Today Cracked Yet Truly Morbid Fact!
The New London School explosion occurred on March 18, 1937, when a natural gas leak caused an explosion and destroyed the London School in New London, Texas, United States. The disaster killed more than 300 students and teachers. As of 2021, the event is the third-deadliest disaster in the history of Texas, after the 1900 Galveston hurricane and the 1947 Texas City disaster. The following is an account of the aftermath of the disaster.
Walter Freeman, twelve, was sitting at his desk in the back of Lena Hunt’s math class, in the opposite corner from H. G. White’s desk, when the explosion brought the school down around them. Walter woke up on the floor under a desk, feeling numb through part of his body, stinging and hurting in other places. He saw some light seeping in from the direction of a stairwell in the hall that led up to the outside. With excruciating effort, Walter pulled himself forward into the hallway. It seemed like he was inside a bad dream. He remembered seeing Mrs. Hunt at her desk, with the black board behind her, when something crashed down on the teacher. He also remembered seeing a quick flash almost at the same moment, as he careened from his desk into a vortex of debris. Now he couldn’t stand up, but he managed to crawl another few inches using his shoulders, chest, and one arm. A stick protruded from his other arm. Walter tried to pull it out but it wouldn’t budge, and that’s when he realized it was bone.
His back was broken, several ribs were cracked, the sight in one eye was blurred, and a piece of steel was embedded in his head; he had a concussion. Walter didn’t know the extend of his injuries or how perilously close to death he was. He just focused on the shaft of light ahead of him and pulled himself toward it. He heard someone near the stairwell say, “There’s one. Let’s get him out.”
Two women hurried down the steps and saw the boy with a blood-smeared face and his overalls nearly ripped off his body. His eyes were open, blinking away drops of blood. They carried him out into the sunshine.
Walter saw the big oak tree behind the school with some of its branches stripped off as if a storm had hit it, and the mangled body of a child hanged from one that remained. He passed out.
Culled from: Gone at 3:17
Ghastly! Gangland Edition
The Murdered Bugs Moran Gang, Chicago, Morgue
Al Capone’s Victims of the St. Valentine’s Day Massacre, 1929
Culled from: Stiffs, Skulls and Skeletons
Andersonville Prisoner Diary Entry Du Jour!
This is the continuation of the 1864 diary of Andersonville prisoner Private George A. Hitchcock (see the archived version for all entries up until now).
Here’s today’s entry:
October 9th. Still clear and cold. We are moved over to the south end of this deserted camp, and are formed into detachments of five hundred men in each. We are in the 4th. Shep. and I dug a hole in the ground, over which we spread our blanket, for another cold night is expected, and we must work to keep from getting a death-chill, even if it is the Sabbath.
Culled from: Andersonville: Giving Up the Ghost