Because of this crowd seeking to gain admission, the doors were opened at 6.15 p.m., half an hour earlier than usual, and the hall filled quickly with an expectant audience. The balcony and upper gallery held 1300, with 700 in the stalls and pit. An unusual feature of the New Star Theatre was that the benches in the pit area were almost solely for the use of women and children, the only exceptions being elderly patrons.

Before the show started, seven youths, all from the balcony area, were ejected because of their drunken behaviour. Having been thrown out, they all managed to regain admission a number of times, but were expelled repeatedly. However, when the performance started, it was observed that they had once again managed to get back to their seats, seemingly without detection by the theatre staff. It is more likely that the revellers had been noticed, but the officials decided not to do anything that would interrupt the newly-started show.

The official entertainment started at 6.50 p.m. and for almost two hours the audience laughed, shouted, clapped and enjoyed the proceedings. Around 8.40 p.m. the Eugene family, a group of three acrobats, began performing various feats on the trapeze. The act took the acrobats into the audience area, with a safety net 20 feet square stretched across the pit, and the stunts were performed above those sitting there. The patrons in the upper galleries were almost level with the acrobats, as the trapeze apparatus was suspended from the roof of the theatre.

After the opening sequence, it was announced that the youngest member of the troupe, a ten year old boy, was to perform a particularly daring manoeuvre on the trapeze. A drum roll sounded and a hush fell over the audience as the performers readied themselves.

In the sudden quietness, a drunken male in the top balcony stood up and shouted, ‘FIRE!’ Panic was immediate. As the audience swarmed towards the exits, the warning cry was repeated, increasing the terror of the fleeing crowd.

In fact, there was no fire at all. Yet, despite the absence of smoke and flames, the alarm call was heeded by everyone, and they immediately reacted as if the theatre was burning down around them.

Very quickly, the exits became jammed with people pushing, shoving, squeezing and fighting to get past each other. The narrow stairway that led from the upper galleries was a solid mass of humanity, and at the bottom was a communal landing also used by those escaping from the stalls and the pit.

Here, too, was a ticket booth with a gate hung on a swivel. This fixture funnelled the throng into an even more confined space, and it soon became a bottleneck of frenzied human beings all fighting for survival.

Sergeant Lapraik, a member of the Corps of Commissionaires in charge of the gate, was unable to halt the first of the crowd as they careered towards him. He was crushed between the gate and the wall and was fortunate to escape with only minor injuries.

Some patrons, on reaching the gate, stumbled and fell, but could not be helped to their feet because of those behind being pushed over them. A few of the fleeing audience had arms and legs broken by the pressure of the crush alone.

Back in the auditorium, George Carlton, one of the performers, and Mr. Cole, the stage manager, went on to the stage and appealed for calm. However, only a very small number of people returned to their seats, as the two men could scarcely be heard above the screaming and shouting.

Mr. Jewson, a theatre official, unaware of what had occurred, tried to stem the exodus of patrons from the stalls. However, he quickly realised what had happened and he opened a private door leading on to Watson Street, allowing some of the audience another escape route.

The majority managed to reach the public exit doors leading to Watson Street. They’d been opened by theatre attendants, but efforts to quell the stampede failed, as they themselves were swept along. Inside the theatre, a number of people now lay dead and a great more were injured, some seriously.

People were lying in piles six feet high, intertwined with each other. Broken limbs were all too obvious among those unfortunates, and it was not an easy job to isolate them and usher them to safety.

The panic in the theatre lasted only three minutes, and by the time the police arrived, the hall was all but empty. The only patrons inside were those that had died or had been so seriously injured that they could not be moved immediately.

During the panic, a man named James Turner of 20 Northburn street, Maryhill in Glasgow, was detained by theatre staff. Three of the audience had identified him to staff as the man who had first shouted the false fire alarm.

Daniel McKay, lessee and operator of the New Star, questioned Turner and accused him of causing the panic. Turner denied the allegation and in his defence handed McKay the gallery ticket check box (containing halves of admission tickets torn by attendants), which he alleged he was taking care of. McKay thought this was strange, because although he had once employed Turner as an attendant, he had sacked him two weeks previously.

