Speaker 1: Hi, this is Christina and a Carman and it's Dooky
Dookie season and this is the Spooky Tales, Yes, Dooky
Dookie season version, as in like we're not doing anything different,
We're actually back to normal right now, where we have
a true crime case, well instead of it's your crime case,
it's like a disaster case. Okay, and a hunted prison
and it's a State of Mexico episode but also Dookie
Dookie season. Yeah. Yeah, if you're watching the video, which
will actually be on YouTube for once, we're matching. Yeah,
but before we get into our topics, we do have
a listener's story and if you have a story that
you want to send to us, you can email a
spookitos at gmail dot com. You can dm us on
any of our socials. You can leave it as a
comment on either Instagram or TikTok as well. You can
leave a voicemail the phone number the Sweeky hotline as
we call it, that infos in the show notes. We
have two that I keep forgetting to listen to. And yeah,
there's a lot of ways to get us the stories.
We love reading them, so yes, send them are away, Yes,
and okay, this listening story. It was sent from Instagram.
I forgot to ask if they wanted to have their
name shared or not, so we're going to keep them,
keep them anon. Okay. My parents are from a town
called Chappala, which is one of the many towns that
border Mexico's biggest lake, Ilagod Chappala in the state of Halisko.
This is important because it is said that the lake
is known for having many UFO sidings submerging and emerging
from the lake. In short, my mom and two other
friends of hers were walking back home from a party
along the road that surrounds the lake. The lake is
surrounded by woods, hills, and small mountains, so it makes
the night especially dark and eerie. This path was poorly lit.
In fact, I think to this day it's still not
very well lit. AnyWho. My mom saw a bright orbit
come out of the lake and headed straight for them.
Her two friends were unaware of what was happening, but
this giant orb that was incredibly bright began to follow
from behind. My mom has this thing where she gets
paralyzed and can't talk whenever something scary is happening, so
she stayed silent while it followed. After what seemed like
a long time. My mom finally had the courage to
say something to her friends, but by the time they
turned around, the orbit was gone. How bizarre. Okay. Also,
it could have been a witch, right right? What are
we thinking? Orb witch? I think it was a witch.
But why would they be coming in and out of
the lake. They like to swim. Oh okay, they don't
melt with water. No, okay, Well, thank you for your story.
That was strange. Indeed, and instead of Carmen reading the
panormal story, I'm going to do it witching it up. Yeah,
because because it's tuk Tuki season. No, that's not why.
Just because so we briefly talked about this place back
in episode one hundred and thirty six, but we didn't
do it justice back then. There is so much to
this place that we didn't even address. There's more to share, yes,
and so we're going to revisit it today. And that
is That place is El Palacio de le Umberi, also
known as El Palacio Negro, the Black Palace. It's located
in Mexico City and today it houses the General National Archive,
and so you can find like ayala, important documents, important things.
They're all the important things. But before it was a
general National Archive, from nineteen hundred to nineteen seventy six
it was a penitentiary and it was decommissioned that year
and turned over to the National Archive in nineteen eighty.
And if you go today, it looked beautiful, but of
course that was not always the case. It was built
during the Portfitriato Portfidrat himself wanted it made, and that's
tell you that this place was always going to be
terrible because he specifically wanted to put his political opponents
in there. Yikes. Also, it's a prison, right, it's a
prison in the ninth early nineteen hundred. It's like they're
bad today, Yeah, imagine back then. And so construction began
May ninth, eighteen eighty five, and it officially opened on
September twenty ninth, nineteen hundred. And the name Black Palace
comes from before it was even open to prisoners, there
was a sewage flood and it caused the walls of
the building to darken, and that's why it's called black Palace.
Doesn't that sound discussing? Yeah, like just setting foot in
there is going to make you sick. Yeah, And soon
after it began to house prisoners, earned their reputation for
the prison that would make you go crazy, because well,
the prison was designed by engineer Miguel Quintana, engineers plural
Miguel Kana, Antonio Torres to Rica, and Antonio m emme Anta,
and they designed it to be a panoptic prison. Do
you know about this panoptic style? Yes, I do, And
actually I've been hearing a lot recently, like different videos
and whatever about the panopticon in like how nowadays people
are like saying, like social media is like the panopticon
because people are censorying and uh, surveilling themselves. It's fascinating her.
I have seen themes around them videos like that. Yeah too.
And for those that don't know, the panopticon originated from
English philosopher and social theorist Jeremy Bentham in the eighteenth century.
And while prison is already a place of oppression, this
type of prison the worst. This type of prison is
the ultimate system of control and surveillance. What does this like,
you might be wondering. So this places a single prison
officer in the middle, sort of like a watched the tower,
and their prison itself is round. So this circular design
is meant means that the prisoners are being watched at
all times. The opening of the cell faces that watch
tower in that round design. The inmates had no idea
when or when they weren't being watched, because yeah, it's
physically impossible for the guard to watch them all at once.
But the point is to make them paranoid and make
them think they're being watched, so then they self regulate.
They can't they what is the thing you said earlier,
surveiled themselves and sort of them Yes, yes, yes, surveil
themselves and side note, but I watched a fascinating TikTok
by doctor Shawna who was using this theory to basically say,
elf on the shelf serves as a penectagon for toddlers.
