The weekly times-record. (Valley City, N.D.) 1912-1922, 1922-02-02


toll caused by the collapse of the
Knickerbocker theatre here Saturday
night, one of the greatest moving pic
ture catastrophies in the history OF
the country, stood at 113 early today
Deaths were reported hourly from the
hospitals throughout the city where
IA injured victims Of the disaster,
many of whom were near death are
being cared for. With the death list
constantly mounting, police officers
and rescue workers believe the num-
Der will pass 1875.
E.. H. Shaughnessy, second assist
ant postmaster general is said to be
in critical condition from injuries
incurred in the theatre horror. His
legs were mangled and his body is
stiff from internal injuries. Three
blood transfusions were made during
the night. He is not expected to live.
Rescue squads which had worked
frantically for thirty-six hours to ex-
tract those trapped in the Gaping
hole of the theatre, believed this morn
ing that all the dead were removed.
Workers are still carrying out deb
ris however and making final search
Several Investigations as to the cause
of the catastrophe will be started at
once.
Senator Arthur Capper Of Kansas
in the senate today will demand that
the senate dispatch a committee to
make complete inquiry. A similar
request will probably be made in the
house. The local building inspector
and coroner both have ordered COM
prehensive probes.
The Coroner's jury will be sum-
moned today.
When dawn crept over the city, the
night shift of Marines doing rescue
work were relieved and another arrlv-
ed. They had picked, shoveled, bur-
rowed, and hauled many weary hours
practically conbing the debris twice
and shoveling out great masses into
the roadway about the theatre. The
Marines and army officers superln-
tending the Job, agree that the pit had
given up all the dead. 1t was lncon-
ceivable, they said, that there could
be other corpse there. The last body
that of James Shea Of South Hadley
Falls, Mass, medical student at the
Georgetown University, had been re-
covered late last night shortly before
the Marines had dug out the mutllat-
ed body of his companion, pretty Vlr-
ginia Fcraud, sister of the Guatema-
Ian minister, Bianchi, and borne 1t
into the morgue in the First Church OF
Christ's Scientists where it had been
identified by Mrs. Miguel Trado and
Bianchi. Before that time, the last
live person to be brought out was 5.
Montgomery, who said "women and
children first" Crushed badly, ne had
cried out to them to rescue his COM
panion, Veronica Murphy, whose body
Law beside his and to help the women
and children before they thought OF
taking him out They got him out IN
the morning and he was Immediately
taken to the Walter Reed hospital,
where he died after an operation.
Sobbing, fainting women and men
struggled to hide their tears as one by
one they identified their dead They
worked hour after hour Of the day, on
into the night and were still there
when dawn peeped into the gruesome
morgue basement where corps OF nur-
SEES with scores of doctors waited for
new cases hoping against hope there
might be some with spark OF life
in them. Now and then Marine brot
in gruesome relics of the dead. Hats,
clothing, watches, note books, and
fountain pens rescued from the debris,
but never another body.
Society women volunteered for SER
vice as members of the Red Cross and
maintained stations for coffee, sand
wiches and cigarettes. Pretty girls
who had never seen death before brav-
ed the shock Of seeing the mangled
bodies so they could do their bit
among Marines soldiers, firemen, and
police while the men, tagged by long
hours, kept digging with an energy
almost superhuman. Under the ghast-
ly glare of the arc lamp and gas
torches thru the night they burrowed
and shoveled. Long lines of persons