Happy Land Social Club Arson | Morbid | Podcast | Forensic Files

hey weirdos I'm Ash and I'm Elina and this is [Music] morbid this is morbid on this dreary
cloudy day I know but it's Friday it's Friday spring you know Springs in the air yesterday was Gorge yeah like my
littlest one found some flowers growing out of the the Earth and she was like that means spring is coming yeah and I
was like correct Indo nailed it good job little one just Mom things so yeah spring is
coming that's fun I'm trying to think if there's any other fun stuff coming up oh
um the sequel to my book The Butcher and the ren the sequel being the butcher game is coming out September 17th and I
can finally talk about it and when can people pre-order it uh now oh you can pre-order it right now we'll put the
links and all the show notes going forward so that you can always be you can always be getting it I know it's not
a tiny URL and we regret to inform you we do regret to inform you but it gets its own thing it's going to be the
butcher game.com which that's cool it's got its own [ __ ] domain fun pretty fun she's a she's an adult we're going
to have some fun stuff going through the year to promote this book like stay tuned cuz there's some really cool stuff
and I promise you this one's longer it's twisted it's there's a lot there's a lot
happening in this book so I I'm telling you go Get It Go Get It you won't be you
won't be disappointed no definitely not that's my guarantee yay and manifest you know
manifest I love it but yeah go get it cuz that's awesome and really fun and it's a series now so it's the Dr red
meller Series so uh take take with that what you will that's really cool you how
many do you think there there will be ultimately I don't know are you going to be like like uh doing a little Patricia
over there just never end it do a little Patricia Cornwell little patri my girl Patric Trish uh I could I could never
but I I can only hope to you could have the series go on Long look up to her and
say Can I Be Like You Someday me too Patric me too Patric Trish uh that's actually that's one of those that's one
of those like I need to meet them in my life people Patricia Cornwell Stephen King I just want to talk to both of them
I mean you're a two-time author now so one step closer fancy fis fis I can be like I know how both of you have are
literally prolific and have written a billion in four books together that are all
iconique uh you want to talk to me maybe you could go to like a writers Retreat together ooh we could all how
fun would that be actually I was looking into writers Retreats for Christmas for
you but then I was like that [ __ ] doesn't like to leave her house that's not a good gift like you know it would
be so perfect a writer's Retreat she could go away and then I was like go away nope you're like yeah she won't do
that but that was really nice of you to think about that I know I'm so kind but yeah you know I'm so
kind you're like I know I know Mother Teresa over here but yeah but go go get that book go pre-order it there's a post
that you can get too limited time it's signed and it's fun there's all kinds of fun stuff there's going to be sign
copies at Barnes & Noble all the good stuff love bar but that's all the fun stuff out of the way because today is
going to be uh very morbid it usually is very morbid this is uh a case this is a
kind of case that we don't cover often this is a fire oh it's an arson a pretty horrific one as well we haven't covered
a lot of arson we haven't no and we sprinkle them in every once in a while but there there's just so much loss of
life in these that it's pretty horrific to research to be honest and it's this one's so sad and so senseless oh man in
so many ways that's the thing there's many layers of senselessness to this there always is um now when this episode
airs on wonder plus actually it will be one day after the 34th anniversary of this tragedy oh wow Ely um so yeah so it
happened 34 years pretty much close to the day uh and what's sad is like as time goes on with
these kind of things the anniversaries become less and less of a thing that people notice is happening because some
of the family members are gone now time goes on like you know it's not in the headlines all that stuff and it's sad
that it just kind of Fades so hopefully this this can do a little bit to bring it back into you know people's ears at
least at this time yeah just to recognize it's an important it's you know about safety measures in you know public
areas it's about um you know people not being like cities not being concerned for the safety of mostly immigrant
communities like they get pushed off to the side and their safety isn't really of concern for the most part it really
touches upon that and it also touches upon domestic violence and oh wow somebody trying to punish someone for
not getting back together with them wow so it it's got everything it's got everything so um interestingly I first
heard of this fire way young very young so this happened in 1990 okay like I said 34
years ago um so I heard about it because uh a little band called Duran Duran I think I've heard of them yeah they they
made a song about it called sin of the city it's actually you loved that song loved that song when I was younger my
brother loved Duran Duran shout out to JP hey J he made me listen to Duran all the time so I became obsessed with Duran
they're so [ __ ] we actually saw them live like a few years ago it was great uh Simon Lebon is still like loved him
uh but they made a song about this and it's actually a very good song like go listen to it but uh that's the first I
had heard about this and I remember hearing the words and being like wait is this like I thought it was just like a
fictional thing I was like wow what a terrible thing to make a like make fictional you know like you just came up
with that and sang a song about it it's like our episode with Ronnie and Ben like all the dark events that then lead
to songs yes and this is one of those and when I found I don't know if we touched upon Senate City I feel like we
didn't I feel like you might have mentioned it in passing but we didn't like deeply go into it yeah maybe we'll
have to add it to the next you know yeah I want to do another one of those we want to do another one of those we
should have Ronnie and Ben back on to do another one of those obviously um and also congratulations to Ronnie and Ben
for winning best pop pop culture podcast at the ihar awards they are the best pop
culture podcast I have a I have like a roster I guess you could say of like I don't know probably like six or seven
podcasts that I listen to they're the best one Ronnie and Ben for life I love them truly so congrats to them they
deserve it um so again on the evening of March 24th 1990 nearly 100 patrons gathered to
celebrate carnival at the Happyland Social Club the evening took a deadly turn however when around 3:30 a.m. an
explosion of fire roared up the stairway leading to the second floor of the club
blocked the only exit there was only one yes and we will get into that from the building and they tra and it trapped all
the P patrons in the room rapidly filling with toxic smoke and fire even now it's unknown how many patrons
actually managed to escape the fire because there wasn't a lot of like it was very LAX with how this was all run
so they didn't know how many people were actually in the club right uh but by the
time that they knew they know there was at least 100 people in there but by the time the fire department had
extinguished the fire 87 people were dead wow 8 seven people died in this that's a mass tragedy yeah the arson at
the Happyland Social Club remains one of the deadliest fires in New York history
and in a bizarre coincidence it occurred on the 79th anniversary of the city's deadliest fire the Triangle shirt waist
fire uh factory fire of 1911 oh wow that's Haun strange haunting and is that pointed in any way or it's just a
coincidence just a coincidence wow yeah total coincidence oh that's creepy now social clubs are something that I'm sure
um a lot of people either don't really know what they are or maybe have the wrong idea of what they are like I know
I wasn't totally sure what they were I heard the term I've just never really um so social clubs are basically meeting
places where people in communities can gather outside their homes or workplaces um they're typically formed around a
shared interest one of the more easily recognizable types of Social Clubs found in the United States specifically are
those that cater to specific minority or immigrant communities like Greek American clubs or Cuban American clubs
or Italian ameran clubs yeah that makes sense um these are great because especially for individuals that are
newly arrived in the states they often time you know these people come with no social networks or limited social
networks and these clubs not only help them maintain a connection to their culture and Heritage but they also act
as kind of a like a like a Lifeline incon yeah a very a big lifeline and for important resources for things like
education employment other Civic and social needs like in the simplest terms these types of Social Clubs can serve as
a life to line for many people attempting to settle in an unfamiliar place and just being able to like reach
out and grab onto their own community and rely on them and integrate their way into what they want to do so it's
important recognize that while social clubs May hold dances or you know operate cafes or other Revenue
generating activities they're not the same as like a nightclub or like a coffee house that's not what they're
supposed to be okay uh their primary mission is to serve a segment of the community in the same way as like a
recreation or Community Center does okay that makes sense in New York City for example clubs like Harlem's alany
cultural center and familia unas in the East Village provide provided a refuge for the city's large Latin American
population and offered spaces where they could celebrate and engage with their art and culture that was at the time
especially pretty much unavailable for them in the mainstream around themed so it was really the only place they could
go to actually connect with that which which I'm like I hate that you that's all that they can go to you know what I
mean obviously it's changed now but um Migdalia De Jesus Torres who is a professor from John Jay College of
Criminal Justice said they serve as an important role in the adaptation and assimilation process they serve as a
needed introduction to American life and they serve to preserve the culture and traditions of the Home Country so it
seems like a great thing it really does yeah now again while while most social clubs are anchors for the communities
