1 00:00:01,040 --> 00:00:06,160 Speaker 1: You're listening to History on Trial, a production of iHeart Podcasts. 2 00:00:06,720 --> 00:00:19,239 Speaker 1: Listener Discretion advised. Lena Yawler was getting ready to leave 3 00:00:19,320 --> 00:00:25,479 Speaker 1: work when she heard a girl yell fire. Lena whipped 4 00:00:25,480 --> 00:00:30,080 Speaker 1: around and rolled her eyes. The girl who had shouted 5 00:00:30,360 --> 00:00:34,360 Speaker 1: was the factory's prankster. She was always telling her fellow 6 00:00:34,440 --> 00:00:37,839 Speaker 1: sewing machine operators that the boss was coming, making them 7 00:00:37,920 --> 00:00:41,479 Speaker 1: jump in their seats, only for no boss to appear. 8 00:00:42,200 --> 00:00:47,120 Speaker 1: Lena paid the girl no attention. It was a strange joke, perhaps, 9 00:00:47,720 --> 00:00:50,320 Speaker 1: but nineteen year old Lena just wanted to get home. 10 00:00:51,400 --> 00:00:54,880 Speaker 1: It was Saturday, the end of her work week. A 11 00:00:54,960 --> 00:00:58,800 Speaker 1: whole day of freedom awaited her, a day away from 12 00:00:58,800 --> 00:01:02,440 Speaker 1: the clamor of the sewing machines, a day to rest 13 00:01:02,520 --> 00:01:06,720 Speaker 1: her aching fingers and back. So she stayed in the 14 00:01:06,840 --> 00:01:10,119 Speaker 1: dressing room, putting on her coat and picking up her 15 00:01:10,120 --> 00:01:14,160 Speaker 1: pocket book. It was only when she emerged that she 16 00:01:14,319 --> 00:01:19,520 Speaker 1: saw the smoke. The prankster had not been joking this time. 17 00:01:20,800 --> 00:01:25,520 Speaker 1: Lena was terrified. The smoke was already filling the factory floor, 18 00:01:26,120 --> 00:01:29,080 Speaker 1: making it difficult to see, but she could make out 19 00:01:29,160 --> 00:01:33,400 Speaker 1: flames shooting up outside the windows. Across the room. Her 20 00:01:33,440 --> 00:01:37,679 Speaker 1: coworkers were clustered by the nearest exit, a door that 21 00:01:37,800 --> 00:01:41,679 Speaker 1: led to the stairs down to Washington Place, trying to 22 00:01:41,760 --> 00:01:46,360 Speaker 1: get it open. Some were screaming, crying out for their children. 23 00:01:47,080 --> 00:01:49,160 Speaker 1: When Lena tried to make her way to the door, 24 00:01:49,560 --> 00:01:52,880 Speaker 1: the crowd forced her back towards the dressing rooms. She 25 00:01:53,000 --> 00:01:58,120 Speaker 1: was trapped. Then she felt a breeze. A door was 26 00:01:58,160 --> 00:02:01,760 Speaker 1: opened somewhere she thought. The breeze seemed to be coming 27 00:02:01,760 --> 00:02:05,120 Speaker 1: for across the factory floor on the Green street side. 28 00:02:06,280 --> 00:02:10,160 Speaker 1: This was where Lena had seen the flames. But what 29 00:02:10,360 --> 00:02:13,519 Speaker 1: choice did she have. She knew she couldn't stay where 30 00:02:13,560 --> 00:02:17,600 Speaker 1: she was, so she set out, groping her way through 31 00:02:17,639 --> 00:02:22,520 Speaker 1: the smoke, tripping over fallen chairs, passing the burning tables 32 00:02:22,520 --> 00:02:26,919 Speaker 1: where she had been working only minutes before. She opened 33 00:02:27,000 --> 00:02:31,280 Speaker 1: the first window she reached, thinking maybe she could jump out, 34 00:02:31,600 --> 00:02:35,520 Speaker 1: but fell back in shock. The air outside was so 35 00:02:35,600 --> 00:02:39,640 Speaker 1: hot that it had burned her knee. From the street below, 36 00:02:39,720 --> 00:02:42,400 Speaker 1: she could hear people calling for her to jump, but 37 00:02:42,480 --> 00:02:45,920 Speaker 1: she was afraid it was too high, a drop of 38 00:02:46,080 --> 00:02:50,640 Speaker 1: nine stories, and the air itself had burned her. She 39 00:02:50,760 --> 00:02:55,720 Speaker 1: needed a new plan. Near By were the freight elevators. 40 00:02:56,600 --> 00:03:00,480 Speaker 1: Lena stumbled to them and knocked, praying that an operator 41 00:03:00,520 --> 00:03:04,280 Speaker 1: would bring the elevator up. She waited for two minutes, 42 00:03:04,560 --> 00:03:09,320 Speaker 1: maybe three, but it felt more like hours. No one came. 43 00:03:11,360 --> 00:03:14,919 Speaker 1: There was only one more way out now, the door 44 00:03:15,000 --> 00:03:19,040 Speaker 1: to the Green Street stairs. But when she opened the door, 45 00:03:19,680 --> 00:03:23,960 Speaker 1: the stairs were filled with flame. She could not go down. 46 00:03:24,840 --> 00:03:30,240 Speaker 1: It was hopeless, But then an idea. What if she 47 00:03:30,320 --> 00:03:33,640 Speaker 1: went up to the roof. It was risky, but so 48 00:03:33,919 --> 00:03:38,600 Speaker 1: was staying put. She pushed forward and the stairs. The 49 00:03:38,640 --> 00:03:42,840 Speaker 1: air was punishingly hot. The flames licked at her heels. 50 00:03:43,720 --> 00:03:47,200 Speaker 1: She ran. By the time she made it to the 51 00:03:47,320 --> 00:03:53,280 Speaker 1: roof two stories up, Lena's hair was smoldering. She had 52 00:03:53,360 --> 00:03:57,640 Speaker 1: burns on her arm, her neck, and her face, but 53 00:03:57,880 --> 00:04:02,800 Speaker 1: she was alive. On the roof, she found men holding 54 00:04:02,880 --> 00:04:05,640 Speaker 1: ladders that led to the roof of an adjacent building, 55 00:04:06,320 --> 00:04:09,560 Speaker 1: and so she climbed off the roof and away from 56 00:04:09,600 --> 00:04:13,240 Speaker 1: the burning remains of the factory. She worked at the 57 00:04:13,320 --> 00:04:19,440 Speaker 1: Triangle Waste Company. Lena did not know it then, but 58 00:04:19,600 --> 00:04:25,040 Speaker 1: she had gotten extraordinarily lucky. She had just survived one 59 00:04:25,080 --> 00:04:30,520 Speaker 1: of the worst workplace disasters in United States history. After 60 00:04:30,600 --> 00:04:35,080 Speaker 1: the smoke cleared and the bodies were tallied, the horrified 61 00:04:35,120 --> 00:04:38,440 Speaker 1: public would learn that a hundred and forty six people 62 00:04:38,800 --> 00:04:42,560 Speaker 1: had died in the fire in a space of barely 63 00:04:42,720 --> 00:04:48,480 Speaker 1: fifteen minutes. They had died on the fire escape when 64 00:04:48,520 --> 00:04:52,560 Speaker 1: the rickety structure, burdened with too many bodies, had sheared 65 00:04:52,600 --> 00:04:55,479 Speaker 1: off the side of the building and sent workers plunging 66 00:04:55,520 --> 00:04:59,320 Speaker 1: to their deaths. They had died on the factory floor, 67 00:05:00,040 --> 00:05:05,600 Speaker 1: smothered by smoke, their bodies burned beyond recognition. They had 68 00:05:05,680 --> 00:05:09,880 Speaker 1: died jumping on top of the elevator cars, desperate to 69 00:05:09,920 --> 00:05:14,960 Speaker 1: make it out, And most horrifyingly, they had died by 70 00:05:15,040 --> 00:05:19,279 Speaker 1: leaping from the building. Making the jump Lena had fortunately 71 00:05:19,400 --> 00:05:24,440 Speaker 1: been too frightened to make. Dozens of men and women 72 00:05:24,680 --> 00:05:28,440 Speaker 1: on the ninth floor had been hemmed in on all 73 00:05:28,560 --> 00:05:33,760 Speaker 1: sides by the fire, pushed closer and closer towards the windows, 74 00:05:34,440 --> 00:05:38,400 Speaker 1: until their only choice had been to burn or to 75 00:05:38,520 --> 00:05:43,080 Speaker 1: jump on the street in the midst of a beautiful 76 00:05:43,360 --> 00:05:48,000 Speaker 1: sunny spring day. Just as Lena reached the roof, the 77 00:05:48,080 --> 00:05:52,640 Speaker 1: bodies began to hit the sidewalk. Onlookers would never forget 78 00:05:52,640 --> 00:06:02,120 Speaker 1: the sight or the sound. Fires had happened before. People 79 00:06:02,200 --> 00:06:06,680 Speaker 1: had died in workplace accidents before. In fact, it happened 80 00:06:06,720 --> 00:06:10,400 Speaker 1: all the time, but this fire, which came to be 81 00:06:10,480 --> 00:06:15,160 Speaker 1: known as the Triangle Shirtwais Factory fire, was different, and 82 00:06:15,240 --> 00:06:20,640 Speaker 1: these deaths were different too. They were very, very public. 83 00:06:22,120 --> 00:06:26,200 Speaker 1: Hundreds of New Yorkers had seen these people, mostly poor 84 00:06:26,320 --> 00:06:31,080 Speaker 1: young women from Eastern Europe and Italy, die. They had 85 00:06:31,120 --> 00:06:34,760 Speaker 1: seen the firemen uselessly try to extend their two short 86 00:06:34,839 --> 00:06:38,320 Speaker 1: ladders to the people huddled on the ninth floor window sills. 87 00:06:39,160 --> 00:06:42,400 Speaker 1: They had seen how the fire escape, even before it 88 00:06:42,440 --> 00:06:46,680 Speaker 1: had broken, had been deficient the way its bottom rung 89 00:06:46,920 --> 00:06:51,159 Speaker 1: hung above a basements skylight, making reaching the ground difficult, 90 00:06:51,240 --> 00:06:55,760 Speaker 1: if not impossible. And they had heard the rumors which 91 00:06:55,800 --> 00:06:58,880 Speaker 1: began to spread in the days after the fire, that 92 00:06:59,080 --> 00:07:04,479 Speaker 1: some factory had been locked from the outside, that the 93 00:07:04,560 --> 00:07:07,880 Speaker 1: workers had died piled up by the Washington Polace door, 94 00:07:08,720 --> 00:07:13,640 Speaker 1: unable to escape. One of the people who witnessed the 95 00:07:13,680 --> 00:07:17,720 Speaker 1: immediate aftermath of the fire was New York District Attorney 96 00:07:17,840 --> 00:07:22,840 Speaker 1: Charles Whitman, an ambitious reformer. Whitman had long wanted a 97 00:07:22,920 --> 00:07:26,960 Speaker 1: high profile case to make his name on. As he 98 00:07:27,080 --> 00:07:30,840 Speaker 1: stood in front of the still smoldering building, he thought 99 00:07:31,200 --> 00:07:35,240 Speaker 1: he might have found it. With this case, he could 100 00:07:35,280 --> 00:07:38,720 Speaker 1: both raise his own profile and also get justice for 101 00:07:38,760 --> 00:07:43,480 Speaker 1: the victims. He could prove his progressive bonafides, stand up 102 00:07:43,520 --> 00:07:48,320 Speaker 1: for the working class, and punish greedy businessmen. He could 103 00:07:48,400 --> 00:07:52,760 Speaker 1: use the system so often rigged against the powerless to 104 00:07:52,880 --> 00:07:57,000 Speaker 1: make the powerful pay. But the system is not so 105 00:07:57,040 --> 00:08:01,080 Speaker 1: easily changed, as Whitman would discover when he charged the 106 00:08:01,160 --> 00:08:07,320 Speaker 1: Triangle's owners, Max Blink and Isaac Harris with manslaughter. At 107 00:08:07,360 --> 00:08:11,760 Speaker 1: their trial, a shrewd defense attorney and legal norms skewed 108 00:08:11,800 --> 00:08:16,840 Speaker 1: towards business interests would guarantee that the prosecution was in 109 00:08:17,080 --> 00:08:22,760 Speaker 1: for the fight of its life. Welcome to history on Trial. 