That's what I watched recently where I was talking about
one of the videos I watched recently. Anyway, back to
the prison, So it was built to hold nine hundred
and ninety six people and this included it was like
eight hundred men and then the rest were women and children,
so like if my mom was arrested, their kid was
arrested with them in that detained also, Yeah, and it
had eight hundred four cells, but it was also meant
to be a place of rehabilitation, so there was workshops
and nursery, cooking classes, baking, life skills, stuff like that.
But the bad thing is that it was all credited,
and so if inmates took partook in these like rehabilitation
style classes, they had to pay, and if they had
no money to pay, then they had to serve more
time of course. Yeah. Yeah. Also a lot of the
men were subjected to more mistreatment than the women, and
the women had more access to this type of stuff,
So that makes sense to me too. Yeah, yeah, it's
not it wasn't surprising to read that. But of course
the prison was quickly overcrowded and the number of inmates
rose to three eight hundred. There was a whole house
one hundred and eighty or nine hundred and ninety something, dawn,
nine hundred and eightty something, one hundred and ninety six, yes,
thank you. And at first though, recrowding was slow and
like there was three inmates per cell, but then it
was like quickly twenty and maids per sell, all sharing
one toilet and like two uts. So and when places
become a recrowded, they become more dangerous, illnesses spread more.
Prison authorities were not able to keep up with the maintenance,
and it became more and more insanitary. And then on
top of that, there was a food shortage and so
many prisoners were starving. Colombian poet Alvardo Mutis wrote a
book called The Diary of l. Kumberi, where he describes
his time in prison in nineteen fifty eight. That's how
I was there, and he said it was a very
dangerous place, and mats were regularly beaten by the guards,
and there was a lot of corruption. He was there
in activity eight. That applies to the entirety of the prison.
When inmates misbehaved, they were sent to punishment cells, which
really were like solitary confinement, which has been proven time
and time again to be like a human rights violation. Yeah,
I repeat that. I think we've said it in other episodes.
Maybe I don't remember. Anyway, these cells were cold, pitch dark,
and had no toilets down. Also, one hundred and sixty
of the student protesters of nineteen sixty eight, which some
of you might recognize as a clate Lolco massacre. If not,
that's something in hundred in Mexico in nineteen sixty eight.
It was CIA backed and it is a huge topic
for you, so it has a known our History podcast.
But one hundred and sixty of the students were sent
to Le Coumber, where they were abused mentally, physically and sexually.
They were tortured, and some of them were never seen
again after. Oh wow, I didn't know that inmates were
sent to specific parts of the prison depending on their crime.
Corridor J or ruata in Espanol it was designated for
homosexuals and allegedly where And I don't know how true
this is, but this is what a lot of the
articles I already said, that's where the J slur in
Spanish originated, really, because this corridor J was meant for
all the gaze. Yeah, oh wow, I wonder how true
that is. I read it in multiple articles about the prison,
but I didn't go and look at the history of
the word. So I should have because I was gonna say,
I'm like, that's kind of messed up. And they put
them there, you know, knowing the slur. But then I'm like, wait,
what came first? That's wild, right, like the chicken or
the egg. Yeah, and some of The more famous inmates
included Juan Gabriel himself. Oh that's right, I remember seeing
that in the Netflix segmentary. Yeah, h he was there.
Leon Trotsky's murder helmet Ramon Merca del Rio way Spanish, Oh, Spanish,
a Spanish spy for the Soviet Union killed him into
that Mexico. Oh I was gonna say, wait, he was
by a Mexican, no, by Spanish in Mexico City, Okay, gotcha, gotcha.
And then he was placed in Legumberi also a Banjoviyeah.
Oh yeah, So I mean you're going to get into it.
But then, is this prison so operating? No, I said
in the beginning, but what the houses the National arch
Oh that's right, you did say that. Well why did
it stop operating? Did you say that too, because I didn't. Yeah,
in nineteen seventy six, okay, nineteen thirty six. Yeah, and
then it was like they had to remodel it, reconstructed
to make it not the prison anymore and be able
to house the all these documents. Oh, okakay maybe maybe yeah.
So yeah, it's stopped being a prison in nineteen seventy six.
I think at some point I said from nineteen hundred
to nineteen seventy six as well. Anyway, during the seventy
six years that was an accented goship man. Sometimes I
just gotta let you talk. Yeah, sometimes not all the time.
During the seventy six years it served as a prison,
only two people ever escaped successfully and alive. One of
them the first Benchovilla himself slay. Yeah. Apparently he had
someone bring him a hat and dark glasses, and he
broke the bars of his cell and pretended to be
a doctor, and in his doctor disguise he simply walked
out the front door well in full transparency. Some sources
say that he actually escaped from La Cartel Laco and
not Lagumberri, and others said Lagumberre. So it's hard to
know which one. And I tried to search for like
what it's a definitive and like just as many said,
was either one, so because he spent a time at both.
And the only other person to have ever escaped successfully
was an American, a green call a gringo h His
name was Dwight Worker Worker. He was convicted of attempting
to smuggle cocaine. I forgot I read somewhere else it
was a ton of cocaine. Damn. I forgot to write
it down, unfortunately, but yeah, a lot, a lot, And
he was given a seven year sentence, and on December seventeenth,
nineteen seventy five, just two years until a seven year sentence,
he escaped by dressing up as a woman and just
walking out. Interesting, Yeah, there's a whole book, but I
did not have time to find the book and read
it to see his full escape. And also it's not
an episode about the escape, right, so I didn't look
further into it. But that's like the basic version of it.
