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This episode of Swindled may contain

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graphic descriptions or audio recordings

3:37

of disturbing events which may not be suitable

3:40

for all audiences. Listener

3:42

discretion is advised.

3:45

It was Sunday morning around 3am

3:47

when 18-year-old FIU freshman

3:49

Alexis Dale was struck and killed

3:52

while using the crosswalk at Southwest

3:54

8th Street and 109th Avenue. For

3:56

many students, crossing 8th Street is the main

3:59

way they get to... and from campus.

4:01

An 18

4:03

year old information technology

4:05

student at Florida International University

4:08

in Miami was struck by a car and

4:10

killed the day before the fall semester

4:12

began in 2017. Alexis

4:14

Dane was trying to cross the eight lanes of traffic

4:17

on Southwest 8th Street that separates

4:19

the school from the off-campus student housing

4:22

and suburban sweetwater. For pedestrians

4:24

it was a notoriously dangerous stretch

4:26

of road. 4,000 FIU

4:29

students make that treacherous voyage up to five

4:31

times a day

4:32

every day. Yeah there were shuttles

4:34

to class but the waits were long and the service

4:37

stopped at sundown. Sometimes they

4:39

had no choice but to risk their lives at

4:41

that crosswalk. This

4:43

tragedy reminds us how precious and fragile

4:46

life is. Florida International University

4:48

said in a statement. The school later

4:50

confirmed that there were already plans to build a

4:52

pedestrian bridge across Southwest

4:55

8th Street using the 19.4

4:57

million dollars in grant money it received

5:00

from the US Department of Transportation in 2013.

5:03

FIU said the bridge project had broken ground

5:05

a year earlier and was about another year

5:08

from completion. It was the perfect

5:10

opportunity for the school to showcase its

5:12

expertise. Florida International

5:15

University is home to the federally funded

5:18

accelerated bridge construction University

5:20

Transportation Center. Students

5:22

from around the world would go there to learn how to build

5:24

a bridge rapidly off-site and then

5:26

install it quickly. These pioneering

5:29

methods taught at FIU streamline

5:31

the bridge building process allowing

5:33

quicker and more cost-efficient construction

5:36

without sacrificing quality. The

5:38

FIU pedestrian bridge would be a shining

5:41

example of these techniques. The 320

5:44

foot long bridge would cross Southwest

5:46

8th Street at the 109th Avenue intersection.

5:49

The 30 foot wide walking deck would feature plazas

5:51

with benches and tables, event spaces

5:54

and Wi-Fi service. It would be able

5:56

to withstand a category 5 hurricane

5:59

and

5:59

barring a major disaster, it should

6:02

be serviceable for more than 100 years. The

6:05

total projected cost of the bridge was $14.2 million.

6:10

That's actually the form work for what will

6:12

span over for what will be the bridge essentially.

6:15

In the middle where we see that crane over there, that's

6:18

where the middle column will go to the bridge. And

6:20

ultimately on this end is where

6:22

the landing to sweet water

6:25

will reside. Visually,

6:27

the FIU pedestrian bridge would look like

6:29

a suspension

6:29

bridge, like the Golden Gate Bridge

6:32

with cables supporting the deck's weight. But

6:35

in this case the wires were just for aesthetic

6:37

purposes. Structurally, the

6:39

FIU bridge would be a truss bridge, more

6:42

like the Key Bridge in Baltimore, with a

6:44

series of steel triangles and straight

6:46

members connecting at the nodes. However,

6:49

those triangular trusses on FIU's

6:51

bridge would be made of concrete, a

6:54

rare choice for that type of structure. But

6:56

they hoped it would be easier to shape and

6:59

maintain.

6:59

And if all goes according to plan, they hope to

7:02

have the bridge complete by December

7:04

of 2018.

7:05

The FIU pedestrian

7:07

bridge was designed by fig bridge engineers

7:10

in Tallahassee. The school itself would

7:12

oversee the development. Typically,

7:14

Florida's Department of Transportation would be much

7:16

more involved. Munia, construction

7:19

management in Miami, was contracted to do

7:21

the actual building. And it was coming

7:23

along. On the first day of spring break,

7:26

March 10th, 2018, the

7:28

bridge's main section, which had been assembled

7:30

on the side of the road, was ready to be installed

7:32

above the street. It took about

7:34

six hours to position the 174-foot, 950-ton section

7:37

into place. Crowds

7:41

gathered to watch and celebrate.

7:44

One student told the school newspaper that the new

7:46

pedestrian bridge was a blessing. The

7:49

mayor of Sweetwater said it was symbolic

7:51

of the growth of the region and its partnership

7:53

with FIU. Florida International

7:55

University President Mark Rosenberg said

7:58

the project communicated very concretely

8:00

the quote,

8:01

nothing is going to stand in our way of promoting

8:03

our students safety and security and

8:06

nothing is going to stand in our way of progress.

8:09

This new bridge is critical for student safety.

8:11

We're thrilled that they can now have a much safer

8:14

passage. Less than

8:16

a week later if I use new pedestrian

8:18

bridge

8:19

would result in tragedy. 19 year

8:24

old Richard Humble woke up with a terrible

8:27

fever on Thursday, March 15, 2018. He

8:30

asked 18 year old freshman Alexa Duran,

8:33

a political science major at FIU, if

8:35

she could take him to the doctor. Of

8:37

course, my horse, Alexa told Richard,

8:40

a typical response between the best friends.

8:43

On the way home, Richard Humble says he and Alexa

8:46

discussed which movie they should see when he felt

8:48

better. He said Alexa stopped her

8:50

gray Toyota SUV at the red light on

8:52

Southwest 8th Street and

8:55

109th Avenue where the new bridge was being built.

8:57

It was 1.47pm. He

9:00

heard a crack from above. Alexa,

9:03

Richard screamed in the split second before the

9:05

collapsing bridge flattened her car. Alexa,

9:08

he cried again, while trapped inside

9:10

the mangled machine. He could see

9:12

her hair but

9:13

could not maneuver through the wreckage to reach her.

9:16

Richard uttered Alexa's name over

9:18

and over again, but she never responded.

9:34

A witness who saw the bridge collapse told

9:36

WSVN that it sounded like a bomb,

9:39

like multiple bombs in one. It

9:41

sounded like the world was ending.

9:43

And when you look back, all

9:45

you see is the bridge on the floor. It

9:47

was awful.

9:59

people under the bridge they're

10:02

on set because

10:04

the cars are smashed. There are

10:06

no words to be able

10:09

to articulate or any

10:12

type this is completely unfathomable

10:15

and I'm nauseated

10:19

it's completely

10:22

and utterly unacceptable. I gotta

10:24

confirm at least four cars

10:26

under this bridge for these four are going

10:29

to be unattainable at

10:31

this

10:31

time. Sergeant

10:33

Jenna Mendez of the Sweetwater Police

10:35

saw the bridge collapse while stopped at a red light

10:38

one intersection away. She rushed

10:40

to the scene and found multiple construction workers

10:42

atop the pile. One of them 37 year

10:45

old Navarro Brown wasn't breathing.

10:47

Sergeant Mendez performed CPR while

10:50

screaming instructions to bystanders over

10:53

the incessant malfunctioning car horns squawking

10:55

from the rubble. Our teams are still

10:57

in rescue and search mode. They're

11:00

still working the debris pile. We

11:02

have search dogs in place. We have technical

11:05

listening devices and fiber optics.

11:07

We're drilling holes into the pile to

11:09

try to locate any viable patients.

11:12

More than 100 firefighters, police officers,

11:14

and paramedics arrived at the scene. They

11:16

were assisted by passers-by,

11:17

medical students, and university

11:20

doctors. Step one was to

11:22

remove live people from the wreckage. 19 year

11:25

old Richard Humble was one of the first ones

11:27

to be freed. He had neck and back

11:30

injuries but immediately picked up his phone

11:32

and called his mother to tell her what happened to

11:34

Alexa. Richard was eventually

11:36

taken to the hospital along with nine others.

