3 Ring Inferno: The Unsolved Mystery and Demonic Connection

About one of the three shows he summoned for Ghostober this year, Zak Bagans said, “Creepy clowns, portals to a dark and evil circus underworld, 3 Ring Inferno hosts all the classic horror people yearn for on Halloween. It’s what nightmares are made of!”

But what item from his museum sparked the two-hour film that he once again collaborated on with Eli Roth to produce? The first season of The Haunted Museum was comprised of individual episodes based on items found in Zak Bagans’ popular Las Vegas museum. It was reasonable to assume 3 Ring Inferno would follow suit. In hindsight, I realize Bagans’ statement actually held the clue.

It was also reasonable to wonder if it would have a demonic connection. After all, this is Zak Bagans we’re talking about. You know there has to be a demon tie-in somewhere.

Now we know the answers to all of the questions. Step right up, boys and girls. Let’s explore the artifacts and the frightening true story from Bagans’ collection that brought The Haunted Museum: 3 Ring Inferno blazing to life. And what a demon has to do with it all.

The Hartford Circus Fire: The Inspiration for 3 Ring Inferno

They crafted 3 Ring Inferno around a few items in a display at Zak Bagans’ Haunted Museum. Before we get to them, though, we’ll set the stage and start where Bagans did.

At the beginning of The Haunted Museum: 3 Ring Inferno, he walks into a theater and up on stage. He sits in a chair and delivers a monologue introducing the film. That’s how, right away, we know a horrific real-life event inspired it:

“A lifetime of investigating the paranormal…it’s taught me that when very bad things happen in the past that there’s always going to be massive repercussions here in the present. Tragedies involving murder and mass death, they release dark forms of energy and they reverberate around the living like psychic echoes or aftershocks. Bigger events, they can lead to much bigger aftershocks, and in my mind they don’t get any bigger than the Hartford Circus Fire.”

He then explains that on July 6, 1944, a fire started during a matinee performance of the Ringling Brothers-Barnum & Bailey Circus in Hartford,  Connecticut. Thousands were in attendance. It left almost 170 people (168) dead, and almost 700 people (682) injured.

The Hartford Circus Fire is not one of the top 20 deadliest fires in American history, but many sources cite it as one of the worst fire disasters in U.S. history. Understandably so. As HISTORY broke it down, “Two-thirds of those who perished were children.”

Plus, it was the middle of the day at a family-friendly activity where only fun was on everyone’s mind. Instead, it resulted in so many dead and injured. Not that you can ever brace for tragedy, but some, like this one…well, there’s no bracing for that ever.

The Men Who Were Held Responsible

Seven men were indicted for the fire. Each entered a plea of nolo contendere. (Where a defendant doesn’t admit guilt but accepts conviction as if they had entered a guilty plea.) The men included five officials of Ringling Brothers-Barnum & Bailey Circus and two employees.

1. James A. Haley, VP and director of the circus corporation
2. George W. Smith, general manager
3. Leonard S. Aylesworth, boss canvassman
4. Edward R. Versteeg, chief electrician
5. David W. Blanchfield, superintendent and rolling stock
6. William Caley, seatman
7. Samuel Clark, seatman

According to an article in The Baltimore Sun from Jan. 12, 1945, “The coroner said that Caley and Clark ‘left their places under the bleachers when it was their duty to remain there and watch for fires that might occur.'”

Six of the seven ended up sentenced to prison, with sentences as follows:

1. Haley: one to five years each on 10 counts of manslaughter
2. Smith: two to seven years on each count
3. Aylesworth: two to seven years on each count
4. Versteeg: one year on each count
5. Blanchfield: six months on each count
6. William Caley: one year on each count

The Fire’s Unsolved Mystery #1: How did it start?

HISTORY reported that an investigation found that gasoline had been used to thin paraffin, which was applied to the big top tent to waterproof it. Both substances are flammable.

Did a carelessly thrown cigarette ignite the fire, or was it a case of arson? The leading theory had been a discarded cigarette was to blame. But in later years, there was reason to believe a different explanation provided a more plausible answer.

The Mar. 9, 1991 edition of the Hartford Courant reported how a California study “conclusively proved a smoldering cigarette, even if dropped into dry hay or grass, could not ignite a fire if the relative humidity were above 23 percent. On the day of the circus fire, the humidity…was 41 percent.”

Thanks to new investigative techniques back in the late 1980s and early 1990s, Hartford Fire Lt. Rick Davey concluded the fire had been arson. That’s why in 1991, the FBI was looking into a 1950 arson confession that had never resulted in prosecution from Hartford’s courts.

