Geraldine Conlon's statement
Injured survivors (and families of those killed) would submit affidavits to the court to justify their claims. Some of the submissions would include photos, pay stubs, receipts, children's report cards, and/or letters from those affected by the fire. Below is a transcription of a 12 page letter that Geraldine Conlon wrote in 1946 describing her escape from the burning big top with her son, John "Jackie" Conlon, Jr. and another child, Helen Merrill, and some of the recovery process. Geraldine's sister-in-law, Evelyn Conlon, died in the fire.
After we had purchased our tickets and found them to be behind the animal cages, we wanted to exchange them for some other place but the ticket man wouldn't allow changes. We went to our seats which were in section [J or T?] and row 11. We had the first six seats in. When the fire broke out, my sister-in-law got up with her children and ran. I never saw her again. It was so little I thought it would be put out right away. It was about twelve inches in diameter and about a foot above the heads of the people. I waited, thinking some order would be established and in less than a minute a third of it was gone. I couldn't go down the aisle because people were crowding so. We couldn't walk along the rows because the boards were nailed to separate the sections. We had to walk down over the chairs; at the bottom, Helen Merrill's foot got stuck in the rungs on the back of one collapsed chair. I pulled and pulled and finally decided a broken ankle was better than being left behind - so I pulled extra hard and finally got her loose. By this time the fire was above us. When we got to the animal cage the policeman looked up and when he saw it so close - he ran. He was my last ray of hope. I just prayed it wouldn't happen that way. We had to wait to get over because people were crowding so. We finally got over and Jackie's hands were so slippery from the burns he got away from me. I waited and found him again. We finally got out and a man grabbed Helen Merrill and said "This child must get to a hospital." I couldn't hold her because her hands were slippery from the burns too. I didn't know what to do because he disappeared in to the crowd. I saw my nephews outside and took them away with Jackie and me because I know the tent wouldn't stay up much longer. Pieces had been falling all around us when we got out and very few people were left in. The band was supposed to have played to the end - it wasn't playing on when we got out. I didn't look back. I just wanted to get away and get help for us. I had to take off my shoes, my legs and ankles were burned and my heels were bleeding.
We got a ride to the hospital with a man who owned a truck and decided to use it as no ambulances were around. We were there in about fifteen minutes after it happened. Jackie and I went up on the stretcher together. We were the first ones put in Ward 8 in Hartford Hospital. They moved him away from me because they thought it best but it was terrible for me to hear his screams and not know what was going on. A patient who had minor burns and was able to walk around came over to me in a few days and told me Jackie was on the critical list. It was the first time I realized it could be so serious. My face, arms, legs and back were all bandaged but when I saw Jackie bandaged from his neck straight down to his feet too, a week later when they pushed his bed out so he could see me, it was agony to see a child so young suffering so. Even when he was so sick his only worry was whether or not Geraldine, his smaller sister, would be watched carefully so nothing would happen to her until he got home. They had always been inseparable and dependent on each other.
When I was told of my sister-in-laws death it seemed so hard to believe. It was hard to imagine being in anything so horrible where people were burned so badly and other dying. The more I thought about it I knew it had to happen to some because it happened so quickly, people had to move fast or it was too late and many must have been knocked down. Then I was worried about Helen Merrill. Everyone said she was in the Municipal Hospital but I never was really sure she was still alive until I saw her when I went home in October.
Fortunately, my face, back and lower left arm and legs have healed so that the scars are incidental to every day living. My biggest concern is my right arm and how it will be later on. After I was in the hospital two or three days my arm felt as though it was gradually growing numb and I had severe sharp pains in it. I thought it was because it may have been bandaged too tight but when it grew more numb after the doctors had loosened the bandages several times I realized it must be because the burn was so deep. Then it went completely lifeless and I had no feeling what-so-ever in it. When more than a month had passed and I still did not have any feeling in it I was afraid something has happened. Every time bandages were changed it looked all green and had a terrible odor and I was afraid of possible amputation. I finally got the courage and asked a doctor about it. He said I would probably regain the use of it because I could move my fingers a little. That was a little encouragement but not too much. During one of the dressings they had to twist my arm at the elbow and my hand at the wrist to bring it back into the correct position, it had been turned more than half a turn backwards. After two months some feeling came back in my arm and before I went home in October some of the feeling had returned to my hand. I could not bend my arm or use my hand. I had to take physio-therapy treatments until the following summer. The pain during these treatments and my exercises as prescribed was very great but I finally was able to use my hand and arm. My fingers are not accurate in their sense of touch. For instance when I put my hand in my pocket or pocket-book everything feels the same and it is hard to find what I need. It is also impossible to do any hand sewing because the needle will not stay in my fingers too well and I cannot make my fingers move the way they should to make good stitches.
