Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:11):
Welcome to Like Mother Like Murder. I am Rachel and
I'm Heather. We bring you the good, the badass, and
the crime.
Speaker 2 (00:23):
This is Like Mother Like Murder.
Speaker 1 (00:35):
Hello everyone, and welcome to Like Mother Like Murder. It's
only me Rachel at the moment, because today we are
sharing a very important episode from one of our favorite
podcasters when this is released. It is September eleventh, and
I got the permission to share an episode that the
amazing Jules Thorpe released on a survivor of the attacks
(00:57):
on the World Trade Centers. Shared this episode on the
collaborative podcast You Should Be Here on the most recent series,
which was Death Not Yet the Survivor series. If you
have not yet followed subscribed binged all the seasons of
You Should Be Here, I highly recommend that you go
(01:17):
and check it out. I mentioned it's a collaborative podcast
where all of the podcasters donate their time, their research,
their efforts, and one hundred percent of the earnings go
directly back to those in need, a nonprofit that is
chosen for the series. Please take a moment to go
and subscribe there so that you can join in the
(01:39):
incredible fight to be a part of the change that
you should be Here is doing. And thank you to
the amazing jeweles Thorpe, my business partner and friend, for
allowing me to share this incredible, powerful episode on this
historically tragic day. Before playing the episode, I did want
to leave you with this QUESTO. If we learn nothing
(02:02):
else from this tragedy, we learn that life is short
and there is no time for hate. Life is a
matter of choices, and every choice you make makes you
I hope that you, guys, make the choice to choose love.
We need a lot more of that right now, and
always remember you are loved, You are worthy, and you
(02:22):
deserve to be here.
Speaker 3 (02:26):
Fire Eyes Media Welcome to Death Not Yet, a you
should be Here podcasters give back series. Each episode focuses
on an individual whose story exemplifies perseverance, bravery, and survival
like a phoenix rising from the ashes. These individuals, in
these cases today will inspire and encourage you to keep going.
(02:49):
Death Not Yet is a collaborative effort from true crime
podcasters who aim to focus on victims and give back
to the community. Every penny donated, we'll go back to
an organization helping surviving victims of crimes navigate through their
forever changed lives to donate, guys, please go to buy
me a coffee. Dot com slash you Should Be Here? Hi, everybody,
(03:11):
I'm your host, Jules Thorp. How are you? And you
Should Be Here is my passion project. I want to
take a moment to thank you for being here. Just
by listening to our podcast, you're actually helping us give
back to victims and families. Thank you to every podcast
to us participated, and don't forget to catch up on
our previous series of You Should Be Here. We have
(03:32):
the Homicide Tree and or No, and I'm excited to
announce coming in October of twenty twenty five, we will
have our largest production of You Should Be Here, which
is titled Cases Which Haunt Us. Make sure you subscribe
to you Should be Here to not miss any episodes
or updates. I'm one half of Firerized Media, which is
(03:52):
a praud women owned company which focuses on changing the
space a true crime creating by putting the focus on
ethical store th'k re telling. I host the investigative podcast
Missing in Hushtown. And you know what, I'd love for
you to subscribe and join us and become a WIGS
Warrior and hear the entire story of the two thousand
and four unsolved homicide of Jennifer and her baby girl,
(04:14):
Adriana Wicks wherever you get your podcasts. When I was
thinking about a title for this series, I was thinking
about the strength and primal will to survive had to
take for these heroes to not just survive the worst
day of their lives, but every single moment of their
lives thereafter. And here we find ourselves on my episode
(04:34):
where I'm going to share about one of the bravest
individuals I have come across, a survivor of the September eleventh,
two thousand and one terrorist attacks on the United States.
Let's go fifty two.
Speaker 2 (04:47):
Here in New York, I'm Bryant Bumble.
Speaker 4 (04:49):
We understand that there has been a plane crash on
the southern tip of Manhattan. You're looking at the World
Trade Center. We understand that a plane has crashed into
the World Trade Center. We don't know anything more than that.
We don't know if it was a commercial aircraft. We
don't know if it was a private aircraft. We have
no idea how many were on board or what is
what the extent of the injuries are right now. It's
(05:10):
eight fifty four right now, Stuart, can you tell me
when this happened exactly?
