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The list was divided into four groups — women
twenty-one and over, girls, men twenty-one and
over,
and boys. Within each main group, victims were
categorized by the morgue where the body was being held awaiting
identification.
The descriptions were prepared at each of the eight morgues by
police officers. Initially bodies were taken
to seventeen morgues and hospitals but by January 1
the remaining unidentified had been consolidated at
eight facilities.
A standard form was not provided
to list compilers and description thoroughness varied
by morgue/officer. Some made a great effort to provide
information that would help identify the victim; other descriptions appear
hurried and were of limited usefulness. Sometimes age and height estimates
were included, but not weight. Other times weight and height estimates
were provided but not age. Only half the descriptions included hair
color. Some descriptions consisted of just two words: "Badly burnt."
Footwear and stockings were black. Of those
for which hair color information was provided, ten
percent
had light colored hair, eight percent were redheads,
six percent were
going grey and the rest were brunette.
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At least some clothing description was given for
eighty-three percent of
the women. Of those, eight-four percent wore a blouse and
skirt rather than a dress or suit. White was
the most common blouse color but about ten percent were
colorful or prominently patterned. A majority
of the skirts were black, brown or grey.
Corsets were mentioned only twice but more may have gone
unmentioned. As unseen garments, their
identification value was slight. Drawers
were not mentioned either, probably for the same
reason. Decorative petticoats were often
described.
Only thirty descriptions mentioned jewelry. Jewelry
found in the theater later could not be matched up
with the owner until after victim identification by
relatives. Of jewelry found on the
unidentified victims, eight breast pins were cited,
and five of those were described as sunbursts.
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