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Three friends from La Porte, Indiana, a town about seventy-five
miles southeast of Chicago, took a train into the city on
December 30, 1903. They attended a matinee performance of Mr.
Bluebeard at Chicago's newest luxury playhouse, the Iroquois Theater.
Only one came home. The other two perished in the worst theater fire
in America's history, claiming the lives of nearly six hundred
people.
Forty-year-old Ella Wachs and forty-one-year-old Susie Lefmann
were killed and twenty-five-year-old Nettie Mae Dickhut survived —
though reports of her death at the Iroquois would continue for
several years after the fire and are sometimes reported by
contemporary history enthusiasts who come across the early
erroneous reports of her death at the Iroquois.
See map below showing other LaPorte County people involved
in the Iroquois Theater fire.
Nettie / Nellie Mae Dickhut Lawless (1879–1961)
Nettie, who went by her middle name, Mae,
was a self-employed milliner from Quincy, Illinois,
where she lived with her brother and sister. She was
an Illinois native and, like Ella Wachs, the
daughter of German immigrants. John Dickhut and
Eleanor "Nellie" Sibilla Booth Dickhut had six
children, of which Mae was the oldest. Eight years
after the fire, she married a widow, Charles C.
Lawless (1873–1949), father of two children. Mae and
Charles then had two children of their own. She is
buried alongside her husband at the Quincy Memorial
Park in Quincy. Nothing is known about Mae's escape
from the Iroquois theater. Her friendship with Wachs
and Lefmann originated in 1896 when she had worked
as a milliner for Susy Lefmann's father, Charles
Lefmann. The Lefmann department store included a
millinery department.
Susie B. Woods Lefmann (b. 1868) Susie married Charles F. Lefmann
(1861–1919) in 1884. I did not find evidence that
they had children. Charles was an alderman in La
Porte and a prosperous businessman. He and a
brother, coffee importer/distributor of St. Louis,
Julius Lefmann, had interests in the Summit Hill
Mining Company in Taviche, Mexico. Both Susie and
Charles were born in Missouri. Her parents were from
Kentucky and Virginia; his from Germany. Susie was
buried in the Pine Lake Cemetery in La Porte
following a private funeral at the Christian Church
conducted by Rev. George Hicks.
Ella Flentye Wachs (b. 1863)
Ella was married to Casper A.
Wachs (1862–1945). She was an Indiana native. Ella
and her husband may have been estranged in 1900;
though still married, he was living with his
brother's family in Penn, Indiana. After Ella's
death, he remarried and moved to Gary, Indiana,
where he worked in a steel mill. By 1930 he was
widowed again and living with his sister's family
and raising chickens for a living. Ella's body was
identified by her brother, Frank Flentye (b. 1878).
Funeral services were conducted at St. Joseph's
Catholic Church in La Porte, IN, by Rev. Father Messman.
An Indiana native, Ella was the daughter of
Christopher Christ / Chris Flentye (1834–1929), an
engineer, and Abigail "Abba" Usselman Flentye
(1840–1907).* When Ella's jewelry went missing after
the fire, her father took on the Chicago police
department (see story below).
Ella Wachs jewelry. Christ Flentye versus Chicago police department.
Various early February 1904 newspapers reported that
Chris Flentye, Ella's father, gave evidence against
officer William Gibbons. Flentye said that when his
daughter's body was received at Buffum's
Undertaking, her jewelry was removed and placed in
an envelope that was numbered to correspond with her
body. When the envelope reached police headquarters,
however, the number and contents were missing.
Officer Gibbons' explanation was that the envelope
was rifled when he put It down to wash his hands.
The stolen valuables consisted of one ring, set with
three diamonds; earrings with opal and diamond
settings; an enamel watch, and one Marquise ring
with diamond center surrounded with pearls.
February 11, 1904, La Porte Herald newspaper's
report tried and convicted Gibbons.
"Mr. Flentye accepted $500 in cash [another
newspaper reported the amount was $800] and signed an
agreement whereby he would redeem the gems should
the jewelry be recovered and restored to him within a year.
"Probably no stranger story has ever been written
here than the detailing of the disappearance of the
gems, the activity with which the police sought a
settlement of the matter and the willingness with
which they paid $500 for jewelry on which Mr.
Flentye placed a value of $400.