they serve some you know historically have been used for questionable unsavory or nefarious purposes because people are
always going to be people in people going people wherever there's this nice great thing that's useful and wonderful
and helping people get ahead and helping people connect there's going to be a segment of any kind of community where
they take it into a different direction they're going to keep it that weird exact people are the weird that I tell
you not to keep it exactly just people are always going to people at the end of the day we find this out time and time
again they're always going to people now beginning in the 1960s the New York law
enforcement uh and City administrators began seeing a trend of Social Clubs being being used as fronts or bases as
of operation for organized crime families uh a New York detective told the New York Times in 1986 social clubs
are regularly used as meeting places and message centers for copos under bosses and their liut tenants I find that stuff
so interesting yeah so while these types of operations were rare by the 1980s like I said people always got a People
there's always a segment that does it they nonetheless highlight the complicated political and economic
problems that these kind of businesses could present this segment of these businesses in some cases the missions of
Social Clubs will qualify them for tax exempt status but many are likely to be entirely unregulated illegally run
businesses and because of that they really don't pay a lot of attention to things like fire codes liquor laws
occupancy regulations and that's not saet measures so throughout the 1970s and 80s New York City experienced a
significant boom immigration with more than a million new residents coming from diverse Geographic locations and as a
result of this population transformation Social Clubs became more important than
ever with many newcomers just trying to integrate while still maintaining that connection to their culture and Heritage
so it was a very important thing to have while the existence of the clubs themselves was by no means a problem the
increasing informality with that some were being opened up with was becoming an issue because there they were
violating a number of laws zoning codes and that was becoming an issue to the cops mhm but the growth of a much
younger population also meant that these illegally run clubs not the regular Social Clubs the illegally ones were
starting to resemble more nightclubs than Civic and community centers because this is a younger population that's now
taking over these unsavory ones so they're making it they're putting their own Pizzaz on it yeah exactly like
they're doing it illegally and they're putting their own Pizzaz on it realistically they're just making
nightclubs and calling Social Clubs exactly so by the late 1980s there were hundreds of Social Clubs operating
around the city a lot of them were illegal in that they had no license to operate a business serve alcohol or host
events there um but these were minor offenses in the grand scheme of things but they did contribute to the attitude
of general like just casualness with regard to operations that put patrons health and safety at risk um in addition
to operating out of buildings that were already in violation of safety codes themselves just the buildings oh man
many clubs continued serving alcohol way into the early hours of the morning like
way past the point you're allowed to well actually when you said something about this happening at 3:30 I was like
wait how is it still open at that point um it's also I mean we're also from Boston where we have a very different
view of like when things are open until like we're like what you're open until past 12 like what yeah now I think it's
like what is everywhere else is sitting there being like yeah of course they're open at that like this is we're just
weird like up here we're just like everything closes down everything closes like last call is like I think
everything closes at 2 or 2:30 now yeah I think and that's new it used to be earlier than that my whole like going
out life was like around that time that's newer yeah like it used to be even earlier um so this so yeah so
basically you know when people are drinking way too far into the early morning hours it is creating an unsafe
environment there's an increased risk of violence accidents to happen you know it's not good it's like our moms always
told us nothing good ever happens after midnight it's true it's so true but the biggest problem however was that many of
these Social Clubs operated in spaces like we said that have no safety have a lot of safety violations but they lacked
proper ventilation working sprinklers or even fire alarms they had an adequate amount of exits other various issues
that were definitely going to increase the danger and risk if there was ever an emergency in these places and that's
really scary cuz you have to realize that a lot of these people going out to these places don't know that like of how
many places do you walk into and you're like I know the building operator here and I know that this place is up to an a
exactly that's the thing not everybody walks in and knows where all the exits are and knows that everything's and as
we'll see sometimes in these places there would be more than one exit that had an exit sign over it like an
emergency exit you would open the door and it would just led to a brick wall or something that's so it was like people
would be running into like it's really bad that's scary so uh in fact by the mid 1980s Social Clubs had become quote
the sites of some of New York's worst blazes resulting in many deaths after fires broke out and Confused or very
intoxicated patrons couldn't find or access an exit which is horrific yeah by the late 80s Community complaint about
social clubs and their safety violations had reached an all-time high uh but law
enforcement were at a loss for how to deal with the problem and like we said it gets put on the back burner for
various reasons well especially like in New York City like a place where there's
like tons of [ __ ] going on it's not okay but you can see how it happens oh yeah
like there's definitely and um one of the firefighters in the Bronx Tony D'Angelo said we closed down a few but
some entrepreneur would just open it a few blocks away Tony De Ango Tony deangel I could not get pass without
saying Tony D'Angelo from the Bron my guy Tony D'Angelo see him he's a firefighter he said I don't know they
just open it a few blocks down uh so due to the informal nature it's difficult to
pinpoint like we said ex like anything about Happyland Social Club when it comes to like figuring out who was how
many people were in there that night it's also hard to pinpoint when it opened exactly as a social club oh wow
um as far as anyone can really tell the building that the club was in at 1959 Southern Boulevard off East Tremont
Avenue in the Bronx was purchased in 1985 the year I was born hey by Alex D Lorenzo who was a New York real estate
developer who actually was part of a family that once was the largest property owners in the city [ __ ] uh as
soon as the purchase was complete he leased the entire building for 49 years to Little Peach realy Inc um this was a
property development and management company run by Jay Weiss um Jay Weiss was actually the husband at the time of
act actress Kathleen Turner uh in September 1987 Little Peach realy entered into a 7-year suble agreement
with many tenants who open businesses in that building including Elias cologne o
owner of Happyland Social Club so that's at least the train of how it became into
being all right in March 1988 Elias cologne and his Partners Raphael kamacho and Jesus David Cruz filed incorporation
paperwork with the city and established Happy Land Social Club they informed their new landlords that they intended
to operate this club as a bar and Game Room the incorporation and other legal filings allowed the club to operate as a
tax exempt Tavern but it appears that neither cologne nor his business partners ever obtained a license to
serve alcohol on the premise of this um also a license to operate a Tavern was not the same as a license to open
operate a social club or a dance club okay which is very confusing it's like these licenses like you can operate as
this but not as this but not as that but this and it's like what I could see where that would get confused I could
see where that could get confused that part I can get like the license thing I can me personally is so confusing to me
so I can understand how anybody would be confused uh buying a house is confusing
I can't imagine like owning a property that I was supposed to like get different licenses for it would very
much confuse me so I I can't say anything about that um but it appears that everyone in the neighborhood
understand understood that Happyland was a fully operational social club that definitely serve drinks it should be
noted that following the fire Raphael kamacho told reporters that he had no idea he was listed as an agent with
Happy Land and if his name had been listed on any incorporation paperwork he said it was done without my consent oh
that's sh so that's interesting when they opened in 1987 Happyland do occupied two large
storefronts on the ground levels one of which had once housed a smaller Social Club so it had already operated As One
MH um and as a bar and Game Room the club was explicitly forbidden to admit anyone under the age of 21 Fair a
regulation that was routinely ignored by cologne and Club staff not great now despite the questionable business
practices Happyland did enjoy early success with the Latin American community in the South Bronx um they
honestly had few social spaces to together which is sad that is sad um William cornblum who was a researcher
with the City University of New York said people really love these clubs the prices they charge for food and drinks
are lower the customers all know each other they can speak their own language and a lot of times they have a running
account all right so it just sounds like a place where you feel it's like cheers
everybody knows your name or it's like you know the Olive Garden when you're he your family family so despite the club
success the problem started not long after opening in sep M 1988 just a few months after it was opened there were
three arrests made at the club for selling liquor without a license uh their fourth citation since opening and
then less than two months later the club was ordered closed for imminent danger to safety and life of the occupants oh
wow this was only a few months after it was opened that's not great the order said the building lacked a second
exit no fire alarms and no sprinkler systems okay we got to take care of those those big ticket it and it had no
