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| HARTFORD CIRCUS FIRE |
The e-mail below was sent by Captain William Pond of the Hartford Fire Department to Chief Huertas. Apparently Pond took exception with several framed pictures of a victim of the Hartford Circus fire Eleanor Cook, known as Little Miss 1565 for years.
The best-known victim of the circus fire was a young blonde girl wearing a white dress. She is known only as "Little Miss 1565", named after the number assigned to her body at the city's makeshift morgue. Oddly well preserved even after her death, her face has become arguably the most familiar image of the fire.
Her true identity has been a topic of debate and frustration in the Hartford area since the fire occurred. She was buried without a name in Hartford's Northwood cemetery, where a victims' memorial also stands. Two police investigators, Sergeant's. Thomas Barber and Edward Lowe, photographed her and took fingerprints, footprints, and dental charts. Despite massive publicity and repeated displays of the famous photograph in nationwide magazines, she was never claimed. Barber and Lowe spent the rest of their lives trying to identify her. They decorated her grave with flowers each Christmas, Memorial Day, and July 6.. After their deaths, a local flower company continued to decorate the grave. In 1991, the body was declared to be that of Eleanor Emily Cook, despite the fact that her aunt and uncle had examined the body and it did not fit the description they provided. The Connecticut State Police forensics unit compared hair samples and determined they were probably from the same person. The body was exhumed in 1991 and buried next to her brother, Edward, who had also died in the fire. Apparently Captain Pond took exception with photos that were supposed to be used after the fire to identify victims, the photos had been posted inside engine 14 for their historic value since the house had been built. The historic value of the pictures is indisputable.
Despite the historic value, Pond for some reason felt he needed to destroy the pictures to bring peace to Cook's soul. According to his e-mail he took the pictures home and burned the pictures in his fireplace as he prayed for the "poor girls" soul. It is unknown as to what authority Pond felt he had to destroy property of the Hartford Fire Department, property of such historic value. This needs to be investigated thoroughly and appropriate action taken immediately.
Pictures or property of such a historic value that are destroyed have removed a part of Hartford's history that can never be replaced. This is inexcusable and probably criminal as well
THE E-MAIL
From: "Pond, William"
Date:01/15/2015 8:25 PM (GMT-05:00)
To: "Huertas, Carlos M."
Subject:
Chief Huertas
I received your voice mail and will respond to it in writing. When originally assigned to engine 14 in the summer of 1990 I objected to the naked deceased pictures of Eleanor Cook displayed in the hallway. I objected verbally to every house Captain through my career where my efforts proved fruitless. My first order of business as house Captain was to remove them from display.
I was afraid after retirement they would be placed back on the wall where this poor girls soul would never rest. I removed them today and at my home prayed for peace for Eleanor and burned them in my fireplace. I hope you understand and also the Cook family had no knowledge that there loved one was publicly displayed in this horrific manor.
Respectfully Submitted
William Pond
Portions of this posting obtained through Wikipedia
25 comments:
Deeply disturbing. The fact that this man has risen through the ranks to a level of authority is scary.
Hey Little Miss Captain 1565, did your mentor Mahoney give you the go ahead to do that? Even he might disapprove of this one, he may not let you move in now!
A class act by a no class officer once again. If it bothered you that much, transfer out. I'm not happy with the color of the chair in your office, maybe I too shall take it home and burn it.
Hey Chief, If you let this one slide, all sorts of fire house redecorating might occur, maybe you should "make an example" of this world class fool.
Cap, you come across as a total wuss in your fire service too.
Kevin ,Let me get this straight,"ANYTHING" hung on firehouse walls becomes the property of The Hartford Fire Dept ????? This is awesome! I cant wait for the "Vintage"/"Historical" Playboy Centerfold pictures to go up on the wall. Its gonna be just like the Oprah Show...YOU GET TO FILE A LAWSUIT!!! ,AND YOU GET TO FILE A LAWSUIT!!!ETC. Kevin,I'm assuming you dont have any siblings,I do,and if I found out someone displayed pictures of my loved one DECEASED ON A MORGUE SLAB IN A "PUBLIC" PLACE,I would first BEAT THE SHIT OUT OF SOMEBODY AND THEN HOLD A PRESS CONFERENCE IN FRONT OF SAID FIREHOUSE. Listen i'm sure Capt Pond saw alot worse shit than this ,,but this is about respect !!!! How would you and/or the family feel if some asshole put a morgue picture of our deceased brother Bell on engine 16s wall??? After all, his death will be a historical event,,, YEA THATS WHAT I THOUGHT!!!