I was taking X-ray therapy treatments for the keloid formations but after one treatment I had a very sharp pain come in my arm and a long blue line appeared. The doctors didn't think X-ray could cause it but I was afraid it might destroy my nerves and veins again after them just getting rebuilt when they were destroyed from the burn.
After we were expecting our baby I started sleeping nights. I hadn't slept more than a few hours a night from the time of the fire until last June. I never called for a nurse [ ] in the hospital because I knew sleeping pills had ceased to work with me after a few months and I couldn't see any sense in taking them for the fun of it. I was beginning to feel fine again but in October 1945 I fell and almost lost our baby. When I fell I was unable to break my fall because my right arm wouldn't move fast enough to help me. I had to stay in bed for a month and when I got up again I was unable to use my arm for awhile. I exercised it steadily and then as I got more strength in it, it ached for more than a month. It felt as though it would break at my wrist and elbow. When Patricia was born in January 1946 I was in the hospital a week and once again I was unable to use my arm. Even when we go home to Rhode Island to visit our folks over a weekend, I fought through terrific pain for the next week. Unless I keep using it continuously I have very great pain and less strength in it and if I use it too much it pains me very much too. Even at best I still cannot do many things that are necessary in an average housewife's day.
Another object of concern to me because nothing can be done to remedy it is the scar on the top of my head. When my hair was combed and the scabs removed the top of my head did not have any hair. The doctors said it might grow back but they wouldn't know until they could determine the degree of burn. Most of it came back, at first it was all gray, but then it fell out and brown hair came in again. There is still a space of several inches long and about an inch wide where no hair has grown back. Sometimes it is quite painful. Last summer I was forced to wear a hat continually whenever I went outside, a lesson I had learned because of an unfortunate experience during early spring. On this occasion I had thoughtlessly gone outside without a hat and as a result my head was sunburned even though it was only about half an hour. It was very painful for about a week and I had severe headaches with it.
If I were to tell of the many things that have happened because of it, it would take hours. There was the time we got stuck in Fox's elevator for a few minutes but it seemed like years and I don't know who was more scared, Jackie or I. Also when I started to take Jackie downtown, he was afraid of the crowds in the stores and he cried and wouldn't go past the first floor and a big crowd gathered around us and then I couldn't get him to do what I wanted him to because the crowd around us scared him more. When we are downtown and a siren blows it is so frightening because immediately people start running and cars close in so compactly. I believe I could face anything but a panicky throng of people again. They have no regard for anyone but themselves. I have spent hours trying to relieve the itch on Jackie's arms, back and thigh by massage. These are just a few items and I doubt if anyone could appreciate any of it unless they had been under similar circumstances.
-- Geraldine Conlon (written in 1946)
We got a ride to the hospital with a man who owned a truck and decided to use it as no ambulances were around. We were there in about fifteen minutes after it happened. Jackie and I went up on the stretcher together. We were the first ones put in Ward 8 in Hartford Hospital. They moved him away from me because they thought it best but it was terrible for me to hear his screams and not know what was going on. A patient who had minor burns and was able to walk around came over to me in a few days and told me Jackie was on the critical list. It was the first time I realized it could be so serious. My face, arms, legs and back were all bandaged but when I saw Jackie bandaged from his neck straight down to his feet too, a week later when they pushed his bed out so he could see me, it was agony to see a child so young suffering so. Even when he was so sick his only worry was whether or not Geraldine, his smaller sister, would be watched carefully so nothing would happen to her until he got home. They had always been inseparable and dependent on each other.
When I was told of my sister-in-laws death it seemed so hard to believe. It was hard to imagine being in anything so horrible where people were burned so badly and other dying. The more I thought about it I knew it had to happen to some because it happened so quickly, people had to move fast or it was too late and many must have been knocked down. Then I was worried about Helen Merrill. Everyone said she was in the Municipal Hospital but I never was really sure she was still alive until I saw her when I went home in October.