emergency lighting so if anything were to happen it would just be pitch black oh my god
um per the suble agreement Little Peach realy had the right to evict Happyland in the event that any governmental
agency complained about the business but none of the little Peach's Executives were very involved with their tenants so
they took no action oh no so they let this happen as well 6 months later however Lil Peach did serve cologne a
notice of their intention to evict after the club had fallen more than $3,000 behind on the rent yikes uh but they
because they can't operate they've been closed down now at this point exactly but they never filed any paperwork in
court okay so they were going to evict them because they didn't pay but they weren't going to evict them based on the
fact that it was like a death trap essentially it like but you're not paying me now so that's like come on
guys lots of lots of complicit people here people are always going to people and when you hear about this kind of
thing there's some amazing people in the world that prove us all wrong but there
are some people that are always going to people and they are always going to be looking out for themselves and not even
consider loss of life as an issue and nine out of 10 times it's a money thing it's always money now although they had
been officially closed by the city cologne continued to operate Happyland in May while the club was supposed to be
closed Carlos Negron a local business owner rented out the club from cologne for $500 to have a private party um
according to Carlos at one point during the party the second floor Shook and partly fell apart no no
yeah yeah that's bad now as a result cologne replaced happy land's entire second floor totally renovating the
Dance Floor putting in a new lighting system so he made Renovations now this was uh this would have been a shock to
cologne's landlord because uh when they rented it to Cologne it didn't have a second
floor what so there were they would have been like is excuse me the roof is coming in is that what that meant they
just didn't have a second floor they just built a second floor what yes that's why it was so
shoddy and like falling apart they had just built a second floor hand oh no now based on rumors that Happy Land was
still operating City officials would routinely go by the club just to see if there was any activity going on I was
going to say yeah but he sh they went the club appeared to be closed interesting July they should have
changed up their times right in July 1989 a surprise visit from the local commi The Liquor Commission found that
Not only was the club reopened without approval but it was once again selling alcohol without a license an officer
from the public morals division was on hand for the visit I'm sorry the public morals Division I so glad you went back
to that sounds like such a dick Division I realized they Pro they're probably doing great work I don't know what they
well clearly they're they're for a reason for sure but the name you got to Rebrand it's giving Leslie nope you need
a Rebrand you like you got to the public morals no it reminds me of um uh flick uh from Reese
Witherspoon from election Tracy flick that's what it's giving me and since you haven't seen that that will not hit as
hard with you but it will hit with someone listen The Listener it's giving me Tracy flick uh but they were on hand
for the visit and the happan bartender Santos batis was arrested for the violation the bartender yeah according
to batis he was not the regular bartender at the club and was only on hand to help out with the party oh that
he's like I don't know well he claimed the owner told me one time he was going to get a license so he didn't think it
was a big deal just figured they had one I don't feel like I feel bad for him Santos batis I'm like he's just the
bartender he wasn't in the regular one I feel bad he was arrested that sucks it's
like wrong place wrong time yeah following the July arrest of batis for the liquor violation Happy Land was
inspected one final time on November 1st 1989 now this is only a year for the fire MH at which time officials found
the club closed and cologne claimed they had not been in operation but neighbors
later claimed that while the club had stopped keeping regular hours it was still open regularly for private events
and parties that's how they were keeping it going and making money to pay the rent yeah now while Happyland social
club and the hundreds of other informal clubs like it were definitely a thorn in
the side of a law enforcement and City officials I guess so it remained an inviting place for the Honduran
community in the Bronx who often felt excluded or ignored by mainstream American culture that's really shitty
which it it does suck that they have to operate like this to create a place where people feel like they are being
seen that's the thing the department of morals maybe get together and get them a
place where they can actually be safe and make it viable to for people and like make it something that they can
actually maintain and actually have you know cuz it sounds like the I don't know
what you have to go through to get a liquor license but I know it's a pretty arduous process so I'm not saying make
it easier but like maybe these people just needed some help some through the process a little bit cuz that might be
part of the issue I mean here there's a lot of shady [ __ ] happening in this one
in particular but I mean some other ones that like and I'm sure this one you know
like I'm sure the atmosphere was nice the people are nice so it's like it had a lot of potential right if the people
running it weren't being so shady but yeah I just I do think overall there needs to be like more help involved in
certain processes yes yeah exactly now with a $5 cover charge and just three bucks for a drink the club gave them a
place to get together to dance to hear some salsa ree calypso music just have a fun time most of these people are
working their asses off all day and this is just a place to let off some steam and night definitely um so Club regular
Fran omino was quoted was quoted as saying we all knew each other and he expressed that they appreciated that
sense of community connection that was provided by Happy Land club that's great now in the evening of March 24th 1990
nearly 100 people but like we said sources vary on exactly how many above that amount were packed into 60 by 20
foot Happyland to celebrate Carnival 60 by 20 foot and Carnival is like huge in that culture like it's a it's a
beautiful celebration we're in a Ruba for Carnival oh that's cool cuz Carnival is a period of mass celebration that
occurs right before lent and it really is it's such a celebration and the costumes the dance amazing celebration
and I'm sure this was just like this place was probably so much fun that you know what I mean but what a small area
yeah huge amounts of celebration going on so downstairs manura lagona was serving drinks at the bar uh but the
real party was upstairs on the second floor in the informal nightclub had not existed before had not existed before
the mood that night everyone who was able to say it said it was light and happy everyone was dancing having a
blast as DJ Ruben Val played moring and salsa records it was just like a good time yeah everyone was happy having a
great time around 2: a.m. however Julio Gonzalez arrived at Happyland to confront his former girlfriend Lydia
Feliciano who was working as the coach check that night at 36 years old Gonzalez had been a member of the Cuban
Army in the late 1970s but then he faked a drug tra trafficking incident in 1980
in order to be kicked out of the Army in the country huh at the time he was one of the countless Cuban citizens expelled
from the country by C Castro in the Marielle boat lift and sent to the us as a refugee Wow since arriving in the US
he had worked as a mechanic briefly he held some entry-level factory jobs you know made some quick cash washing cars
or pedaling on the street in the winter of 1990 however he had fallen on some hard times and was unemployed living in
a 10 square foot room in the Bronx oh my god um that according to all the sources
that I could find said that the only thing in that place besides where he was sleeping was just a picture of Jesus
Christ taped to the wall beside his bed wow so living in that kind of like just isolation yeah that's like solitary
confinement yeah now Julio and Lydia had been dating off and on for nearly 8 years until about 6 weeks earlier before
this when the couple broke up and Gonzalez had moved out of Feliciano's apartment into the room that he was
occupying right now although it's unclear why they ended things only that she had quote accused him of something
he had not done according to him okay which I'm like so something you did do yeah most that's usually the case uh
what is known is that Julio tended to be controlling and frequently demanded that
Lydia quit her job at Happyland he very controlling uh a short time after the breakup Gonzalez lost his job packing
boxes at a lamp Factory in Queens which caused him to fall behind on his weekly rent and according to his landlord quote
was down to his last hope so he was going through it now after drinking heavily for much of the evening of the
24th and early hours of the 25th Julio went down to Happyland intending to convince Lydia to get back together with
him arriving a little after 2 a.m. he approached Lydia at the coat check with what she described as a quote sarcastic
and ironic smile o but his tone was friendly she said that he said to her you see I'm here like the police they
come to a place unannounced too after arguing a little bit briefly Lydia told Julio that she quote didn't need him and
insisted that he should go at that point he left the coat check area he went around mingled with some other patrons
on the first floor for I think about a half an hour then he headed back up to the second floor and out of Lydia's
sight but returned a little bit after that to confront her again about 15 minutes after oh wow he said I know you
have a boyfriend it doesn't matter you and I until death oh oh which as soon as somebody says [ __ ] like that to you
that's toxic call someone toxic walk the other way that's really toxic [ __ ] oh my
god when Julio had first disappeared upstairs because of the first argument Lydia went to the bouncer Marvin Alicia
and told him that Julio was very drunk and had been harassing her so when he came back the second time to confront
her it was Marvin the uh the bouncer that intervened and actually escorted Julio out of the club cuz he like you
can't harass our employees yeah no please leave but before he left he turned back to Alisia The Bouncer and
