Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, March 27, 1990 TAG: 9003270275
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A/1 EDITION: EVENING
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: NEW YORK LENGTH: Medium
Julio Gonzalez, 36, was taken Monday from a city jail to Kings County Hospital after allegedly confessing to setting the fire Sunday that killed 87 people at the jammed Happy Land Social Club, an illegal Bronx nightspot.
Police said Gonzalez, who has been charged with murdering the 87 victims, was remorseful and in tears when questioned about the fire.
District Attorney Robert Johnson is investigating the building's ownership and lease to determine whether the landlords or owner are liable for allowing the club to operate despite a shutdown order.
One of the landlords is entrepreneur Jay Weiss, husband of actress Kathleen Turner, newspapers reported today. His company was leasing the building from a corporation headed by Alex DiLorenzo, a major city property owner.
Weiss' attorney, Roger Boyle, confirmed his client's involvement in the building but said Weiss' company had tried to evict the Happy Land manager, Elias Colon. The eviction proceeding against Colon, who died in the fire, was to have gone to trial Wednesday, Boyle said.
Across from the fire-blackened club in an impoverished neighborhood near the Bronx Zoo, families drifted in and out of Public School 67, where agencies helped arrange funerals and offered counseling and financial aid.
Anger was directed at Gonzalez' former girlfriend, Lydia Feliciano, when she appeared at the school to inquire about aid for friends.
"I can't believe she is here. How could she show her face?" said Edgardo Rodriguez, 22, who lost four friends and was awaiting information on financial aid to send their bodies home to Honduras.
When asked why she came to the school, Feliciano responded, "I lost people too. I lost friends." As a crowd gathered around her, two police officers escorted Feliciano out of a back entrance of the school.
A huge wooden cross stood in front of the nightclub's ruins as neighbors prayed at an outdoor service conducted in English and Spanish. The service Monday ended with the singing of "De Colores," a song about brotherly love.
At the direction of Mayor David Dinkins, authorities visited 241 clubs citywide from midnight to 7 a.m. Monday and posted orders on 187 of them to vacate.
Police issued 52 safety violations and 30 summonses, said Sgt. Dick Vreeland.
Police said Gonzalez had vowed to "shut this place down" after an argument with Feliciano, a Happy Land employee who had split with the unemployed Gonzalez several months ago.
"I got angry, the devil got into me, and I set the place on fire," Gonzalez told authorities, according to a police source who spoke on condition of anonymity.
Gonzalez was arraigned on 87 counts of murder committed in the course of arson; 87 counts of murder by depraved indifference to human life; one count of attempted murder, and two counts of arson. He entered no plea.
Johnson, the Bronx district attorney, said he hoped Gonzalez would get consecutive sentences amounting to 2,000 years in prison if convicted.
Gonzalez, who was jailed for army desertion in Cuba in the 1970s, came to the United States from Cuba on the 1980 Mariel boatlift. He told immigration officials he had portrayed himself as a drug trafficker to get kicked out of Cuba, The New York Times reported.
The victims of Sunday's fire, many of them Honduran immigrants, suffocated, burned or were trampled to death. They had to "choose between a wall of fire or retreating and dying of asphyxiation," Johnson said.
Police believe five people escaped: three patrons; Feliciano; and the club disc jockey, Ruben Valladares.
Valladares was reported in stable condition Monday at Jacobi Hospital with burns over 30 percent of his body. Feliciano and the others escaped serious injury. Feliciano is in protective custody.
Johnson said Gonzalez had described the following sequence:
After arguing with Feliciano, with whom he sought to resume a relationship, he was ejected from the club.
He bought $1 worth of gasoline at a nearby station, returned and faked making a telephone call when he saw a possible witness. When that person left, he poured gasoline between the street and an inside door and ignited it.
Gonzalez watched it burn for a while, making statements to at least two witnesses about his role in the fire. Then he went home, where police found him a few hours later, his shoes reeking of gasoline. He made a videotaped admission to police.
Johnson said Gonzalez knew the two-story club lacked windows, rear exits and adequate staircases. He also knew how crowded it was.
"He is a double animal," said Rene Mena, whose son, Rene Jr., 30, died in the fire. "Here, they're going to have good food for him, a book, a movie. In Central America, we don't do it that way."
by CNB