1965 — Dec 20, Fire (arson?), Jewish Community Center (9 children) Yonkers, NY — 12
–12 Jewish Council of Yonkers. “JCY/Westchester Community Partners: Our History.”
–12 Juillerat. “Community Center, Yonkers, New York.” Fire Journal, 60/3, May 1966, p. 19.
–12 NFPA. “Bimonthly Fire Record,” Fire Journal, Vol. 61, No. 5, Sep 1967, p. 50
–12 NFPA. “The Major Fires of 1965.” Fire Journal, Vol. 60, No. 3, May 1966, p. 53.
–12 New York Times. “Thomas Ruppert, 35; Cleared on Yonkers Fire.” 11-26-1984, B-10.
–12 Post Standard, Syracuse. “Community Center Fire Kills 9 Children, 3 Adults.” 12-21-1965
Narrative Information
Jewish Council of Yonkers: “On December 20, 1965 a fire was set by a teenager, Thomas Ruppert, who was being trained as a maintenance aide. The fire caused 12 deaths and several serious injuries to participants in the Music School on the 4th floor of the JCC building.” (Jewish Council of Yonkers. “JCY/Westchester Community Partners: Our History.”)
Juillerat/NFPA: “Heat and smoke from a fire in the second-story auditorium spread up the two stairways and trapped 26 people in the fourth story of the fire-resistive building. Fourteen persons were rescued over fire department ladders, but the other twelve died before fireman could reach them…. [p. 19.]
“At the end of the [1st floor] corridor, beside the elevator, an open stairway extended upward to the fourth story. At the southeast corner of the building another stairway led upward to a fifty-story penthouse. This stairway had metal swinging doors in pairs at each story and an outside exit at street level. Evidence indicates that the doors at the third- and fourth-story levels were blocked open…. [pp. 19-20.]
The Fire
“An estimated 60 to 70 persons were in the building during the late afternoon. The evidence suggests that someone, using an unidentified flammable liquid as an accelerant, set a fire at one end of the balcony beside the stage. Within a few minutes the fire had spread to involve…plastic panels and other combustibles in the balcony….
“A music teacher in the fourth story smelled smoke and traced the odor to the third story, where he opened a closet door adjacent to the auditorium balcony and saw flames. He immediately went back to the fourth story; there, he and two other adults took refuge in a room at the southwest corner of the building…
“An employee of the Center’s music school was in her office in the fourth story…when she saw smoke coming from a hole in the floor that had been made during…remodeling. She called downstairs and told officials that there was a fire. Leaving her office, she found four children in the corridor and tried to take them down the open stairway, but they were driven back by smoke and heat. She and the children retreated to a room (No. 2) at the front of the building (South Broadway), closed the door, and got out onto a wide ledge outside the windows.
“Prevented from using the corridors and stairways by the smoke and heat, nine children and two adults were huddling in a small room (No. 4) at the front of the building, beside the corner room in which the music teacher and the two adults had taken refuge. A third adult, a woman who reportedly had re-entered the building to look for a neighbor’s two children after leading her own out, joined the others in that room. The door to the room was open, with a chair in front of it. It can only be guessed why no one thought to close the door. Panic? Hysteria? Lack of knowledge of what to do?. The room labeled No. 4 communicated with the corner room (No. 5) through the doors to an interconnecting bathroom. All twelve persons succumbed to the acrid smoke and intense heat that quickly filled the room.
“Crucial minutes had passed before someone telephoned the Fire department at 5:08 pm. At 5:11 pm the responding assistant chief called for a second alarm. Firemen raised an aerial ladd4r in front of the building to rescue the music school employee and her four charges from the windows at the front of the building. The music teacher and the other two adults in the corner room were rescued over an aerial ladder on the Guion Street side of the building. The firemen then moved the ladder to the window of another room (No. 7) facing the same side of the building and rescued another music teacher and her pupil, who, having found the corridor charged with smoke and heat, closed the door to the room and went out on the ledge to await rescue.
“The fire was quickly knocked down, and firemen wearing breathing apparatus crawled along the fourth-story corridor looking for victims. When they found the twelve in the small room, they immediately started removing them to a hospital across the street and giving artificial respiration. It was too late….
“Almost every piece of combustible material in the balcony was consumed….” [pp. 20-21]
(Juillerat, Ernest E. “Community Center, Yonkers, New York.” National Fire Protection Association Fire Journal, Vol. 60, No. 3, May 1966, pp. 19-21.)
NFPA: “Dec. 20, 1965, Yonkers, N.Y. The May 1966 issue of Fire Journal reported a fire of suspicious origin that started in the balcony of the auditorium of the four-story fire-resistive Jewish Community Center building. Heat and smoke traveled up open stairways, trapping and killing nine children and three adults.
