Born in 1947 in Brooklyn, Mr. Roberts received his bachelor's degree from Cornell University in 1968. While at Cornell he was managing editor of the Cornell Daily Sun and worked as a stringer for The Times and for the Associated Press and Time, Inc.
24
October 5, 1967, day of the fire, Sam Roberts reported in an EXTRA EDITION of The Cornell Daily Sun with a 5 column headline, Nine Perish in Morning Fire At Cornell Residential Club. Sam was 20, born June 20. Mr. Roberts today is a leading journalist and author, with The New York Times with a stunning career.
4
Sam Roberts, now so famous, reported the dorm fire covered again here. I believe he was a senior writing for The Cornell Daily Sun - Extra Edition on Wednesday April 5, 1967, day of the fire. Among other things, Sam writes obituaries for The Times today.
Do you realize how confusing (and how did this get past the editors) this crucial snippet is? "But his wife" literally means the wife of the possible arsonist:
One of them recalled the student. “But his wife really remembered him,” Mr. Fogle said. “She knew he had changed his name and visited his family in Brooklyn. And she remembered the new name.”
9
Societies as a whole have held strong beliefs that are dead wrong for thousands of years. People were sure the sun revolved around the earth for a very long time, and many believed the Earth was flat. Freakonomics Radio just rebroadcast "The Stupidest Thing You Can Do With Your Money, about the delusions held by stock investors. http://freakonomics.com/podcast/stupidest-thing-can-money-rebroadcast/
Neo-cons(like John Bolton-who still DEFENDS the Iraq invasion) were, and some still are, deluded about the results of invading Iraq to take out Saddam. Unless some radical new development occurs to absolutely close this arson case, Fogle is just one in a long line of men with an idee fixee. This was a good read, until the end. Speculation and a suspiciously uncooperative man who changed his name and was emotionally disturbed is all we get? What's this odd duck been doing since 1967? More reporting was needed here. This was an episode of UNEXPLAINED MYSTERIES!
13
The story reminds me of several in the last 40-50 years, some solved, some not, e.g., Unabomber, the Keepers ( Fr. Joseph Maleski and Sister Cathy Resnick). It also points to the ethics and perils of doing research on living people. As the European Court Of Justice has ruled that Google must respect the “right to be forgotten”.
2
Students awoke to what they thought was the murmur of children playing. They awoke to what they assumed was a pesky classmate banging on the door to borrow a textbook. They awoke from a lifelike dream that they were at a barbecue, could even smell the smoke. There was smoke. It was just after 4 in the morning. The dorm was on fire.,,"
My worst professional experience of arson...15 years into a 22 year, (paid 'N.volunteer), paramedic career, was...arriving, (2nd unit, 'into, the box-alarm), at the Happy_Lands arson_homicide site.
It was far, 'N, away the WORST EMS run of my career, especially, in the sense that those (87), snuffed DIDN'T look dead...as we EMT-Paramedics and EMT-Basics usually see people, suddenly / unexpectedly, killed; they looked almost like they were asleep, until one noticed the soot, 'round their mouths / nostrils, the semi-melted party-clothes, stuck, together, etc....
I must confess: when I hard the perp was discovered, dead in his prison cell last year...'pity' WASN'T my first emotion!
I have ALSO responded to two incidents were homeliness folks were set, ablaze in what I believe was mere...'boredom_relief'!
Smoke, 'N, fire make for GHASTLY improvised urban weapons...
I DON'T know if this cold_case will ever be solved, but I wish all success to this investigation!
The headline is misleading and unfair. The article is grossly unfair to the guy in NJ who "changed his name". No real hard evidence points to him. His former Phuds classmates all know his identity so sooner or later this will become public. And then what? Irresponsible, trying to convict him in the court of public opinion.
15
Fascinating, well written. Begging to be a movie in the way of The Big Chill...perhaps The Big Burn?
Happy to write that an instinct told me to check out the comments before investing valuable time falling for a headline that can be described as dishonest click bait.
5
I remember this fire like it was yesterday. I was in freshman English in the spring semester when the instructor came into the classroom with an ashen complexion, almost speechless, and communicated the tragedy of the fire in the six-year Ph.D. Program's residential quarters. She was one of their residential advisors. She attributed the fire to a satanic cult that was practicing rituals in the basement.
Gradually, the fire receded into the background. The fate of the African-American Center and widespread opposition to the Vietnam War were more newsworthy and were uppermost in the minds of many students and staff, so much so, that the Spring Semester of 1970 was, for all intents and purposes, curtailed so that students like myself could mobilize protests against the War. As the author points out, there was a lot going on in the late 1960s that was not business as usual.
For that reason, I want to thank N.R. Kleinfeld for documenting the multiple dimensions of the fire 50 years later. My memory of the fire, although vivid, was incomplete and factually inaccurate. I assumed that the cause of the fire was well-known and all those who perished were Phuds. I also did not realize that, from the first batch of Phuds, only one graduated from Cornell on time. However, the article confirmed two perceptions: the university could have done a much better job in planning the Phud program and could have taken a more proactive and sustained role in investigating the fire.
27
I've heard it said that everyone loves a mystery, but this story follows a familiar pattern. Large institutions, governmental and otherwise , and prominent leaders are under scrutiny. How much of that is helpful? Sometimes, perhaps, the way forward is backward. Perhaps some demon got away with murder. Perhaps Cornell didn't do enough, nor police. The time and energy invested by those involved, those reporting and those reading and reacting constitute a sort of reparations to the past. I don't think the people fueling these flames really believe we were put on earth to hold others to account. They have other reasons. I understand 'no justice, no peace', but I wonder whether there might be some truth in the reverse as well, 'no peace, no justice'. Time marches on; there may be some value to staying present.
2
As a volunteer for the fire department where this building is located, I'd heard about the fire, but not the unsolved mystery surrounding it. Thanks for a well-written, informative article.
One tangential thing the article highlighted to me is how little progress we've made in controlling the misuse of "lie detector tests" in 50 years. They are still used within the system to try to frighten people into admitting things, and the "inconclusive" result is still used in certain situations to attempt justification of ongoing probation and other punishments--essentially saying that if someone can't prove they're not going to do something, they can be considered an ongoing risk to society. It's shocking how little progress has been made in regulating the use of a tool that detects nothing more than physiological reactions to stress.
17
As a commenter observed, it's human nature, when given incomplete information, to fill in the gaps. And I would conjecture that when the incomplete information regards another human being we can't "read," the filling of the gaps tends to be ungenerous and meanspirited. That's not one of the better aspects of human nature.
Read the many speculations in the story. People thought the arsonist may have been the cook's son, given that he was "mentally unbalanced" in a way never specified. Could have been a counselor who kept a can of gasoline around. Or could have been the member of this academically gifted group who was considered "awkward, standoffish, impossible to penetrate." Right.
I attended, on scholarship (like the people in the story), a private college that drew gifted young people. Not everyone there was gifted; some of us were just smart. But yes, there were plenty of "weird" and "odd" people among the gifted. So what? They should be the first ones to be scrutinized when something goes badly wrong?
Given what passes as normal in this country these days, I cannot imagine normalcy as an ambition for anyone.
I don't know what happened here, but nor does anyone else. Why throw the suspicion on those who are different? Could it be the case that they're simply more fragile? Could it be that they are harmless? I doubt that fraternities accepted eccentrics; being conventional was likely a requirement. But eccentricity isn't a crime. Not yet, anyway.
18
the lack of information makes people speculate as it is the mind's nature to fill in the blanks. additional to this speculation is the addition of common knowledge and human experience. universities are known to be concerned with the public perception and officials at said places often desire to protect themselves from the consequences of incidents. mushing this all together yields a good story, great investigative work, a hobby or ruination of the innocent. the end result is often not known until the work is over. one thing stands as fact.
when you bring many unknowns into the equation, the result is impossible to predict. these gifted students had issues, some coincident with their gifts, which had the possibility of manifesting themselves in undesirable ways. perhaps they did, perhaps they did not. the university did not plan for this possibility and did take a chance that everything would be fine. this happens more often than not in new human endeavors. and no one ever wants to take responsibility but for the successes.
in my own investigation of a sexual scandal and why i personally became intertwined in in at St. John's University i can see how a Mr. Fogle can be perceived as a crank. it takes this type of personality. one must be willing to consider anything, offend anyone and never quit. the retired LE's that i hired in my investigation tell me that this is what makes a good investigator. you are not doing this to be liked. and, SJU doesn't like me much.
6
I’d love there to be some way to bookmark long articles like this on my smart phone so It’s not complicated to find where I left off.
6
Isn't it also possible the person who set the fire died in the fire? (The later fires could have been copycats.) Or, it's possible that more than one person conspired - then if one of the conspirators died in the first fire, his or her accomplice set the later fires.
6
Not only did I find the article interesting, I find the comments fascinating - ranging from people who thought it an excellent article to those who thought it was a waste of their time. It is not a “whodunnit” - for that, you can watch the latest Masterpiece Series “Unforgotten” (which, BTW, has excellent justification made by DCI Stewart for pursuing cold cases). The article also depicts a type of student, many who apparently did achieve goals (whether in academia or other fields), but who most likely would have done that without a special program singling them out, and some of whom clearly needed better supervision. So it can add to our reflections of how gifted students should be educated. It also gave a picture of what, sadly, is all to frequent negligence on the part of organizations - whether schools, government, or corporations. If one school or apartment building owner considers whether they really meet the fire safety regulations and if not acts on it, then the article has been valuable.
15
I remember this tragedy well. Ms Beck was the daughter of the wonderful principal of my elementary school, La Salle Elementary in Old Town, Chicago. I remember vividly my mother reading the paper and sharing the awful news that his daughter had died in the fire at Cornell and had been a 6 year Phd program student, and how very sorry we felt for this man, who had put so much energy and leadership into this Chicago public school.
27
As much as I think the truth ought to be known, I'm skeptical of cold cases.
Too many examples of people being convicted because the people who could exculpate them died or can't be found.
There's a reason why statutes of limitations exist, and botched "cold cases" are part of that history.
4
Here's a story that might make you rethink your skepticism. I was dragged off a street at knifepoint in New Orleans and raped in 1994. The police made little effort to find the man even though there were two other similar rapes within months of mine.
After calling the SVU every year for 18 years they finally tested the DNA and got a hit on CODIS. The guy was due to be released from Tennessee after serving many years for the rape of five women in that state.
Thankfully, Louisiana does not have a statute of limitations for aggravated rape. Jimmie Spratt was convicted of the three counts of aggravated kidnapping and rape in 2012 and is serving a life sentence without the possibility of parole.
Do you think he might have raped other people if he had been released by Tennessee? Wanna bet?
37
I entered Cornell in Sept '67 & soon thereafter became closely connected with several of the Res Club survivors, some of whom are mentioned/quoted in this article. From what I recall, the article is factually correct; moreover, it well evokes the trauma, confusion, & administration callousness of the fires' aftermath(s). The investigation was still active when I arrived in Ithaca, & while any murder/arson investigation is going to tread on sensitivities, this one appeared to be vicious, especially towards an individual whom authorities apparently had decided was the villain. This person later was cleared, although you wouldn't have known that from the words of Cornell's administrators (nor the police). I appreciate the thorough research & excellent writing here, even if it has led to nightmares.
25
sorry about the word count. I was severely ill at the time of his telephone interview, and I am not sure I made sense, but I have been following the evolving events about the Res fire carefully, especially in the last 10 or 15 years when these survivors have shown the courage to reunion and follow their own stories and their ensuing problems. And that relates only to the Phuds who received much attention as compared to the graduate students, ll women, I think, five of them who never made it off the second floor. They belonged to no unifying group. My recllections are mostly of our son, telling us for 2 evenings that he was ok when he wasn't, that he needed our help to search campus for a Phud who had gone missing in a very depressed state, that the very first place he took us to see his classmates was very large empty ballroom, with the students, squatted or lying on the floor against the walls, many being comforted by friends still wearing smoke-reeking clothes rather than those that were dressed from the piles contributed by helpful students. The next thing my wife and i noticed was that the only other adult there wore a dark suit, a fedora and he scribbled on a pad while talking to students. He turned out to be an insurance investigator, and we chased him off.
30
I believe Mr. Kleinfield wrote an insightful and accurate and well-written article, as well as being cautious where he had to be. Mr. Kleinfeld interviewed me and my son, Joshua Freeman, a surviving first year Phud student for this piece and we are well-satisfied with his accomplishment. I amless satisfied with many of the comments that have accompanied its publication. There seems to be a TV faction that is unhappy about the end story
and the academic group who want to debate the pros and cons of the Phud program and accelerated education.
