(eerie music) - Hi, friend, just popping
in here really quick, because for the first time
in Dark History history, I have an update for you about a previous episode we talked about. Oh my gosh. Yes, we do. Remember the Rosewood massacre episode. Remember? Yeah, okay, great. Well, when we left off, the Wright House, the last surviving
structure from the massacre was ib need of some serious help. Recently, the Real Rosewood Foundation got the Wright House, and they have big plans for it. The Real Rosewood Foundation
wants to relocate the house to a new city where the descendants from many of the massacre
survivors still live. The house will be the focal
point of a living history museum to teach people about the massacre, but moving and fixing up an old house is expensive and they need our help. So we can click the link below to donate. Select the museum fund. And their goal is to raise $500,000, so they can pretty much move this house and turn it into a museum, incredible. I will be matching donations. So if we all donate what we can, it would be truly powerful. Honestly, anything and everything helps. If you can donate, it's
greatly appreciated, but obviously your support and awareness helps tremendously as well. So let's get back to the story. Hi, friends. It's me again. I showed up. Hi. I hope you're having
a wonderful day today. My name is Bailey Sarian, and this is the Dark History Podcast. Welcome. How are you? I hope you're doing well. If you're interested in... I was gonna say true crime, but this is not about your creme. This is about fricking
history, let me tell you. And if you're a curious cat like myself, then let's go on a journey
and learn something new. Shall we? If you're listening on the podcast, you need to come over to my YouTube and just come check out
my hair really quick because I look... It looks really cute. Look. Look. I look like Medusa or her son. I haven't decided yet. Either way, it's cute,
so come check it out, and then you can go back to the podcast. Anyway, so, hey, it's really hot. It's really hot outside. And I was thinking about
that, and I was like, "Could you imagine living
in the 1900s or something and it just being hot?" I'd be sweating. Okay, I'm always sweating. It's like 60 degrees in
the studio right now, but I'm sweating. Anyways, I like being cold
is what I'm getting at, and I don't like sweating. So what I was thinking the other day, I was laying in bed and I was like, "Okay, what did women wear in the 1900s in the middle of summer?" Could you imagine having
to wear long sleeves, big ass dress? What if you're bloated? Ugh. Ugh. What did they even do? They wear 18 layers of clothes back then, and they must have really stunk real bad. So naturally, because I'm
a very curious person, I was like, "What did
they do to stay cool? What did they wear?" So I'm Googling, right? What did women wear in the 1900s? And then it led me to this
thing called the shirtwaist. And I was like, "what is that? What is that? Does it
go around your waist? Is it a shirt that goes around the waist?" Nay nay. It turns out just a blouse. Yeah, I know. Not that exciting. It's a blouse, but here's the thing. You know how Google works, okay? It doesn't just show
me a normal shirtwaist. At this point, the Google
algorithm, it knows me so well, and it knows that I'm only there
to look for murder stories, which I mean it's not wrong. Okay? So it shows me an article
about something called Triangle Shirtwaist fire. And I was like, "Hold your horses." (horse neighs) What? What is this? Shirtwaist fire, what's that? What if I told you working
conditions at this place were so bad, it was normal for
your boss to lock you inside because he didn't trust you? What if I also told you that your boss didn't even care if there was a fire on the
other side of that locked door because money is more important
to him than your life? Well, this, my friends, is
the true story of a blouse that lives at the intersection of corporate greed, fashion, and fire. (Bailey shrieks) Let me open my Dark History book. Okay, babe, here I go. I'm opening it because
the Gilded Age, 1900, that's when this whole story started. Now it's called the Gilded Age because, quote unquote, gilding was basically just adding gold to something, and writers from the turn of the century thought it was a funny way to talk about how things were changing in the world. I don't really get it,
but I mean it was a thing. So Gilded Age. Now, America was moving from
more farm-based lifestyles into a more industrial style of living where somebody could get rich and not just have to inherit money, which was the main way people were making money
in the first place, by inheriting it. Lucky. Now, this time in America, it's all about pulling up your bootstraps and making a name for yourself. America was having a moment
around the late 1800s. We were out of the Civil War. There were new industries popping up, clothing, cars, metals, coal, cotton, oil, et cetera. You get it. Factories were becoming a
popular way to build things, and there were all sorts of industries that were booming and
growing at a very rapid pace. New York had just opened the Ellis Island Immigration Center, and there were thousands of people immigrating from all over
the world into the city every single day. These people, they needed jobs. And lucky for them, the