3 Ring Inferno’s Demon Connection

The demon mic drop also came early on in The Haunted Museum: 3 Ring Inferno. Right after he explains about the fire, Bagans says:

“Now this is where it gets interesting. A man would later confess to deliberately starting the blaze. And while he was being interrogated, he claimed that a demonic entity with flames coming out of its head told him to start the fire.”

The man was Robert Dale Segee. 3 Ring Inferno ends with info stating the following:

“In 1950, Robert Dale Segee confessed to setting the Hartford Circus Fire that killed nearly 170 people.

He told police he had terrifying visions of an entity with fangs, claws and flames coming out of its head.

Segee was never tried for the crime and later recanted his confession.

The cause of the fire remains unknown.

Robert Dale Segee

Robert Dale Segee confessed to setting the 1944 Hartford Circus Fire after he was arrested for arson in Ohio in 1950. That’s partly why he was never charged in Connecticut. Although, investigators from Hartford were sent to Columbus, OH, to talk with Segee. (Which was not without its own drama, but it’s too long a story and not really relevant to report here.)

Segee ran away and went to work for the circus at 14. The same day that he joined, June 30, 1944, there was a minor fire on the tent ropes. Then a “tent flap mysteriously caught fire.” Both were extinguished without incident, but no cause for either was ever determined. Then the circus made its way to Hartford.

Segee admitted that “his fire-setting often followed frustrating sexual encounters.” And here’s the part of the Mar. 9, 1991, Hartford Courant that brings in the demonic side of things. Which, let’s note this is 1991, amidst the era of “Satanic Panic.”

“Although he almost always recalled striking the match, Segee said he often ‘blacked out’ after that, awakening only when the nightmare recurred of ‘the red man’ with his fangs and claws and fiery red chest hair and flames coming out of the top of his head. The vision is a classic one for chronic fire-setters, experts say.”

As stated already, Segee did recant his confession. Decades later, in 1993, when investigators questioned him again, he told them, “Yeah, I did say that. [That he’d set the fire.] But at the time I said it, I was nuts.”

The Artifacts That Inspired 3 Ring Inferno

One of the clown costumes in Bagans’ museums belonged to Jackie LeClaire, a clown who performed at the circus on the day of the fire. Bagans explained:

“And after placing it in my museum, it was as if the spirit of that clown was telling me to place the costume and an original photo of the Hartford Circus Fire beneath a vintage miniature diorama of a circus, much like the one that was destroyed by that fire in 1944, so that his spirit could and all of the victims of that fire could exist within the diorama. And immediately, strange things began to happen.”

He then said how guests reported seeing “a very large apparition figure roaming around the funhouse with them.” He also showed footage of guests walking through the museum. A man walking through the funhouse suddenly stops and faces one of the clowns. Then he passes out.

Anyway, so it turned out a combo of artifacts within the museum sparked the storyline for The Haunted Museum: 3 Ring Inferno.

The Fire’s Unsolved Mystery #2: Little Miss 1565

Seven who died in the Hartford Circus Fire were never identified, including an 8-year-old girl who came to be known as “Little Miss 1565.” And in a way, she also became the face of the circus disaster. Or the “cause celebre” as one paper put it.

In addition to getting the fire’s cause changed from a carelessly discarded cigarette to “underdetermined,” Hartford Fire Lt. Rick Davey also worked to solve Little Miss 1565’s identity. In the end, he confirmed she was Eleanor Cook.

Her death photo haunted Lt. Davey, as well as the rest of Hartford, who never forgot the little girl. Her face, which hadn’t been marred by fire (she’d actually died from being trampled to death), had been published in the paper in the hopes of finding who she belonged to.

Eleanor had been at the fire that day with her two brothers and her mother, but had been listed as missing. Using that photo from the paper, Lt. Davey compared it with others he got from her mother, Mildred Cook. You’d think they’d have been able to do that back in 1944, too, but there was confusion that complicated the matter. Her mom had been badly burned in the fire.

Mildred’s sister, Emily Gill, went to identify Eleanor but wasn’t sure it was her. She believed her niece had four upper and four lower secondary teeth. The child she was shown only had four of each.

Anyway, using photos he got from her mom, Lt. Davey was finally able to put the pieces together and get Little Miss 1565’s identity officially declared as Eleanor Cook.

Check-In

Would it have surprised you if something demonic didn’t play a factor in 3 Ring Inferno?