THIS IS ABOUT REAL PEOPLE, BOTH DEAD AND ALIVE!
33
Yes, I would have expected better of the readership of the NYT, with regard to wanting a definitive, who-dun-it ending.
4
This is a gripping recollection of a terrible tragedy. The subsequent reconnection of many old friends and associates from the Phud program is a small benefit of the work done by Fogle and Kleinfield.
However, I question whether Fogle, Van Cleef and Kleinfield didn't cross a line in approaching this presumed suspect with unsolicited visits and questions. Cases do go cold, and despite taking his collection of materials to law enforcement, police did not pursue it further. If the police judge evidence against the "main suspect" now, as then, to be insufficient, should he now be tried in the court of public opinion in the NYTs or the book one might suspect is forthcoming!?
Information that looks heavily circumstantial or subjective is held up as sufficiently valid to seek out, disrupt the personal life of and cast aspersions on this mystery student... who was never charged. I find the final destination of Fogle's quest and Kleinfield's article disturbing because so many believe they are so sure of the culprit's identity that they are willing to marshall a courtless conviction here in the public press.
This story needed to be re-visited and those who died are deserving of a proper, more significant memorial, but I can only question the structure of this narrative, meaning that the Fogle's quest had to arrive at this finger-pointing or we wouldn't be reading about it today.
17
I thought the author's quest was more even-handed than Fogle's up to the point of visiting the suspected person's home. There are any number of possibilities here including the fire's not being arson, its being accidental but caused by a student, a person's seeking to mask his identity because he was falsely accused, the same person's being guilty, a perpetrator who has yet to be identified as a possible target of investigation, an electrical or other type of fire that the fire investigation did not detect at that point. Fire science has improved over time. Maybe the clues have and never will be identified. May the dead Rest In Peace, the living come to peace themselves, and may Cornell finally do the right thing.
7
Kleinfield appears to walk a line throughout the article and of course, does not name names, but he has given Fogle a platform and does report with enough specifity that this man's identity will likely emerge. Kleinfield may have found the story of Fogle's obsession compelling, but it is Fogle's claim to have identified a culprit that no doubt clinched Kleinfield's decision to produce this piece for the NYTs. The finger-pointing finale is irresistible and essential to both Fogle's tale and Kleinfield's reiteration, and though the author may feel that in shielding the identity of this student he has fulfilled his requisite ethical standard as a journalist while still getting his article for the paper, that is debatable.
Yes, we may never know with certainty how this fire began, whether it was intentional or not. That open uncertainty is a pandora's box for the human heart and mind and adds much weight to the grief of the survivors. But absent anything short of a confessional or clear evidence coming to light, the case may never be resolved and that is difficult to accept. What may help the survivors is a proper memorial commensurate to the loss. Cornell should facilitate and make amends for their mistakes. If Georgetown can find a way forward from their historical sin in slave trading, surely Cornell should be willing to do what they can to bring an important measure of healing to the survivors.
1
Sonny Kleinfield has performed... and he has asked all the pertinent questions.
I was reborn on a campus, one of the best. That said, I have observed how the academics work when tragedy and controversy rises... like suicide or death of a young person.
Today we are experiencing a mess in government... that will be reflected on campuses in many different ways.
Academics and campus leaders worry about liability. Disclosure is not uppermost. Lawyers run things when there is liability.
I believe that we will soon read in these pages of an enormous and complex disaster that has frightened many of the best in silence for a long time.
Many campuses are involved. Cornell is involved deeply.
When deaths flow from behavior that violates a regulated activity as basic as the production of our food...
All of us are concerned. When food and water are suspect, all of us are concerned.
There is no question. Cornell knows... in the school of DVM - that we are faciing a disaster in livestock. Perhaps the AG school also knows that a similar disaster will soon emerge regarding other food and farms.
Worse, medical schools are involved. I am dealing with one of the best... and am now told that my concerns have been considered at the hightest level...
And it is clear that we are going to experience the most basic shake up in medicine since 1950.
Disclosure, courage, and integrity will drive the process.
The fire discussed here is another matter. From the reading it seems clear.
4
I don't know if this post is ironic, unhinged, or germane. In any case, do elaborate. It would seem at least 4 other readers are curious too.
6
What a great - albiet unsettling at many levels.
... I had to keep reading and read it all in one sitting.
2
Well written shaggy dog story. The story never delivers on the promise of the headline:
"No one was ever charged, but an amateur investigator thinks he knows who set it."
The teaser that Fogle "thinks he knows" falsely gave this reader the impression that we will learn the identity of the arsonist. Sholom Alecychem told the same story better in "A Yom Kippur Scandal" with more narrative twists in fewer words. Aleykhem had the same ending, but never promised us more.
http://www.cs.uky.edu/~raphael/IAYC/sholemaleykhem.oysgetreyslt.eng.html
5
Puddinhead6 -- I read the story you linked. Thank you. However, the lesson in your story -- to be cautious about who is blamed for a deed -- doesn't quite fit here. In your tale, the man suspected of theft was clearly identified and even accosted. None of that has happened here.
The writer of this article promised nothing in the title. Quite the opposite: It begins with "Never Solved."
He is careful not to identify the man whom Fogle has (perhaps wrongly) has concentrated on, and he meticulously guarded the man's new identity.
No publication (short of the National Enquirer) would print the identity of a man based on the suspicions of an amateur sleuth. And a journalist with any modicum of integrity wouldn't even try to get it past his editor.
As others have expressed, I believe Mr. Fogle has an obsession far beyond an interest. But he is the reason N.R. Kleinfield learned about the long-lost account of the students' and professor's death. And I'm thankful that he did.
6
Posted for Judy Hellman:
Having escaped the res club fire, I share with the other survivors a sense that only Bill Fogle’s doggedness (correctly characterized by Sonny Kleinfield as “obsessive”), could have brought us all together, since it was Fogle who managed to locate more than 40 of us and put us in contact.
When we survivors learned that Kleinfield was willing to take on this case, we were confident that the story would be told in an exceedingly well documented and compelling way. Among us there may be unhappiness with some choices that Kleinfield made with regard to the emphasis he gave to Fogle and the flaws in the PhD program. But thanks to him the story is out there and now all can see that Cornell was unwilling to assume responsibility, provide a clear reckoning of the events much less acknowledge any failings that could bring charges of criminal negligence: i.e. that it housed 60+ students and faculty in a building with no functioning fire doors, no fire alarm system, no sprinklers, no fire escapes, no alternative exits to the door in the lobby and no fire drills.
The the case against Cornell is its stony silence, if, indeed, it is not guilty of covering-up criminal negligence with respect to fire prevention, along with its responsibility for sending forth into society – with neither punishment nor treatment-- someone capable of deliberate, homicidal acts.
May other Cornellians take note that our alma mater has never apologized nor memorialized the Nine.
40
I entered Cornell as a freshman in 1971. I don't recall ever hearing about this fire until this article. What a sad event, and now a tarnish for me on the image of a school I loved and still love very much. A wonderful place. But it is true that it was a simpler, more civil time, and I am not surprised at all that there were no lawsuits. People (esp those who sent children to Cornell) didn't usually jump to that kind of complex mercenary act in the midst of grief. And the school was quite laissez faire in many ways, which in many situations was the right approach.
I do remember Howard Burson, my first boyfriend at Cornell. He was a fine folk musician and philosophy student who dumped me unceremoniously on the steps of the student union. In tears, I heard a voice saying, "what's wrong?" That guy is my dear friend to this day.
Thanks, Howie!
9
I appreciate you sharing your memory about the college. I am a bit confused the last part. You said Howard Burson dumped you, yet you called him your dear friend. You mean you guys have been good friends to this day? How can that happen?
8
Sorry to be unclear. I took some literary liberties. I was crying and I heard a voice asking what's wrong. It was a stranger, who befriended me and cheered me up. I saw him just two days ago. He has been a dear friend to me since that day. I thanked
Howie as a joke for dumping me, because this person might not have come into my life otherwise.
3
I didn't write the original message, but I'm pretty sure that "that guy" wasn't Howard Burson, but the (unnamed) voice who asked "What's wrong?"
1
I lived in this building, which had long since become Ecology House, as a freshman in the 1995-96 year. We were far worse than the two current students quoted at the end of the piece: we remembered the fire in some detail, but primarily as a vehicle for generating ghost stories. One student swore he'd seen a glowing orb floating down the hall; another had felt a hand on her shoulder and heard a whisper. A friend was told by the then-Residence Hall Director that after the fire, a Bible had been found in what had become her room in the basement, open to Ezekiel. These stories would get trotted out when we played a game called (horribly, in retrospect) "Murder," in which we turned off all the lights and ran around in the dark tagging each other. Of course we were dimly aware of the tragedy involved for those who died, but it honestly never crossed my mind at the time that there would be ongoing effects for the survivors--or indeed that there were extant people who knew and cared about the "ghosts" we were entertaining ourselves with. From here, we all seem unutterably callous, or maybe just callow, or both. And yet, it also seems heartbreakingly predictable that to an eighteen-year-old, a thirty-year-old tragedy would feel distant enough to reduce to a ripping yarn. Whatever else Kleinfield's piece (and perhaps Fogle's work) has done, it has offered a sense, desperately lacking in the oral tradition passed down to me, of the personhood of those involved. Thank you.
39
I’m glad you now understand the insensitivity of your games, but - and this is not meant to be a personal attack, as I’m sure you have matured since them - do 18 year olds really turn out the lights and play “murder” tagging each other? Doesn’t that sound more like a game that 10 year olds in summer camp would play? I am often struck by the immaturity of college students in the US. Maybe 18 year olds, before starting college, should spend a gap year doing something to help people less fortunate than they are and then realize that being able to spend 4 years in college is a true privilege, not to be wasted on such juvenile activities.
4
My brother was accepted to that program but choose to go elsewhere to college. Our mother, an Ithaca resident, still talks about it in dread of what might have been his fate as well.
It is sad to hear the lackluster support from the university. Unfortunately, we have have learned a lot through experience since then.
9
A main credo of Cornell University is "Freedom with Responsibility". [Note: JOURNAL ARTICLE
The Cornell Tradition: Freedom and Responsibility
Carl Becker, Bulletin of the American Association of University Professors (1915-1955)
Vol. 26, No. 4 (Oct., 1940), pp. 509-522] From the lengthy article one understands there was Freedom with all phases of the PHUD program - but to say the lease, underwhelming Responsibility after the disastrous fire.
7
Okay, I got an email about how an amateur investigator thinks he knows who set the fire, only to spend like 40 minutes reading a drawn out article, wherein I kind of felt like the one man toward the end sounded suspicious, but I legitimately got to the end and went "Wait, I thought they said he thought he had it solved? Did I just spend 40 minutes to arrive at no conclusion whatsoever?" I'm baffled by this. Does he think it was the man who didn't want to talk about it, to him?
16
Conclusion aside, reading about the process is such a great thing and enjoyable to me. If you only wants to know who did, next time just go to the end and read the last sentence.
Is it how you enjoy reading newspapers?
7
I too felt let down after the initial build up in the article. But after rereading the article reading the comments, however, I think one point is clear. Cornell failed the victims and survivors in many, many ways.
2
Would be nice to see Cornell create a more thoughtful memorial/tribute simply because it is the noble and right thing for a caring university community to do, and not merely because alumni were interested in it.
19
I was willing to be supportive of Fogle's efforts until I read his comment that liberals were worse than terrorists. This is not a person who reasons soundly.
51
Anyone who thinks people who don't automatically sue everyone in sight
give me pause, as someone who lacks compassion. And not to understand the spirit of the time when this happened--what kind of "historian" is that?!
10
Edit: "Anyone who thinks....in sight is somehow "lame" gives me pause....
2
After reading through this story yesterday, and how could one stop? I had bad dreams in black-and-white about the 1960s. The classism of the piece makes it more difficult for someone to empathise with the fire victims, who probably perished because of careless smoking. The person looking for a culprit is some narcissistic and self-aggrandising man who needs to let it go. Let the dead bury the dead.
3
Let me get this straight--you think this is an article about 9 people who died because of careless smoking?
5
To me, a strange Times’ editorial choice for the online equivalent of the front page. I kept expecting some sort of resolution or news. Instead it just kept going and going, as local color and strange history. In the end my takeaway was the crazy things America did (like this cockeyed PHUD program) when we were afraid the Soviets were out-thinking us.
