Witness: All those girls were pushing and pushing together, it was just so terrible I can’t really describe it, with the smell of everything burning, hair and clothing and the black smoke everywhere, to make everyone choke, and they were all pushing at once. That smell of burning flesh, like cooking meat only so terrible, once you smell it you will never forget it. Some girls are burning and I heard the girls in the front who didn’t get burned maybe even got squeezed to death from the pushing but nobody could open that door.

Steuer: Objection.

Crain: The jury will disregard the witness’s remarks about what she has heard rumors about but did not experience personally on the day in question.

Bostwick: Please tell us what you did next, Mrs. Gottesfeld.

Witness: I had this idea about the other door—it was for the bosses only to use on the weekend, when the freight elevator, it wasn’t in use, these stairs were not for the girls, they told us, so it was a rule, and at the Triangle you got to follow all the rules or they get rid of you and there is always someone who wants to take your place—it was by the back side of the building, the Greene Street side, instead of the Washington Place side, they would go on these other stairs, they were by the freight elevators to walk up to the tenth floor, that’s where the offices were. So I go across the room, but I had to run right into the flames to get across. And this is where I lost my sister, because I was holding her hand and then I let go, and she didn’t follow me, she must have been afraid of the flames, so—

Steuer: Objection. Witness is testifying outside her own experience.

Crain: Please describe only what happened to you, Mrs. Gottesfeld. Your own experience.

Witness: So then I see Mr. Jacobs, the one who just paid me—

Bostwick: This is Morris Jacobs?

Witness: Yes, Morris Jacobs, and he’s got a waist wrapped around his face like a mask, so he can breathe with all the smoke around us, and when I see him go to this other door I mentioned, and he has a key from inside his pocket, and I see him unlock the door, and he goes in the door but then he closes it behind him.

Bostwick: Please go on.

Witness: I need a moment to collect. I am very emotional because of my sister I can’t talk about.

Crain: We’ll reconvene in one hour.

[Recess]

Bostwick: Now, Mrs. Gottesfeld, please tell us what happened after you saw Mr. Jacobs go through the door. I will remind the jury that this is the Morris Jacobs whose testimony was heard on Tuesday of this week.

Witness: I follow Mr. Jacobs, like I said. I try to open the door he just passed through, but something is making it stay closed. I think to myself why is it sticking like this, but then I push so hard on it I could feel it open a little and I realize that Mr. Jacobs is trying to close the door and maybe, I don’t know why, lock it behind him, maybe he is in a panic and he has some idea he can control the fire from going in the stairs, and I don’t know why he would do this—