Speaker 5 (05:14):
I would have to say about ten minutes ago.
Speaker 4 (05:17):
We're on the line with another eyewitness. Sir, this is
Brian Gumbel in New York. I'm I'm fine.
Speaker 2 (05:23):
Thank you. You're Wendell, Yes, I am Wendell. Can you
give me your last name? Cline, Wendell Kline. Tell me
where you are if.
Speaker 5 (05:29):
You would, but right now in the back in the hotel.
I'm in the hotel offices. Here at the front office.
Speaker 2 (05:33):
You're in the Okay, where were you when when.
Speaker 5 (05:35):
I was standing right in front of the trade the hotel.
I'm the doorman there and the hotel.
Speaker 2 (05:41):
The hotel which hotel.
Speaker 5 (05:42):
Marry Out World Trades end.
Speaker 2 (05:43):
Right across from the World Trade Cend.
Speaker 5 (05:45):
It's actually right in between, right in between.
Speaker 2 (05:46):
The World Trade Center. Okay, So you were standing outside
and tell us what you saw on.
Speaker 5 (05:50):
What you heard? Well, what I heard first an explosion,
and I just figured that it was a complane passing by.
Then all of a sudden, stuff just started falling, like
brick and paper and everything, and so I just kind
of like ran like inside to get away from the
falling debris and glass and so forth. Then after like
everything stopped because he was falling in the street into
(06:13):
cars were patching into each other. And then when it
kind of stopped, I heard a guy screaming, and when
I looked over, there was this guy that was on fire.
So I just kind of like ran over and I
tried to like put the fire on him, and he
was he was like screaming, and I just told him
to roll rolling. He said he can't. And then another
guy came over with his bag and kind of like
put the flames out on him. So right now he's
(06:36):
been taken care of. I just everyone called the ambulance
and stuff that he helped him out.
Speaker 4 (06:39):
He caught fire as a result of the falling debris.
H how much debris can you give us an idea
of how much came crashing to the ground.
Speaker 5 (06:47):
It's just a lot bricks, a lot of bricks, a
lot of glass. I'm like enough to like damage cars
on the street, made cars swerve into each other, that
kind of thing.
Speaker 4 (06:58):
I hear alarms going off down there's what's happening.
Speaker 5 (07:01):
That's our hotel alarm, And basically I guess that went
off automatically. They've evacuated everyone in the hotel. They evacuated
all employees.
Speaker 2 (07:09):
They have evacuated the hotel. Yeah, immediately.
Speaker 5 (07:12):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (07:12):
Are you hearing anything Wendell about what kind of a
plane it was.
Speaker 2 (07:16):
Or how many were on board? No, all right, mister Klein,
Thank you very much, sir. I understand.
Speaker 4 (07:21):
Teresa Renault is with us right now. Miss Renaul, Good morning,
Good morning. How this is Briant Gumbel. I'm down on
fifty ninth and fifth.
Speaker 2 (07:28):
Where are you?
Speaker 6 (07:29):
I am in Chelsea and we are at eighth and sixteenth.
We are the tallest building in the area and my
window faces south, so it looks directly onto the World
Trade Center. And I would say, you know, approximately ten
minutes ago, there was a major explosion from probably it
(07:49):
looks like about the eightieth floor. It looks like it's
affected probably four to eight floors. Major flames are coming
out of the let's see the north side and also
the east side of the building. Yes, and it was
very loud explosion followed by flames, and it looks like
the building is still on fire on the inside.
Speaker 2 (08:11):
Which building are we talking about? The one that's westernmost.
Speaker 6 (08:14):
Let's see yes, sir.
Speaker 2 (08:16):
Did you hear the explosion in your position?
Speaker 4 (08:18):
Yes, we did.
Speaker 6 (08:18):
As a matter of fact, we heard it. And because
I was just like standing there pretty much looking out
of the window, I didn't see what caused it or if
there was an impact.
Speaker 2 (08:28):
So you have no idea. Right now, I.
Speaker 7 (08:30):
Have another one. Another plane just hit right.
Speaker 6 (08:33):
Oh my god, another plane has just hit it.
Speaker 7 (08:35):
Held another building well right into the middle of it. Explosion.