13
“Who can remember such a long time ago?”
What a terrible epitaph.
15
Interesting story. Shows what a bunch of whimps Americans have become. The survivors complain because they didn't get support from Cornell??? They got a second chance at life and should be grateful and happy. But apparently they want to navel gaze and wallow in self pity.
1
What a callous statement completely lacking in empathy. No matter an individual’s faubles, each of these young people went through a horrific experience and, it seems, was left to deal with the subsequent emotional trauma in isolation. The lack of lawsuits, though a sign of a less litigious society, also illustrate a decided “unwimpiness” in that students and families did not look for a monetary answer to the painful questions they have lived with for the rest of their lives.
26
Too long and no conclusion. What was the point of this?
14
The point is that, as of now, there is no conclusion. That is point enough...
11
Great article!
11
It's so irresponsible to accuse someone of intentionally setting a fatal fire which no one even proved was intentionally set at all. At least the Times withheld names.
8
It seems to me the Times did all BUT accuse him, and obviously many people know the person's name.
5
What struck me, is his comment about 'Liberals being worse than terrorists'. Arizona is filled with guys like him, we call them "Backeastos", they move west, bringing their 'better' ways with them, the very ways they ran from. They pollute our native politics with their outsider attitudes, rather than attempt to blend in to their new culture. These are the Joe Arpio types, never fitting in the West, so they force their will on the locals. I tell them all, "Go back where you can from".
22
A part of Watermargin history I never knew.
- a Watermargin alum
2
That's it? So, who did it?
5
Real life mysteries aren’t always ones with clear answers. This is a great example of the ambiguity created when facts are insufficient to enable anyone to draw conclusions. We will likely never know if this was a crime or just accidental/negligence with matches or cigarettes, or the identity of who or started the fire. It may be unsatisfactory, but nonetheless the sum total of known truth. If you like certainty in your mysteries, stick with fictional crime stories. Of course those are not true either.
4
I'm mad at myself for having taken the time to read this entire pointless story. This would have been good fodder for This American Life, where people go who *want* to waste their time; but not for a newspaper.
10
It's articles like these that keep me subscribing to the NY Times. Well written, unbiased, and complete as time and facts will allow...thank you N.R. Kleinfield and thank you NT Times.
13
If a journalist wrote this, they'd say, "After decades, the Cornell fire still haunts those involved, but there's still no resolution."
Why is it any different because a well-spoken conspiracy theorist is on the case? Why didn't an editor say, "You don't have a story because you don't have an ending?"
Serial won a new trial for the subject. This is just irresponsible journalism.
There are plenty of other compelling human stories that get at all the human motivations in this case, but that DON'T implicate innocent people. Tell those stories, please.
10
Real life is ambiguous. This isn’t a mystery novel. The unnamed suspect may or may not be innocent. There may not actually have been an arson. Just because there’s not a definitive conclusion doesn’t mean there’s nothing of value in this article. It’s important to realize doubt must sometimes be upheld as the wisest course of thought when evidence doesn’t support a conclusion.
3
Why is the woman who read the biblical section about fire not the main suspect? I'm confused why she was dismissed .. can someone explain? Fascinating story .. I'm glad the members of the program who survived have come together to support each other ..
3
Arson is a very hard crime to investigate and prove. I would venture a guess that in 1967 Fire Science was not nearly as evolved as it is today. I did not find anything Mr. Fogle discovered in the least bit compelling. Blaming the police and investigators is just too easy. I cannot imagine that they did not want solve the matter and allowed their efforts to be stymied by Cornell. Blaming someone after all this time with no evidence AT ALL is just wrong. There is not even proof that it was a set fire. Mr. Fogle is something of a quack.
9
I was a high school classmate of Peter Cooch and Loren Cobb. I knew of the fire and Peters death but never knew many of the details. Sadly I suspect we will never know the truth.
4
I was a freshman at Cornell, knew some of those in the program (not, mercifully those killed). I don't know how Jim Perkins is seen today but he was clearly a man with the multiversity dream and got some others to underwrite it to "streamline" American education. After 40 years of teaching I know you should not rush it. It flows from the inside. We teachers stand on the outside showing the ways you might think about something. One factual error, I believe, a tree was planted in honor of Professor Finch on the Quad. My father who was in the English department (and probably many others) were behind it. I have a dim memory that the tree did not survive a storm or the winter. I hope I am wrong. As for the source of that commemoration, it certainly came from the English department
36
Professor Finch's wife donated his books (or in any event, enough to fill a large dorm room) to be kept in the Res Club. A typed note said they were for the students he had loved and had given his life for. I enjoyed a lot of them my first year in the Res Club. But then they were repurposed elsewhere. I am not sure what part of the university made the decision, but the room (Res Club rooms were the most expensive on campus) was soon rented to students.
6
John Finch was a good friend of mine; we were both junior faculty in the English Dept. This article rekindled piercing memories. John's parents were too old and in ill health to travel. His sister, who was a teacher in Port Harcourt, Nigeria, arrived in time for the memorial in Sage Chapel. She bore a startling resemblance to John as she walked up the aisle in Sage Chapel. The following summer I paid a condolence call on John's parents in London. His father had worked all his life in a Kodak plant and had to wear protective gloves because of exposure to chemicals. For a son of a working-class English family to earn a PhD and teach at a university like Cornell was a marvel that they cherished. His diploma, framed, was on their wall. In the 1960s, Cornell was a shockingly insensitive institution, with an overtly and unashamedly racist president cynically courting black students and inducing a cohort of brilliant students to participate in an experiment in force-feeding that baffled me when started. This article is a masterpiece of balance and detail.
4
I can attest that many trees on the Arts Quad did not survive 1968-1972, when I was there. They were frequently abused. On the first Earth Day (April 1970) a new dean at the College of Arts and Sciences wanted to meet all of us who had a dean's scholarship. She noted my courses in ecology and asked a few questions about the then little known field, including what I thought of the Earth Day demonstration on the Arts Quad. I said that they had driven a great many large nails into the elms (there was an epidemic of Dutch elm disease that killed most of the elms in the area), they had broken a branch off another species of tree, and that when a group from the ecology department had approached them offering to give talks and set up a booth they had been refused because Earth Day rejected academics.
And, the morning after, the quad was awash with trash.
I realize that today there are better Earth Day celebrations, but that's the way it was there at that time.
5
Gripping article. Reminded me a bit of Frank Olsen and his life-long investigation of the MKUltra program.
5
MKUltra. Now that's a story to investigate again and again. Dr. Ewen Cameron et al.
This article is unnecessarily confusing on the subject of the PHUDs' degree program. The program described is a BA-PhD dual degree program for traditional-aged students. A "six-year PhD program" is a program in which you get a PhD degree only (and six years is a pretty normal amount of time in which to do so, so it took me a minute to figure out what was so special about the Phuds.) Programs like these are always referred to by both degrees conferred (BA-PhD, JD-PhD, RN-BSN.) For the sake of those readers who aren't up on higher ed argot, a straightforward acronym-free explanation of the program would be better.
33
Agree. While I believe the piece is well-written over all, this jumps out.
5
I think the darkly beautiful photographs with their identical distorted backgrounds were a disservice to the article. They say much about the photographer's dark, cynical view of life and the world and her imagined view of life in 1967, but really nothing insightful about the article's content or the people photographed. As one who was young, bright and healthy in 1967 -- and thank God, I still am -- I think she has no idea those days were happy ones (apart from the horrible fires, of course) and that the people pictured are probably healthy, hopeful, energetic people. (Perhaps much more so than she is?) The NY Times should go more for truth and less for "art" when it's inserted in a hopefully factual article.
4
I agree. Also the overlapped writing is what tv shows use on true-crime stories. But a more direct line is better for me. And neither of these two comments are other than questions of style; the content is very good.
3
As someone who has been a part of hundreds of fire investigations-both accidental and arson-I’m troubled by this passage in the article-
“The coroner concluded it was improbable that the fire had a mechanical cause and that it was likely that someone set it. Given that no evidence of arson was found, he couldn’t say whether it was an accident or deliberate, carelessness or a heinous crime.“
If someone “likely set” the fire, that would be an act of arson, but no evidence of arson was found? So what evidence was found? Where was the point of origin and what was in that area prior to the fire? Nothing mechanical (or electrical?) apparently, but what indicated (or didn’t) an accident or carelessness? What indicated it was “likely set”? Even in a destroyed room or building we can usually always find a point of origin and from the two period photographs, one exterior, one interior, I’m sure a point of origin was found or could have been found. Was there a cause and origin report that the coroner used to make his puzzling statement? Arson investigation has only recently come into more of a modern forensic science approach and focus. It has only been since 1992 that a standardized guide for fire investigation was published by the National Fire Protection Association-NFPA publication 921-our “Bible.” Sorry to say, but this passage, if reported and quoted correctly, indicates to me a questionable investigation. Strange to be banging on somebody’s door without knowing some facts.
17
if the poi really dunnit would he have returned to the ny area? seems like he would stay far away.
One request. Try not to shoot the messenger. Fogle has provided a singular service to many of those who survived. Cornell needs to (1) apologize for their callous handling of this tragedy at the time and over the decades, and (2) fund a visible and appropriate memorial on campus. Institutions are known for focusing on survival and damage control. Time to subscribe to higher values.
14
What a brilliantly written and haunting piece of investigative journalism. The research involved is breathtaking. Bravo to Mr. Kleinfeld.
6
All those words and no conclusion. Leaves me torn.
Like other historical questions there is no answer to. Oswald or the mob? or
Did Churchill withdraw escort for Lousitania with hope it would get sunk?
Will we ever know?
I confess I'd like to see authorities force a resolution.
Make a polygraph and other tests mandatory for the most likely suspect.
And yet, I can remember a posse in my dorm of devout catholic prep school boys that targeted me, because I was the long haired Dylan listening agnostic.
And the priest, an sj horror, backed them up.
There had been thefts on the floor and they'd searched my room and found 60 dollars taped to the bottom of a dresser. It was my Christmas money hidden in a secure spot.
They took it. Later it turned out that the kid who was leading the posse was the thief.
So I'd like to see all pressure put on the suspect, but if nothing specifically incriminates him is found, back off and let the grass do its work.
What a horrible crime -- and the subsequent fires reveal no remorse.
Good luck Mr. Fogle. Persist on.
1
While wondering why Mr. Fogle was so attached to this mystery despite having little personal attachment to it, I found myself attached to this story despite having little personal attachment to it...the world is full of mysteries that we investigate for the sake of investigation, almost regardless of the likelihood of finding an answer.
8
Bill Fogel is neither trained nor qualified to identify guilty parties to a crime. The New York Times should not have put the man identified by Fogel at risk of re-discovery by the public at large reading this article. According to the story the man in question had been interviewed and released by professionals. His reaction to the callers is perfectly reasonable as is his wife's fear.
It is one thing to call for the case to be re-opened--that may be legitimate if there is evidence of failure to investigate properly---quite another to "identify" criminals.
15
This is an intriguing and sad story. The ending does seem to leave the reader hanging.
The writer composed a compelling and extremely well-written essay. Clearly, he is a very talented journalist, who knows how to weave a readable article.
3
I grew up in Ithaca. My father was a prof. at Cornell. I knew Dr. Finch. My former wife's best friend was his mistress, and took on the job of trying to console the parents of the deceased. I attended the memorial service. This event has been my own obsession for many years, and I think I know the name of the suspect discussed.
The 4-year Ph.D. program was an ill-conceived offspring of the megaversity movement in the sixties whose most visible face was that of Clark Kerr. It was psychologically ignorant and treated the participants as experimental subjects. The fire is almost symbolic of the "heat" to overperform the participants lived in. Cornell bears enduring shame.
15
It seems that Mr. Fogle is creating a story without conclusive evidence. Thus, he is not a historian. He is similar to other right-wing "historians."
12
Fogle may be a dilettante. However, history, at its core, does not deal only or mostly with "conclusive evidence." Historical analysis is far more than dates and facts. It deals in interpretation and reinterpretation, examination and reexamination. It is not black and white. It's study, like life, is often shades of gray.
5
What a great piece of writing - every now and then the Grey Lady justifies my monthly subscription with a single article - well done.
5
If sometime in the future I think about canceling my subscription I hope I will remember this piece. It was beautifully written and remarkably evocative for someone like me, who attended another university far from Cornell just a few years later. Thank you for giving this great writer the space necessary to tell this story properly.
20
I am a third year phud who arrived at Cornell summer 1968. I lived in the Res Club two years. This is an incredibly well done article, with an accurate recounting of facts and opinions from half a century ago.