said I'll be back oh that's really chilling now having failed to convince Lydia to get back together with him
Julio wandered the neighborhood for about a half hour just you know marinating in frustration anger and
drunkness um and about three blocks away from Happyland he stopped at the amoko gas station and purchased one gallon of
gas he he told the attendant his car had broken down uhhuh now he returned to the
club and he noticed someone standing outside so he went to a nearby pay phone and pretended to make a call once that
person left he began pouring the gasoline all over the stairs and entryway that led inside Happyland so to
be clear he premeditated this yep even so so far as hiding in a pay phone and pretending to be on a pay phone so the
person wouldn't catch them had plenty of time to change his mind and then he put
it all over the entrance like you know what you're doing of course you do standing on the sidewalk
he pulled a matchbook out of his pocket and lit two matches and then tossed them
onto the gasoline that was puddled in front of the front door that also leads you to believe that if somebody is
capable of doing something that deranged and depraved he probably did do whatever
Lydia yeah said he did yeah now the fire ripped up the stairs and into the building quickly sending everyone into a
panic the other exit from the building had been padlocked there was one other exit but it was padlocked to prevent
people entering without paying the cover charge it's like just put someone at that door yeah so the only exit was now
blocked by a raging fire oh my God Reuben Valderas the DJ recalled quote I heard a lot of people
screaming he had been dejing in the booth at the top of the stairs and realized there was still a chance to
escape so he which I was like heroic he called out to everyone if someone's going to leave follow me and he tried to
lead people out wow that just G me chills valaris was one of only six people to escape the fire that night and
when he managed to finally get out of the building he was engulfed in flames oh my God and would he sustained serious
burn injuries serious injuries Lydia had also managed to escape the building slipping out just before the fire broke
out and once outside she ran down the street and called a cab and never alerted anyone else to the fire or
called the fire department which is [ __ ] up that's so strange a lot of people pointed to that
too and were like what the [ __ ] was that about like I realized she you know whatever but it's like call the fire
department you not someone you not calling the fire department you know that there's only one exit you work
there maybe you know that it's a a packed Club if there's a fire raging in there call the fire department yeah
that's all you have to do don't you don't need to stick around like that's fine you're probably scared later she
says she was scared Julio was going to come back and hurt her outside which I totally understand that felt immediately
that it was him who had done that yeah wow and she was afraid that he was going to hurt her outside so that tells
you a lot about what was happening there so I totally understand why she jumped in a cab and was like get me the [ __ ]
out of here but but call or tell the cab driver like be like you got can somebody
contact somebody like there's she called a the cab yeah exactly so I don't know that just bothered me I was like oh man
not that I don't I don't don't even know if anything could have been done to stop
this to be quite honest which is even sadder um the fire department did arrive a few minutes later uh but by then the
entire Club was a blaze firefighter Jerry Mera said of that night quote I guess other than 9911 Happy Land was the
worst thing to ever happen to me as a firefighter wow as one of the First Responders he had an oxygen mask on and
he pushed his way through the hysterical crowd outside on the street and started
crawling his way up the stairs to the second floor firefighters I'm like you're real ones
like thinking about that I'm like you're just like crawling into a fire absolutely I never take a second to just
like really think about that no my brother-in-law is a firefighter and some of the [ __ ] he'll send us and like the
like they train and go into houses but even like then they get the real calls and he'll send pictures of what they'll
go into sometimes and I'm like oh my God yeah it's it's wild and just to like your human instinct is to run out of a
fire and the fact that these people train to run into a fire to save people is really wild so firefighters out there
like shout out to y'all snaps to you uh he said and this is this is horrific to think about he said when I got up there
it was just one after the other of people stacked up on the top floor oh that's I knew they were people and I was
just trying to get off them and the further I crawled I was just crawling on more and more people when he had made it
back outside he radioed the chief to report the fatalities and and when asked how many he just said numerous numerous
there's no way he could have counted aside from the six people on the first floor who were known to have escaped
there were 19 patrons who died on the first floor and the remaining 68 people were on the second floor and they were
all dead mostly from Suffocation though a few died from trampling or crushing injuries oh my God because the fire was
set at the bottom of the stairs the stairway acted like a chimney so it pumped smoke and carbon dioxide right
into the second floor when the Flames reached the second floor the toxic cloud was just exasperated by all the plastic
decorations and other materials that caught fire and made this like toxic poisonous smoke that was happening oh my
God cuz it was Carnival so it was all decorated for that plastic is going to turn into like poison oh my God so it's
awful it's awful and in their panic and Terror the patrons on the second floor probably became very confused making it
almost imp possible to find the stairs and it wouldn't have mattered if they had because they would have been
inaccessible by that they could have even gone in their last moments many slumped to the floor and held on to the
person person nearest to them as they died oh my God yeah it's horrific all because one man couldn't handle the fact
that he was being broken up one [ __ ] couldn't hand I should even say man yeah in a statement to reporters firefighter
Richard Harden said some looked like they were sleeping some looked horrified some looked like they were in shock some
people had torn their clothes off and they're Panic to get out it must have been a I can't even fathom that scene I
that would change you as a person it was the largest loss of life in a fire in New York since the Triangle shirt waist
factory fire which again in a bizarre coincidence occurred exactly 79 years earlier on March 25th 1911 that's so
scary yeah so we have the names of the Happyland Social Club victim and we are going to put them um either
on our socials or in the show notes wherever they cuz there's a lot so we want to like character wise we just want
to make sure they all fit in one place um so we will likely put a link to their names as well so that you can see all of
their names and how old they were um it's there's I mean there's people as young as 18 years old this fire you know
like it's these are people in their in their 20s 30s and just these people getting together to celebrate their
Heritage like it's supposed to be one of the happiest times of the year for them
exactly that's the thing and this one [ __ ] who was unhappy and couldn't do anything to [ __ ] get past
it wow it just ruined everyone's lives yeah so after fleeing the scene outside Happyland Julio went to the apartment of
his friend Carmen Melendez where he confessed that he poured fire around the exit of Happyland and set the club on
fire Melendez later said in court I asked him why he said I don't want Lydia to work there
Melendez didn't believe his story but he did seem incredibly upset she said and when she asked what he planned to do
next Tulio told her he was going to wait until the police could come get him then
he left melendez's apartment and went down the hall to his own room and went to sleep he just went to sleep yeah he
just went to sleep I'll just wait here until they come get me how the [ __ ] do you go to sleep after that that's a
monster it gets even worse cuz he watched the firefighters fight the fire he was outside watching them what mhm so
he went to sleep and then went back yep what a twisted [ __ ] or he at least watched them and then went to sleep one
or the other but either way now the following morning investigators interviewed the six known survivors
including Lydia Feliciano who told them about her argument with Julio and the threats he made before leaving the club
when police officers arrived at Gonzalez's room later that afternoon there was an overwhelming Sten of G
veline that per permeated his clothes and the entire room itself and when the officers told Julio why they were there
he seemed toand and didn't resist arrest at all um they said it was like he was being picked up for a traffic warrant it
was nothing he was sleeping he was sleeping that's disgusting once at the station Julio broke down into tears and
in an hour-long taped confession he admitted to starting the fire you're just crying cuz you got caught you're
not crying because of any of those people's lives that you took he said I knew that I was going to do damage but
not not of that intensity to cause the tragedy that occurred you lit a building full of 100 100 people on fire this is
the same kind of thing of people who poison people and go I was just trying to make them violently ill I didn't know
i' kill [ __ ] you're still an [ __ ] you're still an evil [ __ ] like you're still a piece of [ __ ] like I hate that
I'm like just cuz you wanted to cause a little less damage than you caused oops I caused like wild amounts of damage
you're an [ __ ] and I it's not believable no it's not action that you cuz if you can take that one piece that
you're telling me you wanted to do you wanted to cause damage you just didn't know you would cause that much you
didn't think anyone would die in that fire like come on or or the possibility was there you know about that club you
know there's one exit and it's like at that's the thing [ __ ] you lit the only exit on fire you knew exactly what
you were doing and that's not I didn't want her to work there that's I wanted to kill her cuz she didn't want to be
with me she didn't want to be with me so I figured I didn't want her to work there if you didn't want her to work
there you'd wait until after everybody left and then you'd set the place on fire that's what you would do and that