industries were booming. So new waves of immigrant groups, including French and Italian, were coming into New York city to escape persecution
in their home countries. So they were willing to
work, and work for cheap, and they were willing to
work really long hours. The fashion icons of the area in New York, they were moving northward towards Fifth Avenue and Central Park. Because the upper classes
were moving north, Greenwich Village became
mainly commercialized. There were large factories being built, starting in the 1900s, one
later becoming the home of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory. Ooh. This is a side note. But I tried to figure out where they came with
Triangle Shirtwaist Company, and I couldn't find an answer. I just want to know where
the triangle came from. Was there a... There's no triangle involved. I don't know. Anyways, moving on. Greenwich Village today, it's this cool, nice neighborhood no one can afford to live in. Trendy restaurants. There's always like a bar
behind a telephone booth. But back then, it was mainly
the factory area, industrial. The way these factories would work, once you found some people who you liked, they would recommend people they knew, and the next thing you know, you had an all Italian
or Russian workforce. And it ended up being like
little pockets of immigrants working at these companies
all over the city. Lots of immigrants were coming to America in hopes to find success, happiness, and you know, just have a new start. Among these immigrants were
two men named Isaac Harris and Max Blanck. Can I just tell you something? This is a complete side note. Can I confess to you that
I thought Isaac was Isa-ic? For all of my life, until yesterday, I thought it was Isa-ic. It's Isaac. I'm telling you, kids, dream big. Even if you can't say words, you can accomplish things in life. I'm hosting a podcast and I
can't speak English properly. Oh, come on. Dream big, kids. Okay, back to the story. Isaac not Isa-ic, Isaac. You're welcome. Isaac was born in Russia in 1865. And then I guess not long
after him, Max was born, but nobody really knows when he was born, but he was born in
Russia, and that's fine. That's all we need to know. He was born. And when they were both in their 20s, they would immigrate to America. Great. At this time they didn't know each other and they wouldn't meet
until their late 20s. Great. Okay. So both of them were part of a huge wave of Russian and Jewish immigrants
at the turn of the century, looking to make a name for themselves. The easiest place to get a
job was working in a factory. Right? Among many other immigrants. These factories were considered horrible. and honestly, dangerous to work in. The working conditions were horrible. It was close quarters. It wasn't well ventilated, and the hours were long as hell. Factories is honestly like generous label. They're basically sweatshops. But many immigrants were struggling to get by in their new country, and the companies were making
so much money off the labor that they had no incentive
to ever change it. I mean, why would they? It was just the way things were done. Plus they were immigrants, and this is not what I'm saying, but it's their thought process. No one really cared about immigrants. I'm not saying that. It's just how business was done back then. You get it. Americans thought of these
workers and sweat shops as dirty, dangerous, and
filled with odd foreigners who spoke strange languages. Eye roll. But Max and Isaac would
claw their way to the top, define what we know as the American dream. So these two Max and Isaac, they built themselves up by working in the clothing industry. Now many considered them penniless before they became
full-blown entrepreneurs. Max and Isaac, they put
their noggins together, and teamed up to start their own company, the Triangle Waist Company. Again, I don't know what
the triangle's about, but Triangle Waist Company, later known as the Triangle
Shirtwaist Company. Anyway, they decided
to specialize in making what is called the shirtwaist, and you're probably wondering
what is the shirtwaist. Again, it's a blouse, but it's
a type of clothing for women styled after men's wear. At this time, women were
wearing super constrictive, uncomfortable clothing. And when the Shirtwaist was
introduced to the market, it was like a way more comfortable, realistic piece of clothing to wear that they could easily take off and wash. Because before, it was a dress, so you'd have to take off
the whole dress and wash it. Now they could just remove their shirt. It was iconic. It was groundbreaking. Anyway, the clothing
was also pretty cheap. It was around $3 a piece. Now Max and Isaac, they didn't
invent the shirtwaist, okay? But they took this design and then they just ran with it. They decided to put their money together, invest in their own company
where they could focus on producing shirtwaist
to sell to the public. So in 1902, the men moved their business to the ninth floor of the
brand new Asch Building in Greenwich Village, New York. Now this was a brand new building. It was brand spanking new. Not only that, it was much bigger than most of the sweat shops
in the garment district. This building was 10 stories tall, and they would boast that