11:39

Injuries ranged from bruising and broken

11:41

bones to comas and cardiac

11:43

arrest. At 5 45 p.m.

11:46

cranes arrived to help retrieve those still trapped.

11:50

We have all of the heavy equipment we might need. We have

11:52

as many as four cranes and crane operators. So

11:55

we're in a full search and rescue mode.

11:59

That's Friday. evening approached, that

12:01

rescue turned into a recovery. There

12:03

was little hope for anyone who remained under the bridge,

12:06

there were no signs of life, they had almost

12:08

certainly been crushed instantly. Alexa

12:11

Duran's body was retrieved from her pancaked

12:14

vehicle early Saturday morning. Rescue

12:16

workers also found 57-year-old Oswaldo

12:19

Gonzalez and 54-year-old Alberto

12:21

Arias on a flattened white Chevy

12:23

pickup.

12:25

Later in the day, 60-year-old Rolando

12:27

Fraga was recovered from his gold

12:29

Jeep Cherokee. Lastly, 39-year-old

12:32

Brandon Brownfield was pulled

12:34

from his Ford pickup. Five

12:36

dead motorists and one dead construction

12:39

worker, Navarro Brown died in

12:41

the emergency room, an absolute

12:43

travesty. Florida International

12:46

University President Mark Rosenberg recorded

12:49

a video statement.

12:50

Yesterday's tragic accident of

12:52

the bridge collapse

12:55

stuns us, it saddens us. It's

12:58

exactly the opposite of what we had intended

13:01

and we want to express our deepest condolences

13:03

to the family and loved ones of

13:06

those who have been affected. The

13:09

bridge was about collaboration, about

13:12

neighborliness, about doing

13:14

the right thing. But

13:16

today, we're

13:19

sad. And

13:21

all we can do is promise a

13:24

very thorough investigation to

13:27

getting to the bottom of this and

13:30

mourn those who we've lost. While

13:34

the local authorities announced the pursuit

13:37

of criminal charges that would ultimately lead

13:39

nowhere against the yet-to-be-determined

13:41

responsible party for the bridge collapse, the

13:43

National Transportation Safety Board arrived

13:46

in Miami to determine why it fell. NTSB

13:49

Chairman Robert Sumwalt led

13:51

the Civil Transportation Accident Investigation.

13:57

Congress

14:01

to investigate transportation actions to

14:03

determine the probable cause and

14:05

then to issue safety recommendations to

14:08

prevent the reoccurrence. I

14:11

want to emphasize that the

14:13

NTSB is here to conduct a

14:16

safety investigation. We're

14:18

conducting an independent safety

14:21

investigation. You may have heard at a

14:23

press

14:24

briefing earlier this morning that

14:26

the local authorities are conducting a homicide

14:30

investigation, which they pointed out

14:32

is routine. Anytime someone dies

14:34

in an accident

14:38

or through a crime, we're not

14:40

involved in that

14:41

in any way. We are looking

14:43

at one thing and that is safety. We're not here

14:46

to help the lawyers build their cases to

14:48

point fingers,

14:49

to lay blame, to

14:51

assign fault. What we're here to

14:53

do is very simple.

14:56

Find out what happened.

14:57

So that we can

14:59

keep it from happening again.

15:02

The NTSB was informed that just

15:05

before the failure, a crew had performed

15:07

post-tensioning on one of the beams or

15:09

members where the truss is connected. It's

15:12

a method used to reinforce a structure. But

15:15

why were they doing that? And

15:17

why did it fail? The NTSB's

15:20

investigator in charge, Robert Isetta, was

15:22

determined to find out. On

15:25

their testing, as I mentioned, in this

15:27

member right here is

15:29

where they were tightening on the

15:31

cable

15:32

and it was to strengthen that

15:34

member. Now, we have

15:37

yet to determine what the failure mechanism

15:39

is, was, and that's still

15:41

under our investigation. But

15:45

the purpose of tightening that,

15:47

that cables, is supposed to

15:49

help strengthen that member. But we

15:52

need to determine what went wrong.

15:55

Turns out there was significant cracking

15:58

and the concrete supporting peers on the...

15:59

north side of the bridge. Thig's

16:02

lead engineer Denny Pate had been made

16:04

aware of this issue but had determined that the cracks

16:06

were not an immediate safety issue. He

16:09

even called the Florida Department of Transportation

16:11

to report the issue two days before the disaster

16:14

with plans to repair them at a later date.

16:17

He left a voicemail for his contact there who

16:19

was out of the office on assignment and

16:21

wouldn't hear the message until after the bridge

16:23

collapsed.

16:25

Hey Tom, this is Denny Pate with Thig Bridge

16:27

Engineers. I was calling to share

16:31

with you some information about the FIU

16:33

pedestrian bridge and some cracking that's been observed

16:36

on the north end of the span,

16:38

the pylon end of that span

16:40

we moved this weekend. So

16:43

we've taken a look at it and obviously

16:46

some repairs or whatever will have to be done

16:48

but from a safety perspective we don't see

16:50

that there's any issue there so we're not concerned

16:53

about it from that perspective although obviously

16:55

the cracking is not good and something's

16:57

going to have to

16:59

be done to repair that. But at any

17:02

rate I wanted to chat with you about that because I would

17:04

suspect at some point that's going to get to your desk.

17:07

So anyway call me back

17:09

when you can. Thank you.

17:10

Bye.

17:14

Denny Pate, Thig's engineer

17:16

of record also made the call to re-tension

17:18

the post-tensioning rods that morning to help

17:21

close the cracks. The design

17:23

build team met at the site for two hours the

17:25

day the bridge fell. Thig reiterated

17:28

that there were no safety issues at that meeting.

17:30

The post-tensioning contractors were given the green

17:32

light to do the job. Post-collapse,

17:36

those cracks that Thig had determined were not a

17:39

safety issue were discovered to have been 40 times

17:41

as large as the acceptable max. Soon

17:44

after the tightening, the truss on the northernmost

17:47

side of the bridge failed causing the 170

17:50

foot segment of the bridge to fracture in the middle

17:52

and crush eight cars below. The

17:55

FIU pedestrian bridge was doomed by

17:58

a design flaw, the NTSB-C. announced

18:00

seven months later at its final report

18:02

hearing on October 22, 2019. Quote,

18:06

load and capacity calculation errors made

18:08

by Fig Bridge Engineers Inc. are the probable

18:12

cause of the fatal March 15, 2018 Florida

18:15

International University pedestrian

18:17

bridge collapse in Miami. The

18:19

designers had overestimated the load its

18:21

concrete trusses could bear, thus

18:23

the cracking, thus the attempted post-tensioning

18:26

temporary repair, thus the

18:29

devastating tragedy. But the bridge's

18:31

designers weren't the only ones to blame. Fig

18:34

had hired an independent company called

18:36

the Lewis Burger Group to review the design.

18:39

According to the NTSB, that review

18:41

was utterly inadequate. The

18:44

Lewis Burger Group blamed a lack of scope

18:46

and budget for the reason it wasn't able to

18:48

catch the fatal design flaw. And

18:50

FIU had no professional engineers on its

18:53

staff to catch these errors even though it oversaw

18:55

the project. The school relied entirely

18:58

on its hired contractors. It was a

19:01

comedy of errors. Also

19:03

why was the street open before,

19:05

during and after the post-tensioning process?

19:08

Most of this pain and suffering could have been completely

19:11

avoided had just one of the organizations

19:13

involved in the bridge construction rerouted

19:16

traffic. F-DOT said it never

19:18

received a request to do so. No

19:21

one wanted to take responsibility. This

19:23

is NTSB Chairman Robert Sumwalt.

