Read Killer Show: The Station Nightclub Fire Online
Authors: John Barylick
Tags: #Performing Arts, #Theater, #General, #History, #United States, #State & Local, #Middle Atlantic (DC; DE; MD; NJ; NY; PA), #New England (CT; MA; ME; NH; RI; VT), #Music, #Genres & Styles, #Technology & Engineering, #Fire Science
APPENDIXES
PERSONS KILLED IN THE STATION NIGHTCLUB FIRE
Louis Alves, 33
Kevin Anderson, 37
Stacie Angers, 29
Chris Arruda, 30
Eugene Avilez, 21
Tina Ayer, 33
Karla Bagtaz, 41
Mary Baker, 32
Tom Barnett, 38
Laurie Beauchaine, 35
Steve Blom, 40
William Bonardi, III, 36
Richard Cabral, Jr., 37
Kristine Carbone, 38
William Cartwright, 42
Edward Corbett, III, 31
Michael Cordier, 32
Alfred Crisostomi, 38
Robert Croteau, 31
Lisa D’Andrea, 42
Matthew Darby, 36
Dina DeMaio, 30
Albert DiBonaventura, 18
Christina DiRienzo, 37
Kevin Dunn, 37
Lori Durante, 40
Edward Ervanian, 29
Thomas J. Fleming, 30
Rachael Florio-DePietro, 31
Mark Fontaine, 22
Daniel Frederickson, 37
Michael Fresolo, 32
James Gahan, IV, 21
Melvin Gerfin, Jr., 46
Laura Gillett, 32
Charline Gingras-Fick, 35
Michael Gonsalves, 40
James Gooden, Jr., 37
Derek Gray, 22
Skott Greene, 35
Scott Griffith, 41
Pamela Gruttadauria, 33
Bonnie Hamelin, 27
Jude Henault, 37
Andrew Hoban, 22
Abbie Hoisington, 28
Michael Hoogasian, 31
Sandy Hoogasian, 27
Carlton Howarth, III, 39
Eric Hyer, 32
Derek Johnson, 32
Lisa Kelly, 27
Tracy King, 39
Michael Kulz, 30
Keith Lapierre, 29
Dale Latulippe, 46
Stephen Libera, 21
John Longiaru, 23
Ty Longley, 31
Andrea Mancini, 28
Keith Mancini, 34
Steven Mancini, 39
Judith Manzo, 37
Thomas Marion, 27
Jeffrey Martin, 33
Tammy Mattera-Housa, 29
Kristen McQuarrie, 37
Thomas Medeiros, 40
Samuel Miceli, Jr., 37
Donna Mitchell, 29
Leigh Ann Moreau, 21
Ryan Morin, 31
Jason Morton, 38
Elizabeth Mosczynski, 33
Katherine O’Donnell, 26
Nicholas O’Neill, 18
Matthew Pickett, 33
Carlos Pimentel, Sr., 38
Christopher Prouty, 34
Jeffrey Rader, 32
Theresa Rakoski, 30
Robert Reisner, 29
Walter Rich, 40
Donald Roderiques, 46
Tracey Romanoff, 33
Joseph Rossi, 35
Bridget Sanetti, 25
Rebecca Shaw, 24
Mitchell Shubert, 39
Dennis Smith, 36
Victor Stark, 39
Benjamin Suffoletto, 43
Linda Suffoletto, 43
Shawn Sweet 28
Jason Sylvester, 25
Sarah Telgarsky, 37
Kelly Vieira, 40
Kevin Washburn, 30
Everett Thomas Woodmansee, III, 30
Robert Young, 29
Source: “The Station” (Memorial Biography edition),
Providence Journal
, March 20, 2003.
OUTCOME OF CRIMINAL PROSECUTIONS
DAN BIECHELE
Pleaded guilty to one hundred counts of involuntary manslaughter; sentenced to fifteen years’ imprisonment, of which eleven years were suspended; thus, four years “to serve.” He was paroled after serving sixteen months.
MICHAEL DERDERIAN
Pleaded nolo contendere to one hundred counts of involuntary manslaughter; sentenced to fifteen years’ imprisonment, of which eleven years were suspended; thus, four years “to serve.” He was paroled after serving twenty-seven months.
JEFFREY DERDERIAN
Pleaded nolo contendere to one hundred counts of involuntary manslaughter; sentenced to ten years’ imprisonment, all of which were suspended; ordered to perform five hundred hours of community service.
JACK RUSSELL
Never charged.
DENIS LAROCQUE
Never charged.