110 00:08:23,600 --> 00:08:28,720 Speaker 1: I'm your host, Mira Hayward. This Week New York v 111 00:08:29,280 --> 00:08:39,160 Speaker 1: Isaac Harris and Max Blink. Max Blink and Isaac Harris 112 00:08:39,240 --> 00:08:43,960 Speaker 1: had both arrived in America in the eighteen eighties. Like 113 00:08:44,080 --> 00:08:47,720 Speaker 1: hundreds of thousands of other Eastern European Jews in the 114 00:08:47,760 --> 00:08:51,880 Speaker 1: last decades of the nineteenth century, Blank and Harris fled 115 00:08:51,920 --> 00:08:55,520 Speaker 1: the anti Semitic persecution of the Old World for a 116 00:08:55,640 --> 00:09:00,160 Speaker 1: chance at something new and exciting. Nearly half of all 117 00:09:00,200 --> 00:09:04,320 Speaker 1: Jewish immigrants during this period entered the garment business. And 118 00:09:04,400 --> 00:09:08,800 Speaker 1: Blank and Harris followed the crowd in the eighteen eighties. 119 00:09:08,880 --> 00:09:12,520 Speaker 1: When Blank and Harris got their start, the business was 120 00:09:12,600 --> 00:09:17,959 Speaker 1: a dismal one. Most people worked out of tenement sweatshops, 121 00:09:18,679 --> 00:09:23,640 Speaker 1: tiny dank rooms packed with employees, all struggling to stitch 122 00:09:23,880 --> 00:09:27,800 Speaker 1: or iron or cut in the poor light. The average 123 00:09:27,840 --> 00:09:33,920 Speaker 1: workweek was eighty four hours and pay was nearly nonexistent. 124 00:09:34,960 --> 00:09:40,520 Speaker 1: Disease spread rapidly through the crowded spaces. These conditions killed 125 00:09:40,640 --> 00:09:44,360 Speaker 1: many people. They also made a few people very rich, 126 00:09:45,040 --> 00:09:49,880 Speaker 1: including Max Blank and Isaac Harris. Harris had gotten his 127 00:09:50,000 --> 00:09:53,920 Speaker 1: start in a sweatshop. His needle skills and eye for 128 00:09:54,000 --> 00:09:58,040 Speaker 1: design allowed him to rise through the ranks. Blank came 129 00:09:58,080 --> 00:10:02,360 Speaker 1: to the business through the contracting stude, buying and selling cloth. 130 00:10:03,160 --> 00:10:06,439 Speaker 1: The two men's paths crossed in the late eighteen nineties, 131 00:10:07,000 --> 00:10:11,160 Speaker 1: likely through a family connection. Their wives were cousins, and 132 00:10:11,240 --> 00:10:15,200 Speaker 1: decided to team up. In nineteen hundred, they founded the 133 00:10:15,240 --> 00:10:20,000 Speaker 1: Triangle Wasist Company. Their backgrounds were complimentary and their business 134 00:10:20,080 --> 00:10:25,760 Speaker 1: steadily grew. By nineteen eleven, the two men owned multiple factories, 135 00:10:26,400 --> 00:10:30,679 Speaker 1: all employed in making blouses or as they were known then, 136 00:10:31,080 --> 00:10:36,440 Speaker 1: shirt waists or just waists. Blank and Harris were the 137 00:10:36,520 --> 00:10:43,640 Speaker 1: shirtwaist kings. The Triangle Factory alone shipped two thousand blouses 138 00:10:43,960 --> 00:10:49,320 Speaker 1: a day. The profits funded a lavish lifestyle, a far 139 00:10:49,440 --> 00:10:53,000 Speaker 1: cry from the men's early days in New York. They 140 00:10:53,040 --> 00:10:56,040 Speaker 1: lived with their families in neighboring townhouses on the Upper 141 00:10:56,120 --> 00:11:00,680 Speaker 1: West Side and went to work in Chaufford cars. Max 142 00:11:00,720 --> 00:11:06,120 Speaker 1: Blank had five live in servants. Isaac Harris only had 143 00:11:06,240 --> 00:11:11,520 Speaker 1: four the Peasant. As their wallets expanded, so too did 144 00:11:11,559 --> 00:11:16,800 Speaker 1: their flagship factory's footprint. In nineteen o two, the Triangle 145 00:11:16,840 --> 00:11:20,160 Speaker 1: Waste Company had moved into the Ash Building on the 146 00:11:20,200 --> 00:11:23,800 Speaker 1: corner of Washington Place and Green Street in Lower Manhattan. 147 00:11:24,520 --> 00:11:28,240 Speaker 1: The company had initially leased the nine thousand square foot 148 00:11:28,400 --> 00:11:32,360 Speaker 1: ninth floor. By nineteen oh nine they had taken over 149 00:11:32,440 --> 00:11:37,400 Speaker 1: the eighth and tenth floors two At first glance, the 150 00:11:37,440 --> 00:11:41,200 Speaker 1: factory facilities at the Ash Building seemed a far cry 151 00:11:41,280 --> 00:11:45,840 Speaker 1: from the horrifying sweatshop conditions of earlier decades. The ceilings 152 00:11:45,880 --> 00:11:49,320 Speaker 1: were twelve feet high, the sewing machines were powered by 153 00:11:49,320 --> 00:11:54,840 Speaker 1: a centralized electric motor, not by foot pedals. There were windows. 154 00:11:54,920 --> 00:11:59,040 Speaker 1: In many ways, it was true these new loft factories 155 00:11:59,160 --> 00:12:02,640 Speaker 1: were much better than the sweatshops, but they were still 156 00:12:02,840 --> 00:12:07,400 Speaker 1: extremely difficult places to work. They were crowded and hot 157 00:12:07,640 --> 00:12:13,800 Speaker 1: and noisy. The hours were very long, workers had few rights, 158 00:12:14,200 --> 00:12:18,920 Speaker 1: and owners regularly exploited their employees, denying them breaks and 159 00:12:19,000 --> 00:12:22,720 Speaker 1: short changing them in their pay. By the end of 160 00:12:22,760 --> 00:12:26,360 Speaker 1: the first decade of the nineteen hundreds, garment workers had 161 00:12:26,400 --> 00:12:30,959 Speaker 1: become fed up with their working conditions. An organized labor 162 00:12:31,000 --> 00:12:35,199 Speaker 1: movement began to take shape. Blank and Harris did their 163 00:12:35,240 --> 00:12:39,240 Speaker 1: best to shut down unionization efforts in their factories. They 164 00:12:39,280 --> 00:12:43,240 Speaker 1: made an in house union, staffed with their own relatives, 165 00:12:43,280 --> 00:12:45,760 Speaker 1: and tried to convince workers to join it instead of 166 00:12:45,800 --> 00:12:50,120 Speaker 1: an outside union. They fired anyone said to be associated 167 00:12:50,160 --> 00:12:53,880 Speaker 1: with the labor movement, but Blank and Harris could not 168 00:12:54,120 --> 00:12:59,640 Speaker 1: reverse the growing tide of discontent. In early October nineteen 169 00:12:59,640 --> 00:13:06,320 Speaker 1: oh nins nine Triangle workers decided to strike. Blank and 170 00:13:06,440 --> 00:13:10,200 Speaker 1: Harris fought back, calling in favors with the police department, 171 00:13:10,600 --> 00:13:14,640 Speaker 1: who promptly arrived and began beating up and arresting strikers. 172 00:13:15,520 --> 00:13:19,880 Speaker 1: The two owners hired strike breakers too, men who were 173 00:13:19,920 --> 00:13:24,720 Speaker 1: willing to violently attack the striking women. Strike leaders began 174 00:13:24,840 --> 00:13:29,000 Speaker 1: to mysteriously get beaten up while walking home at night. 175 00:13:30,160 --> 00:13:34,400 Speaker 1: But the violence did not scare the strikers off. If anything, 176 00:13:34,640 --> 00:13:38,400 Speaker 1: it only attracted more workers to their cause. Over the 177 00:13:38,440 --> 00:13:41,680 Speaker 1: next two months, the call for a general strike of 178 00:13:41,760 --> 00:13:49,920 Speaker 1: shirtwaist makers grew stronger and stronger. On November twenty second, 179 00:13:50,360 --> 00:13:54,280 Speaker 1: nineteen oh nine, thousands of workers attended a meeting of 180 00:13:54,320 --> 00:13:58,720 Speaker 1: the local twenty five chapter of the International Ladies Garment Workers' 181 00:13:58,800 --> 00:14:04,120 Speaker 1: Union and in enthusiastically agreed to a general strike. Picketing 182 00:14:04,200 --> 00:14:08,600 Speaker 1: began on November twenty fourth. By the next day, more 183 00:14:08,679 --> 00:14:13,360 Speaker 1: than twenty thousand workers filled the streets of the Lower 184 00:14:13,400 --> 00:14:18,640 Speaker 1: east Side, marching and chanting for change. It was a 185 00:14:18,720 --> 00:14:25,160 Speaker 1: strike of nearly unbelievable size. Around five hundred garment producers 186 00:14:25,200 --> 00:14:29,120 Speaker 1: were affected by the strike. Roughly one out of every 187 00:14:29,200 --> 00:14:33,640 Speaker 1: seven of these shops surrendered in the first forty eight hours, 188 00:14:33,680 --> 00:14:36,880 Speaker 1: agreeing to the striker's conditions of a pay raise, a 189 00:14:36,920 --> 00:14:42,000 Speaker 1: fifty two hour work week, and union only shops. But 190 00:14:42,080 --> 00:14:46,600 Speaker 1: these early surrenders were mainly the smaller factories, the ones 191 00:14:46,640 --> 00:14:49,600 Speaker 1: who could not afford to stop business for long or 192 00:14:49,680 --> 00:14:53,760 Speaker 1: pay for new workers willing to cross picket lines. The 193 00:14:53,920 --> 00:14:58,720 Speaker 1: largest factories refused to give in no one dug their 194 00:14:58,800 --> 00:15:04,040 Speaker 1: heels in more than Isaac Harris and Max Blank. The 195 00:15:04,080 --> 00:15:07,200 Speaker 1: two men proposed to their fellow factory owners that they 196 00:15:07,280 --> 00:15:11,280 Speaker 1: form a manufacturer's association to help one another out during 197 00:15:11,280 --> 00:15:14,800 Speaker 1: the strike. Nearly one hundred factories signed up for the 198 00:15:14,840 --> 00:15:20,600 Speaker 1: association and signed a no surrender declaration. With the battle 199 00:15:20,600 --> 00:15:25,080 Speaker 1: lines drawn, both sides settled in for a long, hard fight. 200 00:15:26,760 --> 00:15:31,520 Speaker 1: For months, neither side budged, but by February nineteen ten, 201 00:15:32,120 --> 00:15:35,360 Speaker 1: things were reaching a breaking point for union leaders and 202 00:15:35,480 --> 00:15:40,880 Speaker 1: owners alike. On February eighth, the Triangle Waste Company, one 203 00:15:40,920 --> 00:15:44,480 Speaker 1: of the last holdouts, agreed to settle with the union. 204 00:15:45,320 --> 00:15:49,000 Speaker 1: Blank and Harris agreed to higher wages and shorter hours 205 00:15:49,040 --> 00:15:52,400 Speaker 1: for their returning workers, but they did not agree to 206 00:15:52,480 --> 00:15:58,320 Speaker 1: the striker's demand for a closed shop a union only factory. 207 00:15:58,760 --> 00:16:02,000 Speaker 1: Though the workers had not gone everything they wanted, the 208 00:16:02,080 --> 00:16:05,600 Speaker 1: strike was a milestone for the growing American labor movement. 209 00:16:06,560 --> 00:16:11,640 Speaker 1: Twenty thousand young people had taken on their wealthy, powerful 210 00:16:11,720 --> 00:16:17,160 Speaker 1: employers and one better conditions for themselves. Their actions would 211 00:16:17,160 --> 00:16:21,640 Speaker 1: inspire workers all across the country to fight for their rights. 212 00:16:22,760 --> 00:16:27,360 Speaker 1: The strike had another legacy. It forever tainted the Triangle 213 00:16:27,400 --> 00:16:32,600 Speaker 1: Waste Company and its owners. Nobody had fought harder or 214 00:16:32,640 --> 00:16:37,240 Speaker 1: more violently against the strike than Max Blink and Isaac Harris. 215 00:16:38,120 --> 00:16:43,240 Speaker 1: One labor newspaper writing after the strike had only contempt 216 00:16:43,520 --> 00:16:48,000 Speaker 1: for the men and their company. The Triangle Company wrote 217 00:16:48,000 --> 00:16:52,040 Speaker 1: the foreword with blood, this name will be written in 218 00:16:52,120 --> 00:16:56,960 Speaker 1: the history of the American worker's movement. But it would 219 00:16:57,040 --> 00:17:00,760 Speaker 1: not be in blood that the Triangle's name woulden history. 