Turner was arrested by Inspector Sharpe and Constable Sutherland and quickly taken to the Central Police Office. It is alleged that during his time at the police office, after initially denying his involvement, Turner admitted to having shouted the warning - because, he claimed, he heard someone in audience say that there was a fire in the street outside.

With a death toll of 14, Mr. McKay was aware of his need for good publicity for his two theatres, the New star and the Gaiety. He immediately offered, via the newspapers, to pay for all funeral expenses.

Turner, a 29 year old Canadian from Montreal, appeared before the Stipendiary Magistrate at the Central Police Court on Monday 3^rd November 1884, at which time he was formally charged with 14 counts of culpable homicide.

He was then remanded in custody, not just because of the seriousness of the charge, but also for his own safety.

On 18^th November 1884, at Glasgow Sheriff Court, Turner appeared before Sheriff Balfour and was committed to prison to await trial at the Circuit Court (High Court) on the charges libelled. The procurator fiscal was still in the process of interviewing witnesses and it was expected that Turner’s trial would convene at the winter session of the court, to be held in the next four to five weeks.

Why, instead of fleeing the premises with everyone else, did he go to the gallery ticket booth and recover the check box, which he had no right to do as he was longer employed at the theatre? A case can be made for suggesting that this action was designed to remove himself from suspicion, as he knew the shouted fire alarm was a false one.

Did he shout the false alarm because he was aggrieved about being unfairly sacked from his theatre job?

What of Turner’s alleged confession, whilst in police custody, that he had indeed shouted “Fire”? His excuse of believing that there was a fire in the street outside, which could not possibly have affected those in the theatre, was feeble to say the least.

Could all of the witnesses who identified Turner have been wrong? While some alleged that Turner went to two separate places in the balcony and cried out, others claimed to have heard only one shouted warning.

Three people positively identified him as the culprit, while one witness, a girl injured in the tragedy, claims she was sitting near to the man who shouted, and that it was definitely not Turner.

Two of the dead, Crooks and McMillan, were later identified as being part of the group who had been ejected on many occasions. Investigations were made by the police to establish if they, or any of their drunken friends, had any part in the raising of the false alarm, but they appeared to be innocent.

The questions asked about Turner during the enquiry were never satisfactorily answered. Indeed, from my investigations it would appear that he was never put on trial.

The reports of the sitting of the winter session of the Circuit Court, held at Jail Square Courthouse, salt market, and which started on 22^nd December 1884, show no trace of Turner’s trial. After his initial court appearances, the newspapers of the day completely ignored Turner’s case.

From the ‘City of Glasgow Police Returns 1874 - 1894”, an extract taken from 1884, under the heading ‘Culpable Homicide’ reads:-

Four men and one woman were apprehended for this (type of) crime. One of the men and the woman were discharged without trial. One man was tried before the Sheriff and Jury Court and found not guilty. One man was tried at the Circuit Court and the charge withdrawn. The other, Richard John McCulloch, was tried at the Circuit Court for killing his wife by choking her at his house in Dalmarnock Road on 3^rd January and sentenced to five years penal servitude.

The case of McCulloch can obviously be excluded as can the Sheriff and Jury Court trial, because Turner had been committed to appear at the higher Circuit Court. Further research reveals that the man tried at the Circuit Court, where the charge was withdrawn was called David Wilson. Therefore, by elimination, it is possible to conclude that Turner was the man referred to in the Criminal Returns as having been ‘discharged without trial’.

Turner did not stand trial the following year either, as from the same source, the entry for 1885 under the ‘Culpable Homicide’ heading makes no reference at all to him. As a direct result of the New Star Theatre tragedy, legislation was quickly enacted in relation to the licensing of theatres.

On Monday 17^th November, the New Star Theatre re-opened for business. In order to comply with the new regulations, a number of alterations had been made to the building and some were still ongoing, so the balcony areas remained closed. Mr. McKay went on stage and stated it was his intention that all monies taken at the theatre for the coming week were to be put into a fund for the benefit of those affected by the tragedy.

One indisputable fact remains. Some person or persons in the New Star Theatre that Saturday night knowingly shouted a false fire alarm, causing panic and confusion which led to the death of 14 people.