Last edited by bustakita; 06-06-2020 at 04:16 PM.
I have watched the Station Nightclub Video many times and it’s such an awful quality. I’ve cleaned up the video a little so it’s clearer what happened. Should I post it up here or should I let people PM me?
Please PM me I would like to see it.
I'll be waiting.
_________
Also I just watched a version by RiseAboveFireTraining Andi can prominently see Adam Florio and I also can see people eat Derek Grey signaling to the band on stage that something is wrong behind them immediately. Makes me sad.
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https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=-8gGbaN3pow
Has anyone seen this video clip? Do we know who those guys interviewed were?
Last edited by bustakita; 06-07-2020 at 12:01 PM.
I'd definitely be interested in any cleaned up version that's available. I don't think there'd be any issue with you posting a link to it on here.
On a related note, I think I finally know where all these low quality versions of the video originated from. Near the end of Killer Show it mentions that all those legal documents, photos, etc from the Attorney General's office (which we have on the Google Drive) were publicly released and then states that "the Brian Butler videotape 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".
No there would be no issue with you posting the link on here as long as it doesn't dox anyone or it links to a page with gore and porn.
Here's an interesting video, a fire extinguisher test against the same type of foam used at the Station (test starts around 1:30) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4fS37cs4f8U
Pretty impressive, seems like a fire extinguisher could've made a huge difference even a minute or so after ignition. If they'd had one sitting just off stage the whole tragedy probably could've been entirely prevented.
When my hard drive returned in the mail from Rhode Island 6 years ago, I checked for two things first: Matthew Pickett's audio and the Butler video. I was disappointed, but not surprised, to find neither.
I emailed the US District Court, District of Rhode Island last year, asking about the DVD (of the Butler tape) they had previously offered. They emailed back and said they were unable to locate it in their court records. But let's keep the faith, I'm sure the original will turn up eventually, since we know it still exists.
I hope that we do get to see the original copy. If not t wasn't for this forum, I would have never known anything about this tragic event. And as much as people want to blame Brian Butler and say he blocked egress I am one who does NOT feel that way or blame him at all. He did nothing wrong, except catch a horrific event on camera. AN ACCIDENT FILMED BY ACCIDENT. NOTHING MORE NOTHING LESS. I read comments elsewhere who blame these people dying on him. And if he didn't move when he did we could possibly have 101 people deceased instead of the poor 100 who did pass away and no video proof of this event to show what happened, the cause a (as sad and tragic as it may be) and now it is being used to help inform others. This would have just went down as "another tragic incident" and just another page in history. Which it is but it has taught and informed others and possibly save future lives. So yes,I hope it is released in it's original form.
https://youtu.be/XudyLWoskbA
That was the best quality I could get it. It’s such an old video and I’m definitely no expert in restoring old videos but I did do my best to clean it up a bit.
I couldn’t agree more. This tragedy has made me be constantly aware of exits and where I am in public gatherings. I learned so much from this this forum. I’ve been following a couple years but never really commented. People have no idea how important it is to be aware of your surroundings and this forum changed that for me
Well done, alpowers7! Thank you.
It’s been removed...
It was unlisted, so probably someone browsing this thread (a guest rather than an active poster, most likely) saw the link and reported it to youtube.
alpowers7, if you have dropbox you could try uploading it there and then sharing that link.
Nice job, by the way. I think you cleaned it up about as well as anyone could with such a low quality file to work with. I particularly appreciated the more vivid colors, most versions floating around the internet are pretty desaturated.
Youtube's censorship hysteria is killing the platform. Users are fleeing en masse and will not return.
Dang clicked it to watch and it's gone, yeah it has to be tagged as not child friendly and a warning put on, perhaps put it on dropbox and then share the link here.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/5u8tqp18wn...%20PM.mp4?dl=0
Let me know if this works. I did a screen recording because I cannot find the file I edited
You’re welcome! It’s sad, I’m not trying to create gore I just want to see what happened that night so we can learn from it. I uploaded ok Dropbox, let me know if you can’t access it!