He dressed as a woman and walked out. The third
escape doesn't really count because he was recaptured. But they
say that this third escape brought on the closure of
the prison because the escape was embarrassing for the government,
and then President Luis Echeveria ordered the prison to be
closed after the escape. You've embarrassed me enough yet, Yeah,
He's like, this place it needs to go, Yeah, gots
to go. And so that escape. This escape happened in
seventy six and it was Alberto Si Siria Falcon, a
Cuban drug trafficker. He was arrested on the twenty third
of June of nineteen seventy five and sent to Le Comberi,
and ten months into his imprisonment he escaped. It turns
out that he and his people had paid off a
ton of people on the outside to make this happen. First,
they paid off the owner of this set of buildings
that was like adjacent to the prison. Okay. Then his
people on the outside began to work on a tunnel
from this building in the prison. So they bought the
building and then they began to break the wall and
make this tunnel that connected to the prison. At the
same time, inside the prison, Alberto had paid off the
guards to basically let him have this entire corridor to
himself and not be bothered. Wow. And so he and
three people who were arrested with him like part of
his little operation yeah cartel. Oh my god, I was like,
what's it called the people that like do this kind
of stuff. Members of his cartel were arrest Three members
of his cartail were arrested with him, and so he
and these three people they began to work on this
tunnel from his cell, unbothered at a leisurely base stay.
At all the time, nobody was checking on them because
of the corruption. And so by the time the tunnel
was discovered on April twenty sixth, nineteen seventy six, he
and his accomplices were gone and they were like, oh
my god, I can't believe this. They worked on this
tunnel for ten months and nobody fucking checked because ten
months because he was paying people off. Oh wow. Oh.
They eventually he was found, But point is that was
very embarrassing for the government and they were like, we
have to close this embarrassing ass prison. It's clear that
it's corrupt and it's not working, and so like, inmates
were sent to other prisons. And after close it took
a few years to construct and renovate the former prison
into the building that would house the National Archives. During
that process, a lot of dead bodies were found. So
that just adds to the creepiness of it all. And
I went to the ghost stories speaking of the creepiness.
The most well known ghost a Legumberri is Jacinto, and
I believe this is the only story that we shared,
uh in that first episode where we talked about Legumberri
and so Don'tjacinto was also known as Elvenado. Did you
read a head or no, no, okay, try and guess
why they called them elevenado. Oh I didn't read a
head now I can't. Yeah, they called him this, but
los cuernosuesposa and for our Spanish challenge friends, it doesn't
make sense in English, and I'm sorry ahead of time.
But when a partner she told you, one will tell
you that guerno, they put the horns on you. And
so that's what it called. No, it doesn't, and that's
why he was called the lebnado or the deer because
of his cheating wife. That's some Mexican and so apparently
his wife cheated on him and then accused him of something.
She was like tired of him, accused him of something.
We don't know what that something is, something that sent
him to Lecumbert, though, But she did promise that she
would visit every Saturday. She didn't, she didn't do it,
and he didn't see her again. And then years into
a sentence, he ended up dying inside of Lecumbert. And
then fast forward to some years after that, when the
former prison was already the home of the National Archives.
Workers began to notice strange things, especially the cleaning personnel
who was there after eight pm. And one night, after
a PM, one of these maintenance workers was in the
former prison corridors which were now called galleries, and as
he was there sweeping, he came across a man in
a strange outfit. It was washed yeah, it was like
a washed out jumpsuit, more gray than anything. And this
man looked sad, and the worker was surprised to see him.
Of course he was sad, and he was like, how
did you get in here? How'd you get inside? You're
not supposed to be in here, and the man didn't answer.
The worker asked again, like why are you here? The
sad man only said, Amalia hasn't visited. Yeah. The worker
was like, I don't know who Amalia is, but I
need to know why you're in here because this is
close to the public now. And the man only replied
she was supposed to come see me. And the worker
was like, oh my god. And he rolled his eyes
and he turned around put his broom down. He's like,
I gotta go get security. This guy's not leaving. And
he turned back around one more time to maybe try
and be like, how did you get in here? He
turned around, the sad man was gone, oh, wow, it
was Jacinto. Yes, And over the years there was similar
stories where people would see Don Jacinto looking for Amalia,
his wife. I feel like, if anything, his gals should
have been haunting her. So that's kind of sad. Yeah, yeah,
not everyone else, go find her and not let her
live in peace. Yeah. I did haunt her grandchildren and
if she had kids, like you know, just keep continuing
to haunt that family. But I mean, we don't know
what he did. Maybe he deserves this. I don't know.
I don't know, I don't we don't know. But even
before it became the National Archive, people saw him there too,
because the prison warden he was there late one night
and before leaving, he's like, well, let me go to
go a round of the corridors. And as he walked,
he heard someone breathing behind him. Just oh god. Yeah.
