Flint is well known for its modern violent crimes but Flint's history is filled with little known stories that read stranger than fiction. Gruesome murders, weird accidents, and violent deaths. Join us every Thursday as Joe Schipani details some of the odd but true deaths he found in Flint's archives.
Stampede April
23rd, 1921
Trolley, more commonly known as a
streetcar back in the early twentieth century, was a major form of
transportation in large cities.
On this Saturday afternoon while
businessmen were coming and going to work and shoppers were going to the
bustling city center to get the latest deals, a streetcar tragedy was happening
just outside the city’s center.
Just north of Fifth Avenue on
Detroit Street, the north bound streetcar had an explosion when the controller
caught fire. Flames flew through the car while the passengers scurried to exit
the back door of the moving streetcar.
Mrs. Caroline Kessler was one of
the first to get out of the streetcar.
While jumping off the back, Mrs.
Kessler lost her balance and fell to the ground. The other passengers desperate
to escape the inferno did not notice the forty six year old woman lying on the
ground.
After dozens of people trampled
over the woman, the streetcar was empty.
A doctor that lived in the house
on Detroit Street noticed the woman lying there. He acquired help from a few of
the gawkers to bring the woman inside his home to administer first aid until
the ambulance came to take her to the hospital. Mrs. Kessler suffered multiple
head fractures with internal bleeding that caused her to die later that evening
at Hurley Hospital.
Another woman jumped from the
streetcar covered in flames. The woman had her bag filled with her shopping
finds clutched in her hand. Needless to say, the shopping bag had also caught
fire. As people scrambled to find something to put out the flames flaring from
the woman’s body, she fell to the ground. The crowd tried endlessly to stop the
fire, but the body had been sprayed with a lubricant when the controller
exploded. The lady’s body was so burnt that she was unidentifiable.
No missing person’s report was
ever filed to match her description. The body remained unclaimed and was buried
in an unmarked grave in Flint Memorial Cemetery.
Three other people suffered minor
injuries. The driver of the streetcar suffered third degree burns and lacerated
his ankle jumping out the side door. Mrs. Ed Maynard and Mrs. Eleek Hart
suffered minor burns and major bruising.
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