would still be [ __ ] ex that would still be [ __ ] up in his tearful confession Julio told detectives he was
drunk and angry because Lydia had broken up with him and he still loved her and wanted her back when she refused and
then asked the bouncer to escort him out he became enraged his first thought he said was to quote close the club for
good so she couldn't work there anymore this is even worse he was going to call the police and report them because he
knew of the illegal operations but he said I went with the fire instead are you kidding it just [ __ ] call the
police and get the party shut down and they try to go for an insanity defense with him and I'm like good try because
he's literally telling you in this confession she said she wouldn't get back together with me and have me
escorted out I was [ __ ] angry at her and I did this because I didn't want her to work here anymore and I could have
called and just reported them and had the place shut down and no one would have died but instead I went with a fire
cuz I want to hurt people CU I was that angry I was mad like that's it yeah wow now according to Julio he'd initially
fled the scene after setting the fire but came back a short time later and quote watch the firemen fight the fire
which like what is the [ __ ] pathology there he said it was then that he realized the extent of the damage he'd
caused and left the scene for a second time this time on a city bus to his neighborhood and he said that's when I
reflected and began to cry no I don't think so and he said I remembered again all that I had
done no one cares that you cried I don't know I there something about going back
and watching the damage is like get I feel like he got some weird enjoyment out of that [ __ ] up it's [ __ ] up
that's not yeah no no after giving his statement to detectives Julio was brought before Judge Alexander Hunter at
the Bronx criminal Bronx Criminal Court excuse me a little after 2 am on March 27th where he was formally charged with
87 counts of arson felony murder and 87 counts of Murder By depra cved indifference to human life that's
exactly what that is which is a perfect count as well as several other even lesser charges the judge ordered that
hulio be held without bail until a grand jury could be convened and Julio was taken to Kings County Hospital and held
in the psychiatric ward where he was put on suicide watch in a statement to reporters Bronx da uh Robert Johnson
said the maximum of 25 years to life doesn't nearly reach the level of premeditation involved in this crime
nope it sure doesn't now as the deadliest fire and nearly Century the tragedy at Happyland dominated the
headlines in the days and weeks following the fire of course but while some news news outlets were focusing on
the victims of the fire the majority emphasized the fact that the club was operating illegally and cited the number
of complaints the city had received about Happyland you know in the Years leading up to the fire and in response
to the tragedy mayor David dinkin immediately activated a task force of police officers and ordered them to
inspect the 173 active clubs operating in the city and look for any code violations which I was like you should
have done that weird that it took this like I don't like I hate that it takes this kind of thing for anybody to do
anything that many people shouldn't have had to die such horrific deaths for you
to take care of a problem if it was that quick and easy to put together the task force and they
went right to it that should have happened in his statement to the Press he said somebody will suggest that it is
important that these clubs open because it is an aspect of economic development jobs for these areas but let me tell you
anybody that has an opp opportunity to see those bodies laid up there will know that it's not a persuasive
argument now among his campaign promises was legislation to crack down on the informal social clubs around the city
but a bill promising exactly that was introduced a year earlier and failed to get any support so isn't that funny that
now that this has happened everybody's like oh we got to crack down and it's like well they actually tried to do that
a year ago you guys said go [ __ ] yourself so it's nice that you're doing it now how uh now
in the wake of the fire he was now vowing to put forth new legislation that imposed harsh penalties for any clubs
that violated fire and safety codes it's always how it goes it's always after Mass trag horrible M loss of life and
sometimes not even then yeah a few days later more than 100 New York City police
officers fanned out across the city to search for code violations many were very resentful for having to be on this
task force in the first place um one officer told the New York Times it's ridiculous last night we were out doing
this social club stuff and I could see felony drug sales going down whose list am I on to deserve
this that's your job how tasteless whose list are you on to deserve doing your job job either way it's your job like
the felony drug deal or the all your job the code violations you signed up for all of the above you get to do it all
whose list are you on are you [ __ ] whose list were these people on list are you on the list of employees at the New
York Police Department I think so like that's your job list are you on uh the payroll bye the payroll list that's what
you're on despite how they felt about the detail the task force members did find several flagrant violations of
safety and fire codes including one bar door under an exit sign that like I said
before opened to reveal a brick wall That's which is terrifying that's heinous well many cuz imagine being in
an emergency and you rush to that exit thinking you're it's a brick wall no while many news
outlets chose to focus on the illegal operation of the club and of Social Clubs more broadly or on Julio's
immigration and Refugee status some focused on the loss of life luckily that's good uh photos in the York New
York Times and news day among a few others showed family members gathered around large tables trying to identify
photos of those whose lives were lost in the fire Jerome Ford whose five family members died at Happy Land oh my God
said I told them not to go but kids are kids I knew it was dangerous like oh that hit so much
harder five family members and you told them not to go like please don't go there and he's like but kids like what
are you going to do yeah how many times you some 18year olds you know like they're not listening to you for many
New Yorkers the news about the fire victims was the first time they'd learned or even heard anything about the
large Honduran Community who'd made the Bronx their home wow this was their first time hearing ing in an article
published just 2 days after the fire the New York Times profiled Seven of the victims whose Futures were very bright
Israel bonness told the told the times they were not kids who were into drugs they just loved to dance yeah and his
son Tonio was one of the K ones killed at Happyland just three years after arriving in the United States oh my God
like many of the victims tono was young he was only 18 years old Wow and his life was as exciting and also mundane as
any young person's life is he loved basketball television music but he never lost sight of the opportunities he had
in the US and was intending to make the most of them yeah until this a lot of these people came here for better
opportunities and a lot of them were working their asses off during the day and this was them blowing off steam
right but they were working their asses off to make better opportunities here yeah the stories of the victims told in
the wake of the fire really reflects the stories and experiences of many who immigrate to the United States they
quickly fell in love with their new home they worked hard to make the most of the
chances that they've been given like 22-year-old Nicholas Zapata for example worked 10hour days on a construction
site and lived a very modest life sending most of his earnings back to his family in Honduras wow on the night of
March 24th Nicholas had just gone to meet with his friends will Castillo and Jose Diaz at Happyland like I said to
blow off some steam after a long work week yeah just hang out all three of them died in the fire that's so tragic
some reporters took the middle of the road approach balancing the focus on safety and you know in the the fire
codes and stuff with outrage over how lack the city was when it came to the safety of immigrants I think that's fair
in a scathing indictment of the city's Judicial System Newsday reporter Sydney shanberg wrote squadrons of police were
sent whizzing around the town to padlock every similarly unsafe Social Club in site but only N9 days after the mass
death when the owner of the fire trap building Alex D Lorenzo III was released on his own recogn
in a proceeding so benign that it makes traffic court look frightening by comparison the judge never even
mentioned the happy landfire what so Alex D Lorenzo is the the owner there yeah and he was released
and they just nothing just get nothing for all those code violations everything just doesn't matter and that the safety
yeah that the safety code violations of H at Happy Land would get so much attention obviously isn't unreasonable
it is very much part of the narrative uh you know had a second exit not been locked and the sprinkler system's been
operational it's possible that some if not most or not all of the patrons could have made it out with their lives
absolutely but the emphasis on fire codes illegal clubs and the landlords responsibility really overlooked the
fact that the fire was intentionally set by a frustrated little [ __ ] of a man who wanted to get revenge on a woman he
believed had wronged him yep by simply not be wanting to be with him so a reader of the New York Times actually
wrote a letter to the editor at one point saying all your articles on the burning of Happyland Social Club have
focused on the hazards of such illegal clubs in citing this as the reasons for the death you effectively ignore the
fire's cause a jilted lovers Revenge Julio Gonzalez's EV 87 murders demonstrate the Abomination that is Dom
domestic violence absolutely and it's 100% true and you can report on like basically just like you're doing right
now you can report the enti story for every single piece of misdoing but you need tolight the fact that none
of this would have happened had it not been for this [ __ ] that's the thing had he not intentionally set that
club on fire to hurt his ex-girlfriend for not loving him anymore then these code violations would
obviously need to be fixed anyways but we wouldn't be talking about them MH so it's like absolutely all of that
contributed but you you have to talk about that first thing that made this even a topic of
