Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, March 27, 1990 TAG: 9003272346
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Los Angeles Times
DATELINE: NEW YORK LENGTH: Medium
Authorities labeled the crime the worst mass murder in U.S. history. They alleged that Julio Gonzalez torched the nightclub with $1 worth of gasoline after an argument with a former girlfriend who worked there as a coat checker.
He was charged with 87 counts of murder during arson and 87 counts of murder "showing depraved indifference to human life." The deaths were thought to be the most ever charged to a single person in the United States.
Meanwhile, in an effort to avoid a repeat of the Happy Land club tragedy, 20 teams of city investigators began scrutinizing 754 social clubs throughout New York for possible fire and building code violations.
Grief and sorrow gripped the Bronx neighborhood around the charred wreckage of the small, two-story club that Sunday morning had been filled with pre-dawn revelers, most of them Honduran or Dominican immigrants. A task force of state, local and private agencies was set up in a public school across the street to help make funeral arrangements and offer other assistance.
The Happy Land, named for the immigrants' adopted land of America, typified the low-cost clubs that are social centers for poor New Yorkers seeking cultural companionship and who live in apartments too small for gatherings. The clubs are often in rundown storefront buildings with few entrances and exits, which can become firetraps. The Happy Land had been ordered closed in November 1988 because of fire code violations, but had reopened illegally.
Bronx District Attorney Robert Johnson told a news conference that the accused man, who arrived in the United States in 1980 as part of the Mariel boatlift, had "forced the occupants of the club to choose between remaining inside or breathing a wall of flame at the doorways."
Police said Gonzalez had no criminal record since coming to the United States. He was transferred from Rikers Island jail to the Kings County Hospital psychiatric ward, where he will be held indefinitely, said Ruby Ryles, a city jails spokeswoman.
Johnson said Gonzalez and his ex-girlfriend, Lydia Feliciano, apparently had fought over renewing their relationship, and a bouncer kicked Gonzalez out of the building.
The district attorney charged that Gonzalez vowed to return, threatening "to shut this place down." Gonzalez then went to a nearby gas station where he paid $1 to have an attendant fill a small container with gasoline, Johnson said. He added that the station attendant was being treated as a witness in the case - not as an accomplice.
Johnson said Gonzalez had returned to the club and stood outside for a while, pretending to make a phone call, until a potential witness left. The district attorney added that Gonzalez tossed the gasoline into the club's front entrance and ignited the fuel, watching it burn "for some period of time."
by CNB