Age 29. 145 Langley Road, Newton Centre (Newton), MA. Born 9/26/1913, in Brighton (Boston), MA. Died on 12/01/1942 (Tuesday), at Massachusetts General Hospital, of burns (death certificate). "He was burned and overcome by fumes..." (Waltham News-Tribune, Waltham, MA, 12/01/1942). Supervisor in the supercharger department, General Electric Co., Lynn, MA. Attended a stag party of 16 G.E. employees to honor military-bound coworker and fire survivor Frank Weaver, age 25 (Born 9/27/1917. Died 1/09/1992, age 74. Last residence Framingham, MA), of Lynn, at the nearby Hotel Lenox. Men split into three groups and went by taxi to the Grove. With coworkers Herbert "Jack" Haines, age 26, of Cambridge, MA, and Bartlett Stuart, age 27, of Reading, MA (both dead), entered the main foyer while one other stopped at the revolving door to wait for a fifth man to pay the cab driver. Trio were checking their coats as fire broke out. "The cabs with the rest of the group arrived a minute or two after the fire started, so they were not in the club..." (Schenectady Gazette, Schenectady, NY, 12/09/1942). Case #7 of 39 in a landmark 1943 Mass General Hospital Grove burns study (no history obtained. Arrived "maniacal, uncontrollable, vomiting." Burns: 2nd and 3rd-degree, face, hands, scalp. Total 11% of body. Died 3rd day, pulmonary edema, 52 hours after fire. Autopsy: "a powerfully built, well-nourished male"). Was single. Graduate of Newton High School, where he was a tennis and track star. One of 14 victims from the residential city of Newton (including its dozen-plus "villages"), and one of two dead from the village of Newton Centre (also Mrs. Sadie Levin, age 38, a patron in a separate party). One of 20 names chosen by the Commonwealth as representative victims at the spring 1943 Grove manslaughter trials of club owner Barnett "Barney" Welansky, age 45 (not present due to illness), his brother James, age 46, and wine steward Jacob "Jack" Goldfine, age 47 (the latter two found not guilty of all charges). Parents Mr. and Mrs. Elisha W., Sr., and Fanny T. (Guth) Cobb, same address. Burial at Newton Cemetery, Newton. Middle name Wilbur.

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