OUTCOME OF CIVIL LAWSUITS
Defendants in the consolidated civil actions who contributed toward global settlement:
ABC Bus Inc. and Superstar Services LLC | $500,000 |
American Foam Corp.; Jo-Ann DerManouelian, | $6,300,000 |
Anheuser-Busch Incorporated; Anheuser-Busch Companies Incorporated; | $5,000,000 |
Celotex Corporation | $1,500,000 |
Clear Channel Broadcasting Inc.: WHJY Inc. and Capstar Radio Operating Co. | $22,000,000 |
High Tech | $6,000,000 |
JBL Incorporated f/k/a James B. Lansing | $815,000 |
Joseph LaFontaine d/b/a New England | $1,000,000 |
LIN Television Corporation; TVL Broadcasting of Rhode Island, LLC; | $30,000,000 |
McLaughlin & Moran Inc. | $16,000,000 |
Polar Industries Inc.; Home Depot USA Inc. | $5,000,000 |
Leggett & Platt Incorporated; Leggett & Platt | $18,200,000 |
General Foam Corporation; GFC Foam, LLC; | $11,250,000 |
Wm. T. Burnett & Co. Incorporated; Wm. T. Burnett Management Inc.; | $300,000 |
FFNC Inc. | $250,000 |
Sealed Air Corporation; Sealed Air Corporation (US) | $25,000,000 |
Triton Realty Limited Partnership; Triton Realty Inc.; | $5,000,000 |
Town of West Warwick; Denis Larocque; | $10,000,000 |
State of Rhode Island; Irving Owens | $10,000,000 |
Jack Russell Jack Russell Touring Inc.; | $1,000,000 |
DERCO, LLC Jeffrey Derderian | $813,218.32 |
Essex Insurance Company | $100,000 |
Underwriters at Lloyd’s, London | $100,000 |
Surplex Underwriters Inc. | $35,000 |
V. B. Gifford & Company Inc. | $7,500 |
Gresham & Associates of R.I. Inc.; and Gresham & Associates of Rhode Island Inc. | $10,000 |
Anchor Solutions Company Inc. | $10,000 |
Howard Julian; HJJ Productions Inc. and La Villa Strangiato Inc. | $3,000 |
$176,193,718.32 |
NOTES & SOURCES
PREFATORY NOTE CONCERNING SOURCES FOR THE BOOK
After pleas of guilty and nolo contendere were entered by Dan Biechele and the Derderian brothers, the
Providence Journal
, the Associated Press, and the
Boston Globe
filed a public records request for the Rhode Island attorney general’s entire file concerning the Station nightclub fire. In an unprecedented concession to public disclosure, on November 29, 2006, Attorney General Patrick C. Lynch released more than three thousand pages of documents, photographs, and transcripts of grand jury proceedings, uploading all to a publicly accessible website maintained by his department. Included in the materials were hundreds of witness statements and sworn testimony of key players in the tragedy. The attorney general also made his entire file of these documents (edited for privacy and sensitivity) available at no cost to anyone furnishing his department with a computer hard drive for receiving the data. For at least three years thereafter, the
Providence Journal
provided links on its own website to the attorney general’s materials, indexing them according to persons of particular interest, but also providing a portal to all of the AG’s materials.
This trove of first-person accounts was extensively used in researching
Killer Show
. Where a source citation is to a “witness statement,” “grand jury testimony,” or a document contemporaneous with the fire, that source was contained in the materials publicly released by the attorney general and available on his website for multiple years. Where a source citation is to a pleading in the Station fire civil litigation, such document was a public record in the United States District Court for the District of Rhode Island, available in hard copy through the court clerk, or electronically through the court’s
PACER
system of document retrieval. The Brian Butler videotape of the fire was, similarly, available to the public for several years on DVD through the federal court clerk’s office as an exhibit to pleadings filed in the consolidated civil cases.
Additionally, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s Office for Domestic Preparedness hired the Titan Corporation to prepare an “after-action report” on emergency response to the fire. That document was extremely valuable in reconstructing official response to the event. Finally, the National Institute of Standards and Technology (
NIST
), part of the United States Department of Commerce, produced a multivolume report on the causes of the fire and the inability of many patrons to escape. That report, also available to the public, was used in researching
Killer Show
.
Personal interviews provided additional material for the book; however, several key individuals declined the author’s request to be interviewed. They were Jeffrey Derderian, Michael Derderian, Dan Biechele, Denis Larocque, Jack Russell, and Irving (“Jesse”) Owens.
1.
SIFTING THE ASHES