220 00:17:01,840 --> 00:17:10,359 Speaker 1: The Triangle's name would enter history in fire. On March 221 00:17:10,400 --> 00:17:15,640 Speaker 1: twenty fifth, nineteen eleven, thirteen months after the garment workers 222 00:17:15,640 --> 00:17:20,040 Speaker 1: strike ended, someone dropped a match or a cigarette butt 223 00:17:20,680 --> 00:17:25,280 Speaker 1: into a scrap bin at the Triangle Waste Company. Isidore 224 00:17:25,320 --> 00:17:31,960 Speaker 1: Abramovitz noticed the fire first. Abramovitz was a cutter. Cutters 225 00:17:32,040 --> 00:17:35,879 Speaker 1: trimmed fabric into the shape of the garment patterns. A 226 00:17:35,880 --> 00:17:40,080 Speaker 1: good cutter organized the tissue paper pattern pieces carefully across 227 00:17:40,119 --> 00:17:45,040 Speaker 1: the yards of fabric stretched across their table, minimizing waste. 228 00:17:45,200 --> 00:17:50,560 Speaker 1: But even the most efficient cutter created scraps. These scraps 229 00:17:50,600 --> 00:17:54,880 Speaker 1: were swept into bins under the tables and periodically emptied 230 00:17:54,920 --> 00:17:59,200 Speaker 1: by rag traders. The Triangle's bins had last been emptied 231 00:17:59,240 --> 00:18:04,160 Speaker 1: in January. By late March, there were hundreds of pounds 232 00:18:04,200 --> 00:18:09,920 Speaker 1: of scrap piled under Isidor Abramovitz's cutting table. Scrap fires 233 00:18:09,960 --> 00:18:13,840 Speaker 1: weren't unknown. There were no smoking signs on every floor 234 00:18:13,880 --> 00:18:18,199 Speaker 1: of the factory, but everyone ignored them, and all it 235 00:18:18,280 --> 00:18:21,159 Speaker 1: took was a single spark to light up the highly 236 00:18:21,280 --> 00:18:26,159 Speaker 1: flammable fabric and tissue paper waste. The factory kept fire 237 00:18:26,280 --> 00:18:30,639 Speaker 1: pails on ledges around the cutting floor for just such incidents. 238 00:18:32,040 --> 00:18:35,480 Speaker 1: Now Abramovitz grabbed a pail and splashed it on the 239 00:18:35,480 --> 00:18:40,800 Speaker 1: flames to no avail. Other cutters saw him and join 240 00:18:40,840 --> 00:18:44,879 Speaker 1: in the effort, but the fire wasn't slowing. A gust 241 00:18:44,960 --> 00:18:47,919 Speaker 1: of wind blew into the room from the elevator shaft 242 00:18:48,280 --> 00:18:51,760 Speaker 1: and the workers saw the flames jump. Someone tried the 243 00:18:51,800 --> 00:18:54,480 Speaker 1: fire hose, which was connected to a water tank on 244 00:18:54,520 --> 00:18:59,879 Speaker 1: the roof, but no water came out. People began to panic. 245 00:19:01,160 --> 00:19:06,199 Speaker 1: What happened next happened fast. The factory was a tinder 246 00:19:06,240 --> 00:19:10,840 Speaker 1: box filled with flammable fabric and pattern paper, and an 247 00:19:10,920 --> 00:19:13,880 Speaker 1: air shaft in the back corner of the building made 248 00:19:13,880 --> 00:19:17,280 Speaker 1: the perfect vehicle for the fire to travel to higher floors. 249 00:19:18,200 --> 00:19:21,159 Speaker 1: The speed of the fire is a crucial part of 250 00:19:21,200 --> 00:19:26,040 Speaker 1: the story. As David Vandreali says in his book Triangle, 251 00:19:26,280 --> 00:19:30,639 Speaker 1: the Fire that Changed America, All the crucial things that 252 00:19:30,800 --> 00:19:37,000 Speaker 1: happened inside the factory that awful afternoon, the heroics, the terror, 253 00:19:37,720 --> 00:19:42,760 Speaker 1: the tragedy, the strokes of fortune, both saving and deadly, 254 00:19:43,560 --> 00:19:47,480 Speaker 1: transpired in a handful of minutes and in the presence 255 00:19:48,080 --> 00:19:54,600 Speaker 1: of a hideously voracious fire. Isidore Abramowitz first spotted the 256 00:19:54,640 --> 00:19:59,760 Speaker 1: fire around four forty pm. By four forty five, the 257 00:19:59,800 --> 00:20:03,360 Speaker 1: fire fire had nearly consumed the eighth floor and had 258 00:20:03,400 --> 00:20:07,399 Speaker 1: traveled to the ninth. There was no good way for 259 00:20:07,560 --> 00:20:10,760 Speaker 1: workers on the different floors to communicate with each other. 260 00:20:11,760 --> 00:20:14,679 Speaker 1: A telephone connected the eighth and ninth floors to the 261 00:20:14,760 --> 00:20:18,639 Speaker 1: tenth floor, but the two lower floors could not communicate 262 00:20:18,680 --> 00:20:23,040 Speaker 1: directly with each other. A bookkeeper on the eighth floor 263 00:20:23,400 --> 00:20:26,040 Speaker 1: called up to the tenth floor shortly after the fire 264 00:20:26,119 --> 00:20:30,080 Speaker 1: began to spread. The phone operator on the tenth floor 265 00:20:30,200 --> 00:20:33,920 Speaker 1: alerted the workers there, giving them a few crucial extra 266 00:20:34,000 --> 00:20:37,920 Speaker 1: minutes to escape, but she panicked and did not call 267 00:20:38,000 --> 00:20:41,480 Speaker 1: down to the ninth floor. It was only at four 268 00:20:41,640 --> 00:20:45,800 Speaker 1: forty six pm, just as the fire was already reaching 269 00:20:45,840 --> 00:20:49,200 Speaker 1: the ninth floor that someone on the eighth floor pulled 270 00:20:49,200 --> 00:20:53,639 Speaker 1: the internal fire alarm, setting bells ringing on all three 271 00:20:53,680 --> 00:20:59,480 Speaker 1: floors outside. A passerby saw the flames and ran for 272 00:20:59,520 --> 00:21:04,920 Speaker 1: the nearest public fire alarm. Each factory floor had four exits. 273 00:21:05,840 --> 00:21:07,919 Speaker 1: There was a door leading to the stairs on the 274 00:21:08,080 --> 00:21:11,879 Speaker 1: Washington Place side, there was a fire escape in the 275 00:21:11,920 --> 00:21:15,880 Speaker 1: air shaft in the rear corner. On the Green Street side, 276 00:21:16,160 --> 00:21:19,120 Speaker 1: there was a bank of elevators, and next to these 277 00:21:19,160 --> 00:21:25,359 Speaker 1: elevators another door leading stairs. Many of those who survived 278 00:21:25,400 --> 00:21:29,040 Speaker 1: the fire survived because of the heroic actions of two 279 00:21:29,160 --> 00:21:36,240 Speaker 1: elevator operators, Joseph Zito and Gaspar Mortilalo. Despite the overwhelming 280 00:21:36,320 --> 00:21:40,840 Speaker 1: heat and the flames licking at the elevator doors, Zito 281 00:21:40,920 --> 00:21:45,280 Speaker 1: and Mortillalo kept making return trips, rescuing close to one 282 00:21:45,400 --> 00:21:49,200 Speaker 1: hundred and fifty people between them, nearly half of all 283 00:21:49,240 --> 00:21:53,359 Speaker 1: the survivors. Some of those survivors had only made it 284 00:21:53,400 --> 00:21:57,000 Speaker 1: onto the elevator cars by flinging themselves into the shaft 285 00:21:57,560 --> 00:22:00,000 Speaker 1: and landing on top of the cars as they traveled down. 286 00:22:01,560 --> 00:22:05,040 Speaker 1: Many of those who died died because they took the 287 00:22:05,119 --> 00:22:12,040 Speaker 1: fire escape. It is a cruel, terrible irony. The fire 288 00:22:12,280 --> 00:22:17,080 Speaker 1: escape on the Ash Building was a death trap. City 289 00:22:17,200 --> 00:22:21,080 Speaker 1: inspectors had allowed the developer to substitute a fire escape 290 00:22:21,160 --> 00:22:26,320 Speaker 1: for the normally required third staircase. When the architects submitted 291 00:22:26,359 --> 00:22:30,159 Speaker 1: the building's planned to the city, an inspector noticed that 292 00:22:30,200 --> 00:22:33,440 Speaker 1: the fire escape ended over a skylight in the basement. 293 00:22:34,200 --> 00:22:37,160 Speaker 1: There was no way for those evacuating to safely reach 294 00:22:37,240 --> 00:22:42,439 Speaker 1: the ground. The architect promised to change the plans. He didn't. 295 00:22:43,760 --> 00:22:46,600 Speaker 1: On top of that, the fire escape was rickety and 296 00:22:46,720 --> 00:22:51,720 Speaker 1: extremely narrow. As more and more people crowded onto the escape, 297 00:22:52,080 --> 00:22:56,200 Speaker 1: the iron frame began to groan, and suddenly it collapsed, 298 00:22:56,760 --> 00:23:02,080 Speaker 1: sending terrified people plummeting to their deaths. On the eighth 299 00:23:02,119 --> 00:23:06,640 Speaker 1: and tenth floor, employees escaped via both sets of stairs. 300 00:23:07,520 --> 00:23:11,639 Speaker 1: The Green Street doors were open. Employees were required to 301 00:23:11,720 --> 00:23:15,360 Speaker 1: exit via these doors so that a security guard posted 302 00:23:15,400 --> 00:23:20,320 Speaker 1: there could inspect their bags for stolen items. The Washington 303 00:23:20,359 --> 00:23:23,960 Speaker 1: Place doors were locked at closing time to keep workers 304 00:23:23,960 --> 00:23:27,600 Speaker 1: from leaving that way. On the eighth floor, a man 305 00:23:27,680 --> 00:23:32,000 Speaker 1: named Lewis Brown unlocked the Washington Place doors, allowing the 306 00:23:32,040 --> 00:23:36,200 Speaker 1: workers to escape. By four forty seven. The eighth floor 307 00:23:36,240 --> 00:23:40,679 Speaker 1: had completely evacuated. Workers on the tenth floor were also 308 00:23:40,760 --> 00:23:43,960 Speaker 1: able to take both sets of stairs. By the time 309 00:23:44,000 --> 00:23:48,200 Speaker 1: they evacuated, the fire blocked their escape downwards, so they 310 00:23:48,240 --> 00:23:51,800 Speaker 1: headed for the roof, where people in the adjoining buildings 311 00:23:51,960 --> 00:23:55,480 Speaker 1: held ladders out for them to climb to safety. Things 312 00:23:55,520 --> 00:23:58,959 Speaker 1: were different on the ninth floor. This is the floor 313 00:23:59,000 --> 00:24:02,600 Speaker 1: where Lena Yall, the young woman whose story we followed 314 00:24:02,600 --> 00:24:07,280 Speaker 1: in the prolog worked. The ninth floor was the last 315 00:24:07,320 --> 00:24:10,240 Speaker 1: to hear about the fire, only learning of it nearly 316 00:24:10,359 --> 00:24:14,359 Speaker 1: six minutes after the blaze started. By this time, the 317 00:24:14,400 --> 00:24:18,240 Speaker 1: fire had already reached them. Traveling via the air shaft, 318 00:24:19,080 --> 00:24:23,400 Speaker 1: the floor quickly filled with smoke and flame. The four 319 00:24:23,440 --> 00:24:27,840 Speaker 1: exit options dwindled. By four fifty one, the fire escape 320 00:24:27,880 --> 00:24:31,880 Speaker 1: had collapsed, and by four fifty three the elevators could 321 00:24:31,880 --> 00:24:36,360 Speaker 1: no longer travel through the superheated shaft. Some people were 322 00:24:36,440 --> 00:24:40,040 Speaker 1: lucky enough and fast enough to reach the Green Street door, 323 00:24:40,480 --> 00:24:43,600 Speaker 1: as Lena did, and make their way up to the roof. 324 00:24:49,080 --> 00:24:52,959 Speaker 1: The remaining eighty or ninety workers were trapped on the 325 00:24:53,080 --> 00:24:56,000 Speaker 1: edges of the room. They could not get the locked 326 00:24:56,160 --> 00:24:59,879 Speaker 1: Washington Place door open, and they could not travel through 327 00:24:59,920 --> 00:25:03,719 Speaker 1: the growing flames to reach the Green Street door. The 328 00:25:03,760 --> 00:25:07,560 Speaker 1: fire pushed them away until they were standing on the windowsills, 329 00:25:08,160 --> 00:25:13,880 Speaker 1: praying for a way out outside. The fire department had arrived. 