19:26

I've been on this board for 13 years and

19:28

I don't think I've ever seen

19:29

a case and I guess I've deliberated,

19:33

sat here and deliberated close

19:35

to 200 accidents. I

19:38

don't think I've ever seen one where there's more

19:40

finger pointing between the parties. And

19:44

you know, the finger pointing is actually correct.

19:47

Everybody is pointing at everyone else. In fact, that

19:49

is correct because everyone shares

19:51

a piece

19:53

of this accident. There

19:55

were errors up and down the line

19:59

committed by

19:59

several different organizations and

20:02

even individuals. Yeah,

20:05

the bridge was talking to

20:07

them, but it wasn't just talking.

20:10

It was screaming that

20:13

there was something definitely wrong with

20:15

this bridge. Yet no

20:18

one was listening.

20:22

No

20:22

one was listening. It was negligent.

20:24

It was reckless. It was wrong. It

20:26

was worthy of a lawsuit

20:28

or 18.

20:30

25 businesses were targeted. The

20:32

litigation took years. The final

20:34

lawsuit was settled in 2022. Every

20:37

case was settled out of court.

20:40

All told, the defendants paid out roughly $103

20:42

million to the victims and families of

20:46

the victims who were affected by the collapse of the

20:48

FIU pedestrian bridge. Money

20:50

could never replace the loved ones lost, but

20:53

time marches on. On May

20:56

6th, 2020, FDOT announced plans to

20:58

design and rebuild the pedestrian bridge

21:00

over Southwest eighth street Miami. This

21:03

time with guidance from the NTSB.

21:06

The project

21:06

is scheduled for completion in 2025. A

21:10

mural for the victims of the 2018 bridge

21:12

collapse will be included. In 2022,

21:16

FIU unveiled its statue of Alexa

21:18

Duran.

21:20

We're all one faulty measurement away from

21:23

landing the leading role in an engineering

21:25

textbook case study. All

21:27

we can do is learn about it and talk about

21:29

it so that something like this never happens

21:32

again. Again,

21:34

let's hope someone is listening. One

21:36

of America's worst manmade disasters

21:39

occurs at a brand new hotel in Kansas city

21:42

after warning signs are ignored on

21:44

this episode of Swindled.

21:48

I'm a government official. Paid

21:54

a play. It's a taxpayer dollars that were wasted.

21:58

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23:56

Eight years ago, the

23:58

southern edge of downtown... Kansas City,

24:00

Missouri was an area in decay.

24:05

Today, a new 350 million dollar development

24:08

stands there. It is called Crown

24:10

Center and the fact that it exists

24:13

is an example of the way that private industry

24:15

can contribute to the revitalization

24:17

of America's cities. Crown

24:21

Center was the brainchild of Joyce Hall, the

24:23

founder of Hallmark Cards, the

24:25

greeting card company. Back

24:27

in the early 1900s you could drop out

24:29

of high

24:29

school, print the word thanks on a piece

24:32

of paper and make a billion dollars. But

24:34

Hallmark's neighbors in Kansas City, Missouri hadn't

24:37

been as ingenious or successful. The

24:39

neighborhood near downtown where Hallmark headquarters

24:42

was located had become run down and

24:44

yucky. So beginning in the 1950s,

24:47

Joyce Hall started using his company's private

24:50

funds to purchase the parcels of land surrounding

24:52

his office. He envisioned using the property

24:54

to build a bustling city within the city.

24:57

Restaurants, theaters, and playgrounds would

24:59

replace the muffler shops and dilapidated

25:01

billboards and that's how a greeting

25:03

card company invented gentrification

25:06

unofficially. Joyce Hall

25:08

retired before his dream was realized

25:11

but his son Donald Hall, who took over

25:13

as chief of the Hallmark company in 1966, carried the torch.

25:18

In 1967, Don Hall pitched the

25:21

idea of this Crown Center to the city

25:23

of Kansas City who loved it and

25:25

gave Hallmark imminent domain over

25:27

the 25 blocks planned for the mixed-use

25:29

development. We intended for Crown

25:32

Center to stand as a prime example of

25:34

how private industry can contribute

25:36

to the rebirth of this nation's inner cities,

25:39

Don Hall wrote in his autobiography.

25:42

Hallmark created a wholly owned subsidiary

25:44

called the Crown Center Redevelopment Corporation

25:47

to manage the project. Ground

25:49

was broken in 1968, the initial

25:52

cost estimate of 115 million dollars ballooned to 400 million

25:54

dollars in

25:56

a decade, but Crown Center

25:58

was taking shape. As promised,

26:01

there were restaurants, theaters, a playground,

26:03

and even a hotel. In fact, in 1978,

26:06

the Crown Center Redevelopment

26:08

Corporation announced it would build a second

26:10

hotel on the complex's northeast edge.

26:13

It would cost between $40 and $50 million.

26:16

Hallmark would retain ownership, but the

26:19

Hyatt Corporation would manage the hotel.

26:22

Construction began on the Hyatt Regency Hotel

26:25

in Crown Center in the spring of 1978. It

26:28

was a design-build operation. Jack

26:30

D. Gillum and Associates were responsible for

26:33

all structural engineering services. They

26:35

would work with the Crown Center Redevelopment Corporation

26:38

to design the hotel and then subcontract

26:40

a construction company to build it. The

26:42

Hyatt Corporation would also have some input.

26:45

Plans for the hotel included three sections, a

26:48

40-story tower featuring 750 rooms. It

26:52

would be Kansas City's tallest building. There

26:54

was going to be a revolving restaurant on top.

26:57

The other side of the building would house the exhibit hall,

27:00

conference rooms, health club, ballroom, and swimming

27:02

pool. And between the two wings was

27:04

a spacious atrium with west-facing

27:07

windows and a sunken cocktail bar. It

27:09

would have that Jesus Christ factor that

27:12

Hyatt unofficially required of all its hotels.

27:15

Hyatt reportedly wanted its buildings to be

27:17

so spectacular that the first words

27:19

out of someone's mouth upon entering would

27:21

be,

27:22

Jesus Christ.

27:24

The Hyatt Regency and Crown Center's Jesus

27:26

Christ factor would be the skywalks

27:29

in the atrium. Magnificent walkways

27:31

of concrete, glass, and steel suspended

27:34

in the air by rods that are almost invisible

27:36

to the naked eye. Guests will feel

27:38

like they're walking on air as they strut

27:40

to the other side. Technically,

27:43

the walkways were about 8 feet wide and 120

27:45

feet long. There would

27:47

be three of them at the second, third,

27:49

and fourth floor levels, each one

27:52

weighing about 64,000 pounds.

27:54

The fourth floor skywalk

27:56

would be suspended from the roof framing. The

27:58

second floor walkway would be suspended. suspended from the

28:00

fourth floor walkway directly above it and

28:03

hang 30 feet above the atrium floor. The

28:05

third floor walkway would hang from the ceiling independently

28:08

to the side of the other two. The

28:11

projected opening date for the new hotel was

28:13

July 1, 1980. Staying

28:16

on budget and on schedule was Hallmark's

28:18

highest priority. Very little

28:20

could stand in the way of opening the hotel on

28:22

time, even though minor hiccups and

28:24

a construction project of this size were

28:27

to be expected. One

28:29

of those minor hiccups occurred at 6am

28:31

on Sunday, October 14, 1979. Hallmark

28:35

told the media that a single 16-foot

28:38

steel beam had come loose from the roof's

28:40

frame and tumbled to the atrium floor. Luckily,

28:43

no one was in the building at the time. Construction

28:46

would not be delayed. However,

28:48

Hallmark had not been fully transparent.

