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Mysterious tragedy Area author explores historic state calamity

By Ryan Redding
Posted Thursday, October 12, 2006

By Ryan Redding
GB View Contributor

GRAND BLANC TWP. — Grand Blanc resident and author Steve Lehto is ready to set the record straight. His new book, Death’s Door: The Truth Behind Michigan’s Largest Mass Murder, chronicles the tragic events surrounding the deaths of 73 people in the Upper Peninsula.
The truth behind what happened in the copper mining town of Calumet, Mich. on Christmas Eve 1913 has remained a mystery. Now Lehto’s book looks to answer the question, was it an accident or murder?
The local copper miners went on strike in the fall of 1913 in opposition to the low wages they were being paid. As the miners and their families gathered in the Italian Hall on Christmas Eve to watch a show, a sudden cry of “Fire!” was heard. The panic-stricken audience rushed for the exits, and in the ensuing chaos, 73 people were killed, including 59 children.
The Italian Hall was, in fact, not on fire. Among many questions surrounding the tragedy was, who shouted the fatal warning and why? Death’s Door provides answers to these as yet unanswered questions and, perhaps, provides some closure to a community still affected by the controversy of these events.
Lehto’s family has a long history in the U.P., and he knew of this story because of the amount of time he has spent in the area. As no book existed on the Italian Hall tragedy, Steve was eager to research and write one that would help shed light on what really happened and clear up many misconceptions.
“I was inspired to write this story because it was one of those legends, a story that I seem to have known about for as long as I can remember,” Lehto said. “But, when I began looking into it as an adult, I noticed that there still seemed to be gaps in the story. How is it possible that more than six dozen people could be killed in the 20th century and the killer could so easily escape?”
To find out, Lehto researched archives at Michigan Tech University, Finlandia University and the state archives in Lansing. What he found was a mix of truth, fiction, and everything in between. “I’m an attorney, so that helps me deal with the consistencies and inconsistencies,” he said.
In his research, he found biased newspapers, false death bed confessions, a botched coroner’s inquest and a book full of mistakes and made-up truths.
“I think people will find it interesting for several reasons,” Lehto said. “At the most basic, it’s a ‘whodunit.’ Why did the killer do it and how did he get away?”
But the book is about a larger issue, one that Lehto says resonates still today.
“It happened at a major crossroads in labor history. I think the Italian Hall is the moment between the ‘before’ and ‘after’ pictures of when labor changed and workers finally got a say in work conditions,” he added.
Death’s Door will be released Oct. 24 by Momentum Books. It can be purchased online and at local bookstores, including Barnes & Noble. For more information, visit http://italianhall.blog.com.