DID DANCE FROLIC CAUSE NIGHTCLUB DISASTER?

Boston's mayor blamed a popular and heel-kicking dance - "The Charleston" - for triggering the catastrophic collapse of the Pickwick nightclub in July 1925.

Forty-four people died when the floors of the Prohibition-era venue gave way.

Survivor Rocco Carparto - a professional singer known as ``Teddy Williams'' - watched the disaster unfold from inside.

"Just how it happened I don't know and I guess nobody does," Carparto recalled. "I made a jump for the stairway. But the stairway had dropped and I tumbled down."

Investigators determined chronic structural problems brought down the Pickwick - not the heel-kicking.

SAY WHAT? 'DOCTOR POKES OUT EYE OF KEYHOLE NURSE'

On Jan. 18, 1966, the National Mirror tabloid published a story claiming a prominent surgeon poked out the eyeball of a nurse peeping in a keyhole while he was examining a woman.

"It is not the first time I caught Betty peeking," the surgeon was quoted as saying.

The sewage-crawling tabloid claimed the nurse's mother "admitted to the MIRROR that her daughter had always been an inquisitive child and had been told that someday it would get her into trouble."

Said to be speaking from her hospital bed, the blinded nurse explained her peeking by insisting she feared the female patient was about to blackmail the surgeon.

Oh Betty!

Tattler USA cannot attest to the accuracy of the report.  The National Mirror ceased publication decades ago. Tattler USA maintains a file of vintage tabloids. 

TERROR IN TEXAS SKY AS JET WING FALLS APART

Part of a wing flap snapped on a Delta Air Lines Boeing 737 over Texas on Aug. 19, reports say. 

A passenger estimated the mishap occurred at an altitude of 12,000 feet - and said the aircraft began to shake.

Flight 1893 - bound for Austin from Orlando - landed safely and there were no injuries. It was sent to a maintenance hangar for repair. Boeing has been under scrutiny for design flaws on its aircraft.

[Photo: Flight 1893 passenger]

KILLER FIRESTORM DEVOURED POPULAR AMUSEMENT PARK RIDE

On Aug. 13, 1944, a deadly fire erupted on a spinning amusement park ride, sending leaping flames roaring across a landmark New Jersey playground.

There were six fatalities - three boys and three girls - and 125 injuries in the swift-moving blaze that started at the Virginia Reel ride at the Palisades Amusement Park, located along the Hudson River facing New York City, according to the September 1944 edition of Fire Engineering magazine.

The 15-acre park was especially busy that day with families seeking relief from a fourth successive day of record-breaking hot weather. An estimated 25,000 people fled from the flames, the Associated Press said - and some scaled fences to reach safety.

Firemen from 18 communities answered the alarm and one fire engine was burnt while pumping water.

Fire Engineering described the Virginia Reel as a ride "built in the shape of a mountain," with bucket cars pulled to the top and released down "a twisting, turning path, passing through a small tunnel."

BOSTON'S CASCADING KILLER MOLASSES WAVE TOWERING TERRIFYING 25 FEET

[Photo: Private Collection]

On Jan. 15, 1919, an industrial storage tank burst, sending a deadly tidal wave of molasses coursing through Boston's North End at an estimated 35 miles per hour.

At its peak, the gooey wave towered 25-feet over street level.  

"The destructive flood threw people and horses about, smashed buildings, and even damaged the steel supports of an elevated railway," the Atlantic Magazine recalled.

"Rescuers had to wade through knee-deep molasses and sticky debris to reach survivors," the magazine said. "Twenty-one people died in the disaster, another 150 were injured, and the cleanup lasted for weeks."

ACCUSE TEACHER IN ARKANSAS FAMILY SLAUGHTER

Police nabbed schoolteacher Andrew James McGann, 28, as a suspect in the blood-curdling knifing deaths of a loving mother and father protecting their daughters on an Arkansas hiking trail.

The girls - ages 7 and 9 years - weren't physically harmed, police said. Emotional harm is a given. The murders occurred July 26. The suspect was arrested a few days later at a barbershop.

Evidence points to random killings. The head of the Arkansas State Police said: "We have no reason to believe there was any known association between our suspect and our victims."


[Photo: Washington County Sheriff]