Who or what started the Hartford Circus Fire of 1944?
Several officials of the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus served prison terms for negligence in the fire, which killed 167 people. But no one was ever charged with starting it. Stewart O’Nan devotes a chapter of his book “The Circus Fire” to Robert Dale Segee, whom Ohio authorities arrested in connection with a series of arson fires in 1950. It turned out that Segee had been with the circus at the time of the Hartford fire, as a member of a lighting crew. He initially confessed to setting that fire as well but eventually recanted, claiming Ohio authorities had simply talked him into believing he had. Ohio’s refusal to let Connecticut investigators interview Segee didn’t help either. After serving four years on the Ohio charges, he was declared a paranoid schizophrenic and committed for a time to a state hospital for the insane. He died in Columbus, Ohio, in August 1997. For more information, visit the site’s resource page on the fire.
