| Considered prime suspect in Chicago blaze |
| CHICAGO (UPI) - The chief investigator of a parochial school fire which took 95 lives three years ago said today a 12-year-old “firebug” is the “best suspect so far” in the tragedy. |
| The boy had been a fifth grader at the Roman Catholic Our Lady of the Angels School, which was destroyed Dec. 1, 1958, killing 92 children and three nuns. Police said the boy had confessed starting a number of other fires. |
| His identity was withheld by authorities acting under state law. |
| Bit it was learned that the boy had been questioned three times before about the school fire. Police said he came from a broken home and lives with his grandmother in suburban Cicero, about eight miles from Our Lady of the Angels School. |
| Sgt. Drew Brown of the Chicago police bomb and arson squad said Cicero police had given him information about the boy. Brown headed the investigative teams which tried to determine what caused the fire. He has talked to many persons who had been considered possible suspects. |
| Brown said the Cicero boy is the “best suspect so far.” |
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| The Chicago Tribune, in a copyrighted story, said the boy had confessed setting the school fire. The Tribune said the confession came during an examination by John E. Reid, a lie detector expert. |
| The Tribune said information about the confession had been given Judge Alfred J. Cilella of Family Court. |
| But Cilella told United Press International “I have no knowledge of any boy being arrested in the case.” Cilella said he knew nothing about any confession. |
| The judge explained that under ordinary circumstances the boy would be brought into his jurisdiction if a petition is filed alleging delinquency. In Illinois, Cilella said, a boy under 17 can be charged with murder, treason, voluntary manslaughter or rape and taken before the Criminal Court as an adult by the state's attorney. |
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| However, the Cook County state's attorney's office said it is unlikely criminal action would be taken in the case. Asst. State's Atty John Stamos said, “I don't believe we would proceed in Criminal Court.” |
| Cilella said that if the boy is brought before him the charges could be dismissed or the boy could be adjudged delinquent and given probation or committed to the Illinois Youth Commission for confinement. |
| The boy's fifth grade teacher at Our Lady of the Angels, Pearl Tristano, said a number of the items said to have been included in the boy's account of the fire were at odds with the facts. However, she admitted that her recollection of the incidents preceding the blaze was foggy. |
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| The boy, who told Cicero police he “loves fire sirens” and “loves to watch fire trucks,” said he received permission to go to the washroom and instead went to the school basement where he dropped lighted matches into a trash container by a stairwell at the school. |
| The trash containers had been pinpointed as the fire source the day after the blaze which killed 92 children and three nuns. |
| The Tribune said Cicero police began an investigation of the boy, who was 10 at the time of the Our Lady of the Angels fire, when they received an anonymous letter about a month and a half ago which identified the boy as the arsonist who set fire to an apartment building. |
| Brown told UPI he was called into the case by Cicero authorities last week. |
| The Tribune said the boy, now an eighth grader at a west suburban school, has confessed setting at least a dozen fires, the first when he was 5 years old. |