“About a month after the fire, an 18-year-old boy was arrested on suspicion of setting the fire. The boy confessed to the police and to the director of the Center that he had set the fire for a thrill, but he later said that the police had pressured him into making the confession. On June 2, 1967, a jury found the youth guilty. It is interesting to note that the presiding judge ruled that the confession given to the director of the Center was valid, because the director had been acting as a private citizen and not as a police officer when he heard the confession.” (NFPA. “Bimonthly Fire Record,” Fire Journal, Vol. 61, No. 5, Sep 1967, p. 50.)
Newspapers
Dec 21: “Yonkers, N.Y. (AP) – Nine children and three adults died Monday evening [Dec 20] when fire swept a Jewish community center decorated for the holidays. A passerby who shepherded more than a score of children to safety, Hugo Sanoff [sp.?] said he tried to get more but smoke stopped him. “I tried to work my way up to the third floor and I got about half way up and I couldn’t go any farther because of the smoke,” he said “By that time I was crawling on my hands and knees.”
“One of the dead was Lucille Sachs, who gave her life in the blazing four-story building trying to rescue her daughter, Sandra. The child was saved by her mother, but the woman apparently died when she tried to bring other children out of the flaming structure. Two sets of brothers and sisters were among the young victims, whose ages ranged from 8 to 11.
“At least nine persons were injured as firemen rescued children from ledges of the burning building in below-freezing weather. Only four required hospitalization, however.
“Ray Cohen, at work in an auto shop down the street from the center, said the children appeared calm on the fourth-floor ledge. “Some of them came out a window and walked four feet along a ledge 10 where the aerial ladder was,” he said.
“The youngsters were attending an after-school music class on the top floor.
“Robert Van Sickle, 22, working across the street from the center, said, “The building was burning like a torch. The flames were shooting out 15 feet from all the windows. Close to 30 kids
must have run out of the building, hollering and screaming.”
“The tragedy struck the local Jewish community on the third night of Chanukah, the joyous religious festival of lights. The center had been decorated with menorah, the traditional candelabra, in observance of the holidays, during which children receive gifts.
“The fire reportedly started in the building’s auditorium but an official said no cause was pinpointed.
“Police Chief William F. Polson told reporters “To my knowledge this was the worst fire we have had in our history.”
“The fire broke out about 5 p.m. and water from firemen’s hoses froze in the streets in 30-degree temperatures.
“Yonkers, a Westchester County community just north of New York, has a population of about 200,000.
“The community center is a 37-year-old brick building near the city’s business hub. It was in the final stages of a $270,000 renovation program. The center has no religious facilities, but offers a program of social and cultural activities.
“The children arrived at the center with the 3:30 p.m. closing of their schools. After classes in Hebrew, they split up for gym, swimming and music lessons….
“Sinott said he was on his way home from work when he saw smoke gushing from the upper floors of the center. He said children on the first floor “didn’t seem to be doing anything. Nobody seemed to know what to do.”
Victims Named in Yonkers Fire
“Yonkers, N.Y., Dec. 20 (AP) – Following is the tentative identification of the dead in a fire Monday night at a Jewish community center:
Ins Werthamer, 9…Yonkers.
Ronald Greenberg, 10…Bronx.
Cynthia Henley, 10…the Bronx.
David Henley, 8 (Cynthia’s brother) same address.
Leslie Green, 11…Yonkers.
Eliza Ann Green, 10 (Leslie’s sister) same address.
Richard Komoshima, 10…Yonkers.
Kimiko Komoshima, 8, (his sister) same address.
Alan Freilich, 9…Yonkers.
Adults:
Mrs. Lucille Sachs…Yonkers an instructor.
Elizabeth LeFerbre…Manhattan.
Ann Keppler (no age or address).”
(Post Standard, Syracuse. “Community Center Fire Kills 9 Children, 3 Adults.” 12-21-65, 1-2.)
Dec 22: “Yonkers, N.Y. (Charles West, AP) – The fire that killed 12 persons at the Jewish community center Monday night was out of control when discovered and was not reported to the fire department until after “a serious delay,” according to findings of a preliminary investigation. Yonkers City Manager Frederick Adler released that report Tuesday based on the findings of the city’s fire department. According to Adler, the investigation revealed that the blaze was first discovered by an unidentified center employee who grabbed a fire extinguisher but could do nothing with it. The flames already were out of control. The report said the employee tried to reach the classroom where the 12 fatalities occurred, but was beaten back by smoke.
