Rare Tito Weekend Update: Big Jonathan Cain Interview

[Tito]

http://www.suntimes.com/news/metro/-1,1 ... ry?index=2

[stevew2]

Stevew2 is gonna have a ball with this Leonard revelation.

Im changin my cats name to Leonard

Leonard was his dad's name...at least I thought but now I don't know what to think. Anyway, be respectful to his dad and the name Leonard.

I think all this confusion about his name and all of his name changes confirms one thing... He lets you live!

I love the name Leonard, Im petting him now

I wonder who Tito hates more, steve... me or you?

You hate me to?/ Tito hates the truth

[stevew2]

Stevew2 is gonna have a ball with this Leonard revelation.

Im changin my cats name to Leonard

You're not one of those sickos that puts peanut butter on your..........oh, nevermind, I don't want to know the answer to that.

didnt we all?

[Rhiannon]

http://www.suntimes.com/news/metro/-1,120108angelsg.photogallery?index=2

Why does he look like a wookie?

[bluejeangirl76]

http://www.suntimes.com/news/metro/-1,120108angelsg.photogallery?index=2

Why does he look like a wookie?

"Arrrr-rrrr-rrrr!"

(Frigbacca?)

[stevew2]

http://www.suntimes.com/news/metro/-1,120108angelsg.photogallery?index=2

Why does he look like a wookie?

What the hell is a wookie? is that like nookie?

[bluejeangirl76]

http://www.suntimes.com/news/metro/-1,120108angelsg.photogallery?index=2

Why does he look like a wookie?

What the hell is a wookie? is that like nookie?

Chewbacca from Star Wars... he's a wookie.

[Tito]

Stevew2 is gonna have a ball with this Leonard revelation.

Im changin my cats name to Leonard

Leonard was his dad's name...at least I thought but now I don't know what to think. Anyway, be respectful to his dad and the name Leonard.

I think all this confusion about his name and all of his name changes confirms one thing... He lets you live!

I love the name Leonard, Im petting him now

I wonder who Tito hates more, steve... me or you?

You hate me to?/ Tito hates the truth

You guys can't handle the truth. I like everyone.

[stevew2]

http://www.suntimes.com/news/metro/-1,120108angelsg.photogallery?index=2

Why does he look like a wookie?

What the hell is a wookie? is that like nookie?

Chewbacca from Star Wars... he's a wookie.

Got it

[peridactyl]

http://www.suntimes.com/entertainment/music/1303926,CST-NWS-olasong28.article

I was going to mention earlier this week that this is the 50th anniversary of the devasting Our Lady of Angels school fire that killed many but our Johnny Cain survived. Fortunately, I'm not the only who noticed it. Yesterday, the Chicago Sun Times had a full 2+ page article on the fire. In it, was a quarter page or so article with Jonathan Cain. The link is above. Also, if you go to the suntimes.com front page there's Jonathan Cain. Enjoy and be thankful on this Thanksgiving weekend that the man who wrote the songs of your life survived. If he didn't, imagine how empty our lives would be. High school would've sucked.

I didn't know of this story before, so thanks for sharing Tito. It appears to have been a horribly tragic and traumatic event. Helps me understand the depth of emotion Jon showed on the Vh1 documentary about Journey in 2001 (when Jon cried and said no child should suffer like the boy who was dying in it was...)

[Tito]

http://www.suntimes.com/entertainment/music/1303926,CST-NWS-olasong28.article

I was going to mention earlier this week that this is the 50th anniversary of the devasting Our Lady of Angels school fire that killed many but our Johnny Cain survived. Fortunately, I'm not the only who noticed it. Yesterday, the Chicago Sun Times had a full 2+ page article on the fire. In it, was a quarter page or so article with Jonathan Cain. The link is above. Also, if you go to the suntimes.com front page there's Jonathan Cain. Enjoy and be thankful on this Thanksgiving weekend that the man who wrote the songs of your life survived. If he didn't, imagine how empty our lives would be. High school would've sucked.