I can answer some of the comments about the program. You were supposed to get a bachelor's degree in three years. The requirements were 120 credit hours (required by the State of New York), and jump into a swimming pool and swim 50 yards. The university was quite stringent that you had to jump in - not dive, not start from in the pool. One phud who was a good swimmer took two years working up to being able to jump in. The program's minimum entrance requirements included being able to test out of a year of calculus, testing out of a year of freshman composition (usually by the SAT creative writing subject exam), and competency in two foreign languages or advanced competency in one. We were required to take a full summer session right after graduating from high school, and most of us had college credits already. So, three years was not unreasonable. (I took four years.) Your adviser needed to approve your schedule each semester, but you chose your adviser.
It's worth quoting the original Ford Foundation mission statement for its funding of the program. It was to be a pilot program for "mass production of holders of Ph D degrees for universities and industry". This gave me shivers.
27
Getting a bachelor's in 3 years is not unreasonable, I know a number of people who did it in 2. It's the PhD in 3 that seems to really pushing it, regardless of how brilliant the student is.
8
A bachelor's in three is not unreasonable (my mother did it in the 1940's with majors in math, English, and another subject that I have forgotten). I wrote on the bachelor's degree aspects in answer to other commenters.
A PhD in 3 is as DW describes it. A Professor in the program said that nobody had ever gotten a Ph D in his department (History of Art) in less than 14 years.
1
These are the extant qualifications of most of the gifted and/or motivated kids coming out of competitive highs schools to day, minus the swimming. Moving through 5-7 AP courses and accelerated math and language is not unusual for kids in these ambitious tracks, but at ages 14-18 it does seem to add significant stress which has been reported on by the NYTs (especially Frank Bruni).
Today, there are large numbers of students who arrive at college with significant core credit who could finish an undergraduate degree on a truncated schedule, but their AP credit is a part of those 120 hours so they don't have to take unreasonably overloaded schedules to do so. It is also common to see undergraduate/master's degree program combinations designed to finish in about 5 years. But the idea that a PhD of significant original advanced scholarship can be generated on a six year accelerated schedule is ludicrous and the failure of program speaks for itself.
Cornell and Ford could have taken these same bright students and given them a supportive, nurturing system and actually succeeded in their mandate but for the myopic and utilitarian philosophy that underscored the endeavor. We still have this flavors of this problem in education, where students must jump through ever more competitive hoops to have access to educational opportunities that in so many modern nations are FREE or nearly so. The more things change, the more they stay the same. That gives me the shivers.
7
An outstanding piece where unsolved mysteries uncover further puzzles and questions and expose how tragedy affects lives. Two things in particular struck me: the list of many many suspects brings to mind the adage that anything can be turned into something suspicious and potentially conspiratorial and recalls the Kennedy assassination and the man with the umbrella; and I found it odd that the one person alive who was part of the investigation would state that the other fires may have merely been copycat incidents—I find it doubtful that each fire set by supposedly different individuals would be done so skillfully by each different individual so that no one would be caught.
4
A well-written nothing burger, typical of many cold case rehashes and obsessive amateur sleuths. The time could have been better invested in other unsolved but truly important arson cases, like the 1933 Reichstag fire.
I was a freshman at Cornell in the fall of 1967. The fire was still fresh in people's minds, and the ghettoized six-year PhD students had been dispersed around the campus before the program's justified demise.
While a maladjusted student may well have set the fires, finger pointing at the police and the university for anything but lax fire standards is disingenuous today. And the Cornell campus soon moved on to the issues of the day like the Vietnam War, race and sexual relations, building occupations etc. The hapless university administration and faculty had enough on their plate.
3
Nine young people died.
6
Shame on you for dismissing the deaths of these victims!
6
Several comments address the six-year-PhD aspect of the program. Another aspect, which is related to Professor Parrish’s attempts to dismantle the fraternity system (mentioned in the article) was the desire to create a gender-transcendent fraternity of very bright students whose shared undergraduate experience would lead to what we now call interdisciplinary insights. Parrish was not prepared to have the shared experience turn into what we now call PTSD, and he and Cornell failed the survivors. But, though it did not lead to a crop of very young PhDs, the program produced a high proportion of valuable citizens. I am thinking of the late Glenn Dodd, a fire survivor who struggled to complete a dissertation on Renaissance English theater, then went home to Florida and revolutionized mosquito control. I mourn Martha Beck, who died in the fire; she was a cousin of my daughter-in-law, and thanks to the Fogle investigation I have learned a lot about her—not from him, but from the family’s going through records and making inquiries. She was clearly both brilliant and personable, someone who might have changed the way we see the universe (she was an astronomer).
41
More than one nefarious local operating in those times. Got them all factored in too. Didn't think so.
The corporate Cornell described happened a bit later.
I stayed at the Cornell Heights Residential Club for about a month in 1962. I recall that the place was being used as a training facility for Cornell's hospitality school.
Perhaps the only positive result will be Cornell's response to provide an appropriate memorial to those who perished, if the university follows through.
Now, at least, the events have a cohesive, researched narrative of the fire and its aftermath.
The victims certainly were those who perished. But those who survived, their friends and families, other Cornell students, faculty and staff, firefighters and investigators were all changed to some extent by this tragedy.
Acknowledgement of loss and sincere sorrow should have been the first response. How unfortunate that it seems a concerted effort to shift the blame and diminish liability came first.
Perhaps there is a moral in there somewhere.
14
As riveting as this detective story may be, in the end, nine souls with great promise lost their lives. Perhaps a follow-up could be written about their lives, families and aspirations. Just as with modern campus mass shootings, this tragedy reminds us that colleges need to place students' well-being above public relations concerns, and provide adequate counseling and mental-health services for all who need it.
30
I really hope the guy who is suggested to be the main suspect really did do it. Otherwise, I feel so sorry for him. Obviously, everyone connected to the situation knows who this is. Suppose he didn't do it? Geez. I mean yes there seem to be good reasons to suspect him, but considering there's no proof of anything ... if, as his wife said, "the kids didn't know," I'm sure they know now. There are too many uncertainties - the man doing the investigating seems a bit "off" himself - I feel like this probably shouldn't have been published.
32
“… Not been published“. You are so right about that, because that person sounds pretty damaged; whether self-inflicted (because he done it), or because he spent his life being the accused. And at this date, late date it sounds like evidence and forensics are Gone and now disappearing every time somebody passes away.
1
Why is the “suspect” the only one apparently who refused a lie detector test? Why did he change his name? Why do all involved want to talk about the fire and process it, except for him? These are just three of his suspicious actions. They don’t prove guilt of course but it’s clear he is hiding something. And if he is suspected of being the murderer, it’s because of his own doing.
12
Dear Helen, please avoid jury duty if you possibly can. There are many reasons a person might refuse a lie detector test; for one thing, they are known to be unreliable, and if one is already under suspicion, I imagine they're pretty nerve wracking. There are also many reasons people change their names. One might be because he committed a crime. Another might be because he had been suspected of and vilified for a crime he didn't commit. Or his reasons might have been completely unrelated; many people take various measures to distance themselves from their families of origin. (And no, that does not then make it suspicious that he later got in touch with his family again. That could be entirely unrelated.) He might be a very disturbed individual, and yet not be the person who set the fires (it is obvious a number of other individuals in the program were disturbed as well). Why do others want to talk about it and he doesn't? Either because 1) he did it or 2) he knows the rest of them all think he did it, and what would he have to gain from talking about it, if nothing can be proven definitively. If they all think he did it, talking to them would be hellish. If he is not guilty, I imagine his motivation is to keep whatever shreds of privacy remain to him (e.g., his wife said his kids didn't know anything about this). If he's guilty, all your musings make sense - but he could also be not guilty. Your thought seems to be if someone is accused, he's guilty? Yikes.
2
a great story from a forgotten tragedy- did the NYT moving photos that accompanied the story "out" the suspect?- as an MEd, I was fascinated with the social awkwardness of the group and the % that never seemingly succeeded, academically, supports the newer thinking that emotional maturity/intelligence may be a better predictor of success than intelligence alone
18
Can you explain what you mean about the "moving" photos? It's heartbreaking to see the portraits of the young victims - among the brightest minds in the country - and think of what they could have contributed to the world. The Times photographer's portraits also serve as startling visual texts.
3
The photographs are literally moving, as in a slide show. First showing one victim, then another.
I was at Cornell in the 70s and people still talked about this case. I think you have to remember how different things were then. People didn't ask questions and there weren't cellphone cameras everywhere to leave an electronic trail. Professors slept with students and seniors bullied freshmen. I'm not sure Cornell's handling of this was much different from how universities handled everything in those days.
22
I hope that Professors do not sleep with Students and seniors don't bully freshman, now. Because, doing those activities does not get you to The Top Level of the BusinessWorld as well as The Top Level of Higher Education. The #1 Ranked Professor and the #1 Ranked CEO (in the World) do not do those activities. The Personal is Professional. Clearly, the Ivy League is over-ranked. Probably a downgrade to the Ivy League Ranking, will happen in the Rankings Report... just because it happened at all. Thank you for sharing that information.
Plus, everyone smoked in the dorms!
3
I was a student in a student ghetto that was systematically burned down by arsonists tied to real-estate developers. Real students died, no one was charged. This story resonates, and Cornell is certainly guilty of suppressing this to tamp down its liability. Couple of comments about the story itself. It's excellent but unstructured and too long. The main idea, really, is presented at the very end: that Fogle is life imitating art, not a disinterested investigator. He sees himself as a fictional character conducting a novelistic crusade around an unsolved mystery which might include conspiracy. THAT's the salient point, and I'd have appreciated learning it at the 1/3 mark of the story.
34
This is long form creative non fiction writing which delves into stories in an in depth way. My daughter writes these type of stories as well and it is much more involved than a regular newspaper article and is necessary when you are looking at such a story. The Times is excellent at producing these types of articles and I congratulate them for that.
30
Some of us have normal long attention spans and appreciate a well developed mystery, especially a true one. Thank you NYT.
7
Otoh, that's practically a formula at the NYT, so it wasn't hard to guess that's where it was going!
What a riveting article. I have no connection with the fire but was drawn by the author's storytelling skill.
Isn't history littered with people who doggedly pursue mysteries even when their likelihood of solution is miniscule?
Some pursuers may be deeply flawed. Others not so much.
What matters is their result.
If nothing else Mr. Fogle's search says the victims lives had worth. They should not be forgotten.
Whatever pain he brings to some survivors by stirring memories is, hopefully, more than offset by satisfaction in knowing the search for truth continues.
We do not leave our dead on the battlefield. Bringing them home shows our respect for their lives and by extension all life.
With his search Mr Fogle is doing the same for these men and women.
23
Interesting story, a sad part of Cornell's history that broke a lot of students and their families. However the "investigation" by an uninvolved ex marine with seemingly no investigative skills or arson expertise didn't read as a strong hook to me- just the retelling of it was enough to capture interest. The "investigator" seems like a second thought and he writing around it wasn't great.
Thank you to students from the time for sharing their experience and memories of the time in the comments. I'm sorry you had to go through it, even peripherally, at such a pivotal time in your life.
16
Professor John Finch died when he went back into the burning building in an effort to rescue students who were still inside, students who were in his care. I had been a student in his freshman English course the previous academic year. In the best tradition of Cornell faculty, Professor Finch taught us to develop critical thinking. I am reasonably certain that I was an atrocious writer at the time, but the constructive feedback that I received on weekly essays encouraged me to write, and writing eventually became central to my academic career. Professor Finch also demonstrated his genuine concern for the well-being of his students. The shock of his death has never entirely faded and resurfaced immediately when I recognized his photograph under the headline for this article. Now I feel a deep sadness for the life that was taken from him.
316
Excellent article, gripping at every turn. It's difficult given the rear we live in, to conceive of a tragedy like this that could go unsolved, but one must remember it was 1967 nit 2018. To the memory of those lost:
Turn,Turn,Turn
To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven:
A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, a time to reap that which is planted;
A time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up;
A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance
10
I was a senior at Cornell when the fires happened. They were terrifying. The thing I remember most was having fire drills at unusual times such as 7:45 in the morning and 3 o'clock in the afternoon which told us that the fires could happen anywhere and to us. There were even fire inspections of our rooms ... a couple not just one . I thought that the university was very concerned . The article seems without emotion and what I remember from that time are powerful emotions of sadness and fear.