330 00:25:14,840 --> 00:25:18,439 Speaker 1: They began to raise ladders, but their ladders only reached 331 00:25:18,440 --> 00:25:23,719 Speaker 1: the sixth story, some thirty feet too short. Instead, the 332 00:25:23,760 --> 00:25:28,240 Speaker 1: firefighters began to spread out nets because they had realized 333 00:25:28,320 --> 00:25:32,000 Speaker 1: what many of the workers huddled above had. The only 334 00:25:32,040 --> 00:25:38,560 Speaker 1: way out was down. As David Vondrelei points out, many 335 00:25:38,600 --> 00:25:41,120 Speaker 1: of the people working at the factory that day had 336 00:25:41,160 --> 00:25:46,359 Speaker 1: survived pegroms in Russia organized massacres of Jews, where fire 337 00:25:46,600 --> 00:25:50,480 Speaker 1: was often used as a weapon. They knew what fire 338 00:25:50,600 --> 00:25:54,760 Speaker 1: could do. They wanted their relatives to be able to 339 00:25:54,800 --> 00:26:00,800 Speaker 1: recognize their bodies. At four fifty, the first person jumped. 340 00:26:02,119 --> 00:26:06,399 Speaker 1: The nets were futile. A body falling nine stories is 341 00:26:06,440 --> 00:26:09,560 Speaker 1: moving so fast that a net can barely slow it down, 342 00:26:10,560 --> 00:26:13,800 Speaker 1: and so many people began to jump so quickly that 343 00:26:13,880 --> 00:26:17,240 Speaker 1: there was no chance of catching them all. Even if 344 00:26:17,320 --> 00:26:22,119 Speaker 1: catching would help, There was nothing anyone on the street 345 00:26:22,200 --> 00:26:26,520 Speaker 1: could do but watch, horrified as people began to fall. 346 00:26:27,680 --> 00:26:31,760 Speaker 1: Those who went first jumped. Those who came later did 347 00:26:31,800 --> 00:26:35,520 Speaker 1: not have the luxury of choice as the windowsills burned 348 00:26:35,560 --> 00:26:38,440 Speaker 1: out from beneath them and sent them tumbling to their 349 00:26:38,480 --> 00:26:44,480 Speaker 1: deaths inside the ash building stairwells. Fire crews were battling 350 00:26:44,520 --> 00:26:49,520 Speaker 1: the inferno by five point fifteen PM, only thirty five 351 00:26:49,560 --> 00:26:53,200 Speaker 1: minutes after Isidore Abramovitz had first noticed a fire in 352 00:26:53,280 --> 00:26:57,520 Speaker 1: his scrapin. They had the fire under control, but by 353 00:26:57,600 --> 00:27:01,800 Speaker 1: then nearly one hundred and fifty people, more than twenty 354 00:27:01,840 --> 00:27:04,600 Speaker 1: percent of the people in the Triangle factory that day, 355 00:27:05,119 --> 00:27:09,560 Speaker 1: were dead. Most of those who died in the Triangle 356 00:27:09,640 --> 00:27:14,679 Speaker 1: fire were young women, immigrants from either Eastern Europe or Italy. 357 00:27:15,880 --> 00:27:20,320 Speaker 1: Many of them had worked alongside their sisters or mothers, 358 00:27:20,359 --> 00:27:24,560 Speaker 1: and many families lost more than one person that day. 359 00:27:25,720 --> 00:27:30,080 Speaker 1: The sarah Chinos lost Tess and Sarah Fina. The Goldsteins 360 00:27:30,200 --> 00:27:34,600 Speaker 1: lost Mary and Lena. The Brenmans lost Rosie and Circa, 361 00:27:35,080 --> 00:27:41,560 Speaker 1: while their brother Joseph survived. One family. The Malteses lost 362 00:27:41,600 --> 00:27:46,960 Speaker 1: two girls, Lucy aged twenty and Sarah, the youngest victim 363 00:27:47,000 --> 00:27:51,240 Speaker 1: of the fire, only fourteen years old, and they lost 364 00:27:51,320 --> 00:27:57,000 Speaker 1: Lucy and Sarah's mother, Catherine, two three family members gone 365 00:27:57,240 --> 00:28:01,879 Speaker 1: in the blink of an eye. Identified bodies were laid 366 00:28:01,960 --> 00:28:04,679 Speaker 1: out in a large building on a pier in the 367 00:28:04,720 --> 00:28:08,919 Speaker 1: East River, and friends and family members lined up to 368 00:28:09,000 --> 00:28:12,679 Speaker 1: try to find their missing loved ones. The task was 369 00:28:12,760 --> 00:28:16,879 Speaker 1: heart wrenching and gruesome. Many of the bodies were so 370 00:28:17,280 --> 00:28:20,960 Speaker 1: badly damaged by the fall or by the fire that 371 00:28:21,040 --> 00:28:25,320 Speaker 1: they had to be identified by jewelry, or hairstyles, or 372 00:28:25,359 --> 00:28:29,040 Speaker 1: even the darns in their stockings. By the end of 373 00:28:29,080 --> 00:28:34,920 Speaker 1: the week, all but seven corpses were identified. On April fifth, 374 00:28:35,359 --> 00:28:39,760 Speaker 1: a funeral procession for the Triangle victims traveled through Lower Manhattan. 375 00:28:40,960 --> 00:28:45,160 Speaker 1: Some one hundred and twenty thousand people marched and another 376 00:28:45,240 --> 00:28:49,280 Speaker 1: three hundred thousand lined the streets. It was a clear 377 00:28:49,400 --> 00:28:53,360 Speaker 1: sign of the fire's impact on New York. The city 378 00:28:53,800 --> 00:28:58,520 Speaker 1: was reeling. Writing about the procession for the Women's Trade 379 00:28:58,680 --> 00:29:03,200 Speaker 1: Union League, Martha Bensley Breweer asked the question on the 380 00:29:03,240 --> 00:29:07,840 Speaker 1: lips of many New Yorkers. The fire is over. The 381 00:29:07,920 --> 00:29:12,080 Speaker 1: girls are dead, she wrote, Now what is going to 382 00:29:12,120 --> 00:29:17,040 Speaker 1: be done about it? Political leaders shied away from answering 383 00:29:17,040 --> 00:29:21,880 Speaker 1: the question. New York Mayor William Gaynor directed reporters to 384 00:29:21,920 --> 00:29:25,920 Speaker 1: the fire chief. The State Labor Commissioner directed reporters to 385 00:29:25,960 --> 00:29:30,000 Speaker 1: the City Building Department. The building department head was on 386 00:29:30,080 --> 00:29:34,040 Speaker 1: vacation and refused to return, but he did direct reporters 387 00:29:34,120 --> 00:29:39,280 Speaker 1: to the fire department. Conflicting information about the fire and 388 00:29:39,360 --> 00:29:43,720 Speaker 1: the cause of the deaths filled newspapers and official statements. 389 00:29:44,400 --> 00:29:48,200 Speaker 1: No one knew quite what to believe or who to blame, 390 00:29:49,040 --> 00:29:57,680 Speaker 1: but everyone wanted to blame someone. New York District Attorney 391 00:29:57,840 --> 00:30:01,600 Speaker 1: Charles Whitman was also struggling the question of what to do. 392 00:30:02,760 --> 00:30:05,840 Speaker 1: Whitman had arrived at the scene of the fire shortly 393 00:30:05,920 --> 00:30:09,520 Speaker 1: after five pm on the twenty fifth, after the last 394 00:30:09,520 --> 00:30:12,520 Speaker 1: person had jumped, but before the bodies had been taken 395 00:30:12,560 --> 00:30:16,640 Speaker 1: away or the fire had been extinguished. The images of 396 00:30:16,680 --> 00:30:22,120 Speaker 1: that terrible day stuck with him. As Whitman considered how 397 00:30:22,160 --> 00:30:25,800 Speaker 1: to get justice for the fire victims, he faced a choice. 398 00:30:26,480 --> 00:30:30,600 Speaker 1: Would his office pursue the city's Building Department and accuse 399 00:30:30,680 --> 00:30:34,239 Speaker 1: them of Lack's oversight, or would he go after the 400 00:30:34,280 --> 00:30:39,360 Speaker 1: factory's owners, Isaac Harris and Max Blank. He felt he 401 00:30:39,400 --> 00:30:42,840 Speaker 1: could not pursue a case against one without weakening his 402 00:30:43,000 --> 00:30:46,680 Speaker 1: case against the other. For almost a week after the fire, 403 00:30:47,000 --> 00:30:52,040 Speaker 1: he equivocated, encouraging his office to investigate both lines of inquiry. 404 00:30:53,120 --> 00:30:57,280 Speaker 1: But on March thirty first, after William Randolph Hurst's newspaper 405 00:30:57,400 --> 00:31:00,600 Speaker 1: ran an editorial accusing Whitman of moving to far too slowly, 406 00:31:01,240 --> 00:31:05,840 Speaker 1: the DA made a decision he would pursue the factory owners. 407 00:31:07,240 --> 00:31:10,560 Speaker 1: We can only speculate as to why he chose this path, 408 00:31:11,120 --> 00:31:13,960 Speaker 1: but if I had to guess, Whitman may have felt 409 00:31:14,000 --> 00:31:18,360 Speaker 1: that this was the more straightforward case. Instead of tackling 410 00:31:18,440 --> 00:31:23,040 Speaker 1: the systemic issues of worker protections and factory safety laws, 411 00:31:23,600 --> 00:31:28,920 Speaker 1: Whitman could focus on proving the individual responsibility of Harris 412 00:31:28,960 --> 00:31:33,400 Speaker 1: and Blank. The District Attorney's office organized a grand jury 413 00:31:33,440 --> 00:31:37,440 Speaker 1: to look into the fire. The testimony Whitman heard at 414 00:31:37,480 --> 00:31:40,760 Speaker 1: the grand jury convinced him that the Washington Place door 415 00:31:41,000 --> 00:31:46,720 Speaker 1: on the ninth floor had been locked. Under New York law, quote, 416 00:31:47,360 --> 00:31:51,920 Speaker 1: all doors leading in or to any factory shall not 417 00:31:52,000 --> 00:31:57,520 Speaker 1: be locked, bolted, or fastened during working hours. Violating this 418 00:31:57,680 --> 00:32:02,840 Speaker 1: law against locked doors was a mist. Whitman and the 419 00:32:02,880 --> 00:32:05,960 Speaker 1: two assistant district attorneys he had assigned to the case, 420 00:32:06,560 --> 00:32:11,680 Speaker 1: Charles Bostwick and j. Robert Rubin, wanted a stronger charge, 421 00:32:12,160 --> 00:32:15,680 Speaker 1: something that carried a larger penalty than just a fine. 422 00:32:15,880 --> 00:32:19,400 Speaker 1: They wanted jail time for Harris and Blank. The locked 423 00:32:19,440 --> 00:32:23,560 Speaker 1: door was the prosecution's way in. Although locking the doors 424 00:32:23,880 --> 00:32:28,040 Speaker 1: was simply a misdemeanor, a misdemeanor that resulted in death 425 00:32:29,000 --> 00:32:35,360 Speaker 1: was manslaughter. On April twelfth, the grand jury indicted Isaac 426 00:32:35,400 --> 00:32:39,840 Speaker 1: Harris and Max Blink on charges of manslaughter. The two 427 00:32:39,880 --> 00:32:44,760 Speaker 1: men were arrested that same afternoon. Many felt that this 428 00:32:45,000 --> 00:32:49,080 Speaker 1: was a good first step towards getting justice, but no 429 00:32:49,120 --> 00:32:57,160 Speaker 1: one could predict what would happen in the courtroom. On 430 00:32:57,240 --> 00:33:03,080 Speaker 1: December fifth, nineteen eleven, a crowd gathered outside Judge Thomas 431 00:33:03,200 --> 00:33:07,480 Speaker 1: Crane's courtroom. It was the second day of jury selection 432 00:33:07,880 --> 00:33:13,120 Speaker 1: in the Triangle fire trial. When the defendants Isaac Harris 433 00:33:13,160 --> 00:33:18,120 Speaker 1: and Max Blink arrived, someone in the crowd shouted, Oh, mamma, 434 00:33:18,240 --> 00:33:23,600 Speaker 1: look here they come. Here are the murderers. The crowd 435 00:33:23,640 --> 00:33:27,440 Speaker 1: began to yell and wail. People held up photographs of 436 00:33:27,480 --> 00:33:32,760 Speaker 1: their deceased relatives, women tore out their hair. Max Stoyer, 437 00:33:33,160 --> 00:33:38,760 Speaker 1: Harris and Blank's attorney, was unfazed. An immigrant, Stoyer had 438 00:33:38,880 --> 00:33:43,280 Speaker 1: himself worked in sweatshops as a child before fighting his 439 00:33:43,360 --> 00:33:46,880 Speaker 1: way to the top of New York's legal ladder. Not 440 00:33:47,040 --> 00:33:51,360 Speaker 1: much could trouble him. Stoyer pushed his way through the crowd, 441 00:33:52,080 --> 00:33:57,000 Speaker 1: leading his clients into the courtroom. Nearly nine months after 442 00:33:57,040 --> 00:34:01,960 Speaker 1: the Triangle fire, many people were still horrified and outraged. 