28:51

The truth was that four steel beams

28:53

had fallen from the hotel's atrium roof that morning,

28:56

not just one. The heaviest beam

28:58

weighed 12 tons and crashed

29:00

through the terrace restaurant, through the atrium

29:03

floor, and into the basement. There

29:05

was a 20-foot by 100-foot hole in

29:07

the ceiling. Publicly,

29:10

Hallmark was unconcerned. But

29:12

behind the scenes, the company seemed to be sweating. It

29:15

hired an independent engineering firm

29:17

to inspect the atrium's roof and determine

29:19

the cause of the collapse. Shoddy

29:21

workmanship, it was concluded. Eldridge

29:24

and Sons Construction, the builder handpicked

29:27

by Hallmark by way of family familiarity,

29:30

failed to use expansion bolts to install the

29:32

atrium roof. The steel beams

29:34

rested on steel shelves, and

29:36

when the nighttime temperatures dropped, the

29:39

steel beams shrunk and pulled off those shelves

29:41

and fell to the floor. A bit of an amateurish

29:44

mistake. Some balconies

29:46

and bridges were installed without expansion and

29:49

pulled away at the north end, the report also

29:51

read, referring to the skywalks.

29:54

The pull-away effect is very similar to the beam

29:56

that pulled out and fell from the atrium's roof.

30:00

Details regarding the skywalks were provided

30:02

because it was not part of the inspection scope.

30:05

As a matter of fact, those skywalks

30:07

would never be inspected. Instead,

30:10

after the atrium's roof collapsed, Hallmark's

30:13

Crown Center Redevelopment Corporation took

30:15

out an extra $200 million worth

30:17

of insurance on the project for an additional $33,000

30:20

a year, just

30:22

to protect themselves from any future

30:25

accidents. They did this after stonewalling

30:27

their insurance company from inspecting the damage

30:30

until after the debris was cleaned up. The

30:33

following month, November 1979, Jack

30:36

Gillum, the hotel's structural engineer,

30:39

issued another warning to Hallmark and Crown

30:41

Center in a private meeting. Jack

30:43

Gillum had personally inspected the atrium's

30:46

roof. Quote, What I found

30:48

up there is an abomination. There

30:50

are 36 separate connections up there, and probably

30:53

there is something wrong with every single one of them.

30:56

He concluded, We feel that

30:58

this entire area should be rebuilt.

31:02

Sorry Jack, that just wasn't

31:04

going to happen. Rebuilding

31:06

the entire atrium roof would delay the

31:08

project for months. Hyatt had

31:10

already booked 400,000 reservations,

31:13

that's millions of dollars in lost revenue, not

31:16

counting the hundreds of thousands of dollars in extra

31:18

construction costs. Rebuilding

31:20

the atrium roof would completely ruin the project's

31:23

economic viability. Hallmark

31:25

must have assumed it was safe enough. Even

31:29

though by the time that meeting took place, and

31:31

just a week after the atrium's roof collapsed,

31:34

another incident had occurred. This

31:36

time a 16 foot, 80 pound

31:38

wooden beam fell during the hotel's

31:41

construction, and this time, people

31:43

were present. That wooden

31:45

beam struck an 18 year old contractor named

31:48

Paulie Nold in the back of the head. He

31:50

was on the ground floor looking for his hard hat that

31:52

a coworker had playfully slapped off.

31:55

Paulie's coworkers found them curled into the fetal

31:58

position, bleeding from every hole

31:59

in his head. Crown Center called

32:02

it a freak accident. Paulie's

32:04

family was paid $3,000 in workers

32:06

comp, and the construction of the hotel

32:08

resumed before the ground had even cooled.

32:12

There were deadlines to meet, and Crown

32:14

Center met every single one. Even

32:16

after the builder Eldridge went bankrupt during

32:18

construction, Hallmark tried to save

32:21

the contractor by giving them a million dollar bailout.

32:23

When that failed, Hallmark and Crown Center

32:26

essentially became their own general contractor.

32:29

Nevertheless, by July 1980, the

32:32

hotel was complete. Well,

32:34

mostly complete. Certain cosmetic

32:37

fixes were still pending, and the revolving

32:39

tower restaurant wasn't yet revolving.

32:42

But it was close enough. The Hyatt Regency

32:44

Crown Center Hotel was open for

32:47

business.

32:53

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32:55

episode of Swindled is sponsored by BetterHelp.

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One year after it welcomed its first

34:58

guest, the Hyatt Regency

35:01

Crown Center Hotel had become a

35:12

staple in Kansas City's hospitality

35:15

industry.

35:16

One of the ways the hotel ingratiated itself

35:18

with tourists and locals was by hosting

35:20

a tea dance every Friday night in

35:22

its spacious lobby. People

35:25

would come from far and wide to dance away

35:27

the night to some of the Midwest's finest

35:29

big band music. It was a party,

35:32

an excuse to get dressed up, a

35:34

great place to watch people be

35:36

people.

35:37

It was a beautiful new hotel and the

35:39

lobby was an atrium lobby and

35:41

so you could see up several floors

35:44

and there were people everywhere. There

35:46

were balloons, there were streamers, it was just

35:48

a very festive mood.

35:49

The festive mood was ever

35:51

present at the hotel's tea dance on Friday,

35:54

July 17, 1981.

35:56

Early birds started arriving at 3 p.m. At 4.30,

36:00

all of the seating on the atrium floor was occupied.

36:03

The stragglers would have to find a spot on the floors

36:05

above, which was fine. The Skywalks

36:08

offered the best view of the local radio

36:10

station's dance contest. They

36:12

were encouraging people to dance in the walkways

36:16

and the lobbies in every place. They just said

36:18

use the entire lobby

36:21

as a dance floor, which everybody was doing. By

36:25

7pm, the crowd had grown to an estimated 1600

36:27

people. Be

36:29

a little more

36:29

if you count all the kitchen workers, the waitstaff,

36:32

and the bartenders, but in America we

36:34

usually don't. At 7.04pm,

36:36

the Steve Miller Orchestra returned from a short

36:38

break and picked up their instruments. The

36:41

band launched into Duke Ellington's Satin

36:43

Doll. At 7.05pm,

36:47

some attendees remember hearing a noise like

36:49

a whipcrack, which is

36:52

now assumed to be the sound of the 4th floor Skywalks

36:54

connections pulling apart. The walkway

36:57

broke loose from its ceiling rods and dropped

36:59

several inches,

36:59

pausing for the longest moment before

37:02

completely breaking apart. The 120

37:05

foot 4th floor walkway cracked in the

37:07

center and folded like a trapdoor, causing

37:10

the entire Skywalk and the 2nd floor

37:12

Skywalk attached underneath to crash

37:15

onto the atrium

37:15

floor.

37:20

There were 150 people on the ground when 64

37:23

tons of Skywalks landed on them, 50 people

37:26

on the 2nd Skywalk were now sandwiched

37:28

between the two. The

37:30

16-20 partygoers on the 4th floor were

37:32

catapulted through the air when it landed with the thud,

37:35

or they were dumped through the crack after frantically

37:37

reaching for something to hold onto. Instant

37:40

death for most. The attendees

37:42

fortunate enough not to be in the direct

37:44

path of the tumbling Skywalks were

37:46

pelted with blood and glass as the force from

37:48

the Skywalks hitting the ground

37:50

sent a gust of air through the atrium. Witnesses

37:53

say there was a silence that followed in the immediate

37:55

aftermath, absolutely shocked

37:57

one could imagine,

37:59

but panic set in as

37:59

as the surrounding carnage dragged them

38:02

back to reality.

38:03

S S

38:10

S S

38:16

S

38:17

First responders could not have prepared

38:20

for what they walked into. The smell

38:22

hit them immediately. Sour like

38:24

death, mucus and feces.

38:26

You could taste the blood in the air. It

38:28

was chaos, arms and legs

38:31

sticking out from everywhere. People split

38:33

in half lengthwise.

38:34

Gray hair on crushed skulls. Gray

38:37

hair on decapitated heads. Hands

38:39

reaching, wedding rings, chunks of

38:41

human beings. People partially crushed

38:44

and screaming. So much more screaming

38:46

than you think.

38:48

Believe it or not, there were more immediate concerns

38:50

than there tend to. The fourth floor skywalk

38:52

housed a water pipe that was now broken and gushing

38:55

into the lobby.