Speaker 6 (08:40):
Oh my god, it's right in the middle of the building.
Speaker 2 (08:43):
This one into the east tower.
Speaker 7 (08:45):
Yes, yes, right in the middle of the building.
Speaker 6 (08:51):
And right now that Yes, that was definitely looked like
it was on purpose. You saw, Yeah, I just saw
a plane go in to the building.
Speaker 2 (09:02):
Why do you say that was definitely on purpose?
Speaker 6 (09:04):
Because it just it just flew straight into it. It
looks like it's.
Speaker 7 (09:09):
About h I would say, fifteen floors lower than the
first building. And there's now flames coming out of that
building as well. They're both completely on fire.
Speaker 2 (09:19):
Now, Theresa, hang on with us one second.
Speaker 4 (09:21):
We're gonna love We're gonna rewrack the tape of when
we were talking to you to see if we can
tell we can't see anything.
Speaker 2 (09:30):
We can't see a second plane in the picture there
we see the explosion.
Speaker 3 (09:36):
Tom Canavan was a family man. He had a son
whose birthday was coming up, and his wife while she
was pregnant with their second child, this time a daughter.
And as he was headed into work on September eleventh,
two thousand and one, it felt like any other day
to Tom that you know, the day comprised of task lists, routines,
and this it was ending with family time typically and
(09:58):
what he expected it to be. However, stay in fact,
in just a few moments from his arrival to work
on September eleventh, two thousand and one, he would find
himself buried alive. Now, before we begin, I want to
give credit to the podcast addressing Gettysburg Officers Club, who
did an incredible interview with Tom Canavan, and I'll linked
(10:18):
the episode in the show notes to hear Tom's story
in his own words. If you want to hear the
entire interview, it's so well done. So Tom worked at
the First Union. It was a brokerage firm in the
North Tower of the World Trade Center and he worked
on the forty seventh floor. Most people, he says, stayed
out of the towers until nine am, and because that's
(10:43):
when most businesses started at nine am, so a lot
of people would get there early to get, you know,
over the big rush of the trains. Tom worked in
First Und, which was a brokerage firm in the World
Trade Center on the forty seventh floor of the North Tower. Now,
he says that most people wouldn't start work actually until
(11:04):
nine am, so it would not be uncommon to see
a lot of people outside with their coffee talking with
other people looking around. There are lots of markets, there
were lots of music out there. People would mingle and
chit chat and then slowly me under their way upstairs
for that nine o'clock start time. Now, this is important because,
(11:27):
as many of you know, the first plane will hit
the North Tower before nine am, So it leaves us
to wonder how many people's lives were spared because of
their start time. Unfortunately, Tom was one of the individuals
already in work because they worked with a lot of
people in different time zones, so he would actually get
up for work around five am, and then he would
(11:47):
arrive to work around seven thirty am and go into
the building. Now, his half of the floor was the
west side view, which was the Hudson River. Now you
can imagine how beautiful that was the cityscape and the
sparkling river to look over. And it's on September eleventh,
two thousand and one, at eight forty six am when
(12:07):
Tom was on a conference call in his boss's office
when the first plane hits his building and he's inside
the building on the forty seventh floor. Now, this first
plane hits floors about ninety two through ninety eight on
the north side of the North tower, killing every individual
on board of the hijacked plane and making every person
(12:30):
on floors ninety two through one hundred and ten trapped
and headed towards imminent death. Tom recalls how he felt
the building when the plane hit. It rocked left and right,
and then it kind of just recentered and righted itself,
and they didn't know what was going on. He looked
out and saw smoke, metal, glass, and papers flying down.
(12:50):
And he looks down and he sees the Maryatt Hotel
underneath him. The roof is on fire, and concrete chunks
were up on the road and down below getting closer
and closed. So the NYPD was rounding the corner. Tom
makes a great point for those of us who didn't
know the World Trade Center was like its own little city.
They had something that they called the Mall, and it
(13:11):
was a self sufficient kind of entity where they had
a dental office, a post office, cleaners, Krispy Kream doughnuts,
and it had amenities for everything and everyone there. So
that would also bring other people into the World Trade
Center as well, not just workers. Now, I won't go
into depth the timeline of events of nine to eleven
(13:32):
because I do want to focus on the events as
it pertains to our survivor, Tom and his story. But
a bit of detail, refreshing maybe needed to fully understand
the magnitude of Tom's experience working in the North Tower
of the World Trade Center. The plane American Airlines Flight eleven,
you know that's supplane not hit his building at eight
(13:52):
forty six am. The North building went all the way through.