the exterior was fireproof. Because it was all brick and
metal, so it made it fireproof. The interior though,
where like the people are, where they're working at, it
was totally fire friendly. It was made up of wooden trim, wooden floors, wooden everything. Isaac and Max knew Italian
and Jewish immigrants needed work when they
came to the United States. That being said, they hired all immigrants to help run their business. Now, most of them are women, and some are even as
young as 14 years old. I think that's a little much, but okay. Isaac and Max, they opened
up their new business, right? Yay! So they took over the ninth floor and they brought in 260
sewing machine operators. Isaac designed the layout
of the sewing floor in a way where the workers
couldn't talk to one another. Less talky, more worky. So picture this. There are 16 rows of long ass tables. Okay? On each of these long tables
were 15 machines side by side, super cramped. There was only room for one
person to pass by at a time. In other words, it was a tight ass space. Okay? The layout prioritized work over people. So the sewing machine operators, they sat on wooden
chairs, at wooden tables, with well-oiled machines and
tons of fabric around them. You may see where this is going. Well, as luck would have it, Isaac and Max's shirtwaist
company took off, and it made them super rich. I mean super rich. Money. money, money. Okay, it was raining money for them. They were living the dream. Both of them would arrive
to work in chauffeured cars, mind you, cars were literally
brand new to America. The only people who
had cars were the rich. So they were making a statement. We have arrived. Everybody, bow down. They had money and they were
not afraid to flaunt it. The two decided to expand their business. And in 1908, they took
over the top three floors of the Asch Building. So they have the 8th, 9th, and 10th floor. Great. So more than a thousand
shirtwaists were produced per day, and the company made their
first million dollars that year. Great. Business was super successful. The men were given the
nickname Shirtwaist Kings. Whoo! You know. So, they became hometown heroes, embodying the American dream. They gave a lot of people Hope like, ""Hey, I can make it big too. I mean, they did it. I can do it." Think about it. I mean, these guys with thick accents, they pull up in a Ford Model T, which was just invented. It was big. People were like, "Oh my
God, Shirtwaist Kings, you're just like us". But with all their success
came Something a little darker. Yeah, I mean, this is called Dark History. Hi, welcome. But before we get into the
funky shit that went down, we're gonna have to take
it a little ad break. Hey gorge. So today's episode is
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for partnering with me on today's episode. And now let's get back to the show. Yeah. Isaac and Max, they needed more work from their employees to
keep up with the demand for the iconic shirtwaist, but they weren't offering the workers much to keep continuing on. They paid the workers
as little as $3 per week and had them scheduled
for extremely long hours. Now, I couldn't figure out how
long the hours were per day, but we can assume it was pretty damn long because the eight-hour work
day, it wasn't a thing yet. And later on, we'll talk
about how the workers demanded a 52-hour work week max. And that was considered
full-time back then, and probably 10 hours a day
is what they're working. I don't know. Anyways, no wonder our great grandparents rolled their damn eyes
at us from the grave because they're probably dead. Shout out to you, great grandma. Max was super paranoid about theft. I don't know. And he wanted to make
sure he kept his profit up and people weren't stealing
within the company. So what he did was he hired a guy who would stand at the door, and they would check the woman's bags every single night as they left to make sure they weren't
stealing any clothing. Max even made sure that
one of the exit doors in the building on the
ninth floor was locked. That way, no one could sneak out the door with some of the goods in. 1909, a building inspector
came through to make sure that the boys were running
their business correctly and taking care of their employees. Well, the inspector wrote
to the Shirtwaist Company with their fire concerns,
because there were some. There was crowding on
the top three floors. There were no fire drills. The locked doors were concerning, and these things needed to be addressed. The inspector though, he never heard back, or if any of the updates had happened. The opinion of many factory
owners regarding these factories were, quote, "Let them burn. There are a lot of cattle
anyway," end quote. So I think it's safe to say
they didn't really care. Also, the building
itself was 135 feet high with wooden trim, wooden
window frames and floors, which was legal at this time. It was said that any
building taller than 150 feet couldn't have wooden trim,
wooden window sills or floors. Now this was the law at the time, and fire codes were way
different in the early 1900s than they are now. But since the law didn't prevent it yet, this building was largely wooden. People were working on flammable fabric with a machine soaked in oil, where wood was surrounded by woods, surrounded by fabric lubed
