Killer Show: The Station Nightclub Fire (52 page)

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,
Everett Marabian,
Paul Plourde in their capacity as executors of the estate of Aram Dermanouelian;
Barry Warner
$6,300,000

Anheuser-Busch Incorporated; Anheuser-Busch Companies Incorporated;
Busch Entertainment Corporation;
Busch Media Group Inc.

$5,000,000

Celotex Corporation

$1,500,000

Clear Channel Broadcasting Inc.: WHJY Inc. and Capstar Radio Operating Co.

$22,000,000

High Tech
Special Effects Inc.; Luna Tech Inc.

$6,000,000

JBL Incorporated

f/k/a James B. Lansing
Sound Incorporated
d/b/a JBL Professional
$815,000

Joseph LaFontaine d/b/a

New England
Custom Alarm
$1,000,000

LIN Television Corporation; TVL Broadcasting of Rhode Island, LLC;
LIN TV Corp.;
TVL Broadcasting Inc.;
STC Broadcasting Inc.;
Brian Butler

$30,000,000

McLaughlin & Moran Inc.

$16,000,000

Polar Industries Inc.;

Home Depot USA Inc.
$5,000,000

Leggett & Platt Incorporated; Leggett & Platt
Financial Services Co.

$18,200,000

General Foam Corporation; GFC Foam, LLC;
PMC Inc.;
PMC Global Inc.

$11,250,000

Wm. T. Burnett & Co. Incorporated; Wm. T. Burnett Management Inc.;
Wm. T. Burnett & Co.;
Wm. T. Burnett Operating, LLP

$300,000

FFNC Inc.

$250,000

Sealed Air Corporation;

Sealed Air Corporation (US)
$25,000,000

Triton Realty Limited Partnership; Triton Realty Inc.;
Raymond J. Villanova;
Framingham-150 FR Realty Limited Partnership;
Seekonk-226 Limited Partnership;
Frances A. Villanova

$5,000,000

Town of West Warwick;

Denis Larocque;
Stephen Murray;
Anthony Bettencourt;
Malcolm Moore
$10,000,000

State of Rhode Island;

Irving Owens
$10,000,000

Jack Russell

Jack Russell Touring Inc.;
Paul Woolnough;
Manic Music Management Inc.;
Knight Records Inc.;
Daniel Biechele;
Mark Kendall;
David Filice;
Eric Powers
$1,000,000

DERCO, LLC

Jeffrey Derderian
Michael 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.
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