Copyright USGenNet Inc., 2016 All Rights Reserved USGenNet Data Repository Please read USGenNet Copyright Statement on this page: Transcribed and submitted by Linda Talbott for the USGenNet Data Repository http://www.us-data.org/ =========================================================================== Formatted by USGenNet Data Repository Chief Archivist, Linda Talbott All of the above information must remain when copied or downloaded. =========================================================================== The Chicago Tribune Friday, November 1, 1963 Indianapolis Tragedy. Indianapolis, Nov. 1 (Friday) (AP) - A gay Holiday on Ice revue performance was shattered by a gas explosion last night, leaving 62 known dead and hundreds injured. Cranes labored into the morning seeking more dead under mountains of debris. Fifty-eight bodies were recovered at the state fairground coliseum. Four persons died en route to hospitals or under treatment. Blows Up Box Seats. About 4,500 persons were on hand to watch the premier performance of the ice revue when the gas explosion blew up a box seat section and sent bodies flying into the air. Others were buried by structural concrete and flam- ing bleachers. The fire was quickly put out. The injured, estimated in the hundreds, were being rushed to several Indianapolis hos- pitals in taxis, ambulances, cars, and buses. After the blast, long rows of bodies were lined up under blankets on the ice. Other rows were started outside the building in a driz- zling rain. Hospital Quickly Jammed. Methodist hospital, near the scene, was quickly jammed with at least 40 injured. Stretchers packed the hospital halls. The Marion county coroner called for a large truck to gather the scattered personal belong- ings - mink stoles, billfolds, purses and cloth- ing - scattered over the bloody ice. One man was dead on arrival at nearby General hospital. Fifteen of those admitted to the hos- pital were listed in critical condition. At the coliseum, about three miles east of the hospital area, three heavy cranes lifted the piled wreckage of the explosion from ad- ditional victims trapped underneath. A temporary morgue was set up on the coliseum grounds, about five miles from the downtown area. The chorus but none of the stars of the revue was skating gaily around the rink to Dixie-land music. When the explosion roared thru the arena, the girls screamed and fled. A spokesman for the show said none of the troupers were known to be injured. As one giant crane lifted a chunk of blasted concrete, flames broke out briefly in the wreck- age. Hoses were quickly turned on the area. Then rescuers ran into the sparking live wires buried in the debris. Electricians quickly cut the wires at the source. Many of the dead were feared to be prominent citizens. Hit By Bricks Harvey Ambrose of Columbus, O., who sells novelties with the show, said: "There was a tre- mendous explosion. The whole area rose up like a fountain. I was hit by falling bricks but not in- ured seriously." Donna Walters of Indianapolis said her grand- father, Ray Walters, and a woman friend were killed. She said she and others of their party were thrown out of their seats and were injured only slightly. The exterior of the building remained intact. Leon Eaton, of rural Osgood, a spectator, sit- ting on the opposite side of the rink said flames shot 30 feet into the air. Section Ripped Out. "One whole section was ripped out, bleachers and everything," he said. "There were people lying there halfway across the ice in pools of blood. There was a big boom, just like a charge of dynamite." A spectator said that bodies "flew thru the air like cannon-balls" after the explosion. Another spectator who was in the center of the blast area said he was thrown into the air and was injured as he fell. As he stood on the ice drying blood from his laceration with a handkerchief a policeman offered him transportation to a hospital. "I've got a little girl in there and I want to wait, even tho I don't think there's much chance," he said. ==========================================================================