I didn't know of this story before, so thanks for sharing Tito. It appears to have been a horribly tragic and traumatic event. Helps me understand the depth of emotion Jon showed on the Vh1 documentary about Journey in 2001 (when Jon cried and said no child should suffer like the boy who was dying in it was...)

GREAT POINT!!!

[Rhiannon]

You guys can't handle the truth. I like everyone.

[stevew2]

You guys can't handle the truth. I like everyone.

he cant handle the truth that this guy is not Jon Cain,he is John Leonard Friga.He is in denail and needs therapy

[stevew2]

http://www.suntimes.com/entertainment/music/1303926,CST-NWS-olasong28.article

I was going to mention earlier this week that this is the 50th anniversary of the devasting Our Lady of Angels school fire that killed many but our Johnny Cain survived. Fortunately, I'm not the only who noticed it. Yesterday, the Chicago Sun Times had a full 2+ page article on the fire. In it, was a quarter page or so article with Jonathan Cain. The link is above. Also, if you go to the suntimes.com front page there's Jonathan Cain. Enjoy and be thankful on this Thanksgiving weekend that the man who wrote the songs of your life survived. If he didn't, imagine how empty our lives would be. High school would've sucked.

I didn't know of this story before, so thanks for sharing Tito. It appears to have been a horribly tragic and traumatic event. Helps me understand the depth of emotion Jon showed on the Vh1 documentary about Journey in 2001 (when Jon cried and said no child should suffer like the boy who was dying in it was...)

I never saw a tear

[Tito]

http://www.suntimes.com/entertainment/music/1303926,CST-NWS-olasong28.article

I was going to mention earlier this week that this is the 50th anniversary of the devasting Our Lady of Angels school fire that killed many but our Johnny Cain survived. Fortunately, I'm not the only who noticed it. Yesterday, the Chicago Sun Times had a full 2+ page article on the fire. In it, was a quarter page or so article with Jonathan Cain. The link is above. Also, if you go to the suntimes.com front page there's Jonathan Cain. Enjoy and be thankful on this Thanksgiving weekend that the man who wrote the songs of your life survived. If he didn't, imagine how empty our lives would be. High school would've sucked.

I didn't know of this story before, so thanks for sharing Tito. It appears to have been a horribly tragic and traumatic event. Helps me understand the depth of emotion Jon showed on the Vh1 documentary about Journey in 2001 (when Jon cried and said no child should suffer like the boy who was dying in it was...)

I never saw a tear

Let it go.

[stevew2]

the truth

[fredinator]

Do you think JC knew the boy who allegedly started this fire? What a tragedy! This thing haunted me all last night. I read that one of the children asked to be excused to go to the bathroom and that's when he set the fire in the basement. It said the cause remains officially "unknown" but am curious if most people in Chicago believe that this youngster was the perpetrator?

[Tito]

The 50th Anniversary story has been huge for the past week here. The two leading theories are a young kid started it and some have blamed the janitor for having cluttered hallways which helped spread the fire. Most have absolved the kid (if he did it) that he was too young and didn't understand what would/could/did happen. Same thing with the janitor, in fact, most credit him with saving many children. I believe he died in the fire. No one really knows what happened or who was to blame. Part of the reason is fire investigations probably weren't that detailed as they are now and what I've read some (mostly political leaders, etc.) wanted to move on and not blame anybody for the tragedy. Even back then, I think the threat of lawsuits probably crossed people's minds too.

I have a feeling they know who started and all signs point towards the kid, but they figured living with that on his mind would be more than enough punishment. Plus, how do you blame/punish a kid who was roughly 10 years old at the time.


A side note, I just read my Sun Times at lunch and there was a picture of Jonathan Cain in the article.

[peridactyl]

Do you think JC knew the boy who allegedly started this fire? What a tragedy! This thing haunted me all last night. I read that one of the children asked to be excused to go to the bathroom and that's when he set the fire in the basement. It said the cause remains officially "unknown" but am curious if most people in Chicago believe that this youngster was the perpetrator?