443 00:34:03,120 --> 00:34:06,240 Speaker 1: On the next day of the trial, when Harrison Blank 444 00:34:06,320 --> 00:34:10,480 Speaker 1: went to lunch, relatives of the victims followed them and 445 00:34:10,600 --> 00:34:14,120 Speaker 1: yelled at them from the sidewalk while they ate. Judge 446 00:34:14,120 --> 00:34:20,080 Speaker 1: Craane ordered police protection for the defendants. That afternoon, Charles 447 00:34:20,080 --> 00:34:26,080 Speaker 1: Bostwick delivered the prosecution's opening statement. In his forties, Bostwick 448 00:34:26,120 --> 00:34:28,840 Speaker 1: was a veteran lawyer with a brushy mustache and a 449 00:34:28,880 --> 00:34:33,880 Speaker 1: dignified manner. His co counsul was J. Robert Rubin, a 450 00:34:33,920 --> 00:34:36,200 Speaker 1: young attorney who had been on the scene of the 451 00:34:36,239 --> 00:34:40,640 Speaker 1: Triangle fire. The horrible things Reuben had seen that day 452 00:34:41,040 --> 00:34:44,920 Speaker 1: had motivated him as he prepared for the trial. Now 453 00:34:45,200 --> 00:34:48,600 Speaker 1: he hoped that his and Bostwick's hard work would see 454 00:34:48,800 --> 00:34:55,080 Speaker 1: justice done for the victims. Bostwick's opening was straightforward. He 455 00:34:55,200 --> 00:34:57,840 Speaker 1: talked to jurors through the layout of the ninth floor 456 00:34:57,880 --> 00:35:01,439 Speaker 1: of the Triangle factory, pointing out the various exits as 457 00:35:01,440 --> 00:35:05,880 Speaker 1: he spoke. He mentioned the elevators and the fire escape 458 00:35:06,280 --> 00:35:10,600 Speaker 1: and the Green Street door. Then he began to speak 459 00:35:10,640 --> 00:35:14,960 Speaker 1: about the Washington Place door. One of the employees that 460 00:35:15,160 --> 00:35:19,279 Speaker 1: ran to the Washington Place door, Bostwick said, was a 461 00:35:19,320 --> 00:35:24,600 Speaker 1: woman named Margaret Schwartz, and Margaret Schwartz was now dead. 462 00:35:25,680 --> 00:35:30,280 Speaker 1: The District Attorney's office had filed manslaughter charges against Harris 463 00:35:30,360 --> 00:35:34,640 Speaker 1: and Blank for the deaths of seven different people. In 464 00:35:34,719 --> 00:35:37,839 Speaker 1: this trial, they were only focusing on the death of 465 00:35:37,880 --> 00:35:42,840 Speaker 1: one of those people, Margaret Schwartz. The DA's strategy was 466 00:35:42,880 --> 00:35:46,000 Speaker 1: to hold on to the other manslaughter charges in case 467 00:35:46,040 --> 00:35:51,120 Speaker 1: something went wrong in this trial. Margaret Schwartz, Bostwick said, 468 00:35:51,640 --> 00:35:55,920 Speaker 1: had tried to escape via the ninth floor Washington Place door, 469 00:35:56,440 --> 00:36:00,040 Speaker 1: but like everyone else who tried to do so, he 470 00:36:00,200 --> 00:36:07,160 Speaker 1: failed because, Bostwick argued, the door had illegally been kept locked. 471 00:36:08,120 --> 00:36:11,200 Speaker 1: The factory owners had kept this door locked so that 472 00:36:11,280 --> 00:36:14,399 Speaker 1: employees would have to exit through the other door, where 473 00:36:14,400 --> 00:36:17,960 Speaker 1: a security guards sat to inspect their bags for stolen goods. 474 00:36:19,040 --> 00:36:22,840 Speaker 1: The illegal act of keeping the door locked had caused 475 00:36:22,840 --> 00:36:28,080 Speaker 1: Margaret Schwartz's death, Bostwick said, making Harris and Blank guilty 476 00:36:28,200 --> 00:36:33,600 Speaker 1: of manslaughter. Bostwick's first witnesses helped establish both the layout 477 00:36:33,640 --> 00:36:38,440 Speaker 1: of the factory, as well as Margaret Schwartz's cause of death, asphyxiation. 478 00:36:39,719 --> 00:36:43,480 Speaker 1: Several witnesses also testified about the conditions at the factory, 479 00:36:44,400 --> 00:36:48,200 Speaker 1: including a rag trader named Louis Levy, who testified that 480 00:36:48,280 --> 00:36:52,239 Speaker 1: he had last cleared out the scrappins on January fifteenth, 481 00:36:52,760 --> 00:36:59,360 Speaker 1: more than two months before the fire. On Monday, December eleventh, 482 00:36:59,560 --> 00:37:04,439 Speaker 1: the try Angle fire victims began to testify. Bostwick led 483 00:37:04,480 --> 00:37:08,600 Speaker 1: them through their recollections of the fire. Each witness described 484 00:37:08,680 --> 00:37:12,840 Speaker 1: their actions that day, including their desperate attempts to escape. 485 00:37:14,000 --> 00:37:18,520 Speaker 1: One after another, witnesses testified to their fear and anger 486 00:37:18,960 --> 00:37:23,320 Speaker 1: at finding the Washington Place door impassable. As they spoke, 487 00:37:23,920 --> 00:37:27,600 Speaker 1: Bostwick asked the witnesses to rise from the witness stand 488 00:37:27,960 --> 00:37:31,560 Speaker 1: and go to the courtroom door to demonstrate how they 489 00:37:31,600 --> 00:37:35,759 Speaker 1: had tried to get the Washington Place door open. I 490 00:37:35,800 --> 00:37:38,560 Speaker 1: took hold of the handle and I turned and pulled it, 491 00:37:38,880 --> 00:37:41,959 Speaker 1: Mary Buccelli said as she yanked on the courtroom door. 492 00:37:43,200 --> 00:37:47,000 Speaker 1: Sam Bernstein recalled, I tried with both hands to open it. 493 00:37:47,600 --> 00:37:50,320 Speaker 1: There where the lock was. I wanted to tear it open. 494 00:37:51,440 --> 00:37:54,480 Speaker 1: Lillian Weener said, I tried to turn the handle and 495 00:37:54,560 --> 00:38:00,080 Speaker 1: it would not bend. It was locked. Over and over, 496 00:38:00,920 --> 00:38:04,560 Speaker 1: jurors watched the young men and women re enact some 497 00:38:04,640 --> 00:38:09,200 Speaker 1: of the worst moments of their lives. Over and over, 498 00:38:09,640 --> 00:38:13,600 Speaker 1: the jury heard that the Washington Place door had been locked. 499 00:38:15,200 --> 00:38:20,480 Speaker 1: It was powerful, compelling testimony, but even as it occurred, 500 00:38:21,000 --> 00:38:25,759 Speaker 1: defense lawyer Max Steyer was doing everything he could to 501 00:38:25,880 --> 00:38:30,879 Speaker 1: reduce the impact of the witness's words. One of Stoyer's 502 00:38:30,920 --> 00:38:35,080 Speaker 1: main arguments was that the Triangle fire victims had been 503 00:38:35,120 --> 00:38:39,319 Speaker 1: doomed not by any action of Harris and Blank, but 504 00:38:39,360 --> 00:38:45,560 Speaker 1: by their own, panicked, irrational choices during the fire. Whenever 505 00:38:45,640 --> 00:38:50,240 Speaker 1: he could, Stoyer worked to undermine the credibility and intelligence 506 00:38:50,280 --> 00:38:54,520 Speaker 1: of the survivors who were testifying. He picked up small 507 00:38:54,600 --> 00:38:59,640 Speaker 1: inconsistencies in their stories and used these inconsistencies to imply 508 00:38:59,760 --> 00:39:03,799 Speaker 1: the witness was either lying on the prosecution's behalf, or 509 00:39:04,000 --> 00:39:06,520 Speaker 1: did not speak English well enough to understand what they 510 00:39:06,520 --> 00:39:10,400 Speaker 1: were saying, or was not clear headed enough during the 511 00:39:10,400 --> 00:39:15,440 Speaker 1: fire to properly remember what happened during worker yetto Lubberts's 512 00:39:15,520 --> 00:39:20,560 Speaker 1: cross examination, for example, Stoyer implied that Lubets did not 513 00:39:20,760 --> 00:39:23,800 Speaker 1: know what a square was, that she thought that doors 514 00:39:23,800 --> 00:39:28,000 Speaker 1: could stop fires, that she had answered the prosecution's questions 515 00:39:28,000 --> 00:39:31,239 Speaker 1: without understanding them, and that she was lying about her 516 00:39:31,280 --> 00:39:35,640 Speaker 1: testimony rubbing salt in the wound. In the midst of 517 00:39:35,640 --> 00:39:41,400 Speaker 1: making these accusations, Stoyer chided Lubberts, don't get upset. Stoyer 518 00:39:41,440 --> 00:39:45,080 Speaker 1: had two other approaches for tripping up the prosecution's witnesses. 519 00:39:46,000 --> 00:39:51,200 Speaker 1: The first was questioning their motives. On cross examination, he 520 00:39:51,360 --> 00:39:55,480 Speaker 1: questioned witnesses about lawsuits they had filed against Harris and Blank. 521 00:39:56,239 --> 00:39:59,520 Speaker 1: Many of the survivors, as well as relatives of the victims, 522 00:40:00,120 --> 00:40:04,960 Speaker 1: were pursuing claims against the triangle's owners. Steyer framed these 523 00:40:05,040 --> 00:40:10,680 Speaker 1: lawsuits as conflicts of interest. Steyer's second plan to damage 524 00:40:10,719 --> 00:40:14,640 Speaker 1: the prosecution witnesses was raising the theory that their stories 525 00:40:14,680 --> 00:40:18,120 Speaker 1: were coached. He planted the idea that many of the 526 00:40:18,120 --> 00:40:22,839 Speaker 1: witnesses had attended union meetings, where he implied they had 527 00:40:22,920 --> 00:40:26,480 Speaker 1: learned what to say on the stand. He devised a 528 00:40:26,600 --> 00:40:31,280 Speaker 1: cunning way of supporting this theory on several cross examinations. 529 00:40:31,800 --> 00:40:34,839 Speaker 1: Instead of trying to poke holes in the stories of witnesses, 530 00:40:35,480 --> 00:40:39,480 Speaker 1: he simply asked them to repeat their stories again over 531 00:40:39,680 --> 00:40:45,000 Speaker 1: and over as they repeated their stories, The witnesses inevitably 532 00:40:45,080 --> 00:40:52,200 Speaker 1: repeated certain phrases, making their stories sound rehearsed. This tactic 533 00:40:52,400 --> 00:40:56,480 Speaker 1: was particularly damaging to one of the star prosecution witnesses. 534 00:40:57,080 --> 00:41:02,640 Speaker 1: Kate Alterman, had been a friend of Margaret Schwartz, the 535 00:41:02,680 --> 00:41:06,080 Speaker 1: woman whose death Harris and Blink were accused of causing. 536 00:41:07,160 --> 00:41:10,839 Speaker 1: On the stand, Altman broke down crying as she told 537 00:41:10,920 --> 00:41:14,479 Speaker 1: the story of her last moments with Schwartz. The two 538 00:41:14,640 --> 00:41:18,280 Speaker 1: friends had tried to open the Washington Place door. Alterman 539 00:41:18,360 --> 00:41:22,680 Speaker 1: re counted, but could not. As they frantically tried to 540 00:41:22,719 --> 00:41:28,359 Speaker 1: force the door, Schwartz suddenly collapsed. Altman tried to rouse her, 541 00:41:28,920 --> 00:41:33,200 Speaker 1: but Schwartz would not wake up. Altman had no option 542 00:41:33,719 --> 00:41:38,680 Speaker 1: but to leave her friend behind to save her own life. 543 00:41:38,800 --> 00:41:42,000 Speaker 1: As she ran across the room, she looked back and 544 00:41:42,080 --> 00:41:45,440 Speaker 1: saw Schwartz on the floor, the hem of her dress 545 00:41:45,520 --> 00:41:49,520 Speaker 1: and the ends of her hair beginning to burn. The 546 00:41:49,640 --> 00:41:55,640 Speaker 1: jury was stunned more so than any other witness. Altman 547 00:41:55,760 --> 00:42:00,160 Speaker 1: had transported them into that burning building and confronted to 548 00:42:00,239 --> 00:42:03,600 Speaker 1: them with the horror of being trapped by a locked door. 549 00:42:05,440 --> 00:42:09,839 Speaker 1: Steyer had to control the damage. He had noticed that 550 00:42:09,920 --> 00:42:16,160 Speaker 1: Alterman's testimony contained a number of distinct evocative phrases. She 551 00:42:16,239 --> 00:42:20,759 Speaker 1: didn't call the fire simply fire, for example, but described 552 00:42:20,800 --> 00:42:25,800 Speaker 1: it as a quote red curtain of fire. Steyer thought 553 00:42:25,800 --> 00:42:31,120 Speaker 1: these phrases sounded rehearsed. On cross examination, Stoyer had Alterman 554 00:42:31,239 --> 00:42:34,960 Speaker 1: go through her testimony four times, pausing to highlight the 555 00:42:35,000 --> 00:42:39,560 Speaker 1: specific she repeatedly mentioned. In between. He asked her if 556 00:42:39,600 --> 00:42:43,320 Speaker 1: she had ever told this story before or studied her words. 