He turned around because nobody should be out of their cells,
and that's when he saw a sad man sitting down
on a chair. And so the warning walked up to
the sad man and he's like, what are you doing
outside of a cell? In his head, he's like, why
are you here? I don't even know who you are? Like,
I know, most of the people in this corridor and
I don't know you, sad man, and the man only
repeated Amalia didn't show up again. Oh you know what,
it doesn't matter what he did. This is sad. It
is the warning turned around for a sec to look
for a guard, to be like, let's get the sad
man back in his cell. And when he turned back around,
the sad man was gone. Don Jacinto was gone. Yeah,
So he quickly walked back to his office, gather his
things and left. The Next day he decided to look
into the strange occurrence and that's when he learned about
a man named Jacinto who had a wife named Amalia,
who had him in prison for something that she accused
him of and then never visited him in prison. What
if he did that thing he accused her of and
that's why she didn't visit it as in prison. Listen,
we don't know. All we know is that he's still
looking for her. Wow. But yeah, that's the story of
Don Jacinto, who many people have seen asking for Amalia.
Another goes hunting le Umberi is that of Raphael Perees Epnandez,
and he was sent to Le Comberi after having basically
imprisoned his own family for eighteen years. Their house is
known as La Casa de los Marcetones. And to keep
this episode brief, we're not going to talk about the case.
That would have to be its own episode one day
and it will only to the topic list. But he
was found guilty of keeping his family locked up for
eighteen years and never letting them see outside. All his
children testified against him, but he maintained that he was innocent,
and during trial, he kept telling his fifteen year old son,
no miantas libre recito, mestas per Okay, this says Isaber's
kees falso and now in English, don't lie, libre resito.
You're hurting me with the things you're saying, and you
know it's false. The son's name was Libre Benaminon. They
called them liberracito. H Did he name him this on purpose?
Because he knew it was going to keep Okay prisoned.
So I didn't write down. I should have wrote down
all the kids have weird names. Well, no, sorry, I
don't want to. I don't want to Johnique unique. Yeah,
like you know what, Okay. One of them is Liberta
Pensamiento and the other one is just libre and then
there was like a hold on, I can't find it
really quick, I have all the links here, let's see. No, okay,
it's fine, it doesn't matter to learn once we get
to that topic. Yeah, we will cover it as it's
on episode plenty of the children are had like very
similar like but no they weren't. And the other brother
was also libre and he was Liberta pen samiento. Weird, yeah,
very odd. Anyway, he maintained that he didn't do it,
and he he was found guilty. He was sent to
le Gumber where he insisted he didn't do it, and
he ended up dying by suicide. Over all of this
because he was like, no, it wasn't me, I'm innocent,
and yeah, he died by suicide. And so now those
who enter the area where his cell was can hear
someone whispering no mina bracitomantas, don't lie, libracito, don't lie.
And in that same corridor some people have seen a
man dressed in all black appear and then disappear into
the walls. That is scary. That one is creepy. I
would hate to hear a whisper. Yeah, I'd rather hear
like little giggling. I hear nothing, okay, no, no, I
would just say if I had to pick, I wouldn't
want it to be a whisper. And there's another story.
This one is he's not a ghost, but these stories
came from him and he passed them onto his family.
He is known as a labello. He was a doctor
from Sina de Mexico and when he was done with
his doctor studies in nineteen thirty, he didn't want to
leave like the state of Mexico for work. He wanted
to stay close to his family. But there was a
lot of job opportunities for doctors afar. But he's like,
I'm not trying to leave. That's when a friend of
his told them about Legumberi prison looking for a doctor,
and he wasn't thrilled about the idea. But this would
keep him nearby, and so he would do a full
twenty four hour shift, then be off twenty four hours
they do another full twenty four hour shift. It was
a rough schedule and the most he saw at work
was inmates with stomach illnesses. The century because it was
a very unsanitary place. There was only one toy lit perps.
Oh god, yeah, twenty cell mats and the few foods
available to the inmates were awesome, not sanitary, So not right,
not right. If you're going to imprison people, you need
to feed them properly, you know. But they didn't know
this in ninety three. They should know this at all times.
But yeah, yeah, yeah, no, they sort of know this now. No.
I was going to say, oh, no, they did on purpose,
but you know, yeah yeah. So this like illness just
spread and spread very easily in this environment. And aside
from all the sick inmates, he also treated a lot
of beaten inmates or inmates that seem to have been tortured.
Another thing he's not along was inmates that seemed to
be in shock. They weren't sick, they just their eyes
were wide, they were strong. Yeah yeah. And once they
these inmates finally talked, they all had a similar story,
something like sleep paralysis, only they felt like something like
cold had climbed on top of them at my e E.
So that's poor fine, yeah, And he began to notice
that some of the cellmates of those who had experienced
the strange about as sleep paralysis, those cell mates would
go missing and there was never an explanation of it.
The most traumatized prisoners seemed to be those who had
been sent to solitary confinement, of course, even if they
hadn't seen anything. That's literal torture, yes, of course. And
they came to him in complete shock, eyes so wide open,
heartrates out of control. When some hours had passed, these
inmates all told the similar tale of a devil in
these solitary cells. Oh wow, a devil that attacked them.
Many of the inmates went and the doctor believed them.
