New book tells the untold story tied to Kansas City's 1981 Hyatt Regency skywalk disaster

By Steve Kraske,

Published March 1, 2023 at 5:27 PM CST

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An unidentified man walks through the scattered wreckage in the lobby of Kansas City's Hyatt Regency Hotel on Sunday, July 19, 1981. Two catwalks spanning the lobby crashed onto a crowded dance floor on Friday night, killing 114 people and injuring 188 others — An unidentified man walks through the scattered wreckage in the lobby of Kansas City's Hyatt Regency Hotel on Sunday, July 19, 1981. Two catwalks spanning the lobby crashed onto a crowded dance floor that Friday night, killing 114 people and injuring 188 others.

The Kansas City skywalk disaster in 1981 killed 114 people and become one of the most closely-covered events in the city's history. A new book uses the writing of a key player in the disaster to tell an untold story about the tragedy.

July 17, 1981, is among the most tragic days Kansas City has ever seen.

That's when two overhead skywalks in the Hyatt Regency Hotel lobby collapsed during a party with over 1,500 attendants. It killed 114 people and injured more than 200 others.

Eli Paul's new book, "Skywalks: Robert Gordon's Untold Story of Hallmark's Kansas City Disaster," highlights the writings of plaintiff's attorney Robert Gordon, a key player after the disaster who was tenacious in his pursuit of the facts.

Until he died, Gordon believed Hallmark, the owner of the hotel, deserved most of the blame for the tragedy.

Eli Paul joined KCUR's Up to Date to discuss his new book, and what Robert Gordon believed about the root causes of the skywalk collapse.

Eli Paul, author of "Skywalks: Robert Gordon's Untold Story of Hallmark's Kansas City Disaster"