Fortunately, my face, back and lower left arm and legs have healed so that the scars are incidental to every day living. My biggest concern is my right arm and how it will be later on. After I was in the hospital two or three days my arm felt as though it was gradually growing numb and I had severe sharp pains in it. I thought it was because it may have been bandaged too tight but when it grew more numb after the doctors had loosened the bandages several times I realized it must be because the burn was so deep. Then it went completely lifeless and I had no feeling what-so-ever in it. When more than a month had passed and I still did not have any feeling in it I was afraid something has happened. Every time bandages were changed it looked all green and had a terrible odor and I was afraid of possible amputation. I finally got the courage and asked a doctor about it. He said I would probably regain the use of it because I could move my fingers a little. That was a little encouragement but not too much. During one of the dressings they had to twist my arm at the elbow and my hand at the wrist to bring it back into the correct position, it had been turned more than half a turn backwards. After two months some feeling came back in my arm and before I went home in October some of the feeling had returned to my hand. I could not bend my arm or use my hand. I had to take physio-therapy treatments until the following summer. The pain during these treatments and my exercises as prescribed was very great but I finally was able to use my hand and arm. My fingers are not accurate in their sense of touch. For instance when I put my hand in my pocket or pocket-book everything feels the same and it is hard to find what I need. It is also impossible to do any hand sewing because the needle will not stay in my fingers too well and I cannot make my fingers move the way they should to make good stitches.
I was taking X-ray therapy treatments for the keloid formations but after one treatment I had a very sharp pain come in my arm and a long blue line appeared. The doctors didn't think X-ray could cause it but I was afraid it might destroy my nerves and veins again after them just getting rebuilt when they were destroyed from the burn.
After we were expecting our baby I started sleeping nights. I hadn't slept more than a few hours a night from the time of the fire until last June. I never called for a nurse [ ] in the hospital because I knew sleeping pills had ceased to work with me after a few months and I couldn't see any sense in taking them for the fun of it. I was beginning to feel fine again but in October 1945 I fell and almost lost our baby. When I fell I was unable to break my fall because my right arm wouldn't move fast enough to help me. I had to stay in bed for a month and when I got up again I was unable to use my arm for awhile. I exercised it steadily and then as I got more strength in it, it ached for more than a month. It felt as though it would break at my wrist and elbow. When Patricia was born in January 1946 I was in the hospital a week and once again I was unable to use my arm. Even when we go home to Rhode Island to visit our folks over a weekend, I fought through terrific pain for the next week. Unless I keep using it continuously I have very great pain and less strength in it and if I use it too much it pains me very much too. Even at best I still cannot do many things that are necessary in an average housewife's day.
Another object of concern to me because nothing can be done to remedy it is the scar on the top of my head. When my hair was combed and the scabs removed the top of my head did not have any hair. The doctors said it might grow back but they wouldn't know until they could determine the degree of burn. Most of it came back, at first it was all gray, but then it fell out and brown hair came in again. There is still a space of several inches long and about an inch wide where no hair has grown back. Sometimes it is quite painful. Last summer I was forced to wear a hat continually whenever I went outside, a lesson I had learned because of an unfortunate experience during early spring. On this occasion I had thoughtlessly gone outside without a hat and as a result my head was sunburned even though it was only about half an hour. It was very painful for about a week and I had severe headaches with it.
If I were to tell of the many things that have happened because of it, it would take hours. There was the time we got stuck in Fox's elevator for a few minutes but it seemed like years and I don't know who was more scared, Jackie or I. Also when I started to take Jackie downtown, he was afraid of the crowds in the stores and he cried and wouldn't go past the first floor and a big crowd gathered around us and then I couldn't get him to do what I wanted him to because the crowd around us scared him more. When we are downtown and a siren blows it is so frightening because immediately people start running and cars close in so compactly. I believe I could face anything but a panicky throng of people again. They have no regard for anyone but themselves. I have spent hours trying to relieve the itch on Jackie's arms, back and thigh by massage. These are just a few items and I doubt if anyone could appreciate any of it unless they had been under similar circumstances.
-- Geraldine Conlon (written in 1946)