He was like, there has to be something else in
those punishment cells, like this is all too strange. And
one story that this doctor remembers the most was that
of a young man. This young man's crime was owing
the wrong person money and so then he was sent
to le Kumberi. And this young man's first night in jail,
his cellmate began to scream and scream in the middle
of the night. So this young man got up to
look at his cellmate, and he saw his cellmate shaking
and yelling, reaching for his face like if something was
on his face. And it was pretty dark, and this
young man couldn't really see anything, but it did look
like a darker shadow on his cellmate's face, and so
he decided to reach over to his cellmate to try
and shake the cell mate out of this. The moment
the young man touched the cellmate, he felt something so
cold to wrap around his own body. It was the
coldest he ever felt. Then he felt like he had
fallen into the floor, and he didn't know what else
happened after that. And by that point, the summer it
was okay, and he watched as the young man was
levitated and then dropped. So when the young man felt
that he had fallen on the floor, he was actually
mid air. Oh. And so then the cell mate, now
that he was okay, he was yelling for the guards now.
And so by now it was morning and the young
man was taken to the doctor, and the doctor tried
to figure out what had happened. He tried to question
the young man, but the young man could only repeat,
it was so cold, he grabbed me, and that's like
all he was saying. And so the doctor was able
to piece together what happened when he talked to the cellmate,
but the young man was never the same again. Yankes,
I mean, how could you be Yeah? And like nobody
ever figured out what that was. And there's another seale
I said that weird. And there's another cell called La
the las cuicias or I guess the cuddle cell in English.
But it's not cute. It's not cute sound, it doesn't
sound like it's going to be cute. Anyone place here
felt like something was touching them. But these aren't the
normal type of like Carrisias cuddles between like a parent
and child. No, it was sinister. When the inmate woke
up ready to throw hands with whatever was touching them.
No one was there. Yikes. Yes, And those who now
visit El, whether it's to admire its beauty or look
through the general archives, many have felt that whenever they
set foot in there, it feels like someone is watching you,
like someone's always there. Even if you're by yourself, it's
like someone is looking at you like this. Visitors and
employees have reported footsteps, tapping, sounds, screams, and whiling in
the middle of the night. Yea, So can you tour
this place like a haunted ghost tour or no? I
don't know that there's haunted tours, but you can go. Oh,
it's a place to visit to see and yeah, that
was a little more about the Black Palace of Sudan,
the Mexico the former le prison. Interesting, okay, and we'll
take a little outbreak and then get into the I
guess it's not a true crime case today, it's a disaster.
So disaster case, yes, and we're back. Okay. So we
are going to be talking about the Pemex San Juanique
explosion the day the sky lit on fire. That sounds bad.
You've not heard of this and no, okay, so I
think we have talked about Bemex before or no, wait,
I'm getting confused from when you were on I was
on an episode with PNW Hunts and Homicides and they
did an episode on this explosion Guadacada, the series of
explosions in guad Lacara because Guada Kara is a sister
city to Portland, Oregon. And so that did involve Pemex. Yeah. So,
as many might know, Petroleos Mexicanos, commonly known as Pemex,
is a state owned oil and gas company created by
former Mexican President Nasodas Gardenaz created the company in nineteen
thirty eight to remove foreign control over Mexico's and natural resources,
which is a good thing. Yeah, yeah, it is. Before
the creation of Beemex, foreign companies dominated and controlled a
majority of Mexicos. Oil workers were unfairly treated and the
country rarely saw any of the benefits or profits. And
that changed on March eighteenth, nineteen thirty eight, when President
Gardanaz signed a decree allowing Mexican authorities to seize assets
from foreign oil companies and Pemex became a great symbol
of Mexican nationalism and was seen as a move towards
a better future. Yeah. Unfortunately though, in nineteen eighty four,
a Bemex site in San Juanico, a town north of Cidade, Mexico,
became ground zero for a series of explosions that would
claim the lives of hundreds of Mexicans. Oh wow. So,
while the forty thousand residents of San Juanico slept, beemec's
employees working the overnight shift noticed a decrease in pressure
at the site around five thirty am. Employees attempted to
fix the issue, but failed to realize that a pipe
had raptured. Oh no. As the clock ticked away, liquefied
petroleum gas began to be released from the site, which
led to a cloud built up. The vapor cloud rapidly
grew in size and a strong odor and a loud
whistle then emanated from the site, and only ten minutes later,
at five forty am, the cloud reached the flare and ignited,
causing a vapor cloud explosion that set ten nearby homes
on fire. Wow in only ten minutes, yeah wild. The
gas fueled flames quickly spread to the tanks and around
five forty five am, the first tank exploded. So this
all happened really fast, too fast, and this caused a
major boiling liquid expanding vapor explosion, also known as a bleff.
This is when the pressurized liquid inside a vessel like
a propane tank, reaches temperatures higher than that liquid boiling point,
and if the vessel can no longer contain the pressure
inside the sealed tank due to the high temperatures, it
will mechanically fell, causing the expulsion. So that's how the
explosion happens. Thank you, thank you, scieny. I don't know
if that's chemistry. I don't know, some type of science. Look,
we're dumpitches, okay, yeah, we said that before we have.
The explosion launched giant fireballs into the town that were
up to four hundred meters wide and lit up the sky. Wow, Naja,
you're barely getting up starting your day and that's what
you wait, You fucking see balls of fire in the
fucking sky. No, I would think the world was ending.
