{"id":8667,"date":"2015-03-23T08:49:51","date_gmt":"2015-03-23T12:49:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/phillyhistory.wpengine.com\/?p=8667"},"modified":"2015-03-23T09:08:12","modified_gmt":"2015-03-23T13:08:12","slug":"fatal-collapse-at-5th-and-clearfield","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.phillyhistory.org\/index.php\/2015\/03\/fatal-collapse-at-5th-and-clearfield\/","title":{"rendered":"Fatal Collapse at 5th and Clearfield"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Cave-in<\/a>
Cave-in at 5th and Clearfield, August 2, 1959 (PhillyHistory.org)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

“My God, it\u2019s Reiss!” shouted Alfred Haggerty. The patrolman had noticed something<\/i> at the bottom of the gaping pit at the intersection of 5th<\/sup> and Clearfield and stared at it for minutes before realizing it was the body of the missing police officer.<\/p>\n

A week before, Joseph A. Reiss and his partner, patrolman Joseph Cheplick, responded to a call to investigate a street cavein. Within minutes of their arrival, Reiss had \u201cplunged into a 20-foot-deep, water-filled hole that suddenly opened beneath him.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cPoliceman Vanished in Huge Cavein,\u201d read the headline on August 2, 1959.<\/p>\n

Gunner\u2019s Run, one of the many creeks buried by the city<\/a> in the 1880s, still flowed in a 12-foot brick conduit more than 20 feet below. This creek-turned-sewer was out of sight and out of mind until the rains. Then came the caveins, again<\/a> and again<\/a>.<\/p>\n

As Cheplick told what happened that fateful Saturday night, he and Reiss \u201cgot out of their car for a closer look. Chelplick was about 20 feet behind his partner when Reiss reached the hole and peered over the edge.\u00a0 \u201cI saw dirt crumbling away under the pavement where Joe was standing,\u201d Cheplick said. \u201cI yelled, \u201cFor God\u2019s sake, Joe, get back!\u201d Then I saw his spotlight fly up in the air and Joe disappeared in to the hole.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe edge crumpled and he was flung into the hole. He disappeared from sight.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cheplick ran back to their squad car, \u201cgot a rope and worked his way back to the crater. He tried to lower the rope into the hole. \u201cBut when I got back all I could see was swirling water. Joe was gone\u2026\u201d Cheplick \u201cwas forced to retreat as the ground on which he stood fell away.\u201d<\/p>\n

At the missing officer\u2019s home in Bustleton, Marie Reiss, prayed “in her living room and\u2026begged God to keep her husband alive in the pit that swallowed him\u2026 She wept because she realized the chances were slim. Mayor Richardson Dilworth told her so. Her friends have told her the same\u2014in an effort to soften the blow\u2026 But Marie Reiss clung to the thread of possibility.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Cave-in<\/a>
Cave-in at 5th and Clearfield Sts., August 11, 1959. (PhillyHistory.org)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In the light of day, Cheplick returned to the scene and choked back tears as he showed exactly where Reiss had fallen in. \u201cIt was here,\u201d he told the Water Commissioner, pointing to one edge of the pit, \u201cthat\u2019s where he disappeared.\u201d The rescue team \u201cdescended into the sewer and penetrated to within fifty feet of the collapsed wall, but saw no sign of the missing patrolman.\u201d As hopes of rescue turned to recovery, few expected that Reiss\u2019s body remained close to the cavein. The sewer overflow emptied out in the Delaware two miles downstream. That\u2019s where a Harbor Patrol boat idled in the Delaware River, just off the foot of Somerset Street and Port Richmond.<\/p>\n

After a week of waiting and watching, that patrolman Alfred Haggerty spotted Reiss\u2019s body in the the crater at 5th and Clearfield turned out to be the only break. Immediately, \u201cpolice and firemen erected a platform in the pit about 15 feet from the bottom and then began lowering a ladder to the bottom\u2026 A crane was swung into position to recover the body.\u201d Then, \u201csuddenly, the water fed by the afternoon\u2019s heavy rains swirled up over the body\u201d and carried it away.<\/p>\n

A mile and three-quarters downstream, beneath the pavement at Richmond Avenue and Somerset Street, Water Department workers Anthony DiNicola and Edward Potts had been maintaining a watchful vigil. And it was there, less than an hour after Haggerty spotted Reiss, that they would recover his body from a 12-foot square, concrete interceptor chamber.<\/p>\n

Two days later, after the viewing, the Police and Firemen\u2019s bands<\/a> lined up along Cottman Avenue and played \u201cNearer My God To Thee.\u201d At the Requiem Mass that followed at the Church of the Maternity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, near Bustleton Avenue and Welsh road, \u201ca detail of 100 policemen representing all branches of the department stood at attention\u201d as the pallbearers, including Joseph Cheplick, passed by. In the front of the church, that sad Wednesday, as city and police leaders filed out after the Mass, stood Marie Agnes Reiss and her two children.<\/p>\n

Now, only Marie alone knew she was carrying a third child.<\/p>\n

[Sources consulted at the George D. McDowell Philadelphia Evening Bulletin<\/i> Newsclipping Collection, Special Collections Research Center<\/span><\/a>, Temple University: \u201cPoliceman Vanished in Huge Cavein,\u201d August 2, 1959; \u201cCaveins Slow Rescue at Street Pit,\u201d August 3, 1959; \u201cThat\u2019s Where he Fell In, Officer Cries at Cavein,\u201d August 4, 1959; \u201cPoliceman\u2019s Wife Clings to Hope,\u201d August 4, 1959; \u201cDivers Recover Body of Policeman in Cavein,\u201d August 9, 1959; \u201cMayor Attends Rites for Reiss,\u201d August 12, 1959;\u00a0 \u201cCave-In Widow Has A Daughter,\u201d March 2, 1959. Also see “In Memory of Patrolman Joseph A. Reiss #2672<\/a>.”]<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“My God, it\u2019s Reiss!” shouted Alfred Haggerty. The patrolman had noticed something at the bottom of the gaping pit at the intersection of 5th and Clearfield and stared at it for minutes before realizing it was the body of the missing police officer. A week before, Joseph A. Reiss and his partner, patrolman Joseph Cheplick, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8667","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.phillyhistory.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8667","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.phillyhistory.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.phillyhistory.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.phillyhistory.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/22"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.phillyhistory.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8667"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.phillyhistory.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8667\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.phillyhistory.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8667"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.phillyhistory.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8667"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.phillyhistory.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8667"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}