Ther was already a watchroom chair cut into firewood size chunks by a firefighter. Fire house redecorating. Guess what was done. Right. Nothing
Pond are you nuts? I know you are a little loose, but this is over the top. Are you trying for a Pshcho pension disability? And the pictures you are referring to are easily found in any book,story, or article written on the "Circus Fire" also posted on CPTV in there documentary. So to portray them as pornography is not true.
There are certain items that are in firehouses that become part of the house, to remove them is not your place and in fact a desicration of the house. You stole history so you should obtain copies and replace them.
When E9 was remodeled we left and ran out of 15's, on return the Firehouse Bell was gone, never to be seen again, just isn't right. None of the officers seem to care or even notice perhaps, so whoever removed it I hope it brings you bad luck.
Pond , when you had your ceremony, did you have a bunch of candles burning like the mother in the movie "Carey" did not know you were a religous Zealot."Cyrus" Do you wear a spiked chain around your thigh like the "Divinchi Code"?
Joan Davey said: If these pictures bothered William Pond, then he should have contacted my husband, Ret.Lt.Rick Davey to have them taken down, since they were his pictures on loan to the Fire Dept. and he would have gladly done so...but never was there a mention of this at any time during the years the pictures where there. And if William Pond did not want the pictures there while he was working there, he could have talked to me about it, but never did...this is a dishonor to Eleanor Cook, and to my husband Bill, you knew how to get a hold of me at any time..plus I didn't retired from the FD until 2010, you never mentioned anything to me. Why?
Hey anonymous at 11:14 am ,how do you justify the need for a firehouse bell at Engine 9 ,dont you need calls for it to ring? I get it ! Decoration! You must have been extremely upset when they removed and discarded the pile of coal, used condoms , empty booze bottles and empty heroin packets from the basement at 9's when they renovated. I also hope someone apologized to you after they disrespectfuly cleaned up the bunkroom so soon after a suicide up there! If Pond is nuts ,what are you?????
Anonymous 10:26.
Howe do you get from a picture trying to identify a fire victim to comparison to Playboy Centerfolds.I have left a voice mail for Captain Pond but he hasn't called me back yet. I plan on asking him for all the e-mails he sent to the Chief, City Council, Mayor , Union, anyone expressing his objection to the pictures before he took it upon himself to destroy them. No call back yet.
This is part of the problem with the Hartford Fire Department ... no accountability. What's next, you don't like the color red of the fire trucks? No problem ... bring in a compressor and paint them green. It is time you realize that you are City employees. You work for the citizens of Hartford. I am sure there are Library employees that may object to books in the library... no problem, take them home and burn them. I would encourage anyone that works for Travelers that may not like a photo or piece of furniture to take it home today and burn it. Then send an e-mail to the CEO of Travelers and let him know what you did. Please send me an e-mail when you have a chance and let me know where you are working when you find your next job.
And if you think burning her picture is a fitting tribute, I think the Hartford Police Officers and Firefighter's that worked tirelessly for years to identify her and give her a proper burial as well as the tribute of flowers they laid on her grave every year did more to respect and pay tribute to her memory than you ever did.
Burning a fire victim in a fire, nice tribute, very respectful
All right that's enough Pond bashing lets get back to the real idiot Waller.
Ummm, sounds like there may be enough there to go around. Did Waller approve the destruction of historic City artifacts?
He said it was ok but tell everyone it didn't happen
Kevin,Sadly I lost a lot of respect for you today. There must be some kind of disconnect with people who dont have children,and please dont tell me how your neices,nephews ,neighbors kids etc. are special and like your own ,THEY ARE NOT! Once Little Miss 1565 was identified,those pictures should have immediatly come down by Rick Davey. Hey Joan and Rick,if you think it is such an HONOR to have those pictures displayed publicly ,i assume they grace the walls in your home? If so ,then you people are as sick as the Pond haters.Heres an idea ,everyone that didnt have a problem with this,go online and print out a 8 by 12 copy of the coroners head shot and full body shot, then tape it to your fridge for 20 years!!Kevin ,you ask about the comparison of someone posting a vintage playmate photo on the wall,that was to point out how idiotic to think it becomes "City Property" as were these pics just cause someone put them up,,THEN you compare a shitty piece of funiture in Travelers to the Eleanor Cook pics ,NOW THERES APPLES TO APPLES! And as far as Pond burning a burn victim in his fireplace,,is cremation and burning a retired flag disrespectful?? We are all reluctant in hearing we've made a mistake,KEVIN, YOU F#%KED UP ON TAKING THIS STANCE!!! ENJOY THOSE PICTURES ON YOUR FRIDGE!!
Easy there John Mahoney, we know Pond is your boy.