I'm not in the Chicago area so I can't answer your question, but it caused me to go back and read the other stories about the event, and one of them said the child who was believed to have set the fire set another one in 2005 (which his wife said was due to alcohol abuse and stress after a book came out about the event...) and he is now dead.
Most people don't set fires because of stress or alcoholism. Makes me think there must've been truth to the accusation.

[Tito]

Do you think JC knew the boy who allegedly started this fire? What a tragedy! This thing haunted me all last night. I read that one of the children asked to be excused to go to the bathroom and that's when he set the fire in the basement. It said the cause remains officially "unknown" but am curious if most people in Chicago believe that this youngster was the perpetrator?

I'm not in the Chicago area so I can't answer your question, but it caused me to go back and read the other stories about the event, and one of them said the child who was believed to have set the fire set another one in 2005 (which his wife said was due to alcohol abuse and stress after a book came out about the event...) and he is now dead.
Most people don't set fires because of stress or alcoholism. Makes me think there must've been truth to the accusation.

I may be wrong, but I think you're confusing two different people. The co-author of the 2005 book started the fires. I don't think he was the accused child.

[fredinator]

Yes, I agree with that--although I did read that he confessed to starting several other fires, too. It's a shame there wasn't some kind of intervention for a kid like that back then. I also thought I read somewhere in that article that this same kid wrote a book about the fire; did I read that right? I guess I need to go back and read it again. So, if this child was 10 then JC probably knew him, wouldn't you think?

The fire was started in a trash bin in the basement--they seemed to have concluded that. I didn't see that about the janitor--poor guy.

I wonder whatever happened to the kid...

[Tito]

Yes, I agree with that--although I did read that he confessed to starting several other fires, too. It's a shame there wasn't some kind of intervention for a kid like that back then. I also thought I read somewhere in that article that this same kid wrote a book about the fire; did I read that right? I guess I need to go back and read it again. So, if this child was 10 then JC probably knew him, wouldn't you think?

The fire was started in a trash bin in the basement--they seemed to have concluded that. I didn't see that about the janitor--poor guy.

I wonder whatever happened to the kid...

The kid has since died. The janitor either died in the fire or has since died. I'm not sure how much they blamed the janitor. I think the kid got most of the blame but not so much at the time.

Here's a website that the survivors have set up:

www.olafire.com

This map blows me away. The red triangles represent the kids that died and where they lived. Can you imagine a neighborhood losing that many people especially kids like that.

[peridactyl]

Yes, I agree with that--although I did read that he confessed to starting several other fires, too. It's a shame there wasn't some kind of intervention for a kid like that back then. I also thought I read somewhere in that article that this same kid wrote a book about the fire; did I read that right? I guess I need to go back and read it again. So, if this child was 10 then JC probably knew him, wouldn't you think?

The fire was started in a trash bin in the basement--they seemed to have concluded that. I didn't see that about the janitor--poor guy.

I wonder whatever happened to the kid...

You know what? The story isn't clear:

"About five years ago, alums began reconnecting because of ola fire.com; a documentary, "Angels Too Soon," and a book, To Sleep with the Angels, by David Cowan and John Kuenster.

The book charged that a boy at the school confessed to setting the fire, but was never prosecuted. He has since died, Kuenster said. (Many survivors were shocked when Cowan was charged with setting a 2005 fire at a storage building of St. Benedict Parish on the North Side. At the time, his wife attributed the incident to stress and alcohol abuse.)"

Does that mean the kid was Cowan who later wrote a book and then set a fire, or that one of the author's, named Cowan, set a fire and was drinking too much.

Oh well, never mind. Maybe, maybe not. Either way, it is interesting to know more about what makes people tic, and this is an unusual fact about j. Cain

[fredinator]

Thank you, Tito. It's no wonder that Chicago is still haunted by this fire. The idea of having to stand outside and not be able to do anything for your child--can't even contemplate it. Poor babies.

[fredinator]

I got confused by that, too. It's hard to believe that a child who might have started the fire later wrote a book about it... Weird.

[Tito]

Thank you, Tito. It's no wonder that Chicago is still haunted by this fire. The idea of having to stand outside and not be able to do anything for your child--can't even contemplate it. Poor babies.

