During the immediate aftermath of the Eastland Disaster, victims' bodies were distributed throughout the city of Chicago, being taken to other boats in the immediate vicinity, empty buildings and warehouses, funeral establishments, hospitals, and elsewhere. The scene was nothing short of utter chaos. As the number of bodies grew and before the situation got completely out of control, Cook County Coroner Peter Hoffman arrived downtown and acted compentently, authoritatively, and most of all, immediately.
Acting without a disaster management handbook, Coroner Hoffman's first action was to procure the use of the Second Regiment Armory building to serve as the central morgue. First responders were then able to deliver victims' bodies to the central morgue throughout the day and for the days that followed. And as horrific as it was, family members of the missing were then able to be directed to a single location to walk through in search of their loved ones.
A short while later in the day, Coroner Hoffman had the presence of mind to initiate the action to convene a jury to determine who should be held accountable for the tragedy that claimed the lives of more than 800 people. Coroner Hoffman’s office immediately began its investigations. By the end of the week, the coroner’s jury recommended that charges of manslaughter (and other such offenses as the facts warranted) be brought against against the Eastland’s owners, the officer of the Indiana Transportation Company (that chartered the Eastland), the captain, the chief engineer, and the government inspectors.
Perhaps more impressive - and meaningful - than these quick and decisive actions was Coroner Hoffman's relentless pursuit in making sure that every single body was properly identified. The grueling identification process in the central morgue led to the double identification of several of the victims – two or more families claiming a single body as their loved one. Weeks passed and the body of the a young girl at the morgue remained unidentified. In mid August, just before the unidentified body in the morgue was to be given an anonymous "Jane Doe" burial, the police and coroner’s offices worked together to solve the mystery. Coroner Hoffman's office even took the extreme measure of exhuming one of the previously buried bodies, and soon thereafter they positively identified the body in the morgue. On August 19, the last victim of the Eastland Disaster was identified and buried.
[Note: Descendants of Coroner Peter Hoffman, namely his great-grandson (and wife), attribute the Coroner's refusal to bury the unidentified body of a young girl to the fact that it was very personal to Hoffman's own life: He had several young daughters at home at the time of the tragedy. This fatherly instinct so deeply impacted him that he probably didn't want any father or mother to experience the grief of not knowing the final resting disposition of a daughter. In the end, and largely due to Coroner Peter Hoffman, every victim of Chicago's greatest loss-of-life tragey was positively identified.]