Done! Let me know if you can’t access it. It’s on Dropbox now
I have no idea how to respond to people on this thread but I tried LOL. I’m very new to this. Looks like I’m conversing with myself 😂😂😂
You did a great job, Alpowers!!! I'm very impressed with your work!!! I wondering, if you look at the Google drive file that's associated with this thread, there is a 20 minute version titled "unedited station nightclub" which includes the before the fire video. Are you able to clear that one-up as well..you did such an excellent job on this version.
I agree CommanderAmanda
Last edited by bustakita; 06-11-2020 at 06:28 PM.
Death Hag
Can you send me the link to the 20 minute video and I’ll see what I can do?
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B1FWXWcUSCRDOTR3emFYT0wyNnM/view
(You can copy and paste it if it's not clickable)
And again thank you so much, Miss Lady!!!
________________
I want you guys to read the comments on this page, specifically regarding Ms. Gina Russo and her book and a person in that thread seemed to not believe what she said regarding the bouncer-who-shall-not-named.
https://www.reddit.com/r/MorbidReality/comments/6sz9p8/the_station_nightclub_fire_photo_collection/
I'd like to get you guys' thoughts on this. And if after reading these comments you have different thoughts than previously before or if your thoughts remain the same.
Thanks for the nice tape clean-up, alpowers7. Color!
Sarah Mancini, 81, of North Kingstown died on June 6th at the Greenwood Nursing Center. The former teacher was the mother of Keith Mancini (D) and the aunt of Steve Mancini (D). The last time we talked, she expressed her lingering regret that Keith had gone back for his jacket that night. She was a strong advocate for all of the deceased and for the building of the Memorial.
alpowers just click on the post you want to reply to, by clicking the reply with quote button, and it will put the quote in the chat box and then you can reply under that.
-Remembrances & Memorabilia-
1.) Gina Russo was in a medically-induced coma when Freddy Crisostomi was buried. Her two young sons attended the services. There were lines of attendees; they filled five books with condolences.
Crisostomi actually had an open casket funeral, one of the few victims able to have that. Gina wrote, "Somehow he was hardly burned at all. One ear had been slightly singed, as were portions of his mustache and hair. The bodies of other victims lying on top of him preserved his flesh from the touch of the flames."
When his body was recovered, the watch he was wearing was cracked and had stopped at 11:13 pm. Gina has it now. She said that for her, at least, the fire's one-year anniversary mass WAS Fred's funeral.
2.) Scotty Dunbar visited the parents of Derek Gray (D) over a year after the fire. Derek's bedroom was in a pure, untouched state--like some tableau in a museum--with Poison and Warrant posters still on the walls. Derek's favorite band was Warrant, and he was buried wearing a Warrant T-shirt.
3.) Skott Greene (D) was identified, in part, by a tattoo--on the inside of his right arm--of the robot from the "Lost In Space" TV-show.
4.) Katherine O'Donnell (D) was buried in Gate of Heaven Cemetery in East Providence. She'd been a prize-winning competitive folk dancer, and was laid to rest wearing her Irish step-dancer outfit.
5.) At Carlton Howarth’s funeral service at the Second Congregational Church in Cohasset, Massachusetts, the minister quoted both Bruce Springsteen and Motley Crue.
6.) Ed Corbett (D) had a younger brother, Shawn, who used Ed's sketches to design the gravestone. The final cartoon-like etching shows a surfer in a tropical setting. (See Findagrave.com)
7.) Beth Mosczynski (D) had worked at Temp-Flex Cable and Wire in Grafton, Massachusetts, as a quality control co-ordinator. She was there 15 years, having finally been given her own office late into her 13th year. After her death, her office was kept empty, as a place of quiet reflection.
8.) Robert Croteau (D), a super GW fan if there ever was one, was identified partly by his tattoo of a Great White shark playing a guitar. One old friend visits his grave in Fall River, Massachusetts, every July 13th, Croteau's birthday, and plays an entire GW CD at his graveside.