up with sweet, sweet oil. Plus, get this, there was no law just yet that required sprinklers
to be in factory building. So, cool. Super cool. It wasn't a safe place, and everyone who worked there knew it. They knew it wasn't a safe place. It wasn't a secret or a surprise, but that's just the way it was. So the workers within
the Shirtwaist Company, they started to catch
on, and they were like, "Wait a minute, wait a minute,
wait a minute, everybody. I think we're being
taken advantage of here." So the women within the
factory decided to go on strike in November of 1909. It wasn't just the woman
working in the shirtwaist, whatever it's called. It was also 20,000 women from a bunch of different
garment factories from all over the city. So they worked together and are like, "Hey, let's go on strike and demand we get better
pay, reasonable hours, because I got this laundry
list of shit to do back home, and I can't be working all the time." And not only that, they
wanted a safer workplace. Now they even had a badass name. These women protesters were called the Uprising of the 20,000. Hmm. They demanded a 20% raise
and a 52 hour work week, and they wanted an extra pay
for any overtime they worked. I mean, it sounds fair, right? As far as a safer workplace goes, the workers just want to
be able to escape safely in case a fire broke out. Remember that one guy Max,
this shithead over here, he locked the door so no one would steal. And the women were like, "I don't think that's a great idea." Fires were common in garment
factories all over the city. So I think asking for a little safety, again, not asking too much, right? They did have one fire escape, but it was kind of janky. I mean, the ladder, it didn't extend all the way to the street. So once you got down to the second floor, you just had to jump from the
second floor to the street. Sound super safe, right? Eye roll. So the workers, they just
wanted to have peace of mind, if anything did indeed happen,
that they could get out. Most of the workers stayed on picket lines outside the factory up
until the following year. Now, Isaac and Max, they were offended at the strike, and they saw it as a personal attack. They were garment workers
themselves at one time, and they seem to pull up their bootstraps and become super rich. So what did they do? They ended up hiring some goons, basically a private police force, AKA some muscle to go after the strikers, beat them up and scare them
until they pretty much gave up. But in the end, the
strike was a huge success. I mean, kind of. after Max and Isaac's
profits were hit hard, they decided, okay, let's just
make peace with these workers and agree to less hours, higher pay. They didn't care at this point. They needed to start making money again. Now, what they didn't agree to was one major part of their demands, which was giving the
workers a safer workplace. They wanted to do the bare
minimum to get them to shut up, which was just giving them more money. And well, what you think happened next? They're holding me hostage and making me do an ad break right now. Please, I'm blinking twice, help. Morse code with my eyelashes. Just kidding. Today's episode is brought
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with me on today's episode. Now, let's get back to the story. Shall we? We shall. Saturday, March 25th, 1911, it's around 4:40 PM. People are ending their
workday, ready to clock out. It was the end of the work week and many, well, probably all of them, were looking forward to their one day off because it's Saturday, and the end of the work week was Saturday, and they only got Sundays off. Anyways, the end of work bell was rung by a guy named Joseph Wexler, who was the goon who searched all the workers' pockets before they left. Well, he was on the eighth floor. And not long after on the eighth floor, someone smelled something burning and notice flames coming from
beneath one of the tables. Ooh. So one person went to go grab some water. Okay, and they're like, "Fire!" But now fire was spreading to the rags near and on the table. Whether these were rags
to wipe the oily machines or just scraps of clothing,
it didn't really matter. This place had so many
types of wood and cloth that the fire just spread quickly. Patterns of clothing were
hanging around a room on an overhead wire. That's where they would put their clothing after a day of work. Now all of that was catching on fire. So the hanging patterns caught on fire. Burning pieces were
falling onto the table, and clothing on the table caught on fire. Bitch, fire, fire, fire,
fire, fire, fire, fire, fire. From there, it was just a chain reaction. The smoke grew thick. And if they could, the people
would make a run for it. But many were kind of stuck
within their work area. Remember what we said
about the ninth floor and the tight as spaces? Well, the eighth floor, luckily
for them, it wasn't as bad, and there were a lot less workers, and bonus, the doors weren't locked. Okay? So it wasn't good, but they were lucky enough to get out. Now, one of the elevator operators left the elevator door open as he came in with a bucket of water, and he's hoping to put out the flames. But when he left the elevator door open, the wind from the draft fueled the flame. People were starting to panic. I mean, yeah, they would. The main way to communicate with the workers on the 9th and 10th floor was by sending a telegraph message. A telegraph message is
