NewsBank. inc. - The Dallas Morning News - 1997 - Article with Citation 

Headline:

The tragedy at the SCREAMING BRIDGE School girls' fatal crash more than 30 years ago remains a mystery

Date-October 31. 1997         

Section: WEEKEND Edition: ARLINGTON MORNING NEWS

Page: 1c                       

Word Count:   1477

Author: Jennifer Rankin Staff Writer of the Arlington Morning News

  Text: Arlington abounds with ghost stories. They tell of monsters lurking in the Trinity River, haunted theaters, victims dangling from a noose at the Hanging Tree and a murdered girl who lurks around the old Arlington Downs racetrack. But no local legend is as steeped in real tragedy and drama as that of the Screaming Bridge. The story has been garbled over the years, and the present-day version has little to do with the real facts. The ghost story, which centers on a now-inaccessible bridge in North Arlington, tells of a group of popular girls who plunged to their deaths when trying to cross the burned-out bridge, said longtime Arlington resident George Hawkes. The barrier that would have warned the group that the bridge was gone had been removed, and the culprit never caught, according to news reports of that time. If brave adventurers creep down to the bridge on a dark and quiet night, the legend goes, they can still hear the screams the girls made as their car flew from the bridge more than 30 years ago. Although the details have grown hazy over time, much of the story is  true. Several longtime Arlington residents refused to discuss their memories of the accident, saying it was too painful. But news accounts after the 1961 incident and some residents' recollections provide the truth behind the legend.

      A group of six Arlington High School students, friends who spent most of their time together, had gone to the movies Feb 4,1961.

  One of the group of friends was missing. Kathy Dormier, described in news reports as a "constant friend" to the other girls, originally planned to join the group, but "at the last minute, her parents decided that she shouldn't go," according to a story in the Feb. 6 edition of The Daily News Texan. No reason was reported for her parents decision. After the movie ended, the group was joy-riding on the old Arlington-Bedford Road, a dark ribbon of asphalt that led through a grove of trees and over a large creek. Before they reached the bridge, an  16-year-old Hurst youth, Bill Young, was also cruising up the road with his date. According to newspaper reports, he had slowed his car because he could see a train approaching the tracks on the other side of the bridge. Because he slowed down for the train, he was able to see the bridge had been burned out, and stopped in time to avoid a wreck. He was backing away from the small ravine when the car carrying the six girls sped past Mr. Young. He tried to warn the girls by honking his horn, but told police later that he believed his efforts only scared the group, because the car sped up. The girls' car sailed across  the 40-foot gap left by the burned-out bridge and smashed into the northeastern bank. "I remember the occasion," said Mr. Hawkes,  former publisher of the Arlington Citizen-Journal. "The bridge was closed, and the guard rails . . . kids had removed them. " Six ambulances rushed the girls to Arlington Memorial Hospital. Emergency treatment was given, but for Kathy Fleming, Mary Lou Goldner and Claudia jean Reeves, it was too late. Donna Post, Dorothy Ibsen and Jo Ann Anderson were transferred to Baylor Hospital in Dallas. Police were forced to wait for Ms. Ibsen to regain consciousness before the identities of the victims could be determined. "The car crashed into the creek and killed come of them," said Charles Hawkes, former editor of the ITALICSCitizen-Journal and George Hawkes' brother. "Some were daughters of very prominent residents. The community was stunned by the accident. Then-police chief Ott Cribbs was quoted as saying Arlington had never seen such a tragedy, excepting accidents on the Interurban, a railway system that ran between Fort Worth and Dallas. As the three surviving girls slowly began to recover from grave injuries, police began to investigate. The arson at the bridge was   at that time the second in two years, and no one could explain what had happened to the warning barriers that could have prevented the wreck. Funerals were held, and the student body of Arlington High School mourned. The three killed in the wreck were buried in White Chapel Memorial Gardens. At Baylor Hospital, Ms. Anderson survived brain surgery, Miss Ibsen underwent surgery for a fractured jaw and Miss Post recovered from fractured arms and a concussion. The triple deaths were kept from the survivors for more than a week, at the suggestion of the doctors. Police investigations were slow, and the person who removed the barrier remained at large. But the group of vandals who burned out the bridge surprised the community by confessing to the crime.

   Three of the four men responsible attended Arlington High School. The students withdrew from school, and waited five days for a grand jury to decide their fate. The jury declined to indict, saying the boys had made a mistake   in burning the bridge, but it had been a momentary whim, a mistake, a prank. Letters to the editor at the two Arlington newspapers demanded punishment, but none was taken through legal recourse, and school officials publicly warned against vigilante actions or reprisals. "A lot of people's lives were ruined because of it,” said Mary Margaret Bassham, who taught at Arlington High School for 20 years. There was debate an whether the barrier warning of the burned-out 7 bridge had been removed or simply destroyed as the car sped through it. Then-Sheriff Lon Evans said during the investigation that he believed the girls' car pushed the barrier ahead of them into the ditch. But a highway patrolman on the scene of the accident said there was no way the barrier was standing on Feb. 4. As far as could be determined from news reports and local lore, whoever removed the bridge remained at large, punished only by his or her conscience. Today, there is nothing left to mark the site of the accident. The bridge was repaired but is now closed to the public. The road that once led cars over the tiny bridge connects North Green Oaks Boulevard to Greenbelt Road, but old gates block both ends of the road. Not long after the accident, the bridge became a place for teenagers to hang out. Students would visit the bridge out of morbid curiosity and grief, and slowly the ghost story that surrounds the tragic deaths began to grow. With groups of students hanging out at the bridge, fear of the unknown and of their own mortality helped the grisly tale become one of Arlington's legends. "The curiosity seekers, the ghouls, the kind who now leave teddy bears and ribbons all over the place, they would go there to grieve,'' said Yvonne Davis, longtime Arlington resident. Thrill-seekers still visit the bridge, searching for specters. While the wooden bridge is long gone, the metal trestle still spans the stretch of creek, which cuts a deep cavern between the woods on either side as it ambles toward the Trinity River. The walls of the creek bed are steep and eroded, and the water moves sluggishly under the bridge. The bridge is now covered with multi-colored graffiti, proclaiming lost romances and old friendships. "Friday night, that was the thing to do," said Julie Osborn, Arlington resident and 1974 graduate of Lamar High School. "It   was very dark, and we'd go down there with friends. It was the creepiest thing to do back then.”  At night, the bridge is a suitable backdrop for both the tragedy and the ghost story. The bridge and the forest surrounding it are almost menacing. A week ago, the air was crisp and the only sounds were those of a million-member cricket chorus. The old road leading to the bridge is not far from Arlington main arteries, but seems much, farther removed from the lights and noise of the 1990s. The dark Shape of the old oak trees, already beginning to lose their leaves, reach with claw-like branches into the sky, which was dimly lit on a recent night by a sliver of a moon. Other high school ghost hunters claimed to   nave seen the ghosts, or heard their screams, Ms. Osborn said. She went to the site hoping for the same experience. "It was a challenge, kind of scary, to see it anything happens,'' Ms. Osborn said.  "We never saw anything," she said. "We wanted to see something or hear something, but we never did.

Copyright:        Copyright 1997 The Dallas Morning News Company Accession Number: 

ARIEL VIEW OF THE BRIDGES

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