I mean the gap from the plane went from about,
like I said, the ninety second to ninety eighth floor,
but the North Tower only went up to one hundred
and ten. It had one hundred and ten floors, and
Tom relays that there would be about one thousand, six
hundred people who never had a chance to make it
(14:14):
out of the tower alive, and for those inside the building,
they had no outside insight to what was going on.
You know, the world was watching and they knew about
the hijacked airliners having hit the towers, but since he
was on the middle floor of the building, there was
not a means for him and his colleagues to have
that information, to know it was an emergency and to
(14:36):
thus evacuate immediately. A few things to note. September eleventh
was the first aid public school, so Tom notes how
many people were in the office maybe a little later
than usual, maybe just a little bit later than nine
because they were taking their kids to school. Thus, that
day in the alignment of the dates against the terrorist attacks,
may have saved many individuals' lives. Now, by the time
(14:59):
the seal tiles started hanging in the office, Tom could
hear water gushing through the walls, and he started hearing
a lot of noise from the stairways. When he went
to the stairway, he immediately saw a rush of people
hurried down the stairs. Still not knowing what was going on,
he knew he had to get out there immediately and
just figured out later. So he heads back to his
(15:20):
office and tell his colleagues who were at work earlier,
like he is, that they all need to leave immediately. However,
when they head back to that same staircase, it's now
completely jam packed. There are people everywhere and there's no
way for them to get into the staircase. Now, Tom
did a lot of extra work on the side throughout
the years commercial moving, and this gave him the insight
(15:42):
knowledge about two other staircases, one which was on his floor. However,
that one was starting to be filled with smoke by now,
so he recalls taking his jacket and jamming it under
the door, the jam under the door to prevent more
smoke from from coming in of that staircase, to prevent
them from getting all that smoke inhalation. Now, he takes
(16:04):
everybody to the other staircase, and this is called Stairwell B,
and there was hardly anyone in there. He took the
rest of the people to the center stairwell with him
and they quickly began the descent from the forty seventh
floor to the first He recalls how people were moving
but not panicking in this stairwell as they go down,
and people were casually talking on the way down. Now,
(16:27):
at this time the lights were on, there was no smoke,
but around the upper twenties floors they were moved into
single file while responders started heading up and just to
walk to the floor where the fire was, floor ninety two.
You guys, it would have taken about an hour and
a half for the first responders to reach the fire
(16:48):
by foot climbing up the stairs. And now recall, they
have all this equipment on them. It's extremely hot in
this building by now, smoke and elation, these conditions are horrid.
He recalls how people were moving but not panicking, and
people were just casually talking on the way down. The
lights were still on in the building. There was not
much smoke, but that changes around the upper twenties floors.
(17:12):
When they reached those, they are then moved single file
line down the stairs because first responders have started heading
up with all their equipment. They're rushing to get up
and you guys, just to walk to the floor where
the fire was, So that would be floor ninety two,
that first floor where the plane hit. It would take
the first responders about an hour and a half for
(17:33):
them to reach the fire from the first floor. But
at this point Tom had no idea that first responders
were going up for a rescue operation, not just to
put a fire out and prevent any harm to the building.
It would end up taking the first responders about a
minute and a half to do one floor to climb
one floor, especially with all their heavy equipment and guaranty
(17:55):
know they're booking. Tom recalls how he started to see
people coming down with restless services, with massive burns, and
the injuries began looking worse and worse, and this made
everybody in the stairwell move down even faster down the floor,
still not sure what's going on, but they know enough
to know we need to get out of here. This
is an emergency. And at this time Tom gets to
(18:17):
the concourse level, which was where the mall was kind
of like a basement, And at this point they still
don't know what's going on. And while he's heading down
the Nord Tower at nine oh three am, when he's
in the stairwell, the South tower gets hit. So when
he finally arrives to the ground floor in the concourse,
he does not know still that the next tower is
(18:40):
hit because he's in the stairwell. He has no idea.