“An alarm first was turned in by an unidentified woman at 5:08 p.m.
“Cause of the fire was not yet known, nor were there estimates of damage. The fire department said there was no indication of arson.
“One of the fatalities was Mrs. Philip Sacks, a housewife who sacrificed her life trying to get hers and other children out of the burning building. Mrs. Sacks’ neighbors said of her Tuesday, “She just loved children”.” (Post-Standard, Syracuse, NY. “Report Delay in Alarm for Fatal Blaze.” 12-22-1965, p. 29.)
Dec 23: “Yonkers, N.Y. (AP)….City Manager Frederick Adler, discussing the investigation Tuesday, said an unidentified employee of the center had found the blaze out of control in an auditorium on the second floor. Adler said the employee tried to fight the flames with a hand extinguisher, then started for the fourth-floor classroom where nine children and three adults lost their lives. Smoke and heat drove him back. The employee did not turn in an alarm, Adler said….Adler said he did not know whether the 37-year-old brick building…had a central fire alarm system.
“Children who survived the blaze said they could not recall fire drills being held. At a news conference, members of the centers’ board of governors refused comment on this and other aspects of the fire.
“The first alarm was turned in by a woman at 5:08 p.m., apparently some minutes after Adler said the employee discovered the fire.” (Wellsville Daily Reporter, NY. “Fatal Fire Report Said Badly Delayed.” 12-23-1965, p. 11.)
Dec 30: “Yonkers, N.Y. (AP) — Public Safety Commissioner Daniel F. McMahon Wednesday branded as “false and baseless” charges made against the fire department for its work in the recent Jewish Community Center fire that claimed 12 lives.” (Oneonta Star, NY. “Fireman denies Yonkers charges.” 12-30-1965, p. 1.)
Jan 27, 1966: “Yonkers (UPI) – While police in 19 states searched for Thomas Ruppert, officials revealed Wednesday [Jan 26] that the 17-year-old suspected arsonist was in a mental hospital near his Yonkers home. Ruppert was charged with setting the fire in the Yonkers Jewish Community Center which killed nine children and three adults Dec. 20. A 19-state alarm had been sent out for him Tuesday, but the whole time he was in Grassland Hospital in nearby Valhalla being examined by a psychiatrist. The mental examination was ordered in family court following an alleged violation of parole.
“Ruppert was charged with first degree arson in dumping five gallons of gasoline around the community center and lighting it.” (Evening Observer, Dunkirk-Fredonia, NY. “Sought-After Suspected Arsonist Found in Hospital.” 1-27-1966, p. 17.)
Feb 4: “White Plains (UPI) – Attorneys for a 17-year-old boy accused of setting a fire which took 12 lives charged Thursday he was being hold “incommunicado” in a state hospital. The defense attorneys asked a State Supreme Court justice to order the release of Thomas A. Ruppert from Grasslands Hospital in Valhalla where he has been undergoing mental tests since Jan. 25.
“Ruppert was charged with first degree arson in the Dec. 20 fire at the Yonkers Jewish Community Center which killed nine children and three adults. He had been employed at the center under the Youth Corps program.
“The defense petition alleged that “under the guise of the protection of family court (Ruppert) has been placed in a position where, at the most critical stage of the criminal proceedings against him, he has been deprived both of his right to counsel and the comfort and guidance of his family and advisors.” Outside the courtroom where the closed hearing was held, the boy’s father, Robert J. Ruppert, told newsmen he was allowed to see his son Wednesday night [Feb 2] for a half hour, the first time in days.” (Evening Observer, Dunkirk-Fredonia, NY. “Suspected Arsonist Said Being Held Incommunicado.” 2-4-1966, p. 16.)
Feb 10: “White Plains (UPI) – State Supreme Court Justice Hugh S. Coyle of White Plains Wednesday dismissed a writ of habeas corpus and continued jurisdiction of Family Court in the case of a 17-year-old boy charged with setting a fire at the Yonkers Jewish Community Center that killed 12 persons. Justice Coyle said he considered “what is best for the child” in reaching his decision to dismiss the writ. He added that “to limit the jurisdiction of Family Court would be contrary to the purpose for which Family Court was established.”
“The writ was issued a week ago by Supreme Court Justice Joseph F. Gagliardi of Larchmont on the appeal of the father of Thomas Alfred Ruppert, who is being held for observation in the psychiatric division of Grasslands Hospital in Valhalla. The boy’s father, Robert J. Ruppert, told the court in a petition that authorities were taking advantage of his son’s “limited mentality and emotional immaturity” to deny him due process of law.
