss this at length on the podcast, but there is little information available about the individual victims. Maybe it’s because this happened over 100 years ago, or maybe it’s because virtually all the victims were poor immigrants. Whatever the reason, that is another tragedy. Their lives mattered and they deserve to be remembered! Each name and age at death is listed on the official memorial in Calumet (pictured above), and I hope you will take the time to visit the link below in the show notes and read each name for yourself.

Thanks to my cousin Emily Berry for joining me for this episode! We had SO much fun, even talking about sucha tragedy. Please listen if you haven’t already!

Here are the resources I used to research this episode:

Here are the resources I used to research this episode:

https://www.mlive.com/news/2017/12/1913_italian_hall_disaster_was.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calumet,_Michigan

https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100064494317941

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_yjFP1IajQg – Steve Lehto on the Italian Hall Doors

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anna_Clemenc

List of names of the victims: https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=pfbid02rTcmsRCTsAmmWfk8sS66ByTQqa6ntUF5aMZveCRQ4TvLEEVwiATkzysxdi6p9B6ml&id=291845417514549