Published by The History Press
Charleston, SC
www.historypress.com
Copyright 2021 by Royd Anderson
All rights reserved
First published 2021
E-Book edition 2021
ISBN 978.1.43967.405.5
Library of Congress Control Number: 2021945852
Print Edition ISBN 978.1.46714.636.4
Notice: The information in this book is true and complete to the best of our knowledge. It is offered without guarantee on the part of the author or The History Press. The author and The History Press disclaim all liability in connection with the use of this book.
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This book is dedicated to the victims and survivors of disasters and to all those who have helped in recovery efforts.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
A special thanks to Jim Davis for encouraging me to write this book and to Mary Ann Bulla for giving me sound grammatical advice.
Thank you:
Renee Allemand, Sandra Alvarez, Aida Anderson, Amanda Anderson, Eric Anderson, Dr. Mark Anderson, Sidney Anderson, Summer Anderson, Diane Anderson-Minshall, Ryan Arena, Dr. Phil Auter, John Baehr, Dr. Robert Barsley, Harold Bartholomew, Dr. John Baye, Christopher Baynas, Daniel E. Becnel Jr., Russell Bergstrom, Jennifer Boquet, Shirley Bourgeois, David Bourlet, Joseph Bourlet, Drew Broach, Kimberly Broadbridge-Navarrete, Aaron Broussard, Bob Chaisson, Charles Chatelain, Eric Coleman, Vivian Collins, Nick Congemi, Dr. Raquel Cortina, Dr. William Davie, Dr. Clayton Delery, Armond Duffourc, Tyra Duh-Griffin, Robyn Ekings, Bill Fagaly, Skylar Fein, Lillian Francioni, Helen Freund, Lucien Gauff III, Terry Gilbert, Elaine Gonzales, Deputy Chief Frank Graff, A. Gordon Grant Jr., Laura Grenda, Lori Guin, Al Hamauei, Archbishop Philip M. Hannan, Melissa Hauck, Perez Hilton, Dr. Patricia Holmes, Fred Hurt, Jeremy Johnson, Heidi Rogers Kinchen, Tom Klekamp, Jane Kokan, Dr. Farooq Kperogi, Errol Laborde, Mark Larkin, Sheriff Harry Lee, Grace Leleux, Michael MacKenzie, Dominic Massa, Dr. Tilar J. Mazzeo, Jonathan Menard, Duane Mitchell, D.J. Mumphrey, Erin Nicole, Mary Noone, Gaynell Paradelas, Eric Paulsen, Walter Pierce, Michael Pierre, Jessica Pigott, Vickie Pigott, Evelyn Pourciau, Allen Powell II, Emily Price, Dolores Pritchett, Tommy Pritchett, Kit Rault, Butch Remondet, Florent Retz, Peter Ricchiuti, Marcel Rivas, Gina Rivere, Brooke Robichaux, Reagan Ross, David Sandberg, Sylvia Sandberg, Elliott Sanders, Jerry Saporito, Matt Scallan, Mike Scardino, Mike Scott, Donna Silner, Chris Smith, Dr. Marcus Smith, Iris Songy, Kenneth Songy, Mary Sparacello, James Stansbury, Gregory Stassi, Ann Taylor, Roger Tilley, Johnny Townsend, Genell Turnage, John Veca, Dave Walker, Leonard A. Washofsky, Flowers Wilson, Dennis Woltering.
A SIGN FROM ABOVE?
It was partly cloudy and in the low seventies on the night of Monday, July 17, 1972. Father Joseph Breault made a supernatural discovery inside his Ramada Inn room at 2222 Tulane Avenue. The Pilgrim Virgin Statue was weeping! Through the evening and into the early morning, the relic sporadically shed tears over a period of four hours. During his time as the custodian of the visiting statue, this was the thirteenth and most prolonged time the padre had observed the miracle.
The Fatima statue crying. Illustration by Margaret Raslavich.
The remarkable Fatima cedar wood statue is one of two in the world, sculpted by Jos Thedim in 1947. Its appearance was ascertained through the explicit directions of Sister Lucia, who was one of the three shepherd children visited several times by Our Ladys apparition at the Cova da Iria, near the village of Fatima in Portugal in 1917.
The Ramada Inn was located five blocks from the Central Business District (CBD). In less than a year after the Pilgrim Virgin Statue wept there, three major tragedies occurred in the CBD: the Rault Center fire (November 29, 1972), the Howard Johnsons sniper (January 7, 1973) and the UpStairs Lounge fire (June 24, 1973). Incidentally, the author of this book was born during the week she wept, on Saturday, July 22, 1972.
THREE MAJOR TRAGEDIES IN THE CENTRAL BUSINESS DISTRICT IN LESS THAN SIX MONTHS
THE RAULT CENTER FIRE (NOVEMBER 29, 1972)
New Orleans was strained during a disconcerting forty-five-day period in 1972.
On October 16, House Majority Leader Hale Boggs (D-LA) disappeared in Alaska and was later presumed dead. He was aboard a twin-engine Cessna 310, traveling from Anchorage to Juneau with Representative Nick Begich and his aide, Russell Brown. The plane, pilot Don Jonz and its passengers have not been located to this day. A young Bill Clinton assisted Boggs to the San Antonio airport for the first leg of the ill-fated trip.
Student protesters at Southern University had occupied the administration building on November 16 as part of a movement to restructure the university (the nations largest Black college at the time). Unarmed freshmen Leonard Brown and Denver Smith were shot and killed during a confrontation between students, the East Baton Rouge Parish sheriffs deputies and state police. No lawman was fingered or charged with the shooting. This prompted a Black power memorial service and student boycott at Southern University in New Orleans. Most of the students didnt want to return to classes, since the Baton Rouge campus remained closed.
The week of November 26 began with a tilt. A new state law enforced on January 1 banned gambling-type pinball machines, a feat that took over forty years to finally render. With 64,325 in attendance at Tulane Stadium, the Saints won only their second (and what would become their last) game of the season, defeating the Rams, 1916. The Godfather was playing at the Airline and Algiers S. Drive In Theaters, while Deliverance was featured at the Saenger Orleans.
Mobile Oil Company geologist Michael MacKenzie has a story from this week that haunts him to this day. It occurred on the afternoon of Wednesday, November 29. He spoke of the incident from the back room office of his century-old Uptown home.
Hale Boggs. Courtesy of The Historic New Orleans Collection.
Theres the Downtown Howard Johnsons hotel on Loyola Avenue, a block from the Rault building, and my wife Janet and I were having lunch in that hotel. When we were through lunch, we looked at each other and said, Should we have another cup of coffee? Which we did, and that took about fifteen more minutes. Then we walked outside the hotel onto Loyola Avenue, turned right, went about a block to the intersection of Loyola St. and Gravier St., and turned right on Gravier to get to the Rault Center. Janet was going to go up into the beauty parlor of the Rault Center and have her hair worked on. We were about twenty yards from the building when a window blew out in the front of the building, almost overhead. We stopped, because that gave us an idea that there was a fire in the building.