kind of like Morse code. They would have to like
(mimics telegraph beeping) their message across. So an attempt was made to
contact the 9th and 10th floor that there was fricking fire and they needed to get out ASAP. And if the Telegraph didn't go through, well, they try to reach them by phone. But at this time, going
through phone took longer than the (mimics telegraph beeping). Okay. So yeah. Now, whether they tried to call
the ninth floor on the phone is a bit controversial. Some say they did indeed
try to call the ninth floor and nobody answered, but some survivors said
that, mm-mm, mm-mm, no one was trying to call. No one was trying to call them. What we do know for sure is that they definitely
called the 10th floor, and I guess they just didn't get through to the people on the ninth. I don't know. The 10th floor was the top
floor of this building. So people were able to
escape and go on the roof. Right? And since the eighth floor
was where the fire took place, there was less people working there, and it wasn't as crammed, they had enough time to get out, and plus, their exits were not locked. So they were able to make their escape. When we think about the story of the triangle Shirtwaist Fire, most of the tragedy
occurred on the ninth floor where the only way out was the elevator, the fire escape that didn't
even fricking touch the floor, or just one door. Remember, there was another door, but it was locked because bozo thought the employees
were gonna steal from him. Many on the ninth floor were
trying to get onto the elevator because that was their
main hope in getting out. But unfortunately, the elevator
couldn't hold everyone, and many were already in
there who got there first. The workers on the ninth
floor, didn't see this coming because the 10th floor got
the warning on the telephone. But on the ninth floor, if
they were even called at all, they couldn't hear the telephone warning because of the loud machines,
the loud work environment. I mean, it was just fricking loud, okay? One sewing machine is loud. Now imagine 250 of them
running at the same time. And again, maybe no one
even tried to call them. Either way, they were kinda
left to take care of themselves. One of the ninth floor
survivors, her name was Rose. She would later say that they
fricking never had a chance. She said the fire was everywhere and the flames were coming
in through the windows. The only stairway door was locked because God forbid
someone stole a $3 shirt. And there was a panicked
crowd blocking the elevators. Some of the workers were
even jumping on the table to get off the hot floor. Others tried to hide in
like the dressing rooms, and many of the workers were trapped in their work aisles by wicker
baskets used to hold fabric. And if you're stuck in a fire, you do not wanna be
trapped next to wicker. It's flammable as fuck. This is where it gets fucked. The side staircase was blocked by fire, and it became so hot inside that some workers fainted from the heat. Now imagine hundreds of
workers in a small building, trying to find their way out. Everyone is panicking. All the exits are blocked. I mean, what are you supposed to do? Some decided to try and get up to the roof and escape on the rooftop. Others decided to kick out
windows and yell for help to the onlookers down below. But down there they
knew what was happening, but there was literally
nothing they could do. For many, the decision
became jump or burn. At that moment, some
people heard a huge kaboom. And we're not really sure what it was, but there was a barrel of oil that was used for the sewing machines. That was likely the
source of the explosion because it was missing after that. So assumptions were made. That just fueled the whole damn fire and increase the panic of
the people trapped inside. Now, everyone, again, is trying to escape, and there are really only three
ways that they can get out, the elevator, the fire
escape, or the stairs. You've probably seen the
signs in the buildings where they say like in case of
an emergency take the stairs. And yeah, that's because
elevators are super slow and not meant to take
the people up quickly, but I also think it has
to do with electricity. Either way, the problem with the stairs was that the door was pull only, Okay, now this might not
sound that traumatic, but if you've ever walked into a 7-Eleven and you tried to push on a
door that clearly says pull, you know that awkward moment, it doesn't tend to work when
you push and it's a pull. Yeah. So get this. If you have a mob of 200
people running from a fire, pushing to get to the exit, it's impossible to pull a door open when everyone's shoving
you against the door. Do you get what I'm saying? Anyways. So what I'm getting at is the stairs quickly became not an option. Now, back then, there
were elevator operators who stood in the elevator all day and took people up and down. And the one in this building
said he had taken about eight trips during the fire. Now the first few were to the
8th and to the 10th floors, but the rest were to the ninth floor. On his first trip to the ninth floor, he was greeted with just this mob of workers desperate to get on. He crammed as many as he
