
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, March 28, 1990                   TAG: 9003280388
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-2   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: NEW YORK                                LENGTH: Short

FIRE PROBE TRACING BUILDING'S OWNERSHIP

Prosecutors Tuesday investigated the tangled ownership of the Happy Land Social Club to determine whether landlords, including actress Kathleen Turner's husband, share responsibility for a fire that killed 87 people.

The district attorney's office also said a grand jury had begun hearing evidence against Julio Gonzalez, a Cuban emigre who reportedly confessed to setting the fire.

The building was leased to Happy Land's operator by Turner's husband, Jay Weiss, who had leased it from another New York real estate operator, Alex DiLorenzo III.

Prosecutors said they still had to determine whether anyone except the club operator, Elias Colon, who died in the fire, knew it had been cited for building code violations. Notifications are normally made to a responsible person at the site, and not necessarily to a building owner, officials said.

As a city task force began trying to locate similar clubs in an effort to prevent other fires, Fire Department spokesman John Mulligan said nearly 1,000 calls were taken Monday, the first day of a special number for reports of illegal social clubs. Mulligan said 500 clubs were reported.

by CNB