53
There's nothing inherently wrong with a six year PhD program, as long as one begins it with a bachelors degree in hand. I never could understand the reason for rushing through degree programs. I finished my graduate degree after I felt I had all the skills necessary to pursue a professional career: This took six years and one more for writing. I could have spent another year or more but it was time to move on.
10
Yes, but this program was specifically created to combine undergraduate and graduate together for a total of 6 years training, 3 for the undergrad and 3 for the graduate. It sounds awful and largely unfeasible, which I think they eventually determined and ended the program.
4
I lived for three years in all wood dorms (19th century residences or hotels) without sprinklers. the thought of fire never occurred to me. One night explosions were set off in ceramic toilets and three toilets were blown off the floor. Someone had dropped M-80s into toilets on three floors. The noise was quite loud and the smell of powder was present. No fire alarms either. Maybe we were lucky.
11
Gripping,captivating and in some strange way, nostalgic. 'Yudhasya Katha Ramya', that is 'Stories of War are interesting' is an old saying in Sanskrit. Unsolved crime stories of the past should be added into the same category. And exceptionally lucid narrative by NR Kleinfeld makes even the following of an unsolved crime such an interesting reading. The fire story triggered my own association with a tragic fire in 1993 in Mumbai, India. That was the day when entire Mumbai city was burning with fires set off by unknown mobs. Hundreds of buildings were burnt. Scores of people died. The apartment I used to stay in as a paying guest along with my friends was gutted too. That fire destroyed materials for a feature film I was making at that time.It changed forever many lives along with mine of the people associated with that film. Mumbai fires in 1993 is a completely forgotten story in the public memory. Even for my apartment, not a single photograph remains as a record of it's history, except for some visuals which I sometimes see in my dreams.
29
Please paint those visuals, either on canvas or in words, or both.
8
Another NR Kleinfeld masterpiece. I will always be in awe of your storytelling.
28
I first learned of the 1967 Cornell U fire shortly before my son applied to colleges in 2007. That fire and the fire at a residence hall at Seton Hall U fire in 2000 caused me to be obsessed with asking questions of college administrators/housing directors/facility managers regarding whether the dorms at the colleges to which he applied were built with sprinkler systems, or were retrofitted with them, and whether the systems were operational. I found many were unable to provide straight answers. I have often thought that the same people would never stay one night in a hotel without an operational sprinkler system.
48
Reminiscent of the Our Lady of Angels fire in Chicago in 1958. Ninety-six people died.
Everyone knows who did it. A ten-year-old fifth grader who not only constantly played with fire in the neighborhood but also knew details of the school fire that had never been released publicly. He even confessed to the police. But he was more afraid of confessing to his mother. Then--incredulously--a judge threw out his confession for "insufficient evidence." In reality, the judge was a Catholic who wanted to protect the church.
People floated rumors about the culprit being a janitor, but all the students knew the truth. The boy died about ten or fifteen years ago.
Officially, the cause of the fire remains unknown.
60
I will now look up that fire but generally the courts dont throw the jail children playing with matches.
1
As someone who lived through a shooting in our dorm, Low Rise 7 in 1983 during finals week. It was not far from the Ecology House. I am only learning about this from this article, despite being a 2nd generation alum,
I am, however, not at all surprised by Cornell's lack of acknowledgement of the tragedy. Their primary concern is the reputation of the institution, not an honest relationship with its students and alumni. The sole response to the shooting which left 2 women dead was to tell us that we could take our finals in January if we needed to do that.
I feel for the survivors of that fire and can relate to their trauma. I've lived with the PTSD from my shooting with no follow-up or support from the university. But when they want to raise money - they know where to find me. Acknowledge that something went wrong on campus? That won't happen.
93
I was nearby then and received a call the morning it happened. I am sorry that the university was not supportive to people close to that personal but traumatic event. I am upset that the loss of 8 students and 1 brave professor was unknown.
11
I am sorry you experienced such a traumatic event and that those charged with conscientious follow-up care were so blithe about their responsibility.
I think those a few degrees away from such events misjudge the impact and the lingering effects. They also might have presumed getting students back into a "normal" routine as quickly as possible would ultimately be helpful, though it is easy to see that moving ahead was fully aligned with Cornell's institutional interests. Today we understand more about PTSD and trauma and have higher expectations from administration so I would hope and expect a more caring response were this to occur today, god forbid.
Cornell has long had a reputation as a fairly inflexible institution. The flip side of their reputation for academic rigor (of which they are proud) reveals a high attrition rate (which they may feel conflicted about yet subtly proud as it still points to the "grit" of their academics) and a deeply stressful environment where student dysfunction and suicide have been an issue.
8
NR Kleinfeld is such a phenomenally talented writer. I can’t stop thinking about this story.
36
As someone interested in cold cases, there is certainly a role for "arm chair detectives". In some cases their tireless work (and often obsession) has uncovered new evidence that has directly assisted a case, resulting in police finding the culprit and families finally obtaining peace. There is no worse pain for a family than an unsolved crime, especially when it involves murder. For that reason we should not dismiss people like Fogle or under-appreciate their efforts.
However the challenge is when someone like Fogle allows their obsession to cloud their rational judgement and through frustration at the lack of progress, turn to conspiracy theories or become fixated on certain persons of interest in order to create a solution - often hurting many people in the process. I would encourage any "arm chair detective" to become comfortable with the idea of some cases simply being unsolvable, rather than trying to force a solution without adequate evidence and potentially hurting innocent people in the process. In this instance, the POI who changed their name and was considered odd by many may have his own unrelated reasons for his behaviour. How many times in history has the real criminal in fact been the least obvious candidate? That's why our justice system requires a burden of proof and not just theories, "gut feelings" or hearsay.
52
I was provisionally offered a place in the 6 year PHD program in the summer of 1967. Admission was contingent on attaining competence in a second foreign language. I was one month past my 17th birthday when I began German classes at Cornell in June 1967. After completing a 6 week course, the appeal of a 6 year PHD program had faded to the point that I decided to pursue a typical four year Bachelors program. What astounds me 50 years later is how little discussion of the dorm fire took place. I wonder now if the fire and its mortal consequences may have been a contributing factor in the offer made to me. In retrospect , a 6 PHD program would have been totally inappropriate for me and the article leads me to believe the vetting for the program was inadequate at best.
38
Your statement about inadequate vetting reinforces what one of the Phuds said about some Students being very prepared, and some were "interesting" but not prepared. ---- Clearly, Admissions needed to go through another Student weed-out round. ----- Actually, this problem of not tracking Students very well, thus lumping them together as opposed to thoughtful grouping... is a problem throughout University, even The Ivy League. And, also the K-12 School. Currently, there are Future plans to move the serious, academic Students into a program called All Academic. I am involved with this All Academic creation. There will be a track called: The Brilliant IQ Track.
4
Outstanding article with meticulous research - facts only, no interpolation of personal opinions by N.R. Kleinfield. Discrete, complete and riveting. I am left with an emptiness that the students are all but forgotten.
Mr. Fogle's disrespectful references, such as brainiacs and his idea that liberals are worse than terrorists dilute the veracity of his work. Nonetheless, reading about the terrible tragedy has touched me deeply; I hope the students' and professor's families and friends have somehow found peace.
63
This story was frustrating to read. The fire was a tragedy that seriously impacted lives, and I feel for those affected. But this account was an unstructured and unsatisfactory meandering.
46
The account was like a real crime story, not like a made for TV version. No neat package of information with all aspects known or even knowable.
21
Go watch some TV. There things happen faster. Also it is clear whodunit.
1
I'm delighted you said that. I thought that it struck only me that way.
4
This was a tragic event, so it is too bad that some of the comments here are filled with all manner of resentments involving Cornell ("They tore a historic building down..." etc). I was a junior in 1967 and remember a moving community ceremony at Sage Chapel. I remember people being in shock. But shock was the normal state of things in 1967 when the campus was regularly roiled and rocked by the anti-war movement (of which I was proudly a part). Students were preoccupied with the war and the draft, both of which involved matters of life and death. It should also be noted that students back then, from at least 1964 on, were in open revolt against the old paternalistic policies of "in loco parentis." Everything was changing, everything was in flux. Let's acknowledge it could not have been easy to be a Cornell administrator back then. True, we had only one whole day of orientation in those days and had to deal with predatory, neglectful Collegetown landlords, but that was typical of universities in the Sixties (though I did have shocking middle-of-the-night fire drills in my my freshman dorm many years before the Res fire). Cornell has a complicated history, with many progressive achievements of which all Cornelians should be proud. But if you want to know why the tragedy perhaps did not get the attention it deserved, please draw the camera back and recall the constant turmoil on college campuses from '64 to '70. And Cornell was one of the most active campuses in the country.
89
...and I exceeded the word count before even mentioning the official efforts to desegregate the Cornell campus and the ensuing struggle against racism on campus, which led to the Straight take-over in 1969. There is a lot to remember about that decade. When I spoke in a class on campus a few years ago, students knew very little about any of this. Remembering requires a collective effort. Without it, history can be very ephemeral.
102
Very fine work by N.R. Kleinfeld. It takes quite a lot of historical load off my shoulders. I was there... then.
I had a high school classmate in that "Six Year PhD" class, staying at the Res Club. During a drive back to Cornell from home after a recess, I got into one of those arguments you regret getting into. I raised an objection to the concept of the Program, and promptly got attacked by everyone in the car. I remember the driver, an older Cornell student who was not in the program, condescendingly remark, "Oh Charlie, you are soooo wrong." It was one of those devastating "soooo" retorts.
That Spring, the Res Club burned. I didn't want my argument to turn out to be correct in that way. My argument was, what makes the Phuds so morally superior to the other Cornell students? I was living in a male dorm with a curfew for women student visits, separated by perhaps a half mile from the women's dorms. The Phud men and women were in a motel separated on each side only by an air gap
When I frequented the Res Club, some of the girls were in negligees; my friend mentioned, with a blasé tone, that some men and women slept together.
But this was the time of Perkins's book that attempted to explain the rôle of higher education to us, "The University in Transition". It was the time of the Ivy League nude posture scandal (see NYT article). Phuds were holding down 21 credit hours a semester. At Cornell. It was a time of an idealism that manipulated students.
21
Exceptionally written, enrapturing. I fell into my own rabbit hole throughout & an ornery tangent tendril of my conscience kept tapping me on the shoulder & saying what an amazing movie it would make. High drama, higher egoes, soaring flames and unsolved enigmas.
12
Great story, marvelously written! What tragedies those families endured with the loss of their promising kids in a fire that could have been prevented with a few safety measures! And how traumatic for the survivors --as the story emphasizes-- to suffer this catastrophic experience and to continue living and studying in the same place where their peers died in an unexplained way; even worst, without receiving any support from the Cornell administration at the time.
I have been a Cornell Professor for 24 years --I am on the verge of retiring next year. Certainly, Cornell now has a very different approach dealing with traumatic events, especially when they affect our students --after Korea and Vietnam, we all have learned about PTS and its effects on trauma victims. For these reasons, I believe that the Cornell Administration should acknowledge this tragedy even after 50 years and organize a fitting memorial for those nine (9) students who died in their prime.
85
And give the remaining living students some peace and closure.
5
The six year goal . . . I earned a B.Sc. in EE at Manitoba in four years, worked for two, then went to grad school at Purdue and emerged with a PhD in another 2 years and 9 months. I didn't consider that remarkable. OTOH, I irked my major professor -- then Dean of EE -- and his desire to see me gone may have played a role.
Six years is pushing it, though.
11
Jennie Sun was a sorority sister of mine in Delta Gamma, Chi Chapter at Cornell. By those who knew her, she was beloved. And still mourned.
147
So who started the fire? A man who was a student at the time of the fire changed his name. That is not enough evidence to conclude that he purposely started the fire. It seems that the most likely explanation is that it was an accident.
5
Except that there were more fires started in the months afterwards, apparently targeting Phud students, that luckily didn't kill anyone. A coincidence seems pretty unlikely.
47
Rachel, the first fire could easily be an accident and the remaining fires could be copycat. Many times there are copycat fires, mass shootings, etc. after a major tragedy.
1
Cigarettes are the leading cause of house fires and resulting deaths. So smoking kills the smoker and thise who live near them.
As a landlord i have had 4 fires all caused by cigarettes- now smoking is bannned from my properties - but even a cigarette flicked from a car window set my mulch on fire.
That many smokers in one building with no fire prevention is a kiss of death.
8
Why on earth does he bring his politics into it? Maybe he thinks some liberal dunnit.
38
Horrible, yet fascinating.
