Age 26. 76 Shefford Street, Springfield, MA. Born 4/18/1916, in Springfield. Died 12/03/1942 (Thursday), at 6:45 a.m., Boston City Hospital, 3rd-degree burns and inhalation of smoke (death certificate). First Lieutenant, U.S. Army, attached to the Ordnance Corps. Engineer in the cartridge division, Watertown Arsenal, Watertown, MA, since December 1940 (lodged at 16 Prospect Street, Winchester, MA). Was known as "Bill." To the club with his fiancée Miss Jeannette Mullin, age 28 (Born 10/10/1914. Died as Jeannette E. Brennan on 11/18/1980, age 66. Last residence Jamaica Plain, MA), also lodging in Winchester, injured, William "Stephen" Collins, age 28 (Born 5/16/1914. Died 2/08/1992, age 77), of Medford, MA, escaped, and the latter's girlfriend, Miss Priscilla White, age 27, of Brookline, MA (died on December 11). Foursome were seated at a small table set up in the passageway between the main dining room and the New Lounge. "So severely burned in the first big blast of flame and scorched air that erupted...that he lost consciousness at his table" (Springfield Union, 12/04/1942). Pulled from a "human pile" at the Broadway exit by Mr. Collins. Latter testified at the spring 1943 Grove manslaughter trials: "I grabbed him out into the street, opened his shirt and he made some sign of life. I yelled to some men with white coats and stretchers nearby to take him away" (Boston Evening American, 3/26/1943). Suffered severe burns to his arms, legs and back. Was placed in an oxygen tank. Winchester Star, 12/04/1942: "Little hope had been held out for him from the first, doctors being amazed at the vitality he displayed in the face of his critical injuries." Inflated count (The Boston Post, 12/04/1942): "The death of Lieutenant William Langhammer...brought the death toll of the Cocoanut Grove holocaust to 500" (actually the 481st casualty of 490). Was a graduate of Technical High School, Springfield, 1934. Graduated Cornell University in 1938. Previously a draftsman in the diesel laboratory of American Bosch Corp. (magnetos and diesel injection equipment), of Springfield. One of four known engaged guests to perish (all male) while their companion fiancées survived (others: Dr, Gordon Bennett, age 27, Justin Morgan, age 21, and William Young, age 36). His fiancée was later subject of an odd postwar news story: In November 1945 she phoned her mother in Newton, MA, that she had been, "...beaten and robbed by sailors in San Francisco..." (Boston Traveler, 12/04/1945). Was not heard from again for weeks. In the meantime had secretly married a U.S. Army officer in Hartford, CT. Parents Mrs. Lina B. (Bienert), same Springfield address, and the late Mr. Paul W. Langhammer. Father died of a heart attack in 1938. His mother donated a diathermy machine to the Watertown Arsenal in her victim son's name, April 1943. Burial at Hillcrest Park Cemetery, Springfield. Middle name Paul.

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