And remember he still doesn't know that a plane hit
his floor either. Now, when they enter the mall, which
is essentially, like I said, the basement, they are sent
to the Krispy Kream exit. Tom recalls, how you know
that location was something that everybody in the World Trade
Center knew about. Krispy Kreme was just a popular place
in there, so using that as a point of exit
(19:02):
in reference was a great idea for everybody to kind
of maneuver and get to. However, as he was headed
that way, he notices behind him an elderly couple trying
to keep up behind him to go through the corridor. Now,
the doors were shattered by then, and it was slippery,
and he saw the elderly couple kind of struggling to
get through. So he looks up and tells his coworker,
(19:23):
go ahead, get out of the building, be right back,
and he turns around to help the elderly couple. Now,
it's this decision which will lead to the continued string
of traumatic events to come. As Tom heads back to
the doorway and just barely steps outside, he feels an
intense rush of heat, occupied with intense wind and coupled
(19:45):
with intense noise. He recalls it sounded like multiple freight
trains rushing at him. He calls ahead to his coworkers
to keep heading out of the doorway, Go go, go go,
but he's not sure if it even escapes his mouth,
because what happens next The rebel from the South Tower
building would then collapse on top of Tom. Tom, who
(20:08):
had just managed to escape the building barely taking a
few steps out into the mall, is now crushed and
buried alive. Tom recalls on the podcast, addressing Gettysburg Officers Club,
how the air was extremely hot and he realizes, my
pants are on fire, and at this time, Tom believes
(20:31):
the ceiling had collapsed on him, so he begins to move,
but the air is scoor gene and he hears people
begin to talk around him and they're saying, stay put,
They'll they're gonna find us. Don't go anywhere they're gonna
find us. But Tom decided if he stayed, he would
be burned and crushed to death, and recall he has
a son who is about to have a birthday. His
son is about to turn just three years old, and
(20:53):
he has a baby girl on the way and a wife.
He decides it's time to move Now a security guard
who he's still to this day does not know whom
he was, grabs his leg and together they begin to move,
as he describes, like snakes with concrete and rebar collapsed
around them. Kind of the way it landed was like
a little bit of a tent, creating an air pocket,
(21:14):
so it didn't crush them all the way. They tried
to find a path without resistance where they could get through,
but fires were popping up here and there all around them.
The only good thing about that was that it would
add light to see because they were in pitch black.
Now this would take twenty minutes, and the only reason
he wasn't crushed to death by the concrete and rebar, remember,
(21:38):
is because the way it fell was at a slant,
like half of a tent. It fell around him and
created that air pocket. And some people can say that
that was a guardian angel looking out for Tom in
that moment. Now, in Tom's mind, he tried to stay
in a straight line. He didn't want to go around
(21:58):
in circles and lose his orientation. And this decision paid
off after about twenty minutes later, like I said, him
and the security guard see a small beam of light
and they know they have finally reached the out side. Now,
according to an online article from Star News, Tom relays, quote,
(22:18):
I squeezed myself through the hole. I was scraped from
head to toe. I was hurt and I didn't I
didn't feel a thing end quote. And he made it out,
but four of his co workers they did not. For
the co workers that initially came down with him from
the north tower were never seen again. Now, that same
tower that Tom and that unidentified security guard would have
(22:40):
crawled out of will completely collapse at just ten twenty
eight am. But let's back up a bit. This perch's tough,
but it helps to tell the magnitude of the story
of Tom's survival. Tom has to work to move objects
out of his way to get moving toward that small
beam of light, and this means he had to move
what he calls as mannequin parts out of his way.
