Ray William Johnson: True Story Podcast - One of The Biggest Mass Murders in US History - The Happy Land Fire

Episode Date: April 1, 2025

The Happy Land fire case refers to a tragedy that occurred on March 25, 1990, at an illegal social club in the Bronx, New York, unaliving 87 people. The incident was set by Julio González, who had been thrown out of the club after an argument with his ex-girlfriend.Insane. 😳

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My whole world is falling apart right now. It's chaos. Watch the Hulu original series, The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives, now streaming on Hulu and Hulu on Disney Plus for Bumno subscribers. Terms apply. Did you know that one of America's biggest mass murders was done by accident? Well, sort of. So there's this guy, Julio, and Julio's 36, he's a Cuban immigrant living in New York City,

and one day in 1990, his life starts falling apart, because he's at his job at the local lamp factory where he packs boxes, and suddenly, bam, he gets fired. And if that's not bad enough, he's also having problems with his girlfriend, this woman, Lydia, And he and Lydia have been on and off for about seven years. And it's just not working anymore. Because, like, Julio's all controlling and he's always demanding that she quit her job for some reason. He's just kind of an asshole. And one day, Lydia has had enough of his nonsense.

And pow, she breaks up with him. Now, this is a big problem for Julio, not just because she broke up with him, but because the apartment therein seems to be hers. So she gets to keep it while he's. he has to move out and find a new place to live. So he goes and he finds a new place and it's a real dump. It's a room in a boarding house and it's really small, like literally 10 square feet. So now he's living in this little ass room with nothing.

Like the room costs $70 a week, which he doesn't have because he got fired from the lamp factory. So he's not able to pay rent on his room and quickly he gets behind on the payments. Bro's whole life is just falling apart. But he doesn't go and commit mass murder just yet. That comes later. And about six weeks go by, and he still isn't feeling any better. I mean, he's broke, he misses his ex-girlfriend, but then he gets an idea. What if Lydia were to agree to get back together with him?

I mean, that would certainly make him feel at least a little better. I mean, maybe if she got back with him, then he could start to turn his life around. Here's the problem with that, though. Lydia is done. Like, she doesn't exactly want to see him. But whatever, Julio doesn't care. He gets all drunk one night and he decides that it'll be a great idea to surprise her by showing up to her work. Because then she'll have to talk to him.

So then Julio shows up to Lydia's place of work, ready to spit some serious game. Here's the thing about where Lydia works, though. She works at a local nightclub called the Happy Land Social Club. And this place is really small, but it's also very popular and it's also super busy all the time. But tonight is a little different. Tonight, it's extra packed with people due to it being carnival. So there's about 100 people in this really small club. And Lydia is there working the coat check.

And so around 2 a.m., Julio shows up. And he's all sauced up, probably stumbling all over the place. And he goes to the coat check and he starts trying to talk to Lydia. Like, hey, how have you been? But unfortunately for him, she's not really feeling. him. So she rejects him like, I don't need you. You should go. So he leaves. He leaves the coat check area and he mingles around the club talking to people he knows. About 40 minutes later, he comes back to the coat check area and he starts trying to ris her up again and he's like,

I know you have a boyfriend now, but it doesn't matter. You and I till death. Which is just a creepy-ass thing to say to your ex. Regardless, Lydia is still not feeling him and they start arguing again. And he's just not leaving her alone so she can get back to work. But then a bouncer notices and boom, he finally steps in and he's like, okay bro, let's move it along. And Julio doesn't like this. So he starts arguing with the bouncer. But whatever, the bouncer escorts his drunk ass outside and tells him to leave. But as Julio's leaving, he turns back to everyone and he yells, I'll be back. I'll shut this whole place down. Which is exactly what he's about to do. However, I guess no one takes him seriously. They're like, okay, Julio, you're going to shut the place

down. Sure, bud. So Julio leaves, and he drunkenly wanders around the neighborhood for about 30 minutes, trying to figure out what to do. Now, at this point, he's still, super angry. He's got no job, no money, and now his ex-girlfriend won't even talk to him. He has nothing. Plus, that bouncer really pissed him off. And this is where he decides he is not going to let this slide. How dare they treat him this way? He is going to burn that whole fucking club down so that they don't have a place to work. So he walks to a nearby gas station and he gets a plastic container like a jug and he fills it up with one dollar worth of gas. Then he walks about three blocks back to the club and he low-key pours the gasoline all over the floor right at the threshold of the front door.

Then he lights a couple of matches, tosses them into the puddle of gas, and bam, a small fire has started. And then Julio quickly leaves as this doorway starts to catch fire. Okay, but here's the thing about Happy Land Club. The club is mostly upstairs on the second floor. So when you open the door to enter the building, you immediately see a rickety old flat. of stairs. And so really quickly this fire spreads from the doorway to those stairs. And it grows and it grows and it grows and soon it's blocking off the entrance to the place and there's no way to get out. Now there is actually another exit to the club.

However the owner has padlocked it because I guess he was tired of people sneaking into the place to avoid the five dollar cover charge. Anyway so boom this fire is now blocking the only exit and it spreads through the building quickly and the place fills up with smoke and there are no windows. So people in there, they start coughing and suffocating. And some people realize what's happening, and they're like, oh shit, and they start to run for the exit. And the DJ spots what's going on,

and he stops playing the music and he yells for the crowd to escape. And pow, everyone panics, and this creates a huge, chaotic rush as the whole club tries to stampede down the stairs through the fire to get out. Some people fall to the ground and they immediately get trampled. While Lydia, she's working the coat check, which is near the entrance, so she is able to rush outside without getting hurt. However, most of the rest of the club is still inside, and they all burn as they can't get out fast enough.

And eventually, the fire department shows up, and by this time, the whole inside of the building is gone. And only five people, other than Lydia, make it out of the club alive, while 87 other people die in this fire. Meanwhile, Julio goes back home to his little room and he lays down in the bed and he passes out still stinking like gasoline. And no one knows that he just unalived 87 people, which at this time in 1990 is the record for the biggest mass murder in the country. Until. Only six people survived this disaster. So naturally, the next morning, police start questioning them one by one to see if they know anything about how. how this fire started. And Lydia's like, yeah, I know something. My crazy ex-boyfriend showed up

trying to talk to me and he caused a scene and as the bouncer threw him out, he was like, I'll be back, I'll shut this whole place down. And the police are like, oh yeah, that feels like that might be something. And so police show up to Julio's little room and the whole place still smells like gasoline. And so bam, they arrest him. And I don't have a mugshot of him, but here's a picture of him in custody surrounded by reporters. And so he confesses and he's found guilty on 87 counts of arson and 87 counts of mass murder and he gets sentenced to life in prison. And so yeah, apparently he wanted to burn the club down, but he wasn't necessarily expecting to murder all of those people. That is wild.