The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1910-09-25
JOY RIDERS PLUNGE
TO DEATH IN CANAL
Automobile Dashes Into Water
and All Drown
CLIMAX OF A GAY NIGHT
Party Is Returning to New Orleans
From West End When the Auto
mobile Makes a Leap to
Tragic Death

New Orleans, September 24.-(Special)- y
The new basin canal engulfed an auto
mobile and party of JOY riders at 2
O'Clock Saturday morning. The cele-
brated Gasquet machine, Rambler
known as J.-24, and owned now by
Thomas Boettler, one time owner of
Oak hotel, is the automobile that went
to the bottom.
Boettler and every other occupant Of
the machine was drowned.
How many lives were lost will probably
not be known until the basin has been so
thoroughly dragged as to remove the
possibility of any further bodies being
on the bottom.
The dead whose bodies have been re-
covered are:
Thomas Boettler. chauffeur and auto
mobile owner, living with his family ri
| 1909 Canal street
wv. @. Freeman RUNNER for Lazeli,
Z Daley g. Co., stoppint. at the st. Charles
hotel. from New York.
| Marion Gibin.
Daisy Hawkins. formerly of Baton
J Rouge.
| Others may be in the canal, but there
Is considerable uncertainty about that.
The accident came as climax to
nights frolic, the party having spent the
earlier part OF the night at West End,
famous summer resort near this city.
A turn in the West End road be-
| tween the New Orleans Terminal COM
pany bridge and the Metairie bridge
| was responsible for the catastrophe.
One of the parties in the machine was
probably under the influence of drink.
Boettler evidently mistook the red
| light which is the beacon for the turn
| When he got close up on the red light
| Boettler swerved to the left to make
the turn. Owing to the high rate of
speed at which the machine was trav-
cling he was unable to right the ma
chine and he applied the brakes. Too
late to check the speed of the automo-
| bile, the machine skidded on It's left
wheels and went down the embank-
| ment. Striking the revetment, the
wheels were torn from the axles and
the automobile and its human load were
pitched into the basin with force
that carried all to the bottom.
Boettler rose to the surface and tried
to swim ashore. His cries for help
were heard.
Johnson, watchman for the New Or
learns Terminal company. was reused
from sleep and went to the rescue with
skiff, but before he could reach the
drowning man Boettler had gone down.
None of the others came to the sur
face. Mutilations on the body of Free
man and discolorations of the faces
and limbs of the corpses of the young
women Indicate that the force with
which the machine struck the water
disab bled the entire party.
The second woman victim was fished
from the basin at 10:45 o'clock. She
was a tall woman, stylshly dressed ip
black, with open work waist. Her
body was sent to the morgue In the
patrol wagon unidentified.
The other woman victim now at the
morgue Is young woman of some 25
years, with great strands of Jet black
hair She Is plainly dressed in blue
gown. The bodies of both women were
Identified between 10 and II o'clock. They
were said to be the remains Of Marion
Gibben and Daisy Hawkins.
There is a history attached to the Boet-
tier machine 1t was originally pur-
chased for Boettler by Gasquet. At the
time of It's purchase II was the best Of
its class Boetter was a man of FAM
ily One time he owned the Oak hotel,
which stood on the ground now occupied
by the Audubon building, at Burgundy
and Canal streets. After riotous ca
reer in New Orleans Gasquet tired OF
the sameness of the scene and he took
Boettler and the machine for a trip to
Havana, Cuba After season In the
tropics Gasquet returned hom, and soon
after took both machine and its chauf-
feur for trip to Paris. II cost Gas
quet $1,000 duty to return the automobile
to America from his Partisan tour. Since
the decadence of Gasquets fortune Boet-
tier has been hiring his machine out for
night joy rides among the fast set of
New Orleans. It's red body was familiar
sight in the streets. where one finds the
bright lights and the sporting haunts.