That's crazy. Yeah. Same. A PanAm pilot preparing to land
at the nearby airport also felt seismic shakes and reported
seen an overwhelm an overwhelmingly bright light that resembled a
mushroom cloud. Oh my god, like like the tongue. Mom. Yeah,
And he quickly called air traffic control to warn them
that a nuclear bomb had gone off, unaware that it
was a blood explosion. Wow, and within minutes, cars, homes,
and buildings were in golden flames. Within minim Yeah, oh
my god. In the documentary The Explosion of San Juan,
I depic voices of the survivors. Forty years after the explosion,
Jo said, I made us. Fernandez and his family recounted
how they survived the inferno. Joset told filmmakers, I was
sleeping at that hour. We were all asleep in my
house at the moment the explosion happened, I quickly woke
up and opened my bedroom curtain and looked towards the sky.
I saw a big mushroom cloud forming, like the ones
caused by nuclear bombs. I also felt an overwhelming and
unbearable heat coming from the windows. Oh my god. And Patricia,
Josa's sister told the filmmakers that she remembers thinking she
was going to die. And she said, I heard the
first explosion. It was very strong, and I woke up.
The first thing we looked at were the windows. They
were consumed by a bright light that felt like was
right outside our home. My mother then called for us
and said, come here, my kids, hug me. We're going
to die. I would think the same, No, same, and
like what are you gonna do? Run or like if
you know there's no way out of this, like all
hold each other. Oh that's so sad. Yeah, and Josean,
Patricia's family decided to evacuate immediately instead of waiting what
happened next, and that decision saved their lives, so I said.
As I continued to walk, I came across other evacuees.
They told me about other people they had seen that
were naked and covered in burns. Another explosion went off
and lit up the entire sky. It's like we were
living in a war zone. There were burn victims screaming
and running everywhere. It was very traumatic. Pattis yeah, added
on to that, Yeah, it sounds that sounds horrible. Another
survivor that was interviewed by the documentary filmmakers remembers being
trapped in the streets unable to escape the flames and
hundreds of firefighters responded to the site after the first
emergency call was placed, which was around five forty five
am man. And it didn't stop there at first, so
there means there was more. Yeah, so yeah, I didn't
stop there. Around six fifteen am, the second major explosion
went off, and for the next two hours there's six
other Bleff type explosions occurred, causing the ground to shake
every single time. Oh my god. And then in addition
to the Bleff explosions, smaller explosions continue to occur until
eleven AM, and it wasn't until eleven pm at night
that the firefighters were able to extinguish all the flames.
The last flames. Wow, this is like a long time.
I don't know how long it takes to put out fires.
I have no firefighters. There was multiple fires, true, and
so they have to put all of them out. Yeah,
that's like that's a whole day. I mean, you've seen
how long the fires last here in California and Washington. Yeah.
At the end, several pieces of debris exploded and reached
homes and buildings as far as eight hundred meters away
from the site. In total, two hundred firefighters, nine hundred
eighty five emetics, a thousand, seven one hundred eighty paramedics,
a thousand, three hundred and thirty two volunteers, three hundred
and sixty three ambulances, and five helicopters participated in the
rescue operation. Wow. Obviously this applies to like any natural disaster,
but I feel like there's something special about Mexico where
like literally everyone helps. It makes me think of the
recent overturned Yeah that was I think that was another
blaff type explosion, but yeah, overturned, and like people were
so quick to help, and by the hundreds, yeah and
so and like again, the same thing when there's an
aim made lines to pass down water from the houses
to try to put down the fire. Yeah, I cried
at every single video that I saw. H me too,
I did the same thing. But yeah, people really come together,
and yeah, it makes me always think of them. Mister
Rogers quote talking about Wait, is it even for mister Rogers?
I think so. Looking for the helpers? Yeah, I thought
that was mister Rogers. I feel like it is, but
now I'm not sure. But maybe either way the point
it's appointing. It's important. Yeah, look for the helpers, but
then like, maybe join them if you can, if you
have a skill that to look for them, to join them. Yeah, yeah, yeah,
Well if you don't just look skill, don't because then
you'll be in the way. But yeah, yeah. In the end,
five hundred to six hundred residents lost their lives, including
five Bemex employees. Seven thousand people were injured, and six
thousands and six thousand people were evacuated, and one hundred
and fifty homes were destroyed. Oh my god, that's terrible.
I mean whole families were wiped out in their sleep
and others died from the smoke inhalation from the toxic fumes. Wow,
it's terrible. I feel worse about natural disasters. Well, I
guess it's not a natural disaster, but like disasters like that,
I mean, like a disaster that couldn't be stopped. Yeah. Yeah,
they had no time to even like notice this pipe.