557 00:42:44,320 --> 00:42:50,560 Speaker 1: Alterman denied it. As David Vondrelli points out, Altman was 558 00:42:50,600 --> 00:42:54,080 Speaker 1: probably lying about whether she had ever told her story before. 559 00:42:55,239 --> 00:42:58,319 Speaker 1: Her testimony was so well organized that it's hard to 560 00:42:58,360 --> 00:43:03,520 Speaker 1: imagine she never practiced it allowed. However, a rehearse story 561 00:43:03,640 --> 00:43:08,840 Speaker 1: does not imply an untruthful one. It is extremely common 562 00:43:08,920 --> 00:43:12,480 Speaker 1: for attorneys to prepare witnesses for trial by having them 563 00:43:12,520 --> 00:43:18,359 Speaker 1: practice their testimony. Kate Alterman's story was consistent and its 564 00:43:18,440 --> 00:43:23,120 Speaker 1: details aligned with both the physical evidence and the testimony 565 00:43:23,200 --> 00:43:27,560 Speaker 1: of other witnesses, but Stoyer had gotten her to repeat 566 00:43:27,600 --> 00:43:31,759 Speaker 1: herself so frequently that her words began to seem artificial 567 00:43:31,920 --> 00:43:37,919 Speaker 1: to the jury. After raising questions about the prosecution witnesses credibility, 568 00:43:38,600 --> 00:43:42,359 Speaker 1: Stoyer tried to bolster the reputations of the defendants by 569 00:43:42,360 --> 00:43:46,560 Speaker 1: having Harris and Blank testify. Both men had been at 570 00:43:46,600 --> 00:43:49,680 Speaker 1: the factory on the day of the fire, Blank had 571 00:43:49,719 --> 00:43:52,399 Speaker 1: actually had two of his young daughters there with him, 572 00:43:53,000 --> 00:43:57,520 Speaker 1: and both had had harrowing experiences. It was a risk 573 00:43:57,600 --> 00:44:00,920 Speaker 1: to put the defendants on the stand. Stoyer hoped that 574 00:44:00,960 --> 00:44:04,200 Speaker 1: their testimony would humanize them and make them appear to 575 00:44:04,239 --> 00:44:08,440 Speaker 1: be victims like all the other survivors. In some ways 576 00:44:08,600 --> 00:44:13,400 Speaker 1: this strategy worked. Isaac Harris had behaved heroically during the fire, 577 00:44:14,320 --> 00:44:16,799 Speaker 1: climbing from the rooftop of the ash building to an 578 00:44:16,800 --> 00:44:20,560 Speaker 1: adjacent rooftop and badly injuring his hand by breaking a 579 00:44:20,600 --> 00:44:25,040 Speaker 1: skylight to get help. But in other ways having the 580 00:44:25,080 --> 00:44:31,360 Speaker 1: owners testify backfired. On cross examination, Bostwick pressed Harris on 581 00:44:31,440 --> 00:44:36,160 Speaker 1: the issue of employee theft. Theft was the owner's justification 582 00:44:36,440 --> 00:44:41,240 Speaker 1: for locking the Washington Place door, but Bostwick pushed Harris 583 00:44:41,360 --> 00:44:45,120 Speaker 1: on the specifics and got him to admit that the 584 00:44:45,160 --> 00:44:49,040 Speaker 1: total value of employee theft in the year before the 585 00:44:49,080 --> 00:44:56,680 Speaker 1: fire had only been twenty five dollars. Steyer also found 586 00:44:56,680 --> 00:45:01,160 Speaker 1: ways to question the narrative of the locked door from 587 00:45:01,200 --> 00:45:04,799 Speaker 1: the prosecution witnesses. The jury had heard over and over 588 00:45:04,880 --> 00:45:09,279 Speaker 1: again that the Washington placetoor was kept locked, but now 589 00:45:09,400 --> 00:45:13,439 Speaker 1: Stowyer produced defense witnesses who made the jury question if 590 00:45:13,440 --> 00:45:19,640 Speaker 1: this central claim was true. These witnesses, mainly Triangle employees 591 00:45:19,640 --> 00:45:24,000 Speaker 1: and contractors, described how they had regularly used the Washington 592 00:45:24,080 --> 00:45:28,760 Speaker 1: playstairs during the course of their business. The Triangle factory 593 00:45:28,800 --> 00:45:32,240 Speaker 1: had been set up with different functions on different floors, 594 00:45:32,400 --> 00:45:35,360 Speaker 1: cutting on the eighth, sewing on the ninth, packing and 595 00:45:35,400 --> 00:45:38,840 Speaker 1: shipping on the tenth, and people needed away to carry 596 00:45:38,880 --> 00:45:42,040 Speaker 1: goods from floor to floor. It would seem to be 597 00:45:42,120 --> 00:45:46,480 Speaker 1: inefficient and therefore unlikely that the Washington Place store was 598 00:45:46,600 --> 00:45:51,959 Speaker 1: always locked. That being said, a number of witnesses also 599 00:45:52,120 --> 00:45:55,880 Speaker 1: testified that keys were kept attached to the Washington Place door. 600 00:45:57,160 --> 00:46:00,200 Speaker 1: The keys were hung from thin strips of fabric that 601 00:46:00,320 --> 00:46:04,600 Speaker 1: regularly broke and were also very flammable, explaining why the 602 00:46:04,640 --> 00:46:07,000 Speaker 1: workers may not have been able to find them during 603 00:46:07,040 --> 00:46:11,040 Speaker 1: the fire. Why were keys needed if the door was 604 00:46:11,120 --> 00:46:16,399 Speaker 1: kept unlocked. The prosecution also had one more compelling piece 605 00:46:16,440 --> 00:46:19,520 Speaker 1: of evidence to support their claim of a locked door, 606 00:46:20,480 --> 00:46:25,160 Speaker 1: a smoking lock, so to speak. During the grand jury proceedings, 607 00:46:25,520 --> 00:46:28,480 Speaker 1: the DA's office had sent an investigator to the Ash 608 00:46:28,520 --> 00:46:32,399 Speaker 1: Building to search for the ninth floor Washington Place door lock, 609 00:46:33,239 --> 00:46:38,120 Speaker 1: and the investigator had succeeded. Stoyer had fought hard to 610 00:46:38,200 --> 00:46:42,080 Speaker 1: keep the lock from being admitted into evidence, questioning its 611 00:46:42,080 --> 00:46:45,799 Speaker 1: provenance and claiming that it was unbelievable that the lock 612 00:46:45,840 --> 00:46:48,480 Speaker 1: had been found more than two weeks after the fire. 613 00:46:49,480 --> 00:46:54,440 Speaker 1: Bostwick was prepared for this argument. The District Attorney's investigators 614 00:46:54,480 --> 00:46:57,600 Speaker 1: had shored up the discovery by tracing the lock in 615 00:46:57,760 --> 00:47:02,359 Speaker 1: every step of its journey from fact to installation. They 616 00:47:02,400 --> 00:47:05,200 Speaker 1: knew where the lock had been made, what store had 617 00:47:05,200 --> 00:47:08,879 Speaker 1: sold it, who had bought it, and finally, who had 618 00:47:08,880 --> 00:47:13,440 Speaker 1: installed it on the Washington Place door. Judge Crane allowed 619 00:47:13,480 --> 00:47:18,799 Speaker 1: the lock to be admitted. The lock seemed damning. The 620 00:47:18,840 --> 00:47:22,600 Speaker 1: heavy bolt was undamaged, while the visible part of the lock, 621 00:47:22,920 --> 00:47:25,839 Speaker 1: which would have been exposed to the fire, was discolored. 622 00:47:26,880 --> 00:47:30,040 Speaker 1: The prosecution suggested that this meant that the bolt had 623 00:47:30,040 --> 00:47:33,239 Speaker 1: been protected by the door frame, something that only would 624 00:47:33,239 --> 00:47:37,560 Speaker 1: have been possible if the door was locked. Of course, 625 00:47:37,760 --> 00:47:41,600 Speaker 1: Stoyer had an explanation for this too. He brought in 626 00:47:41,640 --> 00:47:44,480 Speaker 1: a lock expert of his own, who testified that the 627 00:47:44,520 --> 00:47:47,200 Speaker 1: lock should have entirely melted in the fire if it 628 00:47:47,239 --> 00:47:51,000 Speaker 1: had really been there. The expert also claimed that the 629 00:47:51,040 --> 00:47:57,640 Speaker 1: lock was easy to tamper with. For every point the 630 00:47:57,680 --> 00:48:02,320 Speaker 1: prosecution had made, Stoyer had a quick rebuttal. But would 631 00:48:02,320 --> 00:48:07,239 Speaker 1: his clever lawyering be enough to counteract the powerful testimony 632 00:48:07,400 --> 00:48:12,120 Speaker 1: of the survivors. On December twenty seventh, after nearly three 633 00:48:12,160 --> 00:48:15,920 Speaker 1: weeks of testimony and more than one hundred and fifty witnesses, 634 00:48:16,480 --> 00:48:20,080 Speaker 1: the case was handed over to the jury. In his 635 00:48:20,160 --> 00:48:24,520 Speaker 1: instructions to the jurors, Judge Crane explained the charges in 636 00:48:24,560 --> 00:48:28,000 Speaker 1: the same way that the prosecutors had It was against 637 00:48:28,080 --> 00:48:30,720 Speaker 1: New York law for a factory door to be locked 638 00:48:30,840 --> 00:48:34,080 Speaker 1: during working hours, and if someone had died because a 639 00:48:34,160 --> 00:48:38,000 Speaker 1: door had been locked, then that was manslaughter. But he 640 00:48:38,120 --> 00:48:42,280 Speaker 1: added another point, one that was favorable to the defense. 641 00:48:43,080 --> 00:48:46,640 Speaker 1: He told jurors that to find Harris and Blink guilty, 642 00:48:47,280 --> 00:48:51,320 Speaker 1: the jury must find that the men knew the door 643 00:48:51,440 --> 00:48:54,799 Speaker 1: was locked at the time of the fire. If these 644 00:48:54,840 --> 00:48:58,640 Speaker 1: men were charged with a misdemeanor, Crane explained, I might 645 00:48:58,760 --> 00:49:00,920 Speaker 1: charge that they need have no so knowledge that the 646 00:49:00,960 --> 00:49:04,120 Speaker 1: door was locked. But I think that in this case 647 00:49:04,280 --> 00:49:06,680 Speaker 1: it is proper for me to charge that they must 648 00:49:06,680 --> 00:49:09,520 Speaker 1: have had personal knowledge of the fact that it was locked. 649 00:49:10,760 --> 00:49:15,320 Speaker 1: With that, the jury was sent out to deliberate. Two 650 00:49:15,360 --> 00:49:19,920 Speaker 1: hours later, they returned with a verdict on the charges 651 00:49:19,960 --> 00:49:24,360 Speaker 1: of manslaughter in the death of Triangle employee Margaret Schwartz. 652 00:49:25,400 --> 00:49:36,480 Speaker 1: Max Blank, and Isaac Harris were found not guilty. Immediately 653 00:49:36,560 --> 00:49:41,600 Speaker 1: after the not guilty verdict, reporters went looking for explanations. 654 00:49:42,400 --> 00:49:45,680 Speaker 1: One juror explained that he believed that the victim's panic, 655 00:49:46,040 --> 00:49:48,640 Speaker 1: not the locked door, was to blame for her death. 