conversation and that is one man who committed our sin and I don't understand how that got lost in in the retelling of
this yeah it really it's wild at the time at least but truly safety measures aside no one at Happyland would have
died that night had Julio Gonzalez not acted out of a misogynistic desire to punish his ex-girlfriend yep that's it
the end of the that's it yeah so the variations in how the story was covered in the Press really like you were saying
like how are they just ignoring that it really illustrates the ways that American culture in 1990 was divided
over things like Public Safety immigration diversity and domestic violence there's a lot here and
unfortunately those divisions would be even more evident during Julio's trial really now because he had confessed
almost immediately after being arrested for the fire the trial of Julio Gonzalez
was not to be about whether he committed the arson that ended 87 lives but why he
did it and whether he could be held criminally responsible for his actions now in his opening statement on July
18th 1991 the prosecutor Eric Warner laid out the state's case that after failing in his attempt to persuade Lydia
to return to him Julio left the club to purchase gasoline that set the building on fire knowing that there were nearly
100 people who would be trapped inside among those called to testify on the state's behalf were seven of the nine
medical examiners who performed the autopsies wow all of whom detailed the extent of the horrific damage suffered
by those who died in the fire um but the most compelling witnesses to testify for
the state were Carmen Melendez the friend that Julio went to after setting the fire and Lydia herself who in her
brief testimony Melendez explained that Julio seemed to recognize that he had acted
irrationally irrationally and caused tremendous damage she told the jury quote he told me it was an error he had
made uh that's the understatement of the century that's not going to help him an
error he made as she left the witness stand and made her way out of the courtroom Carmen Melendez gave a small
wave to Julio and that outraged many of the victim's families who were in court that day yep how dare she put your
[ __ ] hand down there's a time in a place girl and it's not here or now yeah definitely not outside the courtroom
many of the family members surrounded and confronted her Rosario Alvarez whose husband was killed in the fire said I
asked how could you remain F friendly with someone who left so many children without a parent and she said she was
his friend you should look at your circle you should reevaluate your choices girl own that again like Tatiana
says you own that choices choices you own that so in her testimony Lydia Feliciano described the argument
she had with Julie shortly before the fire noting that he had made several ominous statements and threats
indicating his intention to do something very drastic if she would not return to
him the prosecution's intention was to demonstrate that rather being temporarily or otherwise mentally ill
and thus not responsible for these actions Julio knew precisely what he was doing when he set the fire Lydia's
testimony was vital to the prosecution's case but it was also pretty controversial because many family
members were angry that she simply fled L the scene rather than alerting someone
to the emergency I would be pissed uh Maria cologne wife of Happy Land owner Elias Cologne who died in the fire oh
said she screamed fire to herself she had time to call a taxi but she didn't have time to call the fire department I
mean valid point absolutely and in defense of her actions Lydia claimed she feared that Julio might return and harm
her on the street which is why she left without calling the fire department but I was like why didn't you call after
that's the thing you couldn't call when you got home like I know I don't know obviously cell phones were not very
common back then but I'm sure you had a phone at home call some or like a pay phone near your home yeah tell the taxi
driver and say can you go to the fire department can you report this yeah perhaps the most damning evidence in the
case was Julio's own confession which the jury heard in its entirety in the confession Julio can be heard admitting
to the DA that he knew the club was full that night he said yes yes there were many people many people yeah he was in
there and he said yes he talked to of those people exactly mingled with them mingled with them he said they were
dancing and when the da asked why if he if he knew it was full of people why did
he light it on fire I didn't think it was going to I didn't think it was going to take a lot
of intensity I didn't think that it was going to do uh that what the [ __ ] did you think it was going to do do you know
what fire is I like you know what fire does my friend what I didn't know what it was going to do it's a small Club if
you see a picture of this that place was going to go up in flames if you pour gasoline on something and light it on
fire that it's going to burn you know that that's basic exactly that's why you did it why else would you do it was it
just like a coincidence that you put Fire And Gasoline together just like whoopsie although the audio was
occasionally muffled and Julio did frequently rely on a translator the confession does make it clear that well
he may not have intended to kill 87 people Julio knew the risks when he lit the gasoline and set Happy Land on fire
at the very least yeah in his opening statement that defense attorney Richard Bernie told the jury his client admitted
causing the fire at Happyland but he had only done so because he was quote legally insane on the morning of March
25th incorrect he said ladies and gentlemen on March 25th 1990 Julio Gonzalez started the fire in the
Happyland Social Club you've all heard me concede that repeatedly he said I'm I'm conceding that he started the fire
but ladies and gentlemen when Julio Gonzalez started that fire he was legally insane in defense of their
Insanity defense Bernie called Andrew lugos one of the arresting detectives to testify on their behalf according to
lugos when he they asked Julio why he had set the fire and whether heend intended to kill everyone inside he said
he didn't know that something had gotten in him that the devil had gotten into him not the devil made me do it not good
enough to me also are there previous instances of the devil making you do things you just suddenly happen to go
insane this night stop it's like you already told her you told Lydia I'll be back you said till that you told the
bouncer I'll be back was the devil in you at that point or was that just you or was that just you while this seemed
to support the defenses assertion lugos also stated that Julio was very calm and
seemed to recognize what he had done and at no point did he appear to have any quote peculiar ideas that one might
recognize as a symptom of mental illness that's the thing there's no history there he also went to [ __ ] sleep
afterwards and came and watched yeah despite The Sensational headlines that followed in the wake of the fire the
constant in the constant outrage of zoning codes and fire St safety afterwards the trial itself was kind of
mundane reporters covering the case day after day started noting that it was kind of long stretches of numbingly
repetitive testimony occasionally punctuated with some interesting moments or good moments of testimony but
otherwise they referred to it as quite boring which I was like I'm sure the family members really appreciate that
that the trial of their loved for their loved ones was boring you yeah sorry about that so sorry that Bard you Jesus
it's like keep that to yourself in fact even the judge at one point turned to the jury and apologetically said this is
not the stuff from which television dramas were made that's because this is real [ __ ] life honey this is 87 lives
like this is horrific I'm sorry that it's not like super exciting for everyone that's when I'm like people are
going to people cuz I'm like people are always people in because it's like that's people Goblin is that that's
people go honestly people going to Goblin it's really people peopling unfortunately I would love to say it's
Goblin but I think Goblin is more fun I think people peopling is where we are right now where it's like this isn't fun
to read anymore make it fun for me make this tragedy fun and it's like okay also
what that's the thing like 87 people lost their lives in a horrific fire what exactly are you looking for need more
drama what else do you need there they lost their lives because a jilted lover came and lit the club on fire because
this girlfriend his ex-girlfriend wouldn't take take them back do you need more what else would you like an alien
abduction on top of it like I don't know what else makes this more horrific and for the judge to do that in front of the
family like that's how about you look at the family and say I'm so sorry that you're going through this right now and
that your loved ones were taken by this [ __ ] over here yeah and that people are calling this boring what now finally
after a month-long trial and four days of deliberation the jury delivered a verdict finding Julio Gonzalez guilty on
all counts um in including 174 counts of murder wow 87 counts of arson felony murder and 87 counts of Murder By
depraved indifference to human life per victim how did he get 174 counts of murder you um with the 87 counts of
arson felony murder and then 87 counts oh see dep uh depraved indifference to human life per victim gotcha gotcha
gotcha uh given the sheer enormity of the case and the number of victims involved the verdict took more than 5
minutes to read in its entirety wow cuz they had to go like charge by charge now
when the jury Foreman finally finished reading the verdict many of the 20 families of the victims in that were
present broke down in sobs of course also there for the verdict was Ruben Valderas the DJ who'd escaped the fire
he had extensive Burns he required many surgeries um he was there with his social worker and he said outside of the
courtroom he said it's a good thing um he said adjust thing and uh like he I mean he went through so much after this
so he was he was pleased with the verdict but nothing is going to give him back quity life and the jury was equally
relieved that the case had finally come to an end although they declined to hold
a press conference one or two took questions from reporters to say that while they were moved by the testimony
and heartbroken by the loss of life the verdict was based solely on the evidence
presented against Gonzalez yeah now in his statement to the Press prosecutor Eric Warner said while the prosecutor's
