The Hogg’s Hollow Tunnel Disaster

The Hogg’s Hollow Tunnel Disaster

Author: Dark Poutine / Curiouscast June 8, 2026 Duration: 1:09:39
Episode 422: On St. Patrick's Day, 1960, five Italian immigrant construction workers — Pasquale Allegrezza, Giovanni Carriglio, Giovanni Fusillo, and brothers Alessandro and Guido Mantella — died beneath the Don River in Toronto's Hogg's Hollow neighbourhood. They were trapped in a tunnel less than two metres wide with no fire extinguishers, no hard hats, and no way out. The fire was preventable. The violations were known. A foreman had been fired for raising them. No one was ever charged. This is the story of five men whose names were nearly forgotten — and the laws that exist today because they died. Sources:The history of the Hoggs Hollow neighbourhood in TorontoThe Hoggs Hollow Disaster | definingmomentscanada.caThe Hogg’s Hollow Disaster | Canadian Labour CongressHogg's Hollow Disaster National Historic EventHoggs Hollow | cobtrades.comRemembering the Hoggs Hollow disaster | spacing.caDisaster at Hogg’s Hollow | jamiebradburnwriting.wordpress.comThe Hogg’s Hollow Disaster | unionsong.comBreaking Ground The Hogg's Hollow Memorial 40 th Anniversary Project | costi.orgHogg's Hollow Tragedy (1960) | Toronto Workers' History ProjectBASTA! NO MORE FEAR! Remembering the Hoggs Hollow Disaster of 1960The Hogg’s Hollow Disaster of 1960 | dresden1957.comHoggs Hollow Disaster | wikipediahttps://www.newspapers.com/image/1001301968/?match=1&terms=%22Hogg%27s%20Hollow%22%20tunnelhttps://www.newspapers.com/image/950111466/?match=1&clipping_id=newhttps://www.newspapers.com/image/1324439704/?match=1&clipping_id=newhttps://www.newspapers.com/image/1227727450/?match=1&clipping_id=newhttps://www.newspapers.com/image/1226718453/?match=1&clipping_id=newhttps://www.newspapers.com/image/941541607/?match=1&clipping_id=newhttps://www.newspapers.com/image/941541580/?match=1&terms=%22Hogg%27s%20Hollow%22%20tunnel Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Podcast Episodes
White Paper: Balloon Bombs from Japan [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:07:08
Episode 435: In November 1944, the Imperial Japanese Army began launching paper balloons from the coast of Honshu — each one carrying incendiary and anti-personnel bombs, designed to ride the jet stream across the Pacifi…
Botched Justice: The Death of Crystal Taman [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:02:45
Episode 434: On the morning of February 25th, 2005, Crystal Taman, a forty-year-old dental assistant, wife, and mother of three, left her home in East St. Paul, Manitoba on her way to work. She never arrived. Stopped at…
If Anything Should Happen: The Ottey Sisters Murders [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 51:15
Episode 433: On August 16, 1995, Avis Ottey came home to her townhouse in Scarborough, Ontario, expecting to find her daughters packing for the future. Instead, she found nineteen-year-old Marsha Ottey and sixteen-year-o…
Not Justice: Lynching Louie Sam [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 56:15
Episode 432: In February 1884, a Scottish storekeeper named James Bell was shot dead in his cabin along Telegraph Road in Washington Territory, just south of the Canadian border. Within days, a fifteen-year-old Semá:th b…
Street of Tears — The Crimes of Shawn Cameron Lamb [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 58:34
Episode 431: In the fall of 2011, the first of three indigenous women disappeared from a stretch of Winnipeg's West End that those who worked there called the Street of Tears. Their families searched, put up posters, and…
I Don't Know Why: Phil Hartman’s Murder [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:11:53
Episode 430: On the morning of May 28, 1998, police were called to a home on Encino Avenue in Encino, California. Inside the master bedroom, they found Phil Hartman — one of the most versatile performers in the history o…
Part 2 — Justice Prolonged: The Murder of Christine Jessop [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:04:54
Episode 429: In January 1995, DNA testing excluded Guy Paul Morin, the man convicted of the 1984 murder of Christine Jessop, from the crime. The Ontario Court of Appeal set aside his conviction, and Morin was released. T…
Part 1 — Justice Prolonged: The Murder of Christine Jessop [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:05:22
Episode 428: On October 3, 1984, nine-year-old Christine Jessop stepped off a school bus in Queensville, Ontario, and walked toward home. She was never seen alive again. Her body was found on New Year's Eve, fifty-six ki…
Three-Fingered Abe: The Kidnapping of John S. Labatt [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:05:37
Episode 427: In the summer of 1934, John Sackville Labatt was one of the most recognizable names in Canada. The fifty-three-year-old president of John Labatt Limited had spent nearly two decades running one of the countr…
Wildfire: The Day Lytton Burned [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:09:25
Episode 426: On June 29th, 2021, Lytton, British Columbia, recorded the highest air temperature in Canadian history: 49.6 degrees Celsius. The next day, the town burned to the ground in under two hours, killing two peopl…