656 00:49:50,000 --> 00:49:53,399 Speaker 1: I think the girls, who undoubtedly have not as much 657 00:49:53,440 --> 00:49:57,400 Speaker 1: intelligence as others might have in other walks of life, 658 00:49:58,000 --> 00:50:02,520 Speaker 1: were inclined to fly into a panic, he said. Stowyer's 659 00:50:02,560 --> 00:50:07,560 Speaker 1: tactics had clearly worked. Another juror stated that it was 660 00:50:07,680 --> 00:50:11,719 Speaker 1: Crane's instructions that had sealed the decision for him. I 661 00:50:11,840 --> 00:50:14,040 Speaker 1: believed that the door was locked at the time of 662 00:50:14,080 --> 00:50:17,560 Speaker 1: the fire, the juror said. But we couldn't find them 663 00:50:17,600 --> 00:50:20,760 Speaker 1: guilty unless we believed they knew the door was locked. 664 00:50:21,880 --> 00:50:27,360 Speaker 1: Crane's instructions had raised concerns when they were issued. Lawyers 665 00:50:27,400 --> 00:50:31,200 Speaker 1: speaking to The New York Times were surprised that Crane's 666 00:50:31,200 --> 00:50:35,320 Speaker 1: instructions had not mentioned the large number of lives lost 667 00:50:35,360 --> 00:50:39,319 Speaker 1: at the factory, or the fact that several of the 668 00:50:39,360 --> 00:50:43,440 Speaker 1: defense witnesses had made sworn statements to the da that 669 00:50:43,480 --> 00:50:47,400 Speaker 1: the door had been locked, but then testified to the 670 00:50:47,520 --> 00:50:52,960 Speaker 1: opposite on the stand. Some felt that Crane's conduct throughout 671 00:50:53,000 --> 00:50:56,880 Speaker 1: the trial had favored the defense. He had been strict 672 00:50:56,920 --> 00:51:01,480 Speaker 1: about what the prosecution was allowed to mention about the fire, excluding, 673 00:51:01,560 --> 00:51:05,240 Speaker 1: for instance, any testimony about victims jumping from the building, 674 00:51:05,719 --> 00:51:11,120 Speaker 1: on the basis that it was irrelevant. Crane may very 675 00:51:11,200 --> 00:51:15,520 Speaker 1: well have been biased. He had, it turns out, a 676 00:51:15,560 --> 00:51:21,680 Speaker 1: shockingly relevant past experience. Six years earlier, in March nineteen 677 00:51:21,719 --> 00:51:25,000 Speaker 1: o five, a tenement building on the Lower East Side 678 00:51:25,040 --> 00:51:29,160 Speaker 1: of Manhattan had gone up in flames, killing twenty people. 679 00:51:30,360 --> 00:51:33,279 Speaker 1: Many of the deaths were due to the unsafe conditions 680 00:51:33,280 --> 00:51:37,239 Speaker 1: of the building, which had a blocked fire escape. At 681 00:51:37,280 --> 00:51:42,840 Speaker 1: the time. The tenement house commissioner was Thomas Crane. Crane 682 00:51:43,040 --> 00:51:46,200 Speaker 1: claimed that his inspectors had done everything they could to 683 00:51:46,280 --> 00:51:49,600 Speaker 1: keep the building safe and blamed the residence of the 684 00:51:49,640 --> 00:51:54,720 Speaker 1: building for the fire, but the city government blamed Crane. 685 00:51:54,800 --> 00:51:59,680 Speaker 1: He lost his job and was maligned in the press. Crane, 686 00:52:00,400 --> 00:52:03,560 Speaker 1: a man who felt he had been unfairly blamed for 687 00:52:03,640 --> 00:52:07,920 Speaker 1: a fire related tragedy, was the judge for a trial 688 00:52:08,280 --> 00:52:11,040 Speaker 1: of two men who were being blamed for a fire 689 00:52:11,120 --> 00:52:17,600 Speaker 1: related tragedy. He should have recused himself. But while Crane's 690 00:52:17,640 --> 00:52:22,239 Speaker 1: bias did no doubt cause issues for the prosecution, the 691 00:52:22,360 --> 00:52:26,080 Speaker 1: verdict was in many ways the District attorney's own fault. 692 00:52:27,520 --> 00:52:30,520 Speaker 1: An editorial in The New York Times on December twenty 693 00:52:30,600 --> 00:52:35,200 Speaker 1: ninth opined that Whitman's office had mischarged Blank and Harris, 694 00:52:36,000 --> 00:52:39,960 Speaker 1: saying the acquittal does not mean that nobody was to 695 00:52:39,960 --> 00:52:44,240 Speaker 1: blame for this hideous disaster. What the verdict really means 696 00:52:44,400 --> 00:52:47,840 Speaker 1: is that Harris and Blank were not guilty as charged. 697 00:52:48,760 --> 00:52:52,719 Speaker 1: Between this and not guilty at all, there is much 698 00:52:52,800 --> 00:52:58,240 Speaker 1: more than a technical difference. The DA, the editorial continued, 699 00:52:58,800 --> 00:53:02,360 Speaker 1: should have simply Chown charged Harris and Blank with violating 700 00:53:02,440 --> 00:53:08,919 Speaker 1: factory laws, something they unequivocally did. That way quote, either 701 00:53:08,960 --> 00:53:11,640 Speaker 1: they would have been sent to jail or heavily fined, 702 00:53:12,680 --> 00:53:17,000 Speaker 1: or else the inadequacy of those laws to serve their 703 00:53:17,040 --> 00:53:21,960 Speaker 1: intended purpose would have been so plainly demonstrated as to 704 00:53:22,040 --> 00:53:28,080 Speaker 1: have brought about an immediate reform. This last point is 705 00:53:28,120 --> 00:53:32,400 Speaker 1: the key one. The law at the time was inadequate 706 00:53:32,560 --> 00:53:36,520 Speaker 1: to address a tragedy like the Triangle Fire. There were 707 00:53:36,880 --> 00:53:41,400 Speaker 1: very very few worker protections in existence in nineteen eleven. 708 00:53:42,320 --> 00:53:45,319 Speaker 1: There were very few ways for the legal system to 709 00:53:45,480 --> 00:53:50,720 Speaker 1: hold employers liable for harm done in the workplace. After 710 00:53:50,760 --> 00:53:54,920 Speaker 1: the Triangle Fire and the acquittal of Blank and Harris, 711 00:53:54,920 --> 00:53:58,040 Speaker 1: many realized that in order for justice to be done, 712 00:53:58,600 --> 00:54:02,839 Speaker 1: the law would have to check. And it's here that 713 00:54:02,920 --> 00:54:07,439 Speaker 1: we see the true legacy of the Triangle tragedy play out. 714 00:54:09,200 --> 00:54:13,000 Speaker 1: For months after the Triangle Fire, people were skeptical that 715 00:54:13,080 --> 00:54:18,680 Speaker 1: workplace safety reform would happen. After all, industrial accidents were 716 00:54:18,800 --> 00:54:24,520 Speaker 1: extremely common. Thousands of workers died due to workplace accidents 717 00:54:24,560 --> 00:54:29,759 Speaker 1: every year, and thousands more were injured. Injured workers had 718 00:54:29,880 --> 00:54:35,200 Speaker 1: little legal recourse. Judicial precedent stood firmly on the side 719 00:54:35,239 --> 00:54:40,400 Speaker 1: of employers. In a key case called Farewell v. Boston 720 00:54:40,560 --> 00:54:45,360 Speaker 1: and Worcester Railroad, the Massachusetts Supreme Court had ruled in 721 00:54:45,560 --> 00:54:49,960 Speaker 1: essence that when employees took a job, they assumed the 722 00:54:50,080 --> 00:54:54,560 Speaker 1: risk for workplace injuries. Following this eighteen forty two decision, 723 00:54:55,120 --> 00:54:58,319 Speaker 1: it became very difficult for workers to prove that their 724 00:54:58,320 --> 00:55:03,040 Speaker 1: employers were legally rect responsible for workplace injuries or for 725 00:55:03,120 --> 00:55:08,399 Speaker 1: workers to receive compensation for such injuries. This common law 726 00:55:08,520 --> 00:55:13,920 Speaker 1: environment matched public opinion. Many people believed that workplace injuries 727 00:55:14,080 --> 00:55:18,960 Speaker 1: were mainly caused by the inattention or negligence of individual workers, 728 00:55:20,040 --> 00:55:24,480 Speaker 1: but in the early twentieth century, labor reformers began conducting 729 00:55:24,560 --> 00:55:30,160 Speaker 1: surveys about the actual causes of workplace accidents. One seminal 730 00:55:30,239 --> 00:55:33,640 Speaker 1: study run by Crystal Eastman for the New York State 731 00:55:33,760 --> 00:55:39,239 Speaker 1: Employer's Liability Commission and published in nineteen ten, revealed that 732 00:55:39,280 --> 00:55:44,200 Speaker 1: many workplace injuries were caused not by worker negligence, but 733 00:55:44,239 --> 00:55:51,560 Speaker 1: were instead attributable to systemic issues caused by employer mismanagement. Eastman, 734 00:55:51,840 --> 00:55:55,040 Speaker 1: who went on to co found the American Civil Liberties Union, 735 00:55:55,440 --> 00:56:00,319 Speaker 1: had collected heaps of data to support her conclusions. Raw 736 00:56:00,440 --> 00:56:04,600 Speaker 1: data alone was not enough to change public sentiment or 737 00:56:04,680 --> 00:56:10,440 Speaker 1: the law. People needed something more visible, something more visceral, 738 00:56:11,040 --> 00:56:15,640 Speaker 1: to convince them of the need for change. The Triangle 739 00:56:15,719 --> 00:56:20,560 Speaker 1: Fire was just such an event, as the legal scholar 740 00:56:20,840 --> 00:56:26,239 Speaker 1: Arthur F. McAvoy writes, quote, so graphic were the Triangle 741 00:56:26,320 --> 00:56:31,160 Speaker 1: deaths and so clear their systemic causes that the law 742 00:56:31,200 --> 00:56:36,520 Speaker 1: could no longer contain them within the category accident. The 743 00:56:36,560 --> 00:56:40,680 Speaker 1: Triangle Fire inscribed the law of turn of the century 744 00:56:40,760 --> 00:56:45,680 Speaker 1: labor relations on its victims' bodies, so that its meaning 745 00:56:45,960 --> 00:56:51,000 Speaker 1: at last became clear. At the same time as the 746 00:56:51,040 --> 00:56:55,880 Speaker 1: need for reform was becoming evident, politicians were taking note 747 00:56:55,960 --> 00:56:59,080 Speaker 1: of the voting power of the people who most needed 748 00:56:59,120 --> 00:57:04,359 Speaker 1: workplace protectives. In New York, the powerful political machine known 749 00:57:04,400 --> 00:57:08,920 Speaker 1: as Tammany Hall, which had usually sided with wealthy industrialists 750 00:57:09,040 --> 00:57:13,400 Speaker 1: in opposing workplace reform, realized that their new path to 751 00:57:13,480 --> 00:57:17,760 Speaker 1: electoral victory was courting the votes of the working class. 752 00:57:18,720 --> 00:57:24,040 Speaker 1: The combination of popular pressure and political will finally combined 753 00:57:24,120 --> 00:57:28,800 Speaker 1: in the months after the Triangle Fire to create real change. 