Looking back at a bad day for the Joliet Public Library

JOLIET – It was 9:39 p.m. April 19, 1989, when Larry C. Williams stood on the hood of his gold Corvette and threw a rock and two Molotov cocktails through the windows of the Joliet Public Library.

The incendiary devices landed on the shelves in the children’s department that held books regularly used for science fair projects.

And the flames spread.

“I can still see it in my head,” Dianne Harmon, who was children’s librarian at the time, said last week. “The fire destroyed most of the nonfiction section. All of the ‘Nancy Drew’ and ‘Hardy Boys’ sets that were in a separate case near the wall, and picture books from S to Z.”

The 25th anniversary of the infamous act on Saturday was not one of celebration at the library. But the library survived the attack – and has flourished since.

The firebombing might have destroyed much more, but three witnesses saw Williams and flagged down a police officer on the next block. Firefighters were at the scene in minutes and kept flames contained to the children’s area, but smoke filled the building.

“All those plastic covers started melting with the heat and giving off fumes. Tapes and records melted. Paint from the framed paintings was dripping down the walls,” Harmon recalled.

The library suffered about $1.5 million in damage and was closed for a month while every book was cleaned and deodorized. Head librarian Jim Johnston reported 22,671 books were lost.

“We had dumpsters outside and used snow shovels to pitch [the remains] out the windows. With librarians, the urge to save things is very strong,” Harmon said.

Current library director Kevin Medows said staff and patrons still reference the firebombing. He feels coming so close to losing the whole collection “still influences our thinking.”

Williams was stopped by police that night and confessed to starting the library fire, as well as earlier blazes that spring in book storage rooms at Hufford Junior High School and Marycrest Early Childhood Center. He told police actresses Cheryl Ladd and Suzanne Somers told him to set the fire.

Williams was later found not guilty by reason of insanity. Cook County records show Williams died in July 1996.

The children’s department was moved into a vacant department store nearby. The state library gave $10,000 toward replacing books and local donations were raised with a used book sale.

“I got to try a little research with what we kept at first. The little kids couldn’t have cared less about the books being damaged, but the older kids would leave them on the shelf,” Harmon said.

The 1990 expansion that doubled the size of the library was already planned when the children’s department was firebombed. But Harmon said the incident had “a silver lining” – a feeling of ownership that continued as the city grew substantially. A branch opened inside the Louis Joliet Mall in 1995 and moved to Black Road in 2002.

“I was surprised at how interested the public was in what happened to ‘their’ library and what they could do after the fire,” Harmon said.