9.) Andrew Hoban (D) was a golf prodigy who worked for years at the Quidnesset Country Club in North Kingstown. His burial was just over a mile away, at the Quidnesset Memorial Cemetery. A golfer chipping onto a green is etched on his gravestone. Visitors have sometimes left a golf ball there for him. (Findagrave.com)
10.) Paula McLaughlin, sister of Michael Hoogasian (D), hugs her brother's coat each night, "so I can sleep," she told a reporter. She also has Sandy Hoogasian's bridal gown packed away in a clothing chest.
11.) Linda Suffoletto (D) has a sister, Susan, who still keeps one of the boots Linda had on that night.
Last edited by billoween; 06-19-2020 at 02:26 PM. Reason: spelling
Wonderful post, as always, Billoween!
I rewatched the Dallas music version on my phone and got some interesting screenshots of patrons of the Station. Ones I have never seen before. But I do not know how to post pics on here and idk if the resolution will turn out to be the same as it is on my phone.
Fun fact: Linda's sister Susan used to be my next door neighbor when I was little.11.) Linda Suffoletto (D) has a sister, Susan, who still keeps one of the boots Linda had on that night.
Bustakita- are you trying to post pics here from your phone? Or from a computer?
Death Hag
I have a laptop but I was watching the video on my phone and took the screenshots that way. And wow what an interesting fact regarding LS's sister and her being your neighbor as a kid.
My daughter officially dubbed me as a death hag today and I was like how do you even know what that is? And she said oh I know and you're one - and Station and MCDS Massacre are your main things. Now you've added Taco Bell strangler. And she smiled and continued on with our totally unrelated conversation.
-YET EVEN MORE QUOTES-
1.) "I fought so hard for my life.....I thought of how my Mom and Dad would be so sad." - Survivor and only-child Andrea Stewart. She said she got to an atrium window by pushing off the bodies on the floor like a swimmer pushing off the wall of a pool.
2.) "People were trampling me and falling on top of me. I pulled my jacket in front of my face and began to crawl on my hands and knees.....[I] could smell burning flesh.....I thought to myself, I gotta pick a direction. Otherwise, I'm just going to die." - Survivor Christopher Travis, who eventually got out the bar door.
3.) "You have no idea, you have no idea--stay away from me, don't even come near me!" - Unknown traumatized survivor to Warwick P.O. Mike Sullivan.
4.) "He thought it might be warm inside and he would be in pain." - Warwick P.O. David Delbonis, explaining why a survivor with burnt and bleeding hands was afraid at first to enter The Cowesett Inn.
5.) "Get over it? Not so easy to do when every single day there's something you've encountered that is a reminder of this is what happened." - Linda Fisher, survivor.
6.) "...the sights were the worst thing you could ever imagine, but for some reason the sounds bothered me the most." - Al Prudhomme, Fathead's drummer.
7.) "What are you, trying to jinx us?" - Station manager Kevin Beese, after being told by Jeff Derderian that Brian Butler was there for a local news piece on nightclub safety.
8.) "Crispy Critters." - an unknown policeman's radio reply to a fellow officer who'd asked about the condition of the clubgoers they were about to be dealing with.
9.) "My religion says to forgive. But this was a needless tragedy. We pray a lot and hope he is in a better place. But you wonder how God could take an only child." - father of William Bonardi (D).
10.) "The more time p***es, the worse it is. I miss him more and more. After I die maybe I'll heal." - mother of Louis Alves (D) in 2013.
11.) "The first ten victims appeared to be recognizable, but those after.....were all burned beyond recognition." - Warwick P.O. Tom Canning, who helped create a temporary morgue, using tarps, on the far west side of The Station's parking lot.
12.) "Nice show, man!" - Tim Cormier, survivor, to GW guitarist Mark Kendall as soon as they'd both exited from the stage door.
13.) "Joe Barber actually saved a lot of people. He was pulling people from the bar windows until he went to pull one guy out and all the meat and skin peeled off the guy's arm. After that he couldn't do it anymore. 'I'm done,' he goes." - Survivor and witness Brandon Fravala.