754 00:57:28,920 --> 00:57:34,080 Speaker 1: On June thirtieth, nineteen eleven, New York Governor John Dix 755 00:57:34,400 --> 00:57:40,240 Speaker 1: signed a law creating the Factory Investigating Commission. The Commission's 756 00:57:40,240 --> 00:57:46,680 Speaker 1: members worked tirelessly collecting data, touring factories, and holding frequent 757 00:57:46,760 --> 00:57:52,960 Speaker 1: public hearings. Soon the Commission began proposing reforms, many of 758 00:57:53,000 --> 00:57:57,439 Speaker 1: which the New York State Legislature enacted as law. Over 759 00:57:57,480 --> 00:58:01,160 Speaker 1: the next four years. The Commission's work in spired dozens 760 00:58:01,200 --> 00:58:06,920 Speaker 1: of workplace safety and worker protection laws. These laws included 761 00:58:07,080 --> 00:58:12,360 Speaker 1: crucial reforms such as the banning of child labor and 762 00:58:12,720 --> 00:58:17,160 Speaker 1: the requirement that employers provide workers with clean drinking water 763 00:58:17,320 --> 00:58:23,240 Speaker 1: and bathrooms. Other laws focused on fire prevention and protection measures, 764 00:58:23,280 --> 00:58:28,480 Speaker 1: such as mandatory fire drills, automatic sprinklers, fireproof stairways, and 765 00:58:28,560 --> 00:58:34,400 Speaker 1: fire escapes. Unfortunately, these laws came too late to protect 766 00:58:34,400 --> 00:58:38,720 Speaker 1: the Triangle workers. In the years after the trial, the 767 00:58:38,760 --> 00:58:43,120 Speaker 1: fire's survivors and its victims relatives struggled to get justice 768 00:58:43,840 --> 00:58:49,960 Speaker 1: or even compensation for what they'd endured. Max Steyer represented 769 00:58:50,000 --> 00:58:53,320 Speaker 1: Blank and Harris in the civil suits against them, all 770 00:58:53,360 --> 00:58:56,720 Speaker 1: of which seemed to have failed or fizzled out. The 771 00:58:56,800 --> 00:58:59,919 Speaker 1: only suits that succeeded were those filed against the app 772 00:59:00,040 --> 00:59:05,600 Speaker 1: USh building's owner. In early nineteen fourteen, twenty three relatives 773 00:59:05,600 --> 00:59:10,440 Speaker 1: of victims received a measly seventy five dollars each in 774 00:59:10,520 --> 00:59:15,800 Speaker 1: a settlement of these suits. Even more disturbing, that paltry 775 00:59:15,840 --> 00:59:20,440 Speaker 1: sum paled in comparison to the amount that Blank and 776 00:59:20,600 --> 00:59:25,400 Speaker 1: Harris earned from the fire. The two men had received 777 00:59:25,480 --> 00:59:29,400 Speaker 1: a two hundred thousand dollars payout from their insurance companies 778 00:59:29,440 --> 00:59:33,040 Speaker 1: in the wake of the disaster, But in nineteen thirteen, 779 00:59:33,120 --> 00:59:38,320 Speaker 1: investigation by Arthur McFarlane for Collier's Magazine revealed that Blank 780 00:59:38,360 --> 00:59:42,120 Speaker 1: and Harris had only been able to document one hundred 781 00:59:42,120 --> 00:59:45,440 Speaker 1: and thirty four thousand and seventy five dollars in losses, 782 00:59:46,320 --> 00:59:50,280 Speaker 1: meaning that they were for some reason overpaid by more 783 00:59:50,280 --> 00:59:57,800 Speaker 1: than sixty thousand dollars. Despite this windfall, the Triangle company 784 00:59:57,920 --> 01:00:02,160 Speaker 1: did not survive much longer. The DA's office had tried 785 01:00:02,200 --> 01:00:06,200 Speaker 1: to pursue additional manslaughter cases against Harris and Blank, but 786 01:00:06,280 --> 01:00:09,760 Speaker 1: a judge ruled that this would be unconstitutional double jeopardy. 787 01:00:11,000 --> 01:00:15,520 Speaker 1: Harris and Blank continued their partnership for nine years, operating 788 01:00:15,600 --> 01:00:19,800 Speaker 1: shirtwaist manufacturers across New York City, before eventually going their 789 01:00:19,840 --> 01:00:24,080 Speaker 1: separate ways in nineteen twenty. The men do not seem 790 01:00:24,120 --> 01:00:27,520 Speaker 1: to have learned any lessons from the nineteen eleven tragedy. 791 01:00:28,760 --> 01:00:34,000 Speaker 1: In nineteen thirteen, Max Blank was arrested for locking doors 792 01:00:34,080 --> 01:00:38,680 Speaker 1: at one of his factories. At his trial, he defended 793 01:00:38,760 --> 01:00:41,600 Speaker 1: himself by saying that his employees would rob him if 794 01:00:41,600 --> 01:00:44,919 Speaker 1: he didn't lock the doors, the same argument he had 795 01:00:45,040 --> 01:00:49,200 Speaker 1: used at the Triangle trial. He was found guilty and 796 01:00:49,320 --> 01:00:58,680 Speaker 1: fined twenty dollars. The legacy of the Triangle Fires victims 797 01:00:58,880 --> 01:01:03,480 Speaker 1: with long outline. Blank and Harris the reform work that 798 01:01:03,600 --> 01:01:06,320 Speaker 1: New York did in the wake of the fire would 799 01:01:06,360 --> 01:01:12,080 Speaker 1: become a national model for workplace regulation. Worker protection reforms 800 01:01:12,160 --> 01:01:16,920 Speaker 1: continued throughout the twentieth century. Nearly sixty years after the 801 01:01:16,920 --> 01:01:22,320 Speaker 1: Triangle Fire, in nineteen seventy, Congress passed the Occupational Safety 802 01:01:22,360 --> 01:01:27,400 Speaker 1: and Health Act, which, among other things, created the Occupational 803 01:01:27,440 --> 01:01:31,880 Speaker 1: Safety and Health Administration, or OSHA, an agency that can 804 01:01:31,960 --> 01:01:36,640 Speaker 1: set and enforce workplace safety standards. Though workplace safety standards 805 01:01:36,680 --> 01:01:40,800 Speaker 1: and worker protections are not perfect, they are fathoms beyond 806 01:01:40,880 --> 01:01:45,160 Speaker 1: what they were on March twenty fifth, nineteen eleven, the 807 01:01:45,240 --> 01:01:49,840 Speaker 1: day that a fire blazed the Triangle Factory and changed 808 01:01:49,880 --> 01:01:56,040 Speaker 1: our understanding of workplace safety forever. That's the story of 809 01:01:56,160 --> 01:02:00,400 Speaker 1: New York via Isaac Harris and Max Blanky with Me 810 01:02:00,520 --> 01:02:03,320 Speaker 1: after the Break to learn about how the Triangle Fire 811 01:02:03,800 --> 01:02:13,520 Speaker 1: led to the breaking of a political glass ceiling. Today, 812 01:02:13,840 --> 01:02:17,320 Speaker 1: the site of the Triangle Fire, the Ash Building, is 813 01:02:17,440 --> 01:02:21,800 Speaker 1: known as the Brown Building and houses New York University's 814 01:02:22,280 --> 01:02:27,720 Speaker 1: Biology and chemistry departments. The building was designated as a 815 01:02:27,800 --> 01:02:32,440 Speaker 1: National Historic Landmark in nineteen ninety one, eighty years after 816 01:02:32,480 --> 01:02:36,840 Speaker 1: the fire. Thirty years before this designation, on the fire's 817 01:02:36,920 --> 01:02:40,760 Speaker 1: fiftieth anniversary, a plaque was placed on the building to 818 01:02:40,840 --> 01:02:46,840 Speaker 1: memorialize the victims. A woman named Francis Perkins was invited 819 01:02:46,880 --> 01:02:51,480 Speaker 1: to give the dedication. On the day of the Triangle fire, 820 01:02:51,960 --> 01:02:55,360 Speaker 1: Francis Perkins was having tea at a friend's hoone nearby 821 01:02:56,240 --> 01:02:59,920 Speaker 1: when they heard the sirens. Perkins and her friend follow 822 01:03:00,160 --> 01:03:03,600 Speaker 1: the sound to the sight of the fire. They arrived 823 01:03:04,040 --> 01:03:09,360 Speaker 1: just as people began to jump. Perkins, then thirty years old, 824 01:03:09,720 --> 01:03:14,200 Speaker 1: was horrified by what she saw, but not entirely surprised. 825 01:03:15,320 --> 01:03:19,520 Speaker 1: She worked for the Consumers League, a nonprofit focused on 826 01:03:19,640 --> 01:03:24,720 Speaker 1: documenting and improving workplace conditions, and she was intimately familiar 827 01:03:24,920 --> 01:03:27,680 Speaker 1: with the many ways that people could be harmed in 828 01:03:27,720 --> 01:03:32,760 Speaker 1: the workplace. Still, what she saw on March twenty fifth, 829 01:03:32,880 --> 01:03:38,840 Speaker 1: nineteen eleven, haunted her. After the fire, Perkins doubled down 830 01:03:38,920 --> 01:03:43,520 Speaker 1: on her commitment to protecting workers. She became the primary 831 01:03:43,600 --> 01:03:48,120 Speaker 1: investigator for the New York Factory Investigating Commission and was 832 01:03:48,200 --> 01:03:51,960 Speaker 1: crucial in shaping the reform laws that the Commission proposed. 833 01:03:53,000 --> 01:03:57,040 Speaker 1: Over the next two decades, Perkins served in increasingly prominent 834 01:03:57,120 --> 01:04:02,360 Speaker 1: statewide organizations, including the Count's on Immigrant Education and the 835 01:04:02,400 --> 01:04:07,120 Speaker 1: New York State Industrial Board. Along the way, she became 836 01:04:07,240 --> 01:04:11,920 Speaker 1: allies and good friends with a politician named Franklin and Roosevelt. 837 01:04:13,040 --> 01:04:18,200 Speaker 1: In nineteen thirty three, now President Roosevelt appointed Perkins to 838 01:04:18,280 --> 01:04:24,400 Speaker 1: her biggest job yet, United States Secretary of Labor. She 839 01:04:24,920 --> 01:04:28,880 Speaker 1: was the first woman to ever serve in a presidential cabinet. 840 01:04:30,560 --> 01:04:34,360 Speaker 1: Francis Perkins was the Secretary of Labor for twelve years. 841 01:04:35,400 --> 01:04:38,240 Speaker 1: During that time, she helped the country recover from the 842 01:04:38,240 --> 01:04:42,000 Speaker 1: Great Depression and guided the passage of laws that still 843 01:04:42,080 --> 01:04:46,320 Speaker 1: shape American life today, including the Social Security Act and 844 01:04:46,400 --> 01:04:49,880 Speaker 1: the Fair Labor Standards Act, which established the rights to 845 01:04:49,920 --> 01:04:54,080 Speaker 1: a minimum wage and overtime pay. Her impact is hard 846 01:04:54,160 --> 01:05:00,440 Speaker 1: to overstate. Perkins never forgot the Triangle Fire about the 847 01:05:00,440 --> 01:05:04,040 Speaker 1: events of that day. In nineteen sixty four, fifty three 848 01:05:04,120 --> 01:05:07,200 Speaker 1: years after the fire and a year before her death, 849 01:05:07,840 --> 01:05:11,640 Speaker 1: Perkins told the audience that her reform work could be 850 01:05:11,760 --> 01:05:16,200 Speaker 1: seen as a type of atonement. The progress made, she said, 851 01:05:17,120 --> 01:05:20,680 Speaker 1: seems in some way to have paid the debt society 852 01:05:20,760 --> 01:05:25,120 Speaker 1: owe to those children, those young people who lost their 853 01:05:25,160 --> 01:05:31,480 Speaker 1: lives in the Triangle Fire. Thank you for listening to 854 01:05:31,600 --> 01:05:35,280 Speaker 1: History on Trial. My main sources for this episode were 855 01:05:35,280 --> 01:05:39,800 Speaker 1: the trial transcript, David von Dreley's book Triangle, The Fire 856 01:05:39,880 --> 01:05:44,880 Speaker 1: That Changed America, and Arthur F. McAvoy's article The Triangle 857 01:05:44,960 --> 01:05:50,440 Speaker 1: Shirtwaist Factory Fire of nineteen eleven, Social change, Industrial accidents, 858 01:05:50,800 --> 01:05:55,760 Speaker 1: and the evolution of common sense causality. For a full bibliography, 859 01:05:56,240 --> 01:05:58,960 Speaker 1: as well as a transcript of this episode with citations, 860 01:05:59,600 --> 01:06:05,920 Speaker 1: please visit our website History on Trial podcast dot com. 861 01:06:06,600 --> 01:06:10,480 Speaker 1: History on Trial is written and hosted by me Mira Hayward. 862 01:06:11,040 --> 01:06:14,120 Speaker 1: The show is edited and produced by Jesse Funk, with 863 01:06:14,240 --> 01:06:19,960 Speaker 1: supervising producer Trevor Young and executive producers Dana Schwartz, Alexander Williams, 864 01:06:20,240 --> 01:06:23,920 Speaker 1: Matt Frederick, and Mira Hayward. Learn more about the show 865 01:06:24,000 --> 01:06:27,960 Speaker 1: at History on Trial podcast dot com and follow us 866 01:06:28,000 --> 01:06:32,280 Speaker 1: on Instagram at History on Trial and on Twitter at 867 01:06:32,520 --> 01:06:37,720 Speaker 1: Underscore History on Trial. Find more podcasts from iHeartRadio by 868 01:06:37,800 --> 01:06:42,080 Speaker 1: visiting the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen 869 01:06:42,120 --> 01:06:44,160 Speaker 1: to your favorite shows.