And yeah, everything happened so fast. Yeah, I guess, like
I think of natural to caused by nature, this was
caused by gasoline or whatever the hell. Oh right, right,
that's what I meant. Yeah, I see. Many survivors believe
over a thousand people died and have demanded the government
provide answers and accurate numbers. Oh. Survivor Kuan Pedraza told
Riders in twenty thirteen that the government only counted those
who died at the plan or the hospital. He believes
as many as two thousand people died. According to Huan,
the government never explained what happened to his neighbors who
disappeared without a trace. Oh, and so that's why he believes, yeah,
more people died because, like he knows for a fact,
his neighbors were gone after this, and they were never
counted as victims of this. Yeah, and so he says
that he went to his neighbor's house afterwards, and he
found the foot of a little boy. Oh and that
was all that was left. Oh, that's terrible. Wow. A
married couple named Francisca and Gustavo Gome told Reuters that
they never saw or heard from a family of nine
they used to run into at the market. So yeah,
some people definitely were not counted. Yeah. The government was
only able to identify about two percent of the remains
they found. Wow. The victims were buried in the Caracoliz
neighborhood of Pantala. Two days after the explosion, a mass
burial was held for two hundred and seventy two victims,
while it reported that many victims were quickly buried in
holes where they were found. I'm sure, yeah, to not
move them, yeah, or move them too much. Wow. President
Migen de la Madrid and other high ranking government officials
did not attend the mass burial, which drew criticism that's crazy.
Let me look at what party. Well, this was probably
during the wall. Party was yes, yes, of course, so yeah,
today didn't go that is that is wild and so yeah.
Many felt that the government was working fast to sweep
the tragedy under the rug, and the head of Beemex,
Mario Ramon Beta, also distastefully responded to the criticism by
saying that attacking the company was like cannibalism since the
company's tax money was helping keep the Mexican economy afloat. Yeah,
what a weird thing that's saying. Yeah, I mean that's
not right. You can especially becaize it even though it's
like naturally owned or whatever. Yeah, it's not like this
happened because people were being lazy. Steps were skipped, people
skimped on like material. This was like a literal accidental thing. Well,
I mean, we haven't got into an investigation yet, so
oh we don't know. You're right, I was assuming the best,
and I should never You shouldn't, especially because you already
talked about a I learned about another pemic related people.
Weeks after the incident, the government began to compensate the
family of victims without taking into account a victim's age
or their family's financial situation. I don't they need to
say that. Weeks after the incident, the government began to
compensate the family of victims, and the state paid ten thousand,
four hundred per family, without including the families of those
who were never found again after the explosion, So not
all victims were compensated. I see, I was like being wet.
I see, I was confused for no reason. One hundred
and sixty seven families were giving you homes in the
complex of Vaya the An Nahwak. Some families claimed they
never received any compensation even though they were severely burned
or lost their home. So yeah, like I said, not
everybody was compensated, and a park was quickly built south
of the accident site where most of the destroyed houses
used to be. Okay, oh, there's not actually much on
the investigation. And so the investigation into the disaster determined
that the plant had malfunctioning measuring devices and inadequate gas
detection systems. I see, so it was kind of their
fault a little bit, okay. And the storage tanks were
too close together, okay, and oh wow, they had inadequate
fire barriers okay, and oh god, okay, they also lacked
effective isolation and containment procedures. Okay, I could see how.
Now the head of Pemex was a little defensive and
sad of the wrong thing. Yeah, but even if those
things were not wrong, he still said something completely devoid
of empathy and inappropriate. But if you know, if you're
the head of a company, first, you have to be ceciopath. Sorry.
Of course, with the heads of companies, it doesn't even
matter if you apologize to them because they don't have
any feelings. Remember right, No, you're right. But also this
is like you are I say, we're going to charge
of this whole thing on this plant or whatever site did.
It wasn't doing the right things, and so by apologizing,
it's like saying it's our fault, which is what they
don't want to do right, and instead they're saying these
fucked up things I should have never been said. Yeah. Wow,
well that's sad. And yeah that was the that was
the Pemex San Juanic explosion, the day the sky lit
on fire. Wow, very sad. Okay, sharing that very sad. Yeah.
These dis answers are for I feel like, I don't know,
or even worse than true crime stories like hearing let's
never do it, let's never do it again. I'm sure
we will, but I'm gonna avoid it. No. But you
know what, they they highlight the wrongdoing of these companies
and corporations. Yeah, and I know that as a a
state controlled business, it's not the same as like other capitalists,
private organizations. But yet these kind of things you know,
still happen, happens. Yeah. Yeah, Well we'll take a little
break here and then come back with spooky recommendations. Okay,
and we're back. Do you have a spooky recommendation? We
feel like we haven't done one in a while, so
limit it to one. Well, actually I do. I already
talked about it on our Patreon episode, but I just
got done listening to Bury Our Bones in the Midnight
Soil by v Schwab, And it's a Saffig Vampire tail
with three point of views spanning exactly a timeline of
like five hundred years or so. Okay, it was beautiful,
it was toxic. And you know what something I forgot
to mention I think when we were talking about it
on Patreon is that if you've watched Interview with the
Vampire or read those books. I don't know what the
books are like, but anyway, it reminded me of Lestad
and Louis that scenes I know of it a little bit, Yeah,
but yeah, the relationship of between two of the characters
reminded me of that. So, yeah, there is some domestic
violence in their toxicity. For sure, but it was beautiful, amazing,
a little bit of a slow burn, but I love
that kind of shit. It was really yeah, same all right.
One of the best vampire novels I've read an all
in a while. Wow. Yeah. I added it immediately to
my TVR and I a hold on it when you
as you should. Yeah, it sounds really good, like I
would really liked it. What was it called? The good
Bury Are Bones in the Midnight Soil? Yes? Okay, okay, well,
thanks for sharing that. I also have a spooky recommendation.
I've already made a short TikTok a video about it.