off off was obviously satisfied with this outcome he said there's no happiness in this the case was just has
just drained everyone involved in it I could definitely see that which is I think a good statement like that there's
no happiness in this like we're satisfied that Justice was served but this isn't happen doesn't bring anybody
back now a month later on September 19th Julio Gonzalez returned to the packed courtroom for sentencing and before
passing sentence on Julio judge Burton Roberts addressed The Spectators and press saying that while the defendant
was ultimately the one who caused the fire there were many things that led to the death of 87 people most having to do
with building and fire code violations he said there are many to be blamed not just Julio
Gonzalez which I was like I see where you're coming from of course that you're saying there are many people to blame
here but let's blame Julio yeah for the ultimate loss of life here that's Julio and especially since the the the trial
here is for Julio that's the thing I understand I I understand where he's coming from and he's not wrong that
there are many things to blame I don't think this was the time or the place to talk about those other things not yeah
this was not the venue to do the Mur trial I understand the Press talking about the different things and stuff
like the the code violations and all that that honestly the city should have dealt with yeah but this this is about
something much like more like intimate partner violence this is literally something much more
like consolidated yeah like you that's the thing and something that a lot of people are dealing with like a lot of
people are not dealing with fire and code violations right now but a lot of people are living with someone who could
potentially do this to them exactly but I don't think I don't think that was anybody's focus in 1990 um so when he
had finished his statement judge Roberts sentence Julio Gonzalez to 25 years to life impr prison prison the maximum
allowed under New York law wow that's definitely not enough in my opinion well Julio Gonzalez served his sentence at
Clinton Correctional Facility in damura New York in 20 2015 he became eligible for parole but his petition was
unanimously Deni denied by the parole board good who stated that he would quote not live at Liberty without again
VI violating the law and concluded that releasing him would be quote incompatible with the welfare of society
correct a year later on September 13th 2016 Julio Gonzalez died from a heart attack at age 61 wow so shortly after
the fire at Happyland the building's owner Alex Del Lorenzo iiii turned himself into police on a warrant for the
many building code and safety violations a judge released D Lorenzo on his own recognizance that's what we talked about
before with an order to appear at a later date in May 1992 dorenzo and Jay Weiss the building's landlord agreed to
a plea deal with prosecutors in which they pleaded guilty for violations and in exchange they just had to perform 50
hours of community service and pay a fine of $150,000 which went towards a community
center for Hondurans living in the Bronx that's nice that that money went towards
that I'm glad that happened a lawyer for De Lorenzo told reporters we didn't think jail was the appropriate sentence
I disagree and we were able to resolve it without that sentence I'm like that's nice for you yeah I wonder how the
family felt about that in the months after the fire victim's families actually filed a $5 billion civil suit
against Del Lorenzo Weiss the city of New York and several of the companies whose products produce toxic fumes
during the fire rightfully so the suit took several years to resolve but in Ju July 1995 a settlement was reached
totaling 15.8 million with each family receiving an average of $163,000 I think that's [ __ ] that's
[ __ ] yeah that's [ __ ] that's that's [ __ ] I don't know you can't put a price on anybody's
loved one but if but if you're going to that's [ __ ] it's not it's not in the thousands in my opinion no that's
[ __ ] and when asked why they were willing to sell SLE for a significantly lower number than the initial suit had
had been lawyers for the family said while the settlement seemed small compared with other high profile
wrongful death Awards the Happy Land case was complicated by questions of Insurance liability the bankruptcy of
the building's wealthy owner and by the death of the club's operator in the fire now although they were relieved
that the suit had been resolved many families were disappointed with this outcome I would say I understand it's
not enough money for what we've lost said Leticia ginita whose two sons died in the fire two sons yeah that's her
whole life that's you like not enough money for what you've lost and truly many of the victim's families found
themselves in dire situations after the fire they had been forced to make hard emotional and financial decisions
because they lost loved ones that were sometimes the person that was generating the income delisia pinetta who lost her
husband in the fire said I've been doing my best but it's been a very difficult time and and to think that all these
people have lost their loved ones and then some of them were left completely alone to generate an income and keep a
roof over their head while they're grieving not just like a but a horrific Mur the most horrific
murder you could ever one of the most horrific murders you could ever imagine yeah grieving that while trying to
maintain trying to figure out how to pay for things how to pay their bills how to
send their kids to school how to do all of that how do you even get up in the morning never mind do all of those
things yeah many like petta had hoped the settlement while incapable of restoring obviously what they had lost
could at least help them recover the financial losses suffered due to the fire but after settling for a much lower
amount and paying lawyers fees they were left with considerably less than they expected and that's what people don't
realize with like settlement amounts so much of that goes to a lawyer Panetta asked reporters outside Court how can I
bring up my children and send them to college on what they're giving us this is an insult to the people who died in
that building absolutely is every year since the fire community members have held a vigil at the site of the fire
where a small Stone was placed listing the names of those lost in the fire like many events though commemorating the
loss of life and tragedy the vigil gets smaller every year right um the event starts fading you know those directly
affected move away or pass on still there are those in the community like Janette banra Simone I hope I said your
name correctly uh who while not directly connected to the fire work hard to keep
the memory of the victim alive in the community which is pretty badass she told a reporter in 2020 they say out of
sight out of mind but it's not out of sight it's very visible to the community the trauma is real I think the Latino
and African-American Community has dealt with trauma in different ways without getting the support that they need yeah
absolutely and that is the story of the Happyland Social Club arson wow that is a tragic tragic case and there's a lot
of lot of failings a lot of failures there and a lot of moments with the way that it was dealt
with it's so sad it's so those thinking of people just and like we've seen this a lot in different ways like you know
recently with like mass shootings and other things that are happening whenever I think of people just doing something
so innocuous like going to school yep going to a social club one night just a blowoff steam one that you go to all the
time just going to hang out with your friends your [ __ ] life going to a grocery store like all this stuff it's
like going to a parade Y and they're just and that's it like that's it like it's so it's everyone in your family is
just left to pick up the pieces yeah like the like the Pulse Nightclub that one Always Rings in my head it's like
this thinking about that and like hearing the stories of the cell phones ringing afterwards and stuff it's like
you think of those things those people just went to dance and how many times have we done the same thing you just go
out to have a night to D just I can't rep my brain doesn't it like it [ __ ] my brain up every time I think about it
because I can't think of that being you you have no idea that that's your last yeah you just thing you're doing you go
out you're so happy you're getting ready with your friends and I I can't imagine
being a parent right now no and like like not only can you not send your kid to school we don't need to get into all
of that but like you can't send your kid to school but then they grow up scared of everything they can't go anywhere
like no it's so it's so much added responsibility that shouldn't be happening like everywhere you go you
have to worry am I doing was this a correct decision going out as a family here like are we safe are we okay yeah
and for that to be in the back of your mind as much as now it has to be is just yeah and this unreal and this is the
same kind of thing those people had no [ __ ] clue that there was some [ __ ] that couldn't handle rejection that was
going to make it there last night and no idea like that's the biggest thing right
there what you just said and no idea that these buildings weren't up to so unsafe that's and that is the other
layer to it is that these these people running these buildings had no like you as a no thought of PE of Life of human
life they weren't thinking of that and you as a patron should be able to go out and like you said blow off steam and and
know that you are safe know that you're safe and know that there are exits and everything's up to code and that
measures put together so that you can get out have thought about you as a human being and that you should be safe
that's what that you should be able to think that but when I say say people are going to people unfortunately sometimes
people are going to people that's the theme of they think the bottom line and they don't think about human life
humanity is [ __ ] so people don't people yeah I feel like we need a pallet cleanser after that we do um because my
next case is also very very brutal very very senseless and so we're going to need one really horrific so we'll
definitely need one um so we'll figure that out hopefully in between these cases I think is a good idea to do um
and in the meantime we hope you keep listening and we hope you keep it weird but not so weird that you don't care
about your fellow person go do something nice for someone today people in the good way and don't think about yourself
when you're doing it just go do it for someone else yeah love [Music] you

