Beware extraordinary claims. Yikes--Ms. Whites' 2011 assertion Sue Munday was "not more than 10 years of age" doesn't track. Not even a little bit. Sue Munday Womacks is buried in Blue Springs Cemetery, and was born June 7, 1847. She was 16 years old at the time of the August 1863 jail collapse, making her the same general age range of all the other victims whose names I've come up with--age 16 to 20. In fact, in her 1916 interview Sue Munday herself simply stated "There were ten girls in the room, all under 20 years of age. I was the youngest."

It doesn't state that she was age 10 or younger as the 2011 story boldly claims in its very second sentence establishing the article's entire shocking tone. But by the own words of 16-year-old Sue Munday--1863 victim and eyewitness--the youngest girl in the prison was herself. An age which is in and of itself powerful enough to establish tone. Asserting an age of 10 is overkill and hinting she might have been even younger than 10(!), in my opinion, does harm to the story's impartiality.

As for Ms. White's assertion that "a similar account by Mrs. Flora Stevens" is in the May 2, 1912 issue of the Kansas City Star...I ain't findin' it there. Perhaps the print is too small. Can somebody tell me what page and column the Flora Stevens story is on in that issue.