Malvern, PA Auto Accident, Mar 1941

4TH YOUTH DIES AFTER CRASH.

TWO OTHERS CRITICALLY BURNED IN AUTO TRAGEDY NEAR MALVERN.

Malvern, Penn., Mar. 17. -- WILLIAM DARLINGTON, 17, of West Chester, died early today in Chester County Hospital, bringing to four the death toll of an automobile accident in which two other youths were critically burned near Malvern.
DARLINGTON was driving an 11-year-old automobile carrying five other high school youths home from a Paoli "jitterbug" ice cream parlor, when the car careened into a snowbank and burst into flames.
Trapped in the back seat of the burning car, RICHARD HARMON, 15; ROBERT GREEN, 17, and NORMAN REED, 12, were literally roasted alive, police said. The two others -- WILLIAM BENN, 17, and BERNARD HUTCHINSON, 18 -- were taken to the hospital, where they were reported "in critical condition."
Sole witness of the tragedy was Mrs. George E. Tanner, on whose lawn the automobile overturned.
She told police:
"I saw three forms fighting their way out of the car through the flames, and then I saw them turn and run back into the fire and start beating at the window glass with their fists and yanking at the door handle .... I'll never forget the terrible sound of their cries ...."
State Motor Police said the car, traveling at high speed, raced west on King Road to the dead end at Sproul Road, near Frazer, careened over an embankment, went through a tall hedge and crashed in flames near Mrs. Tanner's doorstep.
Mrs. Tanner said she ran to the telephone and called the Malvern Fire Company, then the hospital.
"When I got back to the front of the house and out on the porch the screams were dying away," she said.
Police, in reconstructing the fatal accident, said DARLINGTON, son of a West Chester automobile dealer, started out with his five friends early Saturday night for a good time. They drove to the Tip Top Inn on Lincoln Highway, Paoli, said to be a typical "jitterbug" hang-out patronized by high school students. No liquor is permitted there, the youths drinking sodas and dancing to recorded music from a "juke box."
They didn't have girls so they spent the evening playing the machines and listening to the music, police said, then at 7 a.m. they started home, the wild ride ending in the flaming wreck of the old automobile.

Chester Times Pennsylvania 1941-03-17
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Researched and Transcribed by Stu Beitler. Thank you, Stu!