On the evening of March 24, 1990, nearly one hundred patrons gathered to celebrate Carnivale at the Happy Land Social Club, a small informal night club in the Bronx that catered to a mostly Honduran clientele. The evening took a deadly turn when, around 3:30 am, an explosion of fire roared up the stairway leading to the second-floor club, blocking the only exit from the building and trapping the patrons in a room rapidly filling with toxic smoke and fire. It’s unknown how many patrons managed to escape the fire, but by the time the fire department had extinguished the blaze, eighty-seven people were dead.

Thank you to the amazing Dave White of Bring Me the Axe Podcast for research!

References

Barbanel, Josh. 1990. "Bronx social club's sublease: How a firetrap skirted the line." New York Times, March 28: B1.

—. 1990. "Tracing the club's owners." New York Times, March 27: B2.

Barron, James. 1990. "The living search the faces of the dead." New York Times, March 26.

Blumenthal, Ralph. 1990. "Fire in the Bronx; 87 die in blaze at illegal club." New York Times, March 26.

Gelman, Mitch, Alexis Jetter, and Beth Holland. 1990. "87 die in arson called act of spurned lover." Newsday, March 26: 3.

Gilbert, Allison. 2020. "A faded tragedy's long shadow." New York Times, March 29.

Golden, Tim. 1990. "In the saddest way, New York learns about Hondurans." New York Times, April 1.

Hernandez, Raymond. 1995. "Survivors call settlement 'unjust'." New York Times, July 7.

Hevesi, Dennis. 1992. "Guilty plea by landlord in fire case." New York Times, May 9.

Hirsch, James. 1988. "Most social clubs run the gamut of illegality." New York Times, August 22.

Kerr, Peter. 1986. "Social Clubs: Modern Mob still uses a few as offices." New York Times, April 15.

Lambert, Bruce. 1991. "Confession tape on Bronx blaze is heard by jury." New York Times, August 1.

Lorch, Donatella. 1991. "Ex-girlfriend recalls threat before flames." New York Times, July 31.

—. 1991. "Witness tells of visit by Happy Land fire suspect." New York Times, July 31.

Maykuth, Andrew. 1990. "N.Y. fire suspect described as 'down to his last hope'." Philadelphia Inquirer, 03 27: 1.

McFadden, Robert. 1990. "The Knights of the Padlock Sweep Forth." New York Times, March 31.

New York Times. 1990. "7 victims: their stories, struggles and dreams of better lives." New York Times, March 29.

Nieves, Evelyn. 1991. "Refugee found guilty of killing 87 in Bronx Happy Land fire." New York Times, August 20.

People of the State of New York v. Julio Gonzalez. 1995. 163 Misc. 2d 950 (New York Supreme Court, Bronx County, February 10).

Purdy, Matthew. 1995. "More than five years after the arson fire at the Happy Land Social Club..." New York Times, July 7.

Roberts, Sam. 2016. "Julio Gonzalez, arsonist who killed 87 at a nightclub in the Bronx, dies at 61." New York Times, September 15.

Schanberg, Sydney. 1990. "Please, some respect for 87 who died." Newsday, April 13: 62.

Stanley, Alessandra. 1991. "At Happy Land mass-murder trial, days of tears, humor and boredom." New York Times, July 28.

Stanley, Allessandra. 1990. "25 years to life for the arsonist at Happy Land." New York Times, September 20.

Strom, Stephanie. 1990. "Hispanic residents rally against closing of social clubs." New York Times, April 6.

Terry, Don. 1990. "Social club crackdown is the latest in a series." New York Times, March 26: A1.

Wichers, Christine. 1990. "Male violence the real cause of Bronx fire." New York Times, April 10.

THE BUTCHER GAME will be released on September 17th, 2024! To Pre-order go to (https://zandoprojects.com/books/the-butcher-game/) PLUS! If you preorder the book, get an autographed poster

while supplies last by visiting (http://thebutchergame.com/)

Connect with Wondery http://wondery.com/shows http://facebook.com/WonderyMedia http://twitter.com/WonderyMedia http://instagram.com/WonderyMedia

Brief Summary

The episode discusses the Happyland Social Club arson, which killed 87 people due to domestic violence and safety violations.

Key points

The Butcher and the Game. Ash announces the sequel to her book, The Butcher, coming September 17th.
Tragic Fire Anniversary. The episode discusses a tragic fire that occurred 34 years ago.
Understanding Social Clubs. Explaining the role of social clubs in immigrant communities and their safety issues.
Happyland's Confusing Operations. Happyland was a social club that operated under questionable practices, leading to confusion and chaos.
The Fire's Devastating Impact. A fire at Happyland resulted in numerous fatalities, highlighting the dangers of neglect.
The Happyland Fire Tragedy. The deadliest fire in nearly a century claimed 87 lives, igniting outrage and calls for safety reforms.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

It's sad that it just kind of fades.

Reflecting on how tragedies are often forgotten over time.

4:48WatchApr 1, 2024

Tension

85/ 100High tension

More from Morbid | Podcast

Solve the Crime

Read a real case one clue at a time, then see how your call held up against the investigators.