I have a relative who did prison time for arson. It was compulsive, and required long-term therapy to control. If I were investigating this crime I look for other fires in other places.
36
Your relative, incapable of stopping pyromania, belonged in a psychiatric hospital, never a prison.
When will we drop the idea that the mentally ill deserve punishment too?
When will we abandon incarcerating others who commit victimless crimes, or financial crimes - who can afford to pay for solitary confinement in their own homes?
Or dimply the idea of not only incarcerating persons who have proved they pose a danger - and punishing them too? Why are we all into running the equivalent of a parental institution abusing its children?
3
I don't think that Mr. Fogle's interest means that he is disturbed in some way. As long as he leaves people alone if he asks them to, then it seems fine to me. People become interested in events all the time "for no reason." Thank goodness for that. If Mr. Fogle were able to solve this, people would be thanking him.
41
I earned my Ph.D. at Cornell long after the events in this story transpired (1993, to be exact) and in my half-dozen years at the university I don't ever recall hearing about the fatal fire in 1967. The student takeover of Willard Straight Hall in 1969 looms much larger in Cornell's collective memory. It's a pity the tragedy of 9 innocent lives lost isn't memorialized more prominently on campus.
I think the story is a bit misleading, or at the very least confusing, about the accelerated Ph.D. program described in the article. Earning a Ph.D. in six years is not at all out of the ordinary. What I gather from the story, although one has to infer this from the facts, is that the program in question involved taking high school seniors and providing them with an opportunity to earn both their undergraduate and doctoral degrees over the course of six years. This does strike me as misguided and naive. Earning a Ph.D. even for someone with a four-year Bachelor's degree under their belt is daunting enough, let alone for an 18-year old who is only starting college.
As for Cornell's legendary administrative opaqueness, that's old news. I have been involved in the academic world as either a student or faculty member for almost my entire life. Most institutions of higher learning (and primary and secondary schools to boot) are loathe to publicly share information. That is simply an institutional reality of the education field.
124
Yes, the Phud program took teenagers with extraordinary academic talent and promised them combined bachelor's and doctoral degrees in 6 years. Even back then, as a teenager myself, I wondered what was to be gained by rushing through college and graduate school.
39
Chad, I have spent all of my 53 years as a Student, and this last year as Highly Ranked Faculty. Like you, I agree about the lack of voluntary sharing of information to the public. ---- I add to your note, a lack of informing their Students as well. When I was a PhD Student, I think I should have received a lot more basic information about the PhD degree, in general, as well as more information about the Professors. Of course it isn't surprising that the information that was not given about the Professors was about their position and reputation being much lower than what "the brochure said" as well as what they said to the Students in their class, on the first day, during Introduction. For example. ---- In the Future, Students will receive much more information, so they can make well-educated decisions. This change will be a World Curriculum Level kind-of improvement. Chad, did you know about The Student Award, when you were a PhD Student? I didn't find-out about it, until I won it. That was after many years in the PhD program!
6
Thank you for your reply, Kim. No, I wasn't told a whole lot as a Ph.D. student. Some of this is by design. As earnest and sincere some faculty members are to nurture their doctoral students, the hierarchical nature of academia militates against the creation of open communication from the metaphorical top-down.
To be fair, however, some of the institutional opaqueness is due to the ingrained tendency among many academics towards self-absorption which makes them rather lousy administrators when they need to assume such roles.
At one point during my research in the field I received a letter (this was before e-mail was common) from my thesis advisor informing me that a fellowship had opened up with stipend money for the next year but that I had to act fast to apply for it. This meant writing up an application and sending it via snail mail express from Europe to the U.S. to meet the deadline.
My advisor was not being irresponsible. He too only learned of the fellowship from his colleagues. The academic world is notoriously full of gadflies who often can't be bothered with the sort of punctuality that is expected in other professions.
2
Mr. Fogle's desire to be an armchair detective from his basement is not unlike the attitude of a lot of conspiracy theorists -- and I suspect a big part of his attraction to the case is that he enjoys feeling smarter than all those Ivy-League types who dropped the ball.
That doesn't mean all his suspicions are wrong -- just that they are driven more by his emotional need to feel smart than by his desire to bring justice and peace to those who suffered and continue to suffer from this crime -- and that's pretty clear from the way he talks about the survivors.
I appreciate the reporter delving into this, but I also appreciate the reporter's unwillingness to follow Mr. Fogle all the way down that road.
If Mr. Fogle truly cared, he would also be humble enough to be willing to be wrong. That doesn't seem to be the case. One can only hope whoever committed this crime will step forward and give the victims some peace.
61
But the author was willing to follow Mr. Fogle all the way down the road to the home of the person-of-interest, dropping in for an unannounced visit. I think that was a bit too far.
2
Seeing your story today reminded me of the shock and fear I felt when reading the original Times report of the fire in 1967, knowing that a close friend from high school had just enrolled in the Phud program the previous autumn and was living in that dorm. Luckily, she was not listed among the dead or injured and was even quoted in a second article about the fire that day, so I knew she was alive, even if badly shaken. When I spoke with her weeks afterwards, she described the anxiety of the survivors, the intense questioning by investigators, and the fear that a member of the program had been responsible. Ultimately, she moved on to another school, got her doctorate, and became a successful university professor, but I wonder now what scars may have remained long after the event.
46
1) A certain number of years PhD program, seems wrong. In this case it was 6 years. The PhD requires original thought. If it isn't there, then no PhD degree. I am surprised that The Ivy League, although it isn't Harvard (considered to be the best), approved of such a program... especially if it involves high achieving Students (as described).
2) There is somewhat of a picture of the repurposed motel. It doesn't look like the Hyatt, the Ritz Carlton, or even a Hampton Inn. It looks like a dump... especially considering what happened on the inside. Was it? When I went to Duke 83-87 for undergrad, I was disappointed in the living accommodations. I was a Financial Aid Student. Like at Harvard, I suspect that at Duke, some Students lived in groups where their Parents paid several thousands of dollars... up to a million (from what I recently heard) for their children to live in a "membership club" situation. If the Parents don't pay then no membership. Of course I was stuck with what the University offered. Since the tuition is a lot of money, I expected to have better Student support, as opposed to additional obstacles. After all, I worked hard to have a Report Card to get into Duke. I was Valedictorian. I think these Students at Cornell probably deserved better accommodations. Cornell spent so much to get them there, and then they live in a dump. Thoughtless. Probably the 6 yr PhD program of theirs was not good either... certainly not brilliant.
10
I agree with you about the set time limit. I received my PhD at Frodham after completing my bachelors amd masters degrees years earlier. What good is a dissertation that has a set time limit and from students who come in very young with no prior thoughts about it or possibly no research experience? Original thoughts and subsequent research takes their own time, and should not follow a stopwatch.
I cannot imagine any university today coming up with such a program for high school graduates, certainly not an ivy league school.
5
I lived in the Res Cub for two years 1967-1969. It was very nice, acknowledged to be the best on campus. Nobody else had private baths.
2
Please excuse typos. And although it may not be pertinent to the story’s purpose, it would have been nice to have gotten how such a PhD program as this was conceived and approved.
One of the lasting effects of those fires was the PTSD suffered by students, not only PHUDS, who were living in those dorms. These were 17-21 years old (more or less) at a competitive school, away from home, at a time in our culture where the college environment had drastically changed from a more staid 4 year experience to an potentially upsetting - even without the fires- situation with drugs, sex, anti-War protests, demonstrations for equality, etc, at a campus where the administration apparently did not view itself as in loco parentis. (A big debate at my freshman orientation at another campus). Cornell alum Anita Harris has published a riveting account of that time at Cornell, Ithaca Diary available on Amazon.
19
Actually, the title is Ithaca Diaries, Coming of Age in the 1960's.
1
Correction: The title of the book by Anita Harris is Ithaca Diaries: Coming of Age in the 1960’s
3
One of the photographs brought back memories of Tim McKibben, whose tragically short life included a phud year. After a childhood with loving parents, classicists at Grinnell College, he won a ‘newsboys’ scholarship to Andover and was ideally suited to an accelerated program. He had lost his older brother to leukemia and had seen his younger brother damaged by encephalitis and was understandably a serious young man. The summer after the fire, he died, possibly when caught in an avalanche in the mountains above Zurich. I wonder if his classmates still remember Tim.
70
Tim was quite beloved by the group and is well remembered.
64
actually, Tim did not die over the summer after the fire, rather he disappeared the summer after that. in a curious reiteration of the high-handedness of Cornell University, the United States state department and the Swiss refused to search for his body for almost a year, telling his parents that he must have gone on a junket to an ashram in India. a couple of years later, I collaborated with a friend to make a privately printed book of his poems as part of the class work for a bookbinding class at Cornell.
145
I seem to recall that Eve Sedgwick was part of the program and that after the fire she moved to Telluride. I knew Stephen Parrish a few year later and took a course with him, but didn't know he directed that program.
7
Sadly one of the things I learned over five decades of life is that many deadly crimes are never solved. The stats in NYC are alarming: about 30% of bodies found that are listed as "murder" by the coroner are never solved. Varies year to year but it is always a double digit number. Basically people get away with it all of the time everywhere.
29
Yes, and NYC has a high clearance rate. Take a look at the rate in Baltimore with its severely overworked homicide detectives.
1
I am Cornell class of 74 and am ashamed to say I barely knew about this story. By the time I arrived on campus from the sheltered Midwest the past event of note was the takeover of Willard Straight Hall in 1969 - helped by the fact a Pulitzer Prize winning photo forever immortalized the event.
I was really struck by Cornell's tone deaf handling of the survivors. Looking back at my time there, I realize I was charmed by the setting and the people, including some stellar professors. But the institution itself had many flaws at that time. Cornell did a terrible job of guiding young students. They basically admitted undergrads and then let them fend for themselves with very little guidance. If this elite PhD program was Cornell's premiere program, you can imagine what it was like for everyone else.
45
Gosh Karen, I am Cornell class of 76 and your comments echo my undergrad experience perfectly. I was not aware of this event until I read this article. Cornell should definitely do something, beyond a plaque at Ecology House, in memory of the students who perished.
35
This is pretty much how it was in those days, not just at Cornell. When I visited the campus of my alma mater some years back after a long absence, I was astounded at all the services that are available to help guide undergrads, assist them with the problems and issues that arise for so many, and make it easier for them to adjust to what is for many an overwhelming experience. My boyfriend at the time had the same situation at another school and my husband also laments the lack of help he received when he floundered during his sophomore year at yet another. And all this happening when we are surrounded by fellow students, who, it seemed to those of us who were struggling, were sailing along with no problems. A recent reunion discussion dispelled that illusion. Alum after alum talked about how alone they felt, how difficult their experience was--and how they, too, believed everyone else was just fine. I wish I had known then.
41
I'm Cornell class of 81 and I agree with both of you. The scenery was beautiful and the academics were outstanding. But Cornell was a forbidding place. The university was impersonal, bureaucratic and indifferent. I was forced (like most students) to live off-campus after my freshman year, and my social life suffered. I was happy to graduate and leave.
After graduation, I earned a PhD at a Midwestern university. I had a positive experience in graduate school that Cornell did not offer.
I'm ambivalent about Cornell. It prepared me well for adulthood - at a price. It took 30 years for me to overcome my discomfort and revisit campus.
15
“I find liberals to be more destructive than terrorists,” said Bill Fogle.
Perhaps Mr. Fogle is not the most even-handed investigator.
368
Yes, a statement like that certainly doesn't indicate a close working relationship with factuality.
24
Agreed. He seems like a Bill O'Reilly type of historian.
12
Wouldn't you love to ask him just what he means by that statement? The right-wing effort to demonize the left has succeeded beyond its wildest dreams. And meanwhile they whine about anything, no matter how mild, negative said about them.
20
This is an engaging account of what is really a life-long tragedy. If you stop and look carefully at the faces of the students who perished in the flames and smoke from the flames you will see the unrealized hopes and dreams of their parents and loved ones who were sentenced by that event to carry the burden of grief for the rest of their lives. One can only hope that the perpetrator - if there was one - is also carrying the burden of his or her wanton act of cruelty as they live the long days and nights of their own lifetime. We can imagine that like most human beings they, too, will encounter and have to bare the vicissitudes of life and that unlike those of us who suffer without cause the blows of life, they will feel the sharp thorn of reproach for what we might imagine remains of their life long burden of guilt and shame. I am imagining that the guilty party has read Mr. Kleinfield's article with great care and even now is pouring over the words of these comments and so this comment is really meant for them, not the guiltless and casual others here, but for the twisted mind who with every glance at his own hands knows with absolute certainty that they were the flesh which struck the match. I wish him or her many many years of life ahead so that with each sad turn of fate in their lives they will writhe and twitch, suspended on their own living gallows.