“The boy’s lawyer, Dominick Porto, said an appeal might be filed on Justice Coyle’s decision. Porto added that the boy had been denied his right to counsel….
“A ward of Family Court since he was nine years old, the boy spent eight years living in foster homes and institutions. The Family Court took jurisdiction of the boy at age nine in connection with another fire. He returned home last summer, authorities said, and enrolled in Yonkers High School and signed up in the Neighborhood Youth Corps. Through the Youth Corps he got an after-school custodial job at the community center.
“After the fire, which occurred during the Chanukah festival, young Ruppert returned to the fire-blackened building to help clear debris. He was questioned for more than 12 hours just two days
after the blaze and shortly afterward police charged that Ruppert set the fire.” (Times Herald Record, Middletown, NY. “Arson case writ denied.” 2-10-1966, p. 50.)
Feb 16, 1966: “Yonkers (UPI) — A detective testified Tuesday [Feb 15] that a 17-year-old boy told him he set a fire that took 12 lives because “I like fires.” Det. Brendan Magner told a Yonkers city court hearing that Thomas Albert Ruppert explained to him that he found fires exciting and enjoyed watching the flames. He said the boy made the remarks shortly before police charged him with arson for the Yonkers Jewish Community Center fire that killed nine children and three adults on Dec. 20. Ruppert, who did part-time janitorial work at the center, was made a ward of the state at the age of 9 in connection with another fire. He was permitted to return home last summer.” (Evening Observer, Dunkirk-Fredonia, NY. “Detective Says Boy Told Him He Set Fatal Fire.” 2-16-1966, p. 7.)
March 18, 1966: “New York (AP) — A federal judge has signed a restraining order prohibiting Westchester County authorities from trying 17-year-old Alfred Rupert on a charge of setting the Yonkers Jewish Community Center fire that killed 12 persons. The order, signed Thursday [March 17] by Federal Judge Marvin E. Frankel, alleges that the confession in which Rupert admitted setting the Dec. 20 fire was “exacted” from him by police in violation of his constitutional rights. The order is returnable Tuesday.” (Herald-Journal, Syracuse, NY. “Arson suspect’s trial prohibited.” 3-18-1966, p. 8.)
March 23, 1966: “New York (AP) – Federal Judge John M. Cannella Tuesday [March 22] adjourned for one week a hearing on whether Westchester County authorities should be allowed to prosecute Alfred Ruppert, 17, on a charge of setting fire to the Yonkers Jewish Community Center last December….The boy’s attorney last week obtained an order in federal court requiring Westchester authorities to show why they should not be stopped from proceeding with a trial.” (Post-Standard, Syracuse, NY. “Delays Hearing on Arson Charge.” 3-23-1966, p. 2.)
June 3, 1967: “White Plains, N.Y. (AP) — Thomas Ruppert, 18, was convicted on 24 counts of first degree murder and one of arson Friday for setting a 1965 fire that killed 12 persons in the Yonkers Jewish Community Center. Ruppert was arrested almost a month after the Dec. 20, 1965 fire. He showed no emotion as the jury of 10 men and two women returned its verdict 24 hours after they had begun deliberations. The blaze killed nine children, and three adults, and destroyed the center. The defendant had been charged with 12 counts of first degree murder, 12 counts of murder during commission of a felony, and one count of arson. He was convicted on all. He had been a part-time janitor at the center.
“Sixty-two witnesses were called during the trial that began May 1 in Westchester County Court before Judge Robert Dempsey.
“Yonkers police sent out a 22 state alarm immediately after the fire, when Ruppert could not be located at home or at school. He was found in Grasslands Hospital in nearby Valhalla undergoing court-ordered psychiatric evaluation for a charge brought against him before he was 16.
“The warrant for his arrest said he spread the contents of a five-gallon can of gasoline and ignited it, but police refused to make the motive public.
“Before the fire, Ruppert lived with his father, Robert, a truck driver, and seven brothers and sisters. His mother was hospitalized with cancer.
“Defense attorney Eleanor Jackson Piel had tried to show that the fire could have begun in faulty or temporary wiring, because part of the center was being renovated at the time.” (Post Standard, Syracuse, NY. “Find Youth Guilty in 12 Fire Deaths.” 6-3-1967, p. 2.)
Nov 26, 1984: “Thomas Alfred Ruppert, whose conviction for setting a fire in 1965 that killed 12 people at the Yonkers Jewish Community Center was overturned on appeal [in 1972], died Friday at the Jersey City Medical Center in Jersey City. He was 35 years old and lived in Jersey City. Mr. Ruppert’s brother, William Ruppert of Bayonne, N.J., said Thomas Ruppert had had a liver disease and other ailments. At the time of his death, he was working as a stockman at a warehouse in Secaucus, N.J.