38:56

There was no way to shut it off because it was connected

38:58

to tanks, not the city's water supply.

39:01

There were also live wires swinging

39:03

overhead. And if the threat of electrocution

39:05

or fire wasn't enough, someone said

39:07

they smelled natural gas. The power

39:09

had to be shut off.

39:10

This is

39:13

Jordan Will. Do you have a reason to say something? Mm-hmm.

39:16

The balcony collapsed and there may be 50 to 100 people. Oh,

39:19

Jesus. Yeah. And we

39:21

need something that can lift several tons. Sorry,

39:23

department. People are trapped underneath the balcony.

39:27

In their pitch darkness, first responders

39:29

and volunteers stacked the obviously dead

39:31

in the center of the lobby to access and

39:33

hopefully rescue the still living. Additional

39:36

corpses were placed on the tables in the exhibit

39:38

hall, which was decorated beautifully

39:41

with thousands of flowers in preparation

39:43

for a florist convention scheduled for the

39:45

next day.

39:47

Live but injured were taken to the makeshift

39:49

triage on the hotel lawn, live

39:52

and in need of urgent care were

39:54

taken to one of the city's 15 hospitals via

39:56

ambulance, helicopter, taxi, or bus. This

39:59

is Jordan Will.

39:59

Sergeant Jim Treese with the Kansas City

40:02

Police. They

40:04

have brought out so far a total of 41 bodies that

40:07

are in the makeshift morgue that we have adjacent

40:09

to the lobby area. It is unknown

40:11

how many of the estimated 1,500 people that

40:14

were in the lobby at the time of the collapse may

40:16

have been injured. We've utilized practically

40:18

every major hospital in the Kansas City area.

40:21

At this point, we do know one thing for certain,

40:23

the death toll is going to rise. Yes,

40:25

there are a lot more bodies that we can see that

40:27

we can't get to yet. Why can't you get to

40:30

them, Sergeant? We can't get the debris

40:32

moved to get to them.

40:34

As the dust settled, rescue workers descended

40:37

on the skywalks. They used flashlights

40:39

to peer into the nooks and crannies of the devastation,

40:42

looking for life. Sometimes they'd find

40:44

it and direct men with heavy tools to

40:46

set them free. Most of the time,

40:48

they would find another unfortunate soul

40:50

compressed into an unforgettable shape.

40:53

This is Richard Berkeley, the mayor of Kansas

40:56

City at the time. They are identifying

40:58

those who are deceased. I've

41:00

been in the morgue and I've seen each and

41:02

every one of them. They're

41:05

trying to get wallets or fingerprints

41:08

or anything else that they can use. They will try to

41:10

have that information as soon as possible.

41:14

The scene became overwhelmingly loud with

41:16

the grindings and buzzings of cutting tools

41:18

and generators, blow torches, bulldozers,

41:20

jackhammers, and the jaws of life. It

41:23

would take a crane to lift the skywalks

41:25

off of those people. It would take hours

41:27

for one to arrive and set up inside the hotel.

41:30

In the meantime, Dr. Joseph

41:33

Wackerly was mid-workout when he got

41:35

the call. He was a 35-year-old

41:37

emergency medical director at a local hospital

41:40

where he had just finished a long shift. Dr.

41:43

Wackerly would lead the medical response

41:45

to the disaster. He said his first

41:47

impression of the scene was that a bomb had

41:49

gone off. I take you

41:50

down to the Hyatt where you're standing in three

41:53

inches of water with body parts floating around

41:55

and people screaming and people

41:57

trapped and people dying and people begging

41:59

for help.

41:59

I don't care who you are,

42:02

it's going to be a traumatic experience that you'll

42:04

never forget. Dr. Wackerly

42:06

sloshed around in the ankle-deep pink

42:08

water, making determinations, resetting

42:11

bones on the spot, directing men with

42:13

tools to those who could still be saved. Others

42:16

were told by Dr. Wackerly, very matter-effectly,

42:19

to their faces, that they were going to die.

42:21

There was nothing anyone could do. He'd

42:23

inject them with Demerol to numb the pain

42:26

and move on to the next one. As we

42:28

went around, we found the pockets of people. Some

42:32

most dead, some alive,

42:34

some barely alive. 25-year-old

42:37

Jeff Durham had a choice to make. His

42:40

right leg was crushed under a massive steel

42:42

beam and he was bleeding out. Dr.

42:44

Wackerly told Jeff that he would be long dead by

42:47

the time the beam could be lifted. Jeff's

42:49

only path to survival was to remove

42:51

his leg. I said,

42:54

your leg is not salvageable, probably

42:57

even if we could get it off of you and I

43:00

don't think we can get you out

43:01

and you're not going to live otherwise. And

43:05

I have to look at some other people, so why don't you think

43:07

about that?

43:09

Jeff Durham agreed. He wanted to live,

43:12

so Dr. Wackerly instructed Dr. Keith

43:14

Ashcraft, who attended the T-Dance, to

43:16

perform the amputation. Dr.

43:19

Ashcraft cut into Jeff Durham's leg with a

43:21

large knife from the hotel's kitchen. For

43:23

almost 20 minutes, Dr. Ashcraft

43:25

sawed at the bone before giving up and

43:28

replacing his overmatched tool with a chainsaw.

43:30

The leg came right off. Jeff Durham

43:33

was rushed to a hospital, where he died 30

43:35

minutes later. Later

43:38

that night, rescue workers

43:39

heard a voice that sounded like a child coming

43:41

from the rubble. They shined the flashlight

43:43

into a hole and saw 11-year-old Dalton Grant

43:46

and his mother Connie. They were both smushed

43:48

into balls and had been unable to move for

43:50

hours. They were trapped in concrete with

43:52

only inches to spare and further

43:54

crowded by surrounding corpses. Connie

43:57

said she held Dalton's hand and prayed and told

43:59

him, I don't want to. know when he asked if they

44:01

were going to die.

44:21

Dalton and Connie were pried loose from the pile

44:23

using jackhammers after eight hours of being

44:25

trapped. The entire lobby erupted

44:27

in applause. It was motivation to carry

44:30

on.

44:35

Thirty-four

44:43

year old Mark Williams was standing in line

44:45

for a drink when the Skywalks crushed him. The

44:48

weight of the walkways forced him into the splits,

44:51

ripping his legs from their hip sockets. Mark's

44:54

left leg was pressed against his chest, his

44:56

left foot almost touched his right ear, his

44:58

right leg was pinned behind him.

45:08

Mark

45:19

Williams was stuck in that position for nine

45:21

and a half hours. He was the last person

45:24

rescued from the collapsed Skywalks at 4.30am. He

45:28

spent the next few months in the hospital. He

45:30

said one of his legs turned black and had to be

45:32

cut open to relieve the pressure. The

45:35

collapsed Skywalks were finally lifted by a crane

45:37

at 7.45am, more than 12 hours

45:38

after the

45:41

disaster. There were 31 bodies

45:43

underneath, many of them unrecognizable.

45:47

Emergency responders would spend a few additional

45:50

hours at the scene performing cleanup. A

45:52

former police officer told Richard A. Serrano,

45:55

the author of a great book about this disaster called

45:57

Buried Truths and the Hyatt Skywalks,

45:59

That after the bodies were cleared, the

46:02

cops, security guards, and other volunteers

46:05

formed an army of pale carriers. They

46:07

each grabbed a bucket and waded through the water

46:10

to scoop up bits of bones, flesh, and

46:12

teeth. In total, 111

46:15

people were killed that night at the Hyatt

46:17

Regency Crown Center Hotel. Mothers

46:20

and sons, fathers and daughters, teachers,

46:23

veterans, lawyers, an all-female

46:25

mariachi band from Topeka, an

46:27

80-year-old insurance salesman, and

46:29

an 11-year-old girl scout. Three

46:32

more would die from their injuries in the following months.