could, and he took them down, and he kept doing this,
up and down, up and down. And by his third trip, people were standing on the window sills getting ready to jump out. And by his last trip,
he was in such a rush that he forgot to close
the gate to the elevator. Because back then,
elevators had a manual gate. You had to like pull shut. Because the gate was left open. Wind was coming in from
the elevator shaft, which was just adding,
again, more fuel to the fire. And also people were
jumping from the ninth floor on top of the elevator, as it went down, basically breaking it, leaving
the elevator on usable. As for the fire escape,
like I mentioned earlier, it didn't even go all
the way to the ground. So people were taking
the fire escape down. And then from there, they would have to go
back into the building and take the stairs to
get down to the floor and get out safely. And people were doing this until the fire escape collapsed from the weight of everyone
trying to use it at once. 17-year-old Katie Weiner even grabbed the cable
from the elevator door and rode it down, landing on the heads of her fellow workers. She said, her friend saved her life by making sure she landed safely. The same couldn't be said
for her sister, Rosie, who sadly died in the fire. So yeah, it was pretty grim, and there weren't enough escape options. And the ones that were available
just quickly fell apart. It was obviously total chaos. Okay? The building itself, it
wasn't meant to handle this level of an emergency, and the people weren't prepared
to deal with it either. But let's take a look at
it from a different angle because things were happening
from the street too. People try to help. The fire department came. There was a lot going on on the streets. So let's rewind, bop, bop, bop, bop, bop, when the fire was just
starting out at around 4:40 PM. So many were gathering outside when people heard the
building alarms going off. A patrol man who happened
to be in the area ran into the building, only to find narrow
staircases and locked doors. He was able to open one of
the doors on the sixth floor. He just found a room of
terrified women behind it. He remembered the heat
being absolutely unbearable. A police officer in the
area remembered seeing dozens of girls hanging from the ledges and others jumping from the windows with their dresses on fire. Firefighters showed up to the
scene and set up life nets where those stuck in the
building could jump out, out of the window, and they
could be caught on the street in one of these nets. Unfortunately, the life nets, they weren't even strong enough to hold those who were coming down. Some of them completely broke through. Sorry. And climbing the building wasn't an option for
the firefighters either. Their ladders only
reached to the sixth floor and they couldn't put out a fire that was three stories above them. Some people witness victims
stuck on the ninth floor kissing before they fell to their death. A local newspaper reporter remembered these same girls from just a year before,
during their strike, demanding better working conditions and more safety precautions in the shops. And now there he was looking at those same girls' bodies dead. We don't really know how
the fire started, honestly. They think it could have
been a cigarette butt, but it doesn't really matter, okay? The place was ready to burs.t
into flames at any moment, The issue wasn't with one person? It was a structural issue, and the workers fricking knew it, okay? Which brings us back to those bosses. We didn't forget about you, Max and Isaac. What were they doing during all of this? Where the hell were they? Well, Max and Isaac were inside the building
when the fire started, but they were on the 10th floor. Lucky them. Then they were in their
offices when they were informed that there was a fire, okay? So they rushed to the roof and people in the building next door saw that they needed help, because he sees smoke and
flames and people on the roof. So the people in the building next door, they laid the ladders across like a bridge from one roof to another to help Max and Isaac get across. Now they escape to safety while most of their workers were fricking back in the building still struggling to get out, you assholes. Well, the fire was controlled
in about 18 minutes, and was completely over in 30 minutes. But I'm sure those 18
minutes felt like hours to those who were stuck inside. Those who were unharmed
went home in complete shock and were horrified about
their traumatic experience and what they just saw, many replaying the awful encounter over and over in their heads, suffering from some serious PTSD. I mean, they didn't have
a name for it back then, but that's what it was,
and what we know it as. After the fire was contained, emergency officials had to figure out what to do about the bodies. Okay? So coffins were called, but they needed more than a hundred. And the local morgue,
they didn't have enough. The pier nearby was turned
into a temporary morgue until they could move the
bodies to the local morgue or stay there until they could be identified by the families. Now this area on the pier, it would later become
known as Misery Lane. Days later, the city stood in solidarity with the workers who died in the fire. And over 100,000 people