For 3:44p.m. The point to all of this....these pictures, whatever they may have been, or are...did not belong to Pond,or anyone else in the Fire Dept. and all he/or they had to was to call the rightful owner of them, and I'm sure they would have been happy to take them down...but that didn't happen, so to that, I would call that disrespectful, and sneaky.
Hey 6:15 pm, Did you miss the part where Pond said he reached out to numerous House Captains in an effort to remove them??? We have whats called a chain of command ,he attempted to use it and was ignored by his supervisors. That doesnt sound disrespectful or sneaky to me.There arent many left ,but some House Captains have THE BACKBONE TO DO WHAT "THEY" THINK IS RIGHT FOR THE GOOD OF "THEIR" FIREHOUSE AND NOBODY QUESTIONED IT! Tradition is a thing of the past,pretty soon they will be knocking the balls off of any officer who expects them to go into a burning building and do their job!
Can someone forward those communications to me. I would like to see who was notified and when. I am being told the Chief knew nothing about Pond's concerns
Kevin,
Have you noticed the unusual use of capital letters in the comments negative to Davey and pro Pond. Maybe all written by the same person? Pond most likely
Anonymous said *- 9:56 p.m. I agree with what you had said...It's got to be Pond, and to 8:45p.m. the point wasn't missed, but I hope Pond has some paper-work to back himself up, because without paperwork and proof, he did this out of spike, the question here is why did he wait so long to do this, and he is retiring..what tomorrow? Really, he could have made some phone calls, or better yet, take a sheet and cover the pictures up until he retired, my other question here is there are also other Officers in the House, what did they think about the pictures being there? Why wasn't Mike Gorman notified, he was the one that placed the pictures there I believe..I'm sure Mike would have taken a ride over to 14's and removed them if necessary.
It appears to be out of spite. Apparently Pond was out on a Workers Comp Injury. He claimed he sipped on his porch on the way to work and originally the city covered it on workers comp until they realized it wasn;t an "A" injury since he wasn't in his car travelling. They changed it to a "B" injury and charged him back all the sick time he had used. The picture incident came after that, probably to lay the groundwork for some emotional stress claim coming down the road
You are correct, Mike Gorman and Bob Neddo were the ones who built the racks for, and hung the pictures. They are not Pond's property. For 25 years that picture hung there. It is not a "naked girl on a slab", it was the facial picture which was used to try to identify Eleanor Cook.
When Pond came on, John Mahoney "took him under his wing". Mahoney had a Napoleon complex, thought he was better than everyone and treated guys like shit. Some of that rubbed off on Pond. Mahoney helped Pond get his promotions by coaching him.
Pond also had Uncle Bobby Walsh to hide behind and learn from. Once Bobby made D/C, well everyone knows how he and D/C Brady made their own rules and just did whatever they wanted. Pond learned from him also. When Pond worked for D/C Walsh he would brag how he could do whatever he wants and go wherever he wants, and he did it. Pond learned to be even more egotistical.Pond could care less what happens to him or what is said on this fine blog. Stealing and destroying Eleanor's pictures is his last F-you to everyone before he retires and goes to live with Mahoney and Walsh. BTW, Pond was related to Walsh through marriage.
Reading this news story from a different site led me here. Wtf is wrong with most of you?!! Pond did the right thing. I agree with him 100%. How is a naked photo of an 8 year old EVER ok to hang on a wall? That is absolutely disgusting. I don't care if they were working on identifying her or not, displaying a naked photo of a deceased little girl is truly horrible. sounds quite demented actually. Good job Pond.
They should have been given to the Connecticut Historical Society. The story, as tragic as it may be, is part of Hartford's history. That "traumatic" photo ran annually in the Hartford Courant in an attempt to find her family. She was a weekly part of my life, as my uncle and grandparents were buried in that same cemetery. Each Sunday when we visited their graves, my father would walk us over to the circus fire graves and tell us the story. He watched the fire from his home, and that fact no one claimed her haunted him. That is oral Connecticut history, the property of the State, not anyone else. So sad it is gone, regardless of whether she has finally been identified or not, to many, Little Miss 1565 was a part of their lives just as she was.
It was not a naked photo. I've seen the photos. Pond is a liar and a phony
Maybe he handled it wrong but that picture on the wall always freaked me out too. I would avoid looking at it when I walked by. Pond is a good fireman and a good guy, although slightly misguided on this one.
I have serious doubts about Pond's story. I have seen two photos of Little Miss 1565 -- a facial close-up and a full length shot -- and in both she is wearing a white sleeveless gown. Even if nude shots were taken at the morgue for ID purposes I strongly doubt that these would be made part of a public memorial. Someone has to come forward publicly and explain this.
Bluejay Young
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