46:37

Two hundred sixteen additional people were injured,

46:39

some minor, some life-altering,

46:42

like Sally Firestone, a quadriplegic

46:44

ever since. Unsurprisingly,

46:47

the community responded. Kansas City

46:49

locals lined up by the thousands to donate

46:51

blood. Almost everyone in the city

46:53

was personally affected or knew someone

46:55

who was. It was difficult to comprehend

46:57

how something like this could happen. Why

47:00

do things like this happen? Many

47:02

would struggle with those questions for the rest of their

47:04

lives.

47:05

The

47:14

past 18 hours have been the darkest of my

47:16

life, as well as one of the worst nights

47:18

in the history of Kansas City, wrote

47:20

Hallmark President Don Hall. I

47:22

find it difficult even to talk about the events

47:24

of last night, as I know many of you do.

47:27

The catastrophe and the suffering of the injured bring forth

47:29

a personal and community grief that requires

47:32

all of our prayers. It is impossible

47:34

at this time even to speculate. Investigations

47:37

are beginning. We too have launched an extensive

47:40

investigation. In the days and weeks

47:42

and months ahead, much work must

47:44

be done. Now it is a

47:46

time for prayer, compassion,

47:48

and grief. Two days

47:50

later, Don Hall would speak about

47:52

the tragedy publicly for the last time

47:54

in an interview with a local newspaper

47:56

where he expressed his sorrow before

47:59

saying quote.

47:59

Our insurance is good. There's

48:02

no question about that. We

48:04

have high ideals and a mission in the business

48:06

world. We'll be back at it as soon as possible.

48:09

Our objective is to get back in the business

48:12

of operating the hotel.

48:14

He was not kidding.

48:26

It is now five days

48:28

after the T-Dance tragedy here at the Hyatt Hotel,

48:31

and accusations concerning the cause of it

48:34

are beginning to surface. I don't see

48:36

any reason that a catwalk

48:39

would collapse in a one-year-old building unless

48:41

there was some fault somewhere. Either

48:44

material design, something

48:47

is wrong somewhere. The building

48:49

is owned by Hallmark Cards, but managed

48:51

by the Hyatt Corporation. An official for

48:53

Hyatt, Pat Foley, says the building's architects

48:56

have

48:56

told him the structure was safe. The

48:58

catwalks are designed to hold people shoulder

49:00

to shoulder, as many as you can jam

49:03

on there. And we

49:05

don't feel there was anywhere near the amount

49:07

of people in the building that was somehow

49:10

released to the press. As managers

49:13

of the property, we do know

49:16

that the structural integrity and

49:18

safety of the building had been assured

49:21

by the architect, the building contractor,

49:25

and his subcrown tractors.

49:26

It was also revealed part of the

49:28

hotel's roof covering the Atrium lobby

49:30

collapsed during construction, but engineers

49:32

claim there is no connection with Friday's disaster.

49:35

Four days after the collapse of the skywalks

49:38

at the Hyatt Regency Crown Center Hotel,

49:40

the National Bureau of Standards, the non-regulatory

49:43

federal agency now known as the National

49:45

Institute of Standards and Technology, arrived

49:48

in Kansas City to determine the most probable

49:50

cause of the disaster.

49:52

Dr. Edward O. Fring and Richard Marshall

49:54

of the agency's structural engineering division

49:57

led the investigation.

49:59

The NBS's probe immediately hit a snag

50:02

when it discovered that Hallmark and the Crown

50:04

Center Redevelopment Corporation and the

50:06

cover of the night had ordered the removal

50:08

of the debris and dismantled the undamaged

50:11

third floor skywalk that was still suspended.

50:14

The hotel's owners claimed that the materials

50:16

were a safety hazard even though the area

50:19

was cordoned off and the building remained

50:21

empty. NBS officials

50:23

along with Kansas City's Mayor lamented the

50:25

move.

50:26

A fully intact, suspended walkway

50:28

would have provided valuable insight into

50:30

why the others had collapsed. Never

50:33

fear, company officials promised,

50:35

the skywalks were transported to a Hallmark-owned

50:37

warehouse where they would sit untouched.

50:41

Officials promised to preserve the skywalks at a warehouse,

50:44

but to get the bridges inside, workmen pulled

50:46

and tried to bend the critical hanging rods.

50:49

The National Bureau of Standards thorough investigation

50:52

would drag on for months, much longer

50:54

than the Kansas City Chamber of Commerce's local

50:57

investigation, which concluded 75 days after

51:00

the tragedy and found no individual

51:02

or company at fault,

51:03

especially not Kansas City's most beloved

51:06

corporate citizen, Hallmark.

51:08

The Chamber of Commerce announced its results

51:10

on the morning that the Hyatt Regency Crown

51:12

Center Hotel reopened to the public.

51:15

Based upon its review, it is the opinion of

51:17

the technical committee that

51:20

there is no valid reason to question

51:22

the safety of the Kansas City

51:24

Hyatt Regency Hotel.

51:27

It took $5 million to rebuild the

51:29

hotel's atrium.

51:30

This time the Crown Center Redevelopment Corporation

51:32

hired an architect from New York to design a

51:35

new terrace, not a skywalk.

51:37

It would be bolted to the floor with more than enough

51:39

columns.

51:40

The quick turnaround felt insensitive to some.

51:43

Others were unbothered. It

51:46

was a tragic thing, obviously, and

51:50

something that I, if I'm

51:52

typical, I think the average person would feel

51:55

that they've remedied the situation certainly by

51:57

now.

52:01

I really did not affect my decision as to where

52:03

I'm staying in town.

52:06

Finally, on February 25, 1982, about

52:09

seven months after the tragedy,

52:11

the National Bureau of Standards announced its

52:13

findings. Dr. Edward Fring

52:16

prefaced his discussion by reminding

52:18

everyone that the purpose of their investigation was

52:20

to find the why of the accident, not the who.

52:23

It was not within our charge to assess blame,

52:26

liability, or negligence on anyone's

52:28

part, as Fring said. And

52:30

with that,

52:31

here's the conclusion. The skywalks

52:33

were never going to work. The design was

52:35

flawed since inception. The six

52:38

thin hanger rods tasked with keeping the fourth

52:40

and second level walkway suspended would

52:42

have probably failed from its own weight eventually,

52:45

but at a live load like dancing people

52:48

that could most certainly expedite the process.

52:51

The initial details,

52:55

which were shown on the construction

52:57

drawings, which were subsequently approved

53:00

for construction, were

53:03

inadequate relative to the requirements

53:05

of the Kansas City Building Code. Even

53:08

worse, the skywalks were not built with

53:10

six thin hanger rods.

53:12

They were constructed with 12 thin

53:14

hanger rods. Instead of six long

53:16

rods passing through the fourth floor skywalk into

53:18

the second floor skywalk, as the original

53:21

design called for, the fourth floor skywalk

53:23

was suspended from the roof with six short

53:26

rods,

53:26

and the second floor skywalk was suspended from the

53:28

fourth floor skywalk with six short

53:31

rods of its own,

53:32

meaning the short rods attached to the ceiling

53:34

were supporting the combined weight of both skywalks, 128,000

53:37

pounds. Fring

53:40

said those rods were only capable of supporting 30% of

53:43

that load. Had

53:45

anyone known how weak they were, they

53:47

wouldn't have let a janitor sweep on them.

53:50

I don't know, I bet they would.

54:00

through the upper walkway to the one below. This

54:02

would put most of the weight on the ceiling connection.

54:05

Instead, two offset rods were used.

54:07

This doubled the weight on the beam holding the upper

54:10

walkway.

