Category: History

Today marks 47 years since nearly 3 dozen were killed in the UpStairs Lounge fire

(Photo: Location of the former UpStairs Lounge; picture taken in 2016 by Infrogmation | CC)
Wednesday marked 47 years since nearly three dozen people were killed in the UpStairs Lounge fire at 141 Chartres St. in the French Quarter.

The fire was first reported shortly before 8 p.m. on June 24, 1973 as people were enjoying a party on the second floor of the building during the last day of Pride Weekend.

While arson is suspected, no one was ever prosecuted. The fire is often forgotten even though it was the deadliest known attack on an LGBTQ+ club until the 2016 Pulse nightclub mass shooting in Orlando.

The fire’s anniversary comes days after the six-alarm blaze at the Quarter House hotel at 129 Chartres St. in which two firefighters were injured, just a few doors down near where The Jimani bar now sits.

UPDATED Crews battle 6-alarm blaze at Quarter House Hotel; two firefighters injured

The UpStairs fire killed 32 people and injured 15 more. Two white males who died in the fire have not been identified. Those who died include:

Willie Inez Warren, 59
James Curtis Warren, 26
Eddie Hosea Warren, 24
Luther Boggs, 47
Rev. William R. Larson, 47
Dr. Perry Lane Waters, Jr., 41
Horace “Skip” Getchell, 35
Leon Richard Maples, 31
George Steven “Bud” Matyi, 27
James Wall Hambrick, 45
Larry Dean Stratton, 25,
Joe William Bailey, 29
Clarence Joseph McCloskey, Jr., 48
Adam Roland Fontenot, 32
Ferris LeBlanc, 50
Donald Walter Dunbar, 21
Kenneth Paul Harrington, 48
Gerald Hoyt Gordon, 37
John Thomas Golding, Sr., 49
Douglas Maxwell Williams, 20
Robert Lumpkin, 29
David Stuart Gary, 22
Guy D. Anderson, 41
Duane George Mitchell, 31
Louis Horace Broussard, 26
Reginald Adams, Jr., 24
Joseph Henry Adams, 51
Herbert Dean Cooley, 32
Glenn Richard Green, 32
Larry Norman Frost, 32

The Grateful Dead was “busted down on Bourbon Street” 50 years ago on this day

(Jerry Garcia’s mugshot. Picture: CC | Flickr)
Friday marked 50 years since members of the Grateful Dead were “busted down on Bourbon Street.”

Jerry Garcia and Bill Kreutzmann—who were each identified as band “associate[s]”—were arrested in a drug raid after a team of federal narcotics agents and New Orleans Police served a search warrant on two rooms at an unspecified French Quarter hotel on Jan. 31, 1970, according to the Times-Picayune in an article dated Feb. 1, 1970.

The band was on tour and had recently played at a venue called The Warehouse located at Felicity and Tchoupitoulas streets, which opened for business on the prior evening.

Assisted by federal agents, the raid was led by New Orleans Police Department Chief Clarence Giarusso, seizing various quantities of drugs including marijuana and LSD and netted 19 total arrests, including Grateful Dead roadie Larry Shirtliff, band manager John M. McIntire, band equipment man John P. Hager and Owsley Stanley, of Alexandria, Va., dubbed the “King of Acid,” according to the newspaper.

The raid was memorialized in the Grateful Dead song, “Truckin’,” which appeared on the band’s album American Beauty. The song was recognized as a “national treasure” by the Library of Congress in 1997.

Lesh, Garcia, Weir, Hager, McIntire, and Shirtliff were each arrested on suspicion of possession of marijuana.

Shirtliff and McIntire were also each suspected of possessing barbiturates, while Weir was also suspected of amphetamine possession and Lesh was also booked on suspicion of possession of LSD.

Several French Quarter residents were arrested in the raid, according to the Times-Picayune. They include:

Stephen T. Helms, 20, of 630 Dauphine St., suspected of possessing marijuana and barbiturates;

Nancy A. Weidenhaft, 23, of 630 Dauphine St., a saleslady at a French Quarter dress shop, suspected of possessing marijuana and dangerous non-narcotics;

Miss Elsie J. Landun, 20, of 630 Dauphine St., suspected of possessing marijauna a barbiturates.