14.) "You bury nine [friends] in a period of less than 2 weeks, and, yeah, I think it affects you. Greatly." - Survivor Robin Petrarca.
15.) ".....the dating service that had brought [me and Fred Crisostomi (D)] together contacted me and inquired about the progress of our relationship." - Gina Russo, commenting on an e-mail she received from HipDates.com well after the fire.
16.) "This is probably gonna be cool!" - Al Prudhomme to Dan Biechele as he watched him run wires for the pyro.
17.) "It should be noted that the event was highly chaotic." - Warwick P.O. Stefan Theodore's closing comment in his report.
Last edited by billoween; 06-28-2020 at 10:42 AM.
As a contribution, I have created a transcript of Subarctican's edited sound video. I only have the first 3 minutes but I will finish the rest of it:
Music starts:
0:09 [Fireworks set off]
0:18 [First signs of flames appear on the right]
0:27 [camera pans back showing the two symmetrical flames set off by the pyro]
0:28 [The fire can be seen growing upwards as the camera pans to the left]
0:30 [Jack Russel starts to sing the first lines of "Desert Moon"] [Note the guitarist left of Russel looking back at the flames]
0:31 [Butler turns around and puts his camera on his shoulders pointing behind him]
0:32 [Flames are seen reaching the ceiling]
0:33-0:39 [Butler moves through the crowd, most of which are standing and watching/cheering] [Some people are bolting out too]
0:41 [Band stops playing]
0:44 [Man] Fire!
0:47 [Jack Russel] Oh no. That's not good.
0:53 [Man] Just like Chicago" [Likely referring to earlier stampede in Chicago]
0:55 [Woman] I can't move! [Several people saying "get out"]
0:57 [Man] Don't push we'll get out, relax
[Another man] Get along with it
0:58 [Same Woman] I can't! [Fire alarm goes off]
0:59-1:07 [Very little movement towards the door, this is where Butler was supposedly "holding up people," which resulted in the lawsuit.]
During this time, the fire spreads to a black box to the right of the stage, releasing a lot of smoke (just left of stage exit)
1:04 [The flames no longer look symmetrical; the stage is now a fireball. People are beginning to realize the severity of the situation.]
1:05-1:07 [Smoke begins to lower and rolls towards the crowd]
1:07 [Last band member (Jack Russel?) jumps off burning stage]
1:08 [Man] Hurry Up!
1:09 [Man] Don't push!
1:12 [Man] Don't push the line, don't push! [BB is now through the first chokepoint towards the door]
1:15 [Man] Don't worry about the beer! Another Man: Don't push.
1:16 Officer can be seen who called in the fire department pressed up against the wall [Woman in background yelling "fire!"]
1:18 [Man yelling] Don't push!
1:19 [Man] Let's go" [Womam starts screaming] First set of doors are passed
1:19-1:20 - [Man] Right out the door! [Adam Tanzi can be seen just to the right. He's not too far behind butler but he's the one on the bottom right of the pile in the grey shirt. He may have been caught up against the door from what it seems, but it may be possible the pileup happened just seconds after Butler exited the building. Likely while he was breaking the window.]
1:21 - [Woman] Oh my god!
1:22-1:27: Smoke fills the hallway; Crowd pushing towards the exit; Butler makes it out with a few people
1:26 [Woman] Fucking get your table!
1:26 [1 minute since ignition]
1:28 [Woman] Where's my husband?
1:28 [Man] You gotta break this window, man! [As BB makes his way down the steps]
1:33 [Woman crying] Where's my husband? Where's my husband?!
1:34 [Butler sets camera down and breaks out one of the Atrium's windows; Woman starts screaming, supposedly outside or inside from people falling. (Possibly the one crying for her husband)
1:35: The pilup likely occurs around here
1:36-1:38: [Same woman screaming several more times] people panicking can also be faintly heard inside; Butler starts to make it around building to stage exit
1:39-1:41: Great White are seen standing outside
1:42 Fire can be seen outside the building
1:44 - 1:47 [Butler starts moving back towards the front door] [People banging and panicking can be faintly heard inside]
1:48 [Man runs towards Butler, supposedly from the window Butler broke earlier or front door] [large amounts of smoke pours out of broken window]
1:51 [Butler pans his camera towards the plexi-glass windows, with nothing but smoke inside] [More screaming and banging heard here]
1:54 [90 seconds since ignition]
1:56 [Butler continues towards front door, some people can be seen running off.]