would hold a vigil March in memory of the fallen. And now let's hear a
word from our sponsor. Today's episode is sponsored by Upstart. If you're carrying a credit
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your monthly payments today when you go to upstart.com/darkhistory. That's upstart.com/darkhistory. Don't forget to use the URL to let them know we
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certain other information provided in your loan application. Just go to upstart.com/darkhistory. Thank you, Upstart. Now let's get back to the story. Yeah. Oh, we're back. So the good news is that after the fire, Isaac and Max were met
with harsh punishments and were locked up forever. Laws were changed and
everything was great. Just kidding. Because this is Dark History,
it's not light history. One could hope though. But get this. So, almost immediately after the fire, Max and Isaac realized that
this whole fire situation, it didn't look good for
them or their reputation. Instead of being upset or
mourning the loss of their workers and just caring that people died, yeah, they only seem to care
about their business and how this whole thing
looked for them and only them. Welcome to America. So they thought to themselves,
"How can we fix this? How can we start making money again?" So they decided to run
advertisements in the New York Times, defending themselves, saying that they had done
everything they could and that they swear they were
following the fire codes. Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. They were just trying to re-establish their greatness as the Shirtwaist Kings, I freaking roll. Luckily, the general public
saw right through them, and there was a huge outrage
over their little PR stunt. Many were demanding that
they be held responsible for all of the deaths in the fire because the whole thing
could have been prevented. Both Max and Isaac were indicted on seven counts of manslaughter. Why just seven? And why just manslaughter? Girl, I don't know. Because white men, I guess, and profit. I really don't know. But the main evidence brought
forth in the trial surrounded the locked door on the ninth floor, even though there were a
bunch of other problems. Now, this is what they
seem to focus on the most, the locked door. Basically the idea was that
if the door wasn't locked, 146 lives could have been saved. Three weeks after the trial, the jury acquitted both of them. The jury went on to
say that the prosecutor had not properly proved
that either of the men knew about the locked door. Even though Max locked it. Okay. For good reason, again,
the public was outraged, but there wasn't much
else the people could do. I mean the jury made their call. Bull shit. Not long after the trial, the men moved the company
into a new location. It wasn't even far from the old building. And in 1913, get this, this is great, Max was taken to court again for having an unsafe working conditions in the new and improved
Shirtwaist Company Building. Now the main charge was, get this, over the fact that one
of the exits was locked. Not just normally locked though. Nay nay, It was locked with a chain. Very Lisa Frank of him. What, do you know about Lisa
Frank working conditions? Girl, that's a story. That's a story. Anyhow, so he obviously
didn't learn a damn thing. And guess what, he was fined just $20. 20 fricking dollars. Not only that, the judge apologized to Max for having to find him at all. He felt so bad. It gets worse though. There were also civil
lawsuits filed against Max for the people who died, and the victim's family won some money, which was like $75 for
each person that died. And that's only if the families
could even afford to sue, which many of them couldn't. So this is like a big slap in the face. But for Max and Isaac, they were happy because they had insurance and they were able to collect
$445 in insurance money for each worker that died. So they actually profited
off of these deaths. The labor movement was outraged and people were calling for change, but nobody knew who to point
the finger at to fix things. In Manhattan, there were
over 50,000 buildings, but there were only 47 building inspectors for the whole city. Now, I think it's pretty obvious to us that 47 building inspectors can't get to all of these places and make sure to address any concerns. Many of the buildings in the city didn't even have fire escapes, and most of the doors in the factories were a pull, not a push. Also, there should be fire drills, but this wasn't required by law, nor did anybody know who to ask to get this law set in place. The labor movement ended
up becoming more energized after the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire, which led to New York and
other progressive states establishing new standards
and rules for the workplace. Now, three months after the fire, the Factory Investigating
Commission was formed in New York, and they helped create
new laws on fire safety, factory inspections, sanitation, and employment rules in the workplace. Unfortunately, it took about 25 years for the federal government to follow suit. Two years after the fire
in the Asch Building, they finally got around to fixing up all those things that needed to be fixed, like putting in sprinklers. They also started doing fire drills, and doors had to remain unlocked. You probably see a lot of