54:11

Making matters even worse is that those

54:13

rods were bolted to box beams connected

54:15

to the ceiling directly through a weakly welded

54:18

joint. Again, this was a departure

54:20

from the original design which showed the welds

54:22

on the sides of the box beams, not the top

54:25

and bottom. Essentially, the entire

54:27

weight of two skywalks pulled at

54:29

its weakest structural point. The

54:31

NBS at the box beam split along those

54:33

welds and the bolts pulled through the gap

54:36

dropping the entire structure to the floor. The

54:38

agency replicated its theory and lab tests.

54:41

You can see the nut and washer actually being dragged

54:43

through the box beam. As the box beam is being

54:45

pulled down, the nut and washer essentially

54:48

out of sight, Fring demonstrated.

54:51

Much of what Ed Fring and the NBS announced

54:53

only confirmed what many in Kansas City already

54:55

knew.

54:56

The city's two newspapers, The Times and

54:58

The Star, had conducted their own investigations.

55:01

They published a Pulitzer Prize winning series

55:03

of articles in previous months detailing

55:05

how these design changes were approved. Haven

55:08

Steel Company, who manufactured the rods,

55:11

proposed the idea of fabricating 12 shorter

55:13

rods instead of these six longer ones. They

55:16

explained to Jack Gillam's engineering firm that assembly

55:18

would be much easier with less risk

55:20

of damage. This important design

55:22

change was reportedly mentioned in a casual

55:25

phone call that Jack Gillam and associates claims

55:27

to have never happened. Not that it

55:29

matters. There were documents illustrating the

55:31

change with Gillam's stamp of approval.

55:34

The main culprit of the disaster proved to be poor

55:36

communication.

55:37

Unverified assumptions the newspapers found.

55:40

Each contractor assumed the other contractor had

55:42

done the math. No one bothered

55:44

to double-check.

55:46

This is Wayne Liska, an architectural

55:48

engineer hired for the Kansas City Stars investigation.

55:52

The bottom line is that you

55:54

had a human failure here. It

55:57

didn't relate to codes. It didn't relate to intelligence.

56:00

It didn't relate to

56:02

anything that needs to be corrected. It was

56:04

just that somebody didn't pay attention

56:07

and they needed to. Nobody

56:10

was paying attention

56:11

and nobody was paying inspectors either. At

56:14

least not a full-time independent on-site

56:16

inspector like the architects had requested.

56:19

The Crown Center Redevelopment Corporation would not

56:21

approve of those additional costs. Instead,

56:25

a company called General Testing, friend

56:27

of Hallmark, was contracted to do the

56:29

job and left much of the work in the hands of a 20-year-old.

56:33

The Hyatt Regency Crown Center Hotel was reportedly

56:35

that 20-year-old's first construction-related

56:38

inspection job. As

56:40

for the city of Kansas City, their inspectors

56:42

were nowhere to be found. The newspaper's

56:44

investigations revealed that many city inspectors,

56:47

including two assigned to the Hyatt construction, routinely

56:50

falsified their timesheets and mileage logs.

56:53

Those inspectors were found sitting at home, drinking

56:56

at bars, or eating at diners while

56:58

on the clock. Seventeen city

57:00

building inspectors and two code enforcement

57:03

officials were fired or suspended as

57:05

a result. Today's report places

57:07

no blame for the disaster. NBS investigators

57:10

say the courts will do that, and lawyers

57:11

for victims say, even with the report,

57:13

that process may take years. The

57:16

disaster resulted from a collection of

57:18

entirely avoidable errors committed

57:20

by multiple parties. Unfortunate

57:23

mistakes, nothing malicious or inherently

57:25

evil. More than 300 lawsuits

57:28

have been filed, seeking a cumulative

57:30

total of $3 billion. Most

57:32

of them settled quietly out of court within 18 months.

57:36

However, one lawyer from Kansas

57:38

City named Robert Gordon was

57:40

convinced that one entity was primarily

57:43

responsible. The owners of the building

57:45

who managed every aspect of the project,

57:48

who received a clear warning from the 1979

57:51

Atrium roof collapse, who downplayed

57:53

that roof collapse in public, who refused

57:55

to rebuild the roof as advised, the

57:58

same entity who refused to hide. hire an

58:00

on-site inspector or any outside professional

58:03

that could have found the defects who refused

58:05

the fun load test who would have lost

58:07

that on potential millions of dollars in revenue

58:10

if the opening was delayed. That

58:12

entity was Hallmark. Robert

58:14

Gordon alleged that the company had shown a blatant

58:17

disregard for safety and he had the

58:19

documents to prove it. For sheer

58:21

intellectual pleasure, I've never known

58:23

anything to compare with the excitement and challenge

58:26

of using a defendant's own documents to prove

58:28

the plaintiff's case Gordon wrote.

58:30

Finding the right piece of paper in a vast,

58:33

uncharted depository is like discovering

58:35

a 70,000 carat canary yellow

58:37

flawless diamond in a flea market. In

58:40

my experience, the success of

58:42

any case against a major corporation always

58:45

depended on the documents. Robert

58:47

Gordon had single-handedly poured through a million

58:50

pages of documents for the case. It

58:52

put together a mandatory class action lawsuit

58:54

against Hallmark and related entities

58:56

which was certified in January 1982.

58:59

Gordon represented hundreds of victims, many

59:02

of whom just wanted to ensure that something like this

59:04

couldn't happen again. Gordon surmised

59:06

that the only way to do that was to tell the public the

59:08

truth about what happened, and the only

59:10

way to do that was to put Hallmark on

59:13

trial. Unfortunately,

59:15

Robert Gordon's class was dissolved in June 1982

59:19

when a federal appellate court overturned

59:21

the certification for violating the Federal

59:23

Anti-Injunction Act by including both

59:25

state and federal cases in the class.

59:28

But the fight would continue. Not

59:31

all Hyatt victims have settled so quickly because

59:33

the case has been tied up in legal maneuvers.

59:35

Not only are the victims attorneys suing

59:37

the owners, builders, and managers of the Hyatt, but

59:40

they have spent months fighting among themselves

59:42

over trying the suits either one at a time or

59:45

collectively through a class action suit, a

59:47

suit that was first approved by the federal courts

59:50

and then thrown out of court. It's now on

59:52

appeal. A new opt-out

59:54

class was formed. A trial date was

59:56

set, and Robert Gordon continued

59:58

to build his case.

1:00:00

While Hallmark, referring to themselves as

1:00:02

merely a passive investor in the project,

1:00:05

tried every stalling tactic in the book, the

1:00:07

company wanted a change in venue, it

1:00:09

wanted a new judge.

1:00:11

Hallmark also began settling individually

1:00:13

with victims at a rapid pace in an attempt

1:00:16

to shrink Gordon's class, and it worked.

1:00:18

A new class had to be formed, and the games continued.

1:00:22

This time Hallmark dropped a bomb by agreeing

1:00:24

to a $20 million group settlement in

1:00:26

state court, which included many of Robert

1:00:28

Gordon's federal plaintiffs. As part

1:00:30

of the deal, Hallmark paid the punitive damages

1:00:33

but denied all legal liability. Only

1:00:36

a couple of dozen plaintiffs remained in Robert

1:00:38

Gordon's federal class, but the trial

1:00:40

was still scheduled for January 1983. Some

1:00:43

of those present that night started collecting $1,000 checks

1:00:46

in a Kansas City insurance office today. Those

1:00:49

people must swear they were in the Hyatt the night of the

1:00:51

accident

1:00:51

and agree to drop all future claims

1:00:54

against the hotel.

1:00:56

On the first day of trial, Robert Gordon

1:00:58

would arrive to find that his co-counsel had struck

1:01:01

a deal with Hallmark's lawyers behind his back

1:01:03

over the weekend. The company agreed to pay $10

1:01:05

million, which included a $3.5 million contingency

1:01:07

fund to be

1:01:09

shared among the victims, and a $6.5 million

1:01:12

donation to local charities which was great

1:01:15

for public relations. The judge

1:01:17

praised Hallmark for making such a deal. Its

1:01:20

healing gesture serves not only as a fitting

1:01:22

response to the most unfortunate human tragedy

1:01:25

to upset the city, but also

1:01:27

as a reaffirmation of Hallmark's position

1:01:29

among the corporate leadership of Kansas City

1:01:32

and the nation.