“In 1967, Mr. Ruppert, then 18 years old, proclaimed his innocence after he was found guilty on 24 counts of first-degree murder and one count of first-degree arson. A Westchester County Judge, Robert E. Dempsey, imposed 24 life sentences for the murders and a sentence of 10 to 25 years for the arson. But in 1972, the State Court of Appeals ruled that Mr. Ruppert had been coerced into making a confession and ordered the indictment against him dismissed….” (New York Times. “Thomas Ruppert, 35; Cleared on Yonkers Fire.” 11-26-1984, B-10.)
Sources
Evening Observer, Dunkirk-Fredonia, NY. “Detective Says Boy Told Him He Set Fatal Fire.” 2-16-1966, p. 7. At: http://newspaperarchive.com/fullpagepdfviewer?img=130430854&sterm=
Evening Observer, Dunkirk-Fredonia, NY. “Sought-After Suspected Arsonist Found in Hospital.” 1-27-1966, p. 17. At: http://newspaperarchive.com/fullpagepdfviewer?img=130430716&sterm
Evening Observer, Dunkirk-Fredonia, NY. “Suspected Arsonist Said Being Held Incommunicado.” 2-4-1966, p. 16. At: http://newspaperarchive.com/fullpagepdfviewer?img=128995505&sterm=
Herald-Journal, Syracuse, NY. “Arson suspect’s trial prohibited.” 3-18-1966, p. 8. Accessed at: http://newspaperarchive.com/fullpagepdfviewer?img=45394956&sterm=yonkers+fire+jewish
Jewish Council of Yonkers. “JCY/Westchester Community Partners: Our History.” Accessed at: http://www.jewishcouncil.info/aboutus.htm
Juillerat, Ernest E. “Community Center, Yonkers, New York.” National Fire Protection Association Fire Journal, Vol. 60, No. 3, May 1966, pp. 19-21.
National Fire Protection Association. “Bimonthly Fire Record,” Fire Journal, Vol. 61, No. 5, Sep 1967, pp. 47-50.
National Fire Protection Association. “The Major Fires of 1965.” Fire Journal, Vol. 60, No. 3, May 1966, pp. 52-54.
New York Times. “Thomas Ruppert, 35; Cleared on Yonkers Fire.” 11-26-1984, B-10. Accessed 2-18-2020 at: https://www.nytimes.com/1984/11/26/obituaries/thomas-ruppert-35-cleared-of-yonkers-fire.html
Oneonta Star, NY. “Fireman denies Yonkers charges.” 12-30-1965, p. 1. Accessed at: http://newspaperarchive.com/fullpagepdfviewer?img=54162814&sterm=fire
Post Standard, Syracuse, NY. “Community Center Fire Kills 9 Children, 3 Adults.” 12-21-1965, p. 1. Accessed at: http://newspaperarchive.com/fullpagepdfviewer?img=18893342&sterm=fire
Post-Standard, Syracuse, NY. “Delays Hearing on Arson Charge.” 3-23-1966, p. 2. Accessed at: http://newspaperarchive.com/fullpagepdfviewer?img=39073739&sterm=yonkers+fire+jewish
Post Standard, Syracuse, NY. “Find Youth Guilty in 12 Fire Deaths.” 6-3-1967, p. 2. Accessed at: http://newspaperarchive.com/fullpagepdfviewer?img=39082207&sterm=yonkers+fire+jewish
Post-Standard, Syracuse, NY. “Report Delay in Alarm for Fatal Blaze.” 12-22-1965, p. 29. Accessed at: http://newspaperarchive.com/fullpagepdfviewer?img=18893412&sterm=fire
Times Herald Record, Middletown, NY. “Arson case writ denied.” 2-10-1966, p. 50. Accessed at: http://newspaperarchive.com/fullpagepdfviewer?img=132082671&sterm=yonkers+fire
Wellsville Daily Reporter, NY. “Fatal Fire Report Said Badly Delayed.” 12-23-1965, p. 11. Accessed at: http://newspaperarchive.com/fullpagepdfviewer?img=135561702&sterm=fire
Further Reading
Casetext.com. “People v. Ruppert.” 12-30-1970. Accessed 2-18-2020 at: https://casetext.com/case/people-v-ruppert-5
Greenhouse, Linda. “New Showdown Near in Fatal Yonkers Fire Case.” New York Times, 8-5-1970, p. 18. Accessed 2-18-2020 at: https://www.nytimes.com/1970/08/05/archives/new-showdown-near-in-fatal-yonkers-fire-case.html