1:59 Butler makes it to front door revealing the pileup of people; Adam Tanzi on the bototm right with unidentified woman below him
2:01 Sevaral people in front trying to pull people out; smoke pours out from top of doorway; Adam Tanzi looks up towards the man above him.
A woman (only her head) can be seen sandwiched just above Adam Tanzi and the two people above. A woman can be seen to her right, along with several women above and to the left of her.
2:02 Man [from outside] "Watch out whatch out whatch out."
2:03 Man [screaming in jammed doorway] Let me out! Help! let me out!
2:03 [Another Man] Pull'em! [several more people screaming from inside and outside the door]
2:04 Either windows breaking as people escape. Could also be alcohol bottles inside exploding simultaneously from the flashover
2:06-2:10 - A scene of chaos as people break out of the windows and two men try to pull the jammed people out from doorway. People also help others out the windows too
2:12 Man wearing white T-shirt takes off black jacket to use for people jammed in the doorway to grab and pull
2:12 Woman (in background) "Come on baby, come on." A third man (wearing a hat) jumps in to help pull people out
2:13 Fire alarm stops
2:14-2:16 Man [in background shouting] "Come on get outta here! Everybody!"
2:17 [Man] "Go go go go"
2:18-2:20 (Several people screaming)
2:18-2:23 Woman outside (screaming) "Ned! Ned! Ned!!!"
2:24 2 minutes since ignition
2:25 [Man yells unintelligeably]
2:26 [Woman] What's their problem?!
2:29 [Man] Down a mic beat
2:30 [Man] Come on Kaylen!
2:35 [Woman] Honey, wait wait, honey wait for me
2:38 [Woman] Oh no! [Man pulled out of window left of door]
2:43 [Man] Get off me
2:45 [Man] You alright?
2:46 [Man] Hey! Over here!
2:51 [Butler zooms into the front door showing the pile up and people trying to pull them out]
2:53 [Man] Frank get out of there! [Woman crying in the background speaking but can't understand]
2:57 [Man in red jacket walks by Butler, with smoke coming out of his breath]
2:59 [Man] Let's get some of those people out
3:01 [Man] Is there anyobody else out here
Interestingly, check out 1:26-1:28 in that video. You can see one more row of people basically pushing each other out of the doorway. Considering how close Adam Tanzi was (1:18), it's possible the pileup happened just seconds after he panned out of the doorway and set his camera down to break the window. Considering how Butler was ahead of him but then he got held up at the chokepoint on the right, I think the pileup likely happened at 1:34, just after "where's my husband." Since the woman's screaming is a fairly consistent reaction to either getting caught up in it or seeing it in front of her.
Also the man that ran towards Butler at 1:48 could've been pushed out of the door as the pileup formed and was one of the last lucky people to escape from that exit. Beginning at 1:45 you can see him in the dark before Butler's camera light sees him. He seems to be ducking under the smoke as he runs towards Butler. To me it doesn't seem he came out of the window but that's just my theory.
Likewise, Adam Tanzi was one of the last people pulled out (seen later in the video).
Last edited by pcwhiz24; 06-30-2020 at 04:42 PM.
Great post pcwhiz! We'll eventually get your transcript on the Google Drive as the alternate version, to go along with the original audio version.