Everyone in Chicago has heard about this fire. You hear about it probably at least once a year (excluding anniversary date).

Also, if you go to the survivors page on the website, it does say Jonathan Fr-ga. So, his first name is Jonathan. Typical media error as usual.

[fredinator]

Amazon.com has a bunch of comments from people about the book the 2 guys wrote. One of them said that Cowan did set a fire in 2005 due to being despondent over losing his janitorial job (wtf?).

"In a bizarre and equally disturbing development, one of the authors of this book was convicted of arson after setting a fire to a storage building opposite St. Benedict's Catholic Church on the North side of Chicago in June of 2005. Thankfully, only property damage resulted from the fire. David Cowan was said to be despondent after losing his janitorial job. The defendant, who was also a former suburban firefighter, was sentenced to serve a three year prison term in December of that same year. He has been paroled. Ironically, he was also the author a book entitled, "Great Chicago Fires" and had reported on fires for various newspapers."

I guess it's just a coincidence.

[Rick]

Yes, I agree with that--although I did read that he confessed to starting several other fires, too. It's a shame there wasn't some kind of intervention for a kid like that back then. I also thought I read somewhere in that article that this same kid wrote a book about the fire; did I read that right? I guess I need to go back and read it again. So, if this child was 10 then JC probably knew him, wouldn't you think?

The fire was started in a trash bin in the basement--they seemed to have concluded that. I didn't see that about the janitor--poor guy.

I wonder whatever happened to the kid...

The kid has since died. The janitor either died in the fire or has since died. I'm not sure how much they blamed the janitor. I think the kid got most of the blame but not so much at the time.

Here's a website that the survivors have set up:

www.olafire.com

This map blows me away. The red triangles represent the kids that died and where they lived. Can you imagine a neighborhood losing that many people especially kids like that.

That's terribly sad.

[peridactyl]

Thank goodness for fire regulations. This would never been allowed to happen today:

While legally in compliance with the fire safety laws of the time, the school was woefully unprepared for any kind of fire. There was only one fire escape, no sprinklers, no automatic fire alarm, no smoke or heat detectors, no alarm connected to the fire department, no fire-resistant stairwells and no fire-safe doors from the stairwells to the second floor. While the building's exterior was brick, the interior was made almost entirely of combustibles - stairs, walls, floors, doors and roof - all wood. The floors had been coated and re-coated many times with flammable petroleum based waxes. There were NO fire alarm switches in the north wing, and only two in the entire school, both located in the south wing. While there were four fire extinguishers in the north wing, they were mounted 7 feet off the floor, out of reach for many adults and virtually all of the children. The single fire escape was near one end of the north wing but to reach it required passing through the main corridor, which became filled with suffocating smoke and superheated gases. With it's 12-foot ceilings, the school's second floor windows were a daunting 25 feet from the ground, should someone decide to jump. Thus, the scenario for a tragedy was set. Was It Arson?
Although the cause has never been officially determined, all indications point to arson. A boy (age 10 at the time, and a fifth grader in room 206) later confessed to setting the blaze, but subsequently recanted his confession. He was more afraid of confessing to his mother and step-father than to the police.
The boy confessed to setting numerous other fires in the neighborhood, mostly in apartment buildings. In his confession, he related details of the fire's origin that had not been made public and that he should therefore not have known. While there was strong evidence that he was indeed the culprit, neither he nor anyone else was ever prosecuted, at least in part because the catholic judge in the case felt he should protect the Church.

Officially, the cause of the fire remains unknown.

[stevew2]

Stevew2 is gonna have a ball with this Leonard revelation.

Im changin my cats name to Leonard

Leonard was his dad's name...at least I thought but now I don't know what to think. Anyway, be respectful to his dad and the name Leonard.

I think all this confusion about his name and all of his name changes confirms one thing... He lets you live!

I love the name Leonard, Im petting him now

I wonder who Tito hates more, steve... me or you?

You hate me to?/ Tito hates the truth

You guys can't handle the truth. I like everyone.

Hey Tito is ya switch the letters around in Friga you can spell I R FAG