1:01:33

Hallmark is pleased with the settlement.

1:01:36

The defendants feel that this

1:01:38

is in the best interest

1:01:40

of the public, of the plaintiffs, and

1:01:42

of the defendants. Proponents

1:01:45

of the settlement said it allowed the city to move on

1:01:48

to heal. Continuing to point

1:01:50

the finger would just prolong the agony,

1:01:53

Robert Gordon disagreed, and it was a devastating

1:01:55

realization that the public would never learn the truth.

1:01:58

Equating the rod and being

1:01:59

failure with the legal and moral reason

1:02:02

for the Skywalk's disaster was quote,

1:02:04

as wrong as concluding that the O-ring alone

1:02:07

was responsible for the Challenger tragedy. Robert

1:02:10

Gordon couldn't let it go. After

1:02:12

his repeated failed efforts to drag Hallmark

1:02:15

into court, Gordon just stopped

1:02:17

being a lawyer. He started writing a book

1:02:19

instead, a counter narrative of sorts

1:02:22

that the public needed to know. It was

1:02:24

called House of Cards, and Simon and

1:02:26

Schuster would publish it.

1:02:28

Except it never happened. Robert

1:02:30

Gordon worked obsessively on the draft and

1:02:33

alienated everybody around him for the next 10

1:02:35

years. The man was impossible to

1:02:37

collaborate with. Publishers and

1:02:39

co-writers would become exasperated after

1:02:42

editing Gordon's 850 page manuscript down to 350

1:02:46

pages, only for Bob Gordon to

1:02:48

reinsert everything that had been removed. Eventually

1:02:51

everyone stopped helping the author. Everyone

1:02:53

had the same criticisms, all of which

1:02:55

went ignored. The book was never

1:02:58

published.

1:02:58

Robert Gordon spent the rest of his

1:03:00

life profoundly depressed and alone. His

1:03:02

wife had left him. He spent most of his days

1:03:05

in bed. He died of colon cancer

1:03:07

in 2008. 10 years

1:03:10

later, Robert Gordon's son contacted

1:03:12

Eli Paul, the director of Missouri

1:03:14

Valley Special Collections at the Kansas City Public

1:03:16

Library, wanting to donate 180 boxes of

1:03:18

his father's research files

1:03:21

and his unpublished manuscript. Using

1:03:24

those documents, Eli Paul wrote a book about the

1:03:26

disaster from Robert Gordon's perspective,

1:03:28

called Skywalks, Robert Gordon's

1:03:30

untold story of Hallmark's Kansas City disaster.

1:03:33

It's definitely worth checking out. Prosecutors

1:03:36

today said there is insufficient evidence for

1:03:38

anti-criminal charges in the collapse of Skywalks

1:03:41

at Kansas City's Hyatt Regency Hotel. 114 people

1:03:43

were killed in the collapse.

1:03:45

More than 200 others were injured when

1:03:48

the two concrete Skywalks fell into the crowded

1:03:50

lobby in July 1981. In

1:03:53

total, Hallmark and related companies

1:03:56

paid out approximately $140 million to victims of the Skywalks'

1:03:58

collapse.

1:03:59

collapse and their families, at least $50 million

1:04:02

of that was covered by insurance. The

1:04:05

company was cleared of any criminal charges

1:04:07

in December 1983 when a grand jury agreed that

1:04:10

there was insufficient evidence to charge

1:04:12

anyone. However, on February 3rd, 1984,

1:04:14

the engineers were punished. Jack

1:04:18

Gillam and Dan Duncan of Jack D.

1:04:20

Gillam & Associates were stripped of their

1:04:22

license to practice engineering in Missouri.

1:04:25

A catastrophe such as the Hyatt is

1:04:27

not caused by, nor is the fault of

1:04:29

any

1:04:29

one or two individuals, Gillam said. It

1:04:32

is the result and culmination of many errors,

1:04:35

oversights, and human mistakes. Yet

1:04:38

as the engineer of record on the project, the

1:04:40

buck stopped with him. He realized

1:04:42

that. This is Jack Gillam. The

1:04:45

most important lessons to learn from the Hyatt

1:04:48

are that each individual has to be responsible

1:04:51

for what he does. Two,

1:04:53

that you have to follow up any problems

1:04:55

that occur. Three,

1:04:57

that you have to have communication.

1:04:59

The

1:05:03

Skywalk's collapse at the Hyatt Regency Crown

1:05:05

Center Hotel remains the deadliest,

1:05:07

non-deliberate structural failure in

1:05:10

American history. This legacy can

1:05:12

be found in engineering and emergency management

1:05:14

curriculums worldwide. It was also

1:05:16

one of the first major events that brought awareness

1:05:19

to the psychological trauma suffered

1:05:21

by first responders. PTSD

1:05:23

is a common trait shared among victims

1:05:25

and rescue workers of the Skywalk's disaster.

1:05:29

Today, a memorial for those lost

1:05:31

in the tragedy stands in Hospital Hill Park,

1:05:33

near the Hotel and Crown Center. It's

1:05:35

a 20-foot-tall sculpture of an abstract

1:05:38

couple embraced in a dance. The

1:05:40

memorial took 34 years to

1:05:42

build. The Skywalk Memorial

1:05:44

Foundation began raising money for it in 2005. More

1:05:48

than 300 donors made cash or in-kind contributions

1:05:50

to the nonprofit, including Hallmark

1:05:52

who chipped in $25,000. But

1:05:55

it would take nearly 10 years to raise the remaining

1:05:57

funds required.

1:05:59

to the victims is being planned, but the Hyatt

1:06:02

Corporation now says it will not contribute

1:06:05

to it. The Hyatt Corporation did

1:06:07

not want to contribute to the memorial because

1:06:09

that hotel and crown center where the disaster

1:06:12

happened was actually a Sheraton

1:06:14

now. True story. However,

1:06:17

after a public backlash, Hyatt

1:06:19

ultimately donated $25,000 to the

1:06:21

project. Sheraton matched

1:06:24

that amount.

1:06:26

In 2021, on the 40th anniversary

1:06:29

of the tragedy, families gathered

1:06:31

at the memorial to remember. Every

1:06:33

Kansas Citian was either impacted or knows

1:06:36

someone who was impacted by the tragedy.

1:06:38

Mayor Quentin Lucas addressed the crowd. We

1:06:41

will always grieve with you, he promised. Forty

1:06:44

years from now, eighty years from now,

1:06:47

when there's a whole new set of folks to share

1:06:49

the stories.

1:07:00

Swindled is written, researched, produced,

1:07:02

and hosted by me, a concerned citizen,

1:07:05

with original music by Trevor Howard, aka

1:07:07

Deformer, aka Crown

1:07:10

Center. For more information about

1:07:12

Swindled you can visit SwindledPodcast.com

1:07:14

and follow us on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and

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you can send us a postcard at PO Box 6044 Austin, TX 78762.

1:07:25

But please no packages, we do not trust you.

1:07:28

Swindled is a completely independent production,

1:07:30

which means no network, no investors, no bosses,

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1:07:36

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Become a valued listener at valuedlistener.com.

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the home page. That's it. Thanks

1:08:25

for listening. Hi,

1:08:27

my name is Mazarati from Albuquerque,

1:08:30

New Mexico. My name is Reena from

1:08:33

Ottawa, Canada. Hey, a

1:08:35

concerned citizen. I'm

1:08:37

Joanne. And I'm Jay. And

1:08:39

we're calling from Reykjavik, Iceland.

1:08:43

We are concerned citizens and very proud

1:08:45

to be and valued listeners.

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Keep up the good work. Very

1:08:54

fucking concerned citizens. Take

1:08:57

care. Bye bye.

1:09:03

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