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Gruesome indeed, but true? The story appeared
in an Indiana newspaper the day after the fire.
Temperatures were in freezing range and
fire engines had added water to whatever snowfall or
rainfall fell overnight, so a thickness of two
inches of ice is believable, two feet not so much.
Climate records show less than an inch of snow or
precipitation fell that night in Chicago.
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Hand
A second loose body part story appeared two weeks later,
but in a credible publication, the Chicago Tribune.
It was a man's hand, discovered in debris taken from
inside the auditorium and sorted
at the custodian's office. Reportedly
the hand had been severed from the arm and the fingers, though missing, had been large.
Authorities presumed the amputation was the work of
a ring-stealing thief and speculated the rest of the
body had been burned to ashes. It's plausible
that a man without family or connections could have
disappeared without arousing an investigation but
total destruction of the remainder of the body seems
iffy.
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There was an abundance of jewelry on display at the
Iroquois. Rings prominent enough to tempt a
thief might suggest wealth and/or marriage, either of which
would reduce the likelihood of his absence going
unreported.
It is a little puzzling that officials reached the
conclusion the hand did not belong to an identified
victim. There were reports from first responders of
limbs separating from bodies as badly burned victims
were disentangled from stacks of people. That
means at least a few bodies arrived at the morgue in
more than one piece.
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The thief likely amputated the hand then took it
to a hiding place to remove the fingers.
Much was made in newspapers about workers at the
custodian's office sifting through ashes and floor
debris with mining type screens but there was no
mention of fingers turning up during this process.
It's believable that one or two fingers were
missed but not all five.
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Nothing was reported about how such victims were
presented for purposes of victim identification
but a hand missing from a badly burned body is
plausible.
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