"It may be an old story to the Chicago police, and
it indicates, as previously told in The Herald,
undoubtedly a systematic organization among the
police to rob people. This charge has been made time
and again in some of the Chicago papers, but if an
investigation is started the dust is thrown in
somebody's eyes and then the matter is dropped.
Undoubtedly there were scores and probably hundreds
of instances where jewelry belonging to persons who
were killed or injured in the fire that disappeared
and in most cases the owners or the relatives
dropped the matter.
"Mr. Flentye was of a different make-up. He had some
proof of the fact that a policeman last had the
jewelry and he pushed the case to a point where it
was apparent that somebody was going to prison. In
order to save the man, Mr. Flentye was asked to
place a figure on the valuables, the negotiations
being handled direct by the captain in charge of the
Central police station. This the La Porte man
refused to do upon his visit to Chicago week before
last, at that time giving the police another week in
which to recover the jewelry or suffer the
consequences. When the time was up Mr. Flentye went
to Chicago, but in the meantime he had concluded to
accept a cash settlement, with the understanding
that efforts to find the valuables should be
continued and that in the event of their recovery he
would redeem the gems. Although the jewelry was in
the possession of Officer Gibbons when it
disappeared, Mr. Flentye had no dealings with him,
all the negotiations being with the captain of the
station, a very significant fact. After a few
minutes' conversation and a statement from Mr. Flentye as to what he would do, the captain offered
the La Portean $500, which was acceptable, whereupon
the officer opened a drawer in his desk and pulling
out five $100 bills handed them to Mr. Flentye. The
latter signed the agreement, which the captain had
his stenographer draw up at the direction of the La
Portean, and then the captain expressed his thanks
for the amicable adjustment of the case.
"The captain then called in Officer Gibbons and said: 'Officer Gibbons, thank Mr. Flentye for what he has done for you.' The policeman stepped up to the La Portean and said, 'I thank you very much for what you have done for me. I appreciate the fact that the jewelry was in my care and that it was up to me to produce or make good. I shall always remember your kindness.' Mr. Flentye then left, stating Mr. Flentye did not want money but the gems which were keepsakes of his daughter, but it became apparent to him that the police could not or would not produce the jewelry and so he thought it best, after due reflection, to accept the offer that was made. The supposition is that the gems were pawned and afterward could not be traced."
Chicago Inter Ocean newspaper revealed information
LaPorte newspaper omitted - including
testimony from Flentye and claimant of the
other misplaced envelope, that they had
observed Gibbons washing his hands and
looking for the missing valuables.
Though the LaPorte newspaper story
tried and convicted Gibbons, I found
nothing else prior to this accusation to
impugn Gibbon's character or reputation
on the police force. In 1908 there were
three complaints published. An ill woman
at a restaurant accused him and another
officer of having spoken to her
impolitely, he received a two-day
suspension along with sixty-one other
officers for carrying a non-regulation
revolver, and he was accused of punching
a drunk. It seems that a dirty cop would
attract more complaints in twenty-three
years.
Gibbons was the husband of Mary Tank
Gibbons and father of three daughters,
one of them a year old at the time of
the fire. A fourth, Nellie Gibbons
Hoffarth (pictured below), had died the
prior January when murdered by her
estranged husband. At that time, it was
said that William had a problem with her
husband for the way he treated Nellie,
but since the man shot her three times
as she bent over their infant child, 'it
sounds like Gibbons had good cause for
concern.
Assigned to the Central police station,
William Gibbons was the officer at the
scene of the Iroquois Theater fire
credited with having sent another
policeman to get all available medical
emergency workers. Gibbons had fought
under Generals Custer and Miles in the
west before locating in Chicago and
joining the police force, where he
served twenty-three years. At the time
of his death, only one of his four
daughters survived.
Other LaPorte County people involved in the Iroquois Theater fire
A note about sourcing. When this
project began, I failed to anticipate the day might come when a
more scholarly approach would be called for. When my
mistake was recognized I faced a decision: go back and spend years creating source lists for every page, or go
forward and try to cover more of the people and circumstances
involved in the disaster. Were I twenty years younger, I'd
have gone back, but in recognition that this project will end when I do, I chose to go forward.
These pages will provide enough information, it is hoped, to
provide subsequent researchers with additional information.
I would like to
hear from you if you have additional info about an Iroquois victim, or find an error,
and you're invited to visit the
comments page to share stories and observations about the Iroquois Theater fire.