38
Fascinating and disturbing at the same time, this kind of story is among the reasons I have a subscription to the NYT. This country has really not learned enough from fire tragedies, from the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory to September 11th and many, many in between. The recent fire at Trump Tower highlighted the decision not to provide sprinklers in this high rise because of additional cost of $4/sq ft. Our society is just not good at studying history, learning from mistakes and investing in prevention. Fire, addiction, prenatal care, teen pregnancy, immunization...all areas where a small investment in prevention can make a big difference. Cornell allowed this building to be occupied without sprinklers. You would think Cornell, of all places, would be smarter.
72
Even the obvious is often overlooked absent a tragedy to call attention to it. In the late 60s-early 70s (not sure of the date), a fire in a small office building squeezed into a space next to one of the high rise office buildings on NYC's Fifth Avenue killed seven people. The doors to the fire stairs opened IN to the offices instead of out to the stairs. That's all it took.
Next time you're in a public space--a store, office, etc., notice whether doors, interior and exterior as well as safety doors open correctly or whether they open in a way that could result in someone's falling at the door so that panicky people would be unable to open the door and would be trapped. There are still many like that. Having had a tangential relationship to that NYC fire, I always notice doors like that. There are too many of them, but most of us are oblivious.
35
I'm astounded at the number of public venues, such as coffee shops, with side-by-side outward-opening doors that keep one of the doors locked. It seems ill-advised at best.
19
First, let's be thankful for not publishing the name of what seems to be the main suspect. The author nevertheless follows the trail and provides a between the line narrative which points the finger.
As the wife declares " ... the kids do not know about this...", we have to wonder how many survivors kept that much quiet. Smells guilt.
Where was the "Sir, one more question?"
Unless seen in TV shows, the criminal mind does not confess.
16
Maybe the kids do not know about the new identity???
3
This could be an interesting season of Serial.
26
As I read it I thought OK there might be an answer. But as were learn more and more about Mr Fogle it seems that he is not to be trusted in this endeavor. I'm not sure exactly as he is superficially honest and sincere but there is some thing driving the effort that is like a burr under the saddle for me.
Some have suggested he be looked at here. IDK. The guy who changed his name and seems to be the main suspect (There is no POI category in our legal system you are either a suspect or not a suspect full stop!), seems to have done it illegally what's up with that aspect? Surely he was using a fake SSN and there are legal restrictions to using a fake identity. So was his use of that dead 17 year old's identity legal or???
29
Right, it does seem like there are many unanswered as well as unasked questions.
6
Second year Phud here. It seems rather clear (from things not mentioned here) that he had help getting that identity and SSN. From whom? Draw your own conclusions.
5
Dale Corson, the provost was as honest and diligent as they come. No way there was a cover up on his watch.
18
Great piece. Thank you.
18
Someone in authority (cold case expert aided by leading FBI arson expert) needs to examine Fogle's work (he is now beyond point of objectivity), press on, and render a final official opinion.
...and from this armchair sleuth:
"there had been three fires across two months, all around the same time in the morning — 4:08, 4:43, 4:51"
was a real hard look ever taken at the 2 other sites for detailed forensic evidence (i.e. finger prints, accelerants used, Phud alibis (incl prime who said he was there but wasn't)?
31
Agreed. There is absolutely no way that those 3 fires weren’t set by the same person. This smells like a huge coverup by Cornell and the police.
3
Absolutely correct about Corson. And not only was provost a position of real responsibility at Cornell, subsequent events showed that Corson had more power then Perkins.
1
I don't see how there's "absolutely no way." There's such thing as copycat crimes. At a large institution, there's always going to be more than one person who's a little, or a lot, disturbed, and it's well known that crime breeds crime. I would not be surprised if arsonists are particularly prone to be jealous of each other's crimes, and tempted to one-up each other.
Very well written. thanks
16
I would caution against joining the pack and virtually incriminating this unnamed man... on circumstantial evidence, at best.
During my college years, I was once the target of a group of people's suspicions, about something I absolutely had not done -- and would never even dream of doing. (It was nothing terrible like setting a fire.) I think they mounted their case against me largely because I was an outsider -- I'd moved into a small + intimate dorm for just one semester, as a visiting exchange student from another college, whereas everyone else had been together for years and felt they "belonged." I'm pretty outgoing and have always tried to live my life in ways that respect others. But in this situation, a sweeping herd mentality took over... and it was scary how rapidly it gained momentum, and how thoroughly they convinced one another of my "guilt"... turning innocuous gestures, comments, acts (even acts of kindness or friendliness) into "evidence" against me. Thankfully, I have never experienced anything like this in my life, before or since. But back then, I suddenly found that, even as I walked down the halls, my fellow students abruptly averted their eyes and cut short their energized conversations with one another. People also came to me and demanded that I fess up. It was awful, weird — and entirely undeserved.
I realize that my circumstances differed from those of the man fingered in this excessively long and round-about article, but...
Just saying....
125
I had an experience like this once at a volunteer job. Another volunteer accused me of having deliberately assaulted and hurt her in an unrelated, outside setting. I had never heard of the setting in which the act supposedly took place, let alone ever been there. Nonetheless I became the focus of other volunteers’ whispers, glances and glacial silences. It was amazing how quick people were to assume that with smoke there must be fire (sorry for metaphor). While the man who changed his name has behaved suspiciously, without proof it seems unfair to conclude or even postulate that he is “the one” responsible for the Res fire. Leave him alone. At this point Fogle’s motives seem more worthy of investigation to me than the fire itself.
28
Yes. And with #metoo, the unproven accusations are really flying around these days...
1
In the 80s I knew of the Eco House fire but I guess I should have known, it never occurred to me, that it wasn't yet Eco House in 1967.
3
But we most definitely did not know about the followup fires at Watermargin etc...
8
I sure didn't.
As a Cornell alum, I remember the stories circulating 20 years after the fire about the Ecohouse being 'haunted' by students who died trapped in the building. Whether or not an arsonist was involved or there were combustible materials being stored in the basement that caught fire, the overall condition of the building was Cornell's responsibility. That is a fact.
While at Cornell, I remember the scandalous way that the University tore down Roberts Hall, despite protection on the historic building, in the early hours of a public holiday. This was so that the building was gone by the time Ithaca officials and community opponents like Historic Ithaca could act. The building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Cornell can act above the law in Ithaca, it owns the place. I had a great education there, but most students felt that there was a terrible bureaucracy there which had its own agenda.
103
Whether or not there is a satisfactory conclusion to this story, it is a riveting piece of writing.
52
I wish this article dealt more with the nature of Conspiracy Theory: a self taught "investigator" looks onto an old tragedy/crime and - while perhaps bringing to light a few little known points - proceeds to speculate about the abilities and motives of professionals who were directly involved decades earlier. This armchair investigator is free to openly accuse anyone of guilt or negligence, and through confirmation bias, they make a compelling case free of the burdens of legal proof that the professionals of the time faced. As the author (briefly) points out, arson is difficult to prove even now, 50 years later.
I grieve for the lost lives, and I surely would have liked to see more accountability for those who contributed to this tragedy - BUT we need to acknowledge the limits of our ability to know the thoughts and motives of people in historical events and the dangers of this kind of determined but perhaps reckless investigations. I'm sure that decades ago mistakes were made and ulterior motives interfered at times. But if we must also allow that sometimes tragedies are not caused by intentional crimes, and causes cannot always be known.
94
There was an excellent cinematic treatment of the first point you raise in Atom Egoyan's "The Sweet Hereafter." An attorney comes to a small town where many of the children were killed in a school bus crash, and he's convinced that a) someone must be responsible for the seemingly unavoidable accident and 2) there's a conspiracy to cover up that fault. But neither seems to be the case in the end.
24
The novel Sweet Hereafter is somewhat different from the movie. It's well worth reading. by Russell Banks.
That would be Russel Banks novel not Egoyan's.
This event still haunted Cornell twenty years later when I first joined the faculty here (and is still not forgotten). To my irritation, fire trucks would roar by my office with sirens blaring on average about twice a day - almost always false alarms. It was explained to me that this reflected Cornell's extremely cautious attitude toward fire after the tragedy. They seem to eventually figure out how to do a better job of sorting out the false alarms, so it is not as bad as it used to be.
22
Cornell's current administrations curt and callous response is as abysmal as it gets. Instead of taking the opportunity to make some kind of amends, fashion some kind of apology, they choose to merely reflect and repeat the hurtfulness of the original admin. Likewise, I'm sure this is their way of avoiding any liability (again), but even with cold monetary priorities, it's surely possible to craft a more compassionate response than this. I assume the statute of limitations does not apply for acts of negligent homicide as it does with all homicides? Actually, if I'm not mistaken, I believe there is plenty of precedent. The Phuds and the undergrads surely deserve better, especially as we all now know better, especially as our knowledge pertains to trauma.
60
It is possible that there was more to Cornell's official response than was quoted. Perhaps the requisite regret and sorrow lines were just not included in the article. Context would soften them.
7
I was struck by the same thing. They come across as utterly heartless.
1
A really well-written, well-researched story about a tragic event. I really appreciated all the details (i.e., Mr. Fogle was rude vs his obvious desire to solve the mystery, etc.) that made this narration feel very real; a very compelling read. There is something about the events in all of our lives that remain mysterious and unknown which draws us into the past and reconsider them. A 19 year old student was horribly raped and murdered in the library at San Francisco State University, the year before I enrolled. I used to think of her often, especially when I was in the library at night. What happened, who did it? The old library has been torn down and everyone has moved on, but still the mystery of what happened remains. Somebody knows what happened that caused the Cornell fire; someone knows what happened to the young student in the library. It's human nature to want to know what happened; stories like this draw us in. Thanks for all the good work that went into this article.
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Ed, I also remembered that murder but had to look up the details. It has also drawn some attention from amateur sleuths. The victim, Jenny Low Chang, was the daughter of Chinese immigrants and a pre-med student. She was found raped and murdered in a locked faculty reading room, to which she did NOT have the key, keys and cards being limited to faculty and library staff. The suspect was a security guard on the night shift with a history of abusing women. He was fired but the case was dropped, apparently for political reasons having to do with not inflaming racial tensions. That removes it from the category of unsolved murders into that of cover-up by both the university and local authorities.
38
It seems to me entirely possible that there is nobody who actually knows.
2
But someone may not know. A discarded match, perhaps not even lit by the people seen playing with matches and perhaps thought safely disposed of, could have ignited a sofa hours later.
3
Excellent story. I give Mr. Fogle credit for his determination to solve this case, and conclude at this point, the greatest services he provided was to bring 20 or more people together again, and to highlight a real issue of the university's non-compliance with safety regulations which existed at the time.
The investigation might have caused anguish among the surviving Phuds, but the resulting catharsis for many of them would not have happened without Mr. Fogle.
54
Let us not forget that Cornell, the first really modern, secular American university (the model for places such as Stanford, Chicago and Johns Hopkins) that prompted reforms at older, stodgier institutions, for well over 100 years under invested in student housing, even as its academic plant grew tremendously. It was disgraceful that the PHD program and undergraduates were housed in a cheap, failed business structure off campus. Male students after freshman year could go on a waiting list for the lovely but tiny upperclass dorms or live in fraternities, which were usually overcrowded messes behind impressive facades, or live in firetrap buildings in Collegetown. I was at law school in NYC in 67.
I was outraged at the fire but not really surprised. The late James A Perkins was a terribly nice establishmentarian gentleman, ill suited to being chief executive of such a complex university, as events in 1969 would demonstrate.
I also wonder if N.R. Kleinfeld counter-investigated Mr. Fogel, particularly the DKE house, its reputation at Cornell in the 60s and its connection to the more widely-reported '69 disturbances.
Cornell needed to be concerned with its reputation as a sink or swim place -- perhaps recently overly concerned, as I have noticed 'safe spaces' marked out in its new, excellent residential buildings. Clearly there is more of a therapy culture on campus.
53
I remember DKE's reputation at Cornell as a right wing (Cornell's other fraternities then were left wing) group, even before its violent attack on blacks in 1969. As Professor Doug Dowd quipped, DKE went in white and ran out red (ie bloody).
3
As a second-year "phud" I was not directly involved, but heard the talk. The identity of the prime suspect was well known, although we are indebted to Mr. Fogle for uncovering his new false identity. It is hard to imagine an innocent explanation for that.