I really like your insight about Ron Barak, the man who ran past Butler as Butler made his way back to the front door pileup. Barak IDs himself as that man in the Butler video. Barak made that statement among several statements which are on the Google Drive. I found one called Ron Barak (2).pdf in the Phase 4\Witness Statements (2) folder. In it, he says that when he was trying to get out, he and another man were trying to break the side greenhouse window by the front doors. He almost gave up, then felt a breeze and realized the other man had broken out. He says that's the window he came out of. Then your insight makes sense pcwhiz: he had just come from near the front door, started coming toward Butler, and ducked under the black smoke plume, which gave the illusion he had fallen out from there. That makes you wonder if anyone made it out from those windows before the police started breaking them out with their batons and pulling people out like Linda Fisher.
As a final note, I just checked The Guest List on IMDB. For a while it had a release date of tomorrow, July 1. But that's been removed. Hope it eventually gets released!
Last edited by dionyzus; 06-30-2020 at 08:50 PM.
That's a very interesting theory about Ron Barak, but I'm not quite convinced. Looking at it frame-by-frame, it looks very much like he's getting up to a standing position from his knees rather than just ducking under the smoke. There's also another individual right behind him who's in the exact same spot and runs in the opposite direction - in order for Ron Barak to have been coming from the window nearest the front entrance he would've had to jump over that person, rather than ducking. And you can very much see a silhouette tumbling out of the window a couple seconds earlier. So I think he and the other person both tumbled out of the window and got up and ran in opposite directions.
As far as the pileup goes I've always wondered exactly when it started. However I think it was somewhat later than the "where's my husband" lady, simply because after that we only hear one woman screaming over and over again whereas I would think dozens of people piling up would all be yelling and making a lot more noise. Around the 1:44 or 1:45 mark on the video, when Butler turns back toward the Atrium we do hear a bunch banging and clanging and yelling, and in my opinion that's probably more likely the start of the pileup.
That also lines up with the 90 second mark after ignition that John Barylick has always said was when the pileup happened, whereas the part just after "where's my husband" is a bit too soon.
Just a heads up about transcribing and putting it here in its entirety, with the way things are now and new changes, and considering the fact that that is Brian Butler's video, and this is Scott's business, please refrain from posting or transcribing more than a paragraph, I do appreciate the effort and time, but we don't want the board to get shut down in case someone decides to push the issue, if there is a way you can transcribe it on a personal blog or in drop box and then post the link here, that would be great. I want to keep the board open and not cause any issues for Scott that may arise in the future.
Scott Michaels. The dude this forum was created for as an extension of his business and the forum's owner.
.
pcwhiz - thanks for your work. You've uncovered several verbal exchanges I don't believe we've ever had here. (Sorry you got some heat for it.)
It's difficult to figure out the timing of the big pile-up using Adam Tanzi, because there were complications with his getting out. Tanzi said he purposely stopped between Officer Bettencourt and the inner mid-corridor door (where we see him standing) so as to wait for his friends (survivors Kevin Herchen and Shawn Davide). Soon, he says, he tried to push himself back into the flow of he crowd, but was pushed up and jammed against that same inner door. He suffered a crushed finger and a torn-off fingernail.
In the end, he was pulled out late by a police officer. (BTW, that's Gina Gauvin under him, with all the hair; she may have already conked out from the ordeal, only to be woken, later, by water from the first hoses.)
Brandon Fravala is clearly visible to the left of Adam Tanzi when we first see the pile-up on Butler. He's down on his hands, but lunges forward to grab the bottom railing when he feels himself being pulled backwards.
So I just texted with Brandon, who I've known now for a few years. He remembers falling down over a girl in front who tripped first. He's seen the Butler moment of himself, but doesn't like watching it. He can handle the still shots better, and does keep a few on his phone.
Anyway, I asked him how long he'd been dominoed there in the doorway when we first see him on Butler. And he said the big pile-up had happened 5 to 10 seconds before that. That would be around the time we first see Barak looking like a deer in the headlights.
From multiple survivors, I'm hearing that it didn't just go from patrons walking out to a sudden big pile-up. It seems there was a very short, interim period of people just sardined vertically.
PS - The last pinch-point--the mid-corridor door--was a real killer in the end.
PSS - I really like Subarctican's take on things in his last post. I'm getting to Barak's escape next, but there I'm liking his version with that as well.
Death Hag