(23:03):
You guys, he now knows that they were not manequin parts,
but they were human body parts scattered all over the
rubble all around him. Now, to put it into a
bit of perspective, there were approximately twenty two thousand body
parts recovered from the scene, and there are still oney
one hundred body parts recovered that are unidentified. To this day,
(23:28):
there's still a dedicated team of people who are working
diligently to identify the remaining victims. Now, Tom made his
way out of the wreckage by tunneling about forty feet
which is about four floors and about seventy feet diagonally,
And he did this all while having a huge contusion
(23:48):
to his head, being in a state of distress, not
knowing what's going on, smoke inhalation gashes all over his body,
but he was able to get out onto this street. Eventually,
he squeezed the man out in front of him, and
that man crawled through the rubble and waited for him
and said, come on out, come on out. But Tom
(24:08):
actually couldn't fit through the same little hole that that
man did, that security guard. And he looks out again
and he sees a man walking away barefoot, and so
Tom yields at him, come back, come back, And that's
when the guy turns and says, come on, get out,
get out, get out, When just then another round of
wreckage comes down and this man, this unnamed security guard,
disappears and he's never seen ever again. You know, once
(24:32):
he squeezed himself through all the pain, Tom realizes his
shoes were actually melting into the ground beneath him, and
to this day he's not sure if the security guard
fell through the wreckage through a gap created by the explosions,
or if wreckage fell on top of him. But again,
to this day, he's still unknown who that man was
and what happened to him. Once Tom emerges, he hears
(24:55):
these crashes all around him, kind of like thumps and thuds,
and he realizes while looking up, it's people jumping from
the North Tower and falling all around him. Now Tom
is grabbed by an FBI agent and says, you have
to get out of here. And it's just then when
the entire North Tower collapses behind him and he runs
(25:18):
to a side of a building for protection from all
the debris projectiles all around him. And in the hospital
he has to have his head stitched up. He has
this huge gap, flap of scalp flapping open. He has
a lot of contusions, a lot of stitches needed, but
he does check himself out. He grabs smelted shoes, puts
(25:40):
them on, gets out and he knows I have to
get to my wife It's then that he calls her
and she says, I just knew for some reason, I
just knew you got out. He recalls later that day
that losing four people from his office was actually I
mean a lot. One person is too many people to lose,
and he has regrets about not leaving the tower even
(26:02):
faster immediately. The first time they failt to shift, the
north tower had everything knocked out, so that communication was impossible,
you know, as the plane went right through the tower
and cut all that communication out. However, the south tower
still had one staircase left, and many people left immediately.
Even though the tower fell first, more people were able
(26:24):
to get out of that one. Tom spent the next
consecutive days obsessing and watching the news obsessively and acutely
listening to any names of survivors to identify anybody he
knew to survive. Tom is still alive today to tell
a story for us to learn and experience a piece
(26:44):
of history through his experience. You know, Tom worked for
years at the nine to eleven Tribute in New York,
and if you ever go to the memorial today, you'll
see his watch framed on the wall, shattered and frozen
in time, the day the world stood still, the day
Tom decided to choose to literally rise from the ashes.
(27:06):
Thank you guys for being here and for listening. This
has been one of the toughest episodes for me to do,
to revisit all of these moments and to see these
faces while I was doing my research, and to really
dive deep into this event that I'll be honest, I
think about time to time, but I haven't sat down
and really dug into one of the thousands of stories
(27:28):
that I know of survivors or victims whose lives and
their loved ones lives were forever changed. The horror that
I imagine them seeing and recounting is it's hard to comprehend.
And for empaths, my fellow empiths out there, take a breath,
because this was a little bit of a heavy one
(27:51):
on my end to share with you. But it's super
important the will and the fight to survive and to
strive and the circumstances that sometimes things just line up
enough to give you a chance to get out of hell.
You know, for Tom canave on. This isn't just an
annual remembrance. It's not wearing a flag on September eleventh,
(28:12):
or saying we remember it's the trajectory of his life
and purpose forever. I think we can all recall exactly
where we were when that first plane hit the North
Tower on September eleventh, two thousand and one. But for Tom,
that moment that day, that is his every day, his
every breath, for the rest of his life. It has
(28:34):
become his story, his legacy. That's it, guys. I'm Jeles
Thorpe and this has been missing in Hushtown for death,
not yet a you should be here Collaborative Podcasters give
Back project. If you want to connect with me, follow
me on Instagram at your host Jules j u l
e S. I love when I get new friends that
say hi, and we can stay connected and you can
(28:56):
suggest cases to meet over there as well. I'm working
real hard to become a better victim advocate, learn better,
do better, be better over here, so I would love
to hear from you. Guys. You are wanted, you are loved,
and you are not alone in this Bye. Guys, you
take care.
Speaker 6 (29:22):
Fire Eyes Media