Request to appear as witness

legal document

A request from the office of the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York to John Torborg, Jr. of Brooklyn to appear as a witness at the United States Courthouse in Manhattan in regard to an alleged legal violation. This request, issued just a month after the accident, appears to be part of the U.S. Attorney Martin Conboy's investigation of the accident. It is not a subpoena but a request for an interview, and Conboy spoke to most if not all of the survivors. His investigation eventually led to charges of criminal negligence against two bridge officers of the MORRO CASTLE, who spent two years in prison before an appeals court overturned their convictions, and the Ward Line's executive vice president, who was fined $5,000. John Torborg, Jr. was a 15 year old survivor of the MORRO CASTLE disaster. He and his sister Ruth had been traveling with their uncle Herman Torborg and a large group of members of a singing group, the Concordia Singing Society of East New York. The Torborgs escaped the fire by jumping into the water and, unlike many others, they were lucky enough to be picked up by rescue vessels.