One thing that has not changed is universities' desire to bury bad news, to the point of obstruction of justice. Then it was murder by arson (Cornell dreaded the daily publicity of a trial). Then and now it is rape---campus courts exist to protect the guilty from prosecution and to keep the crime out of the newspapers by pressuring victims not to prosecute.
For motivated and well-prepared students the 6 Year Ph.D. program was a success. Cornell's mistake was to recruit "interesting" but unqualified students. They failed in a high-pressure environment. Some of them were psychopathic and one likely homicidal.
333
Well, the new identity is certainly intriguing. And could be suspicious or indicative of ill-intent. But maybe the man was trying to escape the ongoing suspicion, nothing more. He could have suffered from survivor's guilt also.
18
Of course coverup by college administrators is universal, it’s all about liability and reputation damage, and said administrators’ careers. Two recent examples are Penn State (Jerry Sandusky) and Michigan State (Larry Nasser and his abuse of gymnasts). At my own Midwestern alma mater there were several examples of professors known to all who serially sexually harassed female students, whose complaints were suppressed. Hopefully things are changing at last.
23
"Then and now it is rape---campus courts exist to protect the guilty from prosecution and to keep the crime out of the newspapers by pressuring victims not to prosecute."
This is completely false. Cornell, like many other universities, is notorious for giving no due process for those accused of sexual assault. As a matter of fact, Cornell has the highest number of of active Title IX investigations than any other university.
4
Thanks NYT. Interesting story, good writing. This and other stories like it make the monthly subscription fee a very good investment.
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Agreed!!
14
Agreed #2.
1
I am always concerned about conclusions based on circumstantial evidence. While circumstantial evidence can lead to accurate conclusions, even very compelling circumstantial facts, deemed evidence, have resulted in what later turned out to be groundless conclusions, sometimes resulting in wrongful convictions, a term that can never capture the injustice done to the convicted. Regardless, to my mind, two things are certain. First, if someone did set that fire, he or she is guilty of mass murder. Second, apart from the precipitating cause, the fire may never have become serious enough to require even intervention by the fire department, or at the very least, it would never have never have become such a lethal blaze, had it not been for the unconscionable gross negligence and disregard for safety and human life exhibited by the Cornell University administration of the late 1960's.
123
This entire comment is frustrating. The whole POINT of the article is that there is nothing left but circumstantial evidence regarding these deaths. Hence the person under suspicion is not named in the article. And the "Cornell should have better fire safety rules in the 60s is stating the obvious and pointless to say in 2018 Dont serve on a jury please.
13
One note, the article clearly states that the building was out of code at the time of the fire, that they were missing fire doors, others had been de-hung to allow for carpeting, and the sprinklers they were supposed to have were not in place, and it also indicates that had the place been up to 1967 era code, it is likely many of those, if not all, of those who died wouldn't of. This is not looking at 2018 standards, this is negligency. Had this happened today, instead of 1967 when among other things the Ivy league schools still had a lot of power, they would have been roasted in the media and would have faced a lot of lawsuits and bad publicity. The school may not have hindered the investigation, but they certainly didn't go out of their way to find out the truth, they could have hired investigators of their own, and they could have done more for the families, but the real answer is not suppression, it is that Cornell ran ahead to leave this in the past, and to this day just wants it to stay buried.
1
Thank you for your well researched article. It is a tragedy that Cornell apparently never owned up to. However, it doesn't seem the mystery will ever be solved. The bottom line is - Cornell should have taken more responsibility for this and, I hope, fire violations are a thing of the past for the school.
34
As a student at Cornell in the early-mid 2000’s, I was present when there was another dorm fire that resulted in at least one student death. It was just before graduation, in May of 2006 or 2005 or so. The dorm was somehow related to Risley, the “arts” dorm. Many upperclassmen who had been freshmen “Resleyites” lived there. Although my memory is hazy, I do remember there being numerous other fires while I was a student there, and recall thinking at the time that it seemed statistically improbable. I ADORE Cornell, but do find the frequency of fires a bit questionable.
45
In my book, the “numerous other fires” you cite would be “alarming”—not just “a bit questionable”!
6
It is surprising the article does not mention a fire in the 2000's that resulted in anyone's death, nor that Cornell has any particular reputation for an unusual number of fires. If it's true, it should certainly be looked into. Gah, what if it's someone who's STILL THERE? (Or who was still there in the 2000's, at least.) Otoh, it could just be a distorted perception; the effects of such traumas linger institutionally and can end up creating conspiracy theories.
I was a second year graduate student at Cornell in 1967. I believed then, and still believe, that 6 year Ph.D. program was a wonderful innovation for gifted students to accelerate to achieve a Ph.D. for which too many students spend too many years .
It did not work out, but Cornell deserves credit for trying to reform an area where reform, to this day, is needed.
88
The same could be said for SSMCIS, an accelerated experimental math program that was tested for about a decade (1965?-75?) in a handful of school districts around the NYC area. Teaneck, NJ was one of the districts. A program of Columbia University Teachers College, it was supposed to take us deeply into college level math by the end of high school. Participants (15-20% of each grade) were selected on the basis of sixth grade standardized test scores. For me it was a unsuccessful; by 9th grade I was taking remedial algebra and working my way out of a slough of despond over my failure as a super-geek. It seemed to work well for maybe half of those who were originally chosen. Test scores are absolutely an imperfect selection method for educational innovation.
14
It is astonishing that an event that killed so many people was not investigated more competently by the authorities.
44
My sense is that the fire was fairly thoroughly investigated. No evidence was found that could prove arson let alone convict a suspect. I am surprised and disappointed that authorities did not bring more attention, possibly legal, to Cornell's lack of safety measures and fire prevention, even when measured by the codes and standards of the day.
76
I was in college in that era. I don't think Cornell was unique. Looking back, I shudder to think what could have happened in some of the on-campus dorms I lived in.
The only thing I got out of this piece is that everyone wants to make their own variation of a Serial podcast. Is Mr. Fogel correct or is he a nut? This piece did nothing but renew the sad tragedy which cost 9 people their lives.
43
"This piece did nothing but renew the sad tragedy which cost 9 people their lives."
Well, that's not nothing. This story deserves to be retold. Slim chance that there will be a conviction after all these years, but it would be an appropriate ending. Sad that those innoicent people perished. Inconceiveable that the fire started by itself.
36
It also might inspire someone who reads it, maybe someone not as one track as Mr. Fogel, to try and see if they can come to some sort of conclusion. What makes this case such an open wound is that there is no truth in it, other than 9 people died, they haven't concluded what caused it (arson or accident), and if it is arson or accident, who did it (and why, if deliberate).
I am glad they didn't name the person a lot of people seem to suspect, while changing his name seems suspicious to me, his reason seems pretty suspicious given he stayed in touch with his family, he doesn't deserve to be hassled either.
There is another possible explanation from reading this, that the unnamed man was the one who set the fire, whether it was doing something stupid like smoking in bed or throwing a lit match into a garbage can after lighting up (in that era, a large percent of accidental fires were caused by careless smokers), so it wasn't arson (deliberately setting it) but an accident (manslaughter). We will likely never know, Cornell certainly won't do anything to investigage this, the cops will close it as a cold case, and it will remain a mystery as it is today, because no one really cares to solve it.
4
wonderful story, so well done. hope the killer is found, tho of course there is so much more than that, the memorys of the past, and how we let them drift away...or not. the red brick buildings know the secrets,,,,may they dwell on campus for ever.
20
And don't forget the Shadowbrook fire in Massachusetts: reported by the NyTimes: https://www.nytimes.com/1956/03/11/archives/four-jesuits-die-in-seminary...
10
Was that a case of arson? Is this the same property that was part of Jesuit seminary that became Kripalu? They still called it Shadowbrook.
I was a member of the second year Phud group. I arrived on campus in the fall of 1967.
The fire story made national news. It was given thirty seconds or so on the Huntley-Brinkey report. That was huge. I remember watching it, just after I sent in my acceptance to be part of the PhuD program.
We were affected too, though obviously to a lesser degree than the first year group. There was a lot of emphasis on fire safety, and a substratum of suspicion and anxiety. It did have a negative affect on the Program.
Nonetheless, it's important to point out that most of us received a great education at Cornell. I went on to a PhD in mathematics at Cornell, though not in six years.
173
I remember this event, having grown up in the area. The failure of the six year PhD program seemed to be a bigger issue for the University than the loss of life...
132
I read this as I attended Cornell from 1978-1982. I believe that the building was Ecology House by then.
I found the article very sad— I’m less interested in the detective story than i am in the horrible and lingering trauma felt by the survivors.
I’m hopeful that by reconnecting with each other the survivors are a little more at peace.
230
Excellent writing and what a complex story. From what Fogle dug up and from what was presented, it seems he's found a plausible suspect.
I doubt we'll ever know the truth, though, unless whoever did it decides to clear their conscience.
The whole thing a truly tragic story, and yet to date, someone got away with it. Who knows what the last chapter will be.
67
Spellbinding narrative of a harrowing story! Surprised that such a fine school that is often led by its world reknowned Hotel management program, didn't investigate the tragedy further! I'm curious if Mr. Fogle, since his investigation has often led to Brooklyn, thinks the arsonist, perhaps is ensconced in one of those Brownstones in The Heights or Park Slope?! Even trendy Williamsburg! Leading a quiet unassuming life! One never knows.
16
Take that you Arts College professors!
Sadly the School of Hotel Management has been gobbled up into an amorphous Business School and is no more. Nothing like burying a successful brand.
23
As a Hotel School grad myself, I couldn't agree more. Patty, are you related to Professor Mutkoski? I took his Meats class when I was there. He's a very nice man.
1
The Res Club, I was told when I lived there, had been built for the School of Hotel Management (at the time, Cornell's most expensive and most selective college) to manage as a luxury motel primarily for visiting faculty members. Just a few years later it was not sufficiently luxurious so the hotel school moved its operation. (For that matter, the Res Club would no longer be called luxurious among Ivy League dorms). So the Hotel School no longer had any connections to the Res Club. I suspect that Counter Measures is correct that if the Hotel School had still managed the operation the investigation might have been better handled. Or indeed that the fire safety violations that allowed the fire to quickly spread might not have been allowed to exist so long.
1
Intriguing. This independent investigative works reminds me of the Netflix series "The Keepers". So many twists, turns, and unsolved mysteries!
15
I was thinking the same thing JRM. I found the murder of that nun as haunting as the deaths of these 9 Cornell individuals. Back then, the Catholic church seemed more concerned about their image than this young woman's murder, very much how I felt Cornell felt about their image than the deaths of young people, not to mention the students who survived but never received much counseling, if any. Interrogating them more rigorously as suspects than consoling and comforting them as victims still leaves a bitter taste in my mouth.
I wish Bill Fogle continued luck in his search and attempts in resolving this case, one way or the other. I sincerely hope for the victims, survivors and their families, the truth will eventually be discovered. A tragic story on so many levels.
8
What a sad story. Terrible for all parties involved.
Interesting juxtaposition of sentences regarding the university's reaction:
"A spokesman for Cornell said that “the current administration is far removed from any response the University made at that time..."'
and
"It appeared that the university’s foremost concerns back then were its own liability and Cornell’s reputation."
The more things change, the more they stay the same.
268
i had the exact same response. ugh.
13
Yes, the first sentence is shocking. But what was its context?
4
It followed the discussion of how little help the university had offered the Phuds and other survivors of the fire.
This case reminds me of an investigation of a murder of a female grad student in the Penn State University library stacks in 1969. Derek Sherwood studied the incident for years and came up with a very likely suspect, but who was by then deceased. He eventually published his findings in a book. In the course of his work he found all sorts of strange and unexpected behaviors which had muddied the case for years. As this article illustrates, the world is less apparent than most would expect.
165
During our discussions leading up to the publication of Kleinfield's article, Bill Fogle and I had a lot to say to each other about that case at Penn State and the book based on its events. It is a draining endeavor to maintain a coherent narrative which is dependent on the spotty and emotional recollections of 40 or 50 intelligent but traumatized people.
139
As I was a student at Penn State until the year before the murder, I was able to advise the author as to the nature of the stacks and what went on there. Also, from my career in a laboratory, I was able to debunk the idea that the fluorescent spots all over the scene were male fluids, but rather the remains of soft drinks. A half empty can had been found there. There was an initial theory that the victim had interrupted a gay sex encounter.
Murder in the Stacks. As someone who studied in the remote corners of the PSU library, it was chilling!
7