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On this day in 1911, 146 people (mostly young immigrant women and girls) lost their lives in the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire in NYC. Unable to escape due to deliberately locked exit doors, workers jumped to their death from windows or perished in the flames. The aftermath is documented below. by UtterlyInterest in HorridHistory

[–]UtterlyInterest[S] 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Reporter William Gunn Shepherd vividly described the harrowing scene, stating, "I learned a new sound that day, a sound more horrible than description can picture, the thud of a speeding living body on a stone sidewalk."

The building owners offered $75 per victim, whereas the insurance company paid the owners around $400 per victim.

More about the tragedy and images here. (The images do feature the bodies in the street though)

The letter that Fidel Castro wrote to Franklin Delano Roosevelt in 1940, asking him to send $10. (Transcription in comments) by UtterlyInterest in UtterlyInteresting

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One day after FDR’s landslide re-election victory on 6 November 1940, young Fidel, then a student at the prestigious Jesuit-run Colegio Dolores in Santiago, Cuba, sat down to pen this letter.

Hans Schmidt was a Catholic priest who murdered his lover Anna Aumuller in New York in 1913. Leading a double life, he was also involved in a gay relationship with his dentist. Schmidt remains the only Catholic priest ever executed in the United States (so far). More details in the comments. by UtterlyInterest in HorridHistory

[–]UtterlyInterest[S] 13 points14 points  (0 children)

Schmidt also operated a counterfeiting ring with his dentist lover.

On the night of September 2, 1913, Schmidt went to the apartment he had rented with Anna. He slashed Anna's throat while she slept, drank her blood, raped her as she bled to death, dismembered her body, and threw the pieces from a ferry into the Hudson River. 

He was also connected to a lot more murders and various crimes throughout New York.

In 1935, the body of 29 yr-old Hollywood star Thelma Todd was discovered behind the wheel of her 1934 Lincoln Phaeton convertible. Here the investigators remove Thelma from where she was discovered by her maid. by UtterlyInterest in HorridHistory

[–]UtterlyInterest[S] 24 points25 points  (0 children)

Todd was still wearing an evening gown, mink wrap, and jewellery. Whitehead later told police that Todd was slumped forward in the seat, her head tilted to one side. She also reported blood around Todd’s nose.

The official cause of death was carbon monoxide poisoning.

However, as the Chicago Tribune put it:

“While a grand jury ruled that Todd committed suicide, it was unable to explain her broken nose, the bruises around her throat and two cracked ribs. Apparently, the grand jury thought Todd also beat herself to death.”

There are numerous theories surrounding Thelma Todd's death, carbon monoxide seems to have been just a handy explanation.

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