these signs in buildings. And sadly, a lot of them came
as a result of this tragedy. Even though Max and Isaac
got to live their lives as sleazy bosses, there was some positive
change to come out of this. The Remember the Triangle Fire
Coalition was formed in 2008 and was formed to encourage and
set up nationwide activities commemorating the hundred
year anniversary of the fire. The coalition launched an effort to create a permanent public art memorial for the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire at the site of the 1911
fire in lower Manhattan. On December 22nd, 2015, the governor of New York announced that a bunch of money was gonna be put towards building a memorial
around the building, as well as a list of names of the victims and telling the story of the fire. And this memorial is being
built right now as we speak, and it's set for a grand
opening next year in 2022. When it opens, it will be the first labor memorial in Manhattan. And a story of the fire will be told on it in English, Italian, and Yiddish, the languages of the workers. Now today, the former Asch
Building is part of NYU, where students, to this day, claim to see ghosts of the victims, and some ghost kissing and leaping to their deaths from the windows. Some people say that they hear screams at odd times of the night. Others hear footsteps
running down the stairs and door knobs jiggling by themselves. Now, this is a story we've heard before with different results. Someone in power just wants
more power and more money, and they do not care who they
have to step on to get there. Now, these people would have stayed working in those shitty conditions for God knows how long until someone at some factory burned down the whole place and died. The real question here is, why is it so hard to do the right thing, especially when people were
saying it from the start? And Max and Isaac started at the bottom. I mean they should have known, or worse, they did know that their
actions were awful. But they're rich, so fuck us, right? LOL. When the Triangle Shirtwaist
factory workers went on strike, they were willing to put
their own safety on the line in pursuit of a better life and happiness in a new country where they
didn't even speak the language. And just a couple hours earlier, the building was full of life and people, and now it was reduced to
just a shell of itself, with nothing inside but ashes. But it is called the Asch
Building, so it is very fitting. That was dark. If you remember, the
outside was fireproof. And to this day, the
outside is still there. So way to go, I guess. The outside was protected. But the part where the people were at, the part that mattered, yeah, that was a death trap. And as for the Shirtwaist, its own legacy won't be the fact that it was revolutionary
for women's clothing. Because now, I mean, if you Google it, you can't go anywhere
without finding details about the fire. I mean, who's Googling shirtwaist though, besides me at two in the morning. Well, you might be now. The changes that came after the fire were because of this tragedy, but the factory workers had voiced concerns for these changes while they were protesting, and they had the power
while they were protesting. It's not their fault that their owners were shitty cheapskates, but I guess the point I'm
trying to make here is don't be afraid to keep going. Keep protesting. Get everything you ask for
and prioritize your health. Stand up for what is right. I mean don't let anyone
take advantage of you. Meanwhile, your boss. Yeah, your boss is probably a shithead. What? I mean the boss is
kinda always a shithead. That's the moral of the story here. So go out in the street and protest because we ain't gonna
take this shit any longer. ♪ W#e're not gonna take that ♪ ♪ I don't know the rest of the song ♪ ♪ Let me close the book ♪ ♪ 'Cause I'm done ♪ Wasn't that cute? I just made that up right now. I should do karaoke. Anyways, I wanna know your guys' thoughts. Let's continue this conversation
over on social media, by using the hashtag #darkhistory. Have you heard of this story before? I would love to know. I never heard of it. That's why I'm talking about it. I found it fascinating. Tragic, but fascinating. I'm pretty morbid. I need to just stop. Anyways. Join me over on my YouTube where you can watch these
episodes on Thursday after the podcast airs. and also catch my Murder
Mystery and Makeup, which drops on Mondays. Thank you for hanging out with me today. I hope you have a
wonderful rest of your day. You make your choices, and I'll be talking to you next time week. Bye. Dark History is Audioboom original. This podcast is executive
produced by me, Bailey Sarian, Chelsea Durgin from Slash Mgmt, and Fanny Baudry from Wheelhouse DNA. Producer, Lexxi Kiven, Derrial Christon, and Spencer Strasmore. Research provided by Tisha
Dunstan and Jed Bookout Writers, Jed Bookout, Michael Oberst, Joey Scavuzzo, and me, Bailey Sarian. A big thing due to our
historical consultants Edvige Giunta, Co-editor of the forthcoming
of "Talking to the Girls: Intimate and Political
Essays on the Triangle Fire." Mary Anne Trasciatti and the Remember the
Triangle Fire Coalition. And I am your host, princess
of the dark or whatever, Bailey Sarian.