But I, as many of our listeners know, have been
in my Mexican film Mexican horror film journey, and I've
been checking out a bunch of Mexican horror movies and
so I recently watched a what is considered a classic
not only in Mexican horror but in Mexican film altogether.
And it came out in nineteen sixty It's called El Morales.
And this movie, like, at first glance when you hear
the description, like it's it doesn't sound like a unique story,
and it's kind of like, as a woman, you hear it,
and you're like, why would I want to watch this?
So first let me tell you. So. The movie follows
Bablo Morales, who is a TEXTI journalist, and his wife. Wow,
I forgot her name. Oh my god. The cast only
says miss Morales, what the fuck? Well, I guess I
feel that it was Gloria. Well, let me just give
you the letterbox description of this. It's so short. I
was going to go on a very long Yeah. Okay,
So a taxidermist decides to murder his wife after having
put up with her after twenty years of hellish marriage. Yeah,
and it's like you hear that, and it's like, all right,
well that sounds like every other man that killed their wives. Yeah.
But the movie tackles morality, religion rolls in a marriage,
like gender roles, yes, and the act of marriage itself.
It's commentary in those things because like this man, this woman,
his wife is supposed to be this really religious saint.
Her neighbors call her a saint, but she lies about
what her husband does. She like, she beat herself up
and said he beat her up, and he is like,
he is so kind to all the neighbors. He stops
and plays with the kids on the street, and he
had been saving enough from like this camera for the
longest time, and she steals that money first to give
it to the church, and he gets like home and
he sees like this church meaning going on and he
the like they all don't like him because of all
the lies that she has said about him, and they
think he's like this drunk wife beater and he's never
he's never done anything like this, And like he'll come
home from like talking with the kids outside and she's like,
do you are you taunting me? Because I can't have kids,
that's why you talk to the kids outside. And he's like,
I'm just saying hi to them, and she's like, you
know that. I don't like that. It's like you say
hi to everyone else and then you see me and
you stop smiling. But it's like she's like nagging him NonStop.
You know what I was gonna say, I should have
guessed if there's a villain in a horror movie, she's
gonna be childless. She's gonna be infertile. She also has
a disability. Of course, her knee is malformed, you know what,
but has a problem. No, it does. And this is
a nineteen sixty horny. But it's like you sympathize with him,
you're supposed to and you're supposed to find her terrible.
But I mean, I figure that she's a villain. But
at the end, it's like can he really even get
away with what he has done? Because the end so like,
I don't think the message is like kill your wife
if she's like that, it'll be crazy. It's a little
to comment in one and I don't remember it was
Instagram TikTok, but they basically it was like I didn't
like the movie because it's perceived as like men can
just get away with a femicide. And it's like, talk
about media literacy. This is an example of yeah, LACKI
media literacy. I don't think, and I don't I don't
fault the person for their comment because again, like it
is a little tiring scene. Yeah, first, we're living in
do we need to see it? It's an old movie,
so I think that's another thing you have to take
into account. Also, if that's not your thing and you
don't want to watch it, don't watch it. You know,
this person did watch it and they say didn't like
they didn't like it because of that because of like
thinking in present times of femicience and then you see
this movie and this man does this in the movie.
But I think that the message is not that like, oh,
he will get away with it, like right. So that's
like when we talked last week about the w witching
and then people were like, oh, this is celebrating incests,
and it's like, no, it's not. You know what I mean,
that's right, So like, yeah, the message in the movie
isn't like, oh, you have to kill your wife, like yeah, wife,
she's even yeah, no, like he should he was wrong
in doing that, And I think the message in the
movie is that he that well yeah, and like because
of how religious she was and how she felt they
need to be better than everyone right through this religion.
It's again it's a commentary on these things. And it's
not like it's not a perfect movie. It's of its time,
there's no denying that, but it's it has it's like
it's it's black and white and it just has like
beautiful cinematography. It's a hard work for me, and it's funny.
It's like a dark comedy. It's called a dark comedy horror.
The horror is so minimal that it's really almost just
like a dark comedy crime. But it's still considered a
Mexican horror film. It's it's so well written, it's so
well directed, and the actors both do their parts. All
of them do their parts so well, including her as
the wife. Like you see her and you're like, oh
my gosh, she sucks. But I enjoyed it. I understand
the comment like not enjoying it because of that aspect,
but you know, like it's like when I watched that
One of the Dead movie and I couldn't get past
the homophobia. But it's a satirical movie. I think, so
it was a tirical but I couldn't like, I'm like,
I don't like that. I think it's the concept I
think I feel. However, though, I found it to be
a really fun movie and I do recommend it. I
enjoyed it. It's like one of my favorite classics. Now.
So also, I'm going to throw it in one move
because we're already chatting, unless you're like you're trying to
go no, okay, I watched the movie called Freaky Tales.
It's not a horror, it's like an action It's like
I kept seeing if Scott Pilgrim and kill Bill had
a baby, it would be this movie interesting. But make
it diverse, because those movies are very white. Yeah, this
movie is not. It's say in Oakland, California in the
nineteen eighties, and wait it was the eighties or nineties.
I already forgot one of those years of those decades.
And Too Short is a narrator. It has three inter
twenty timelines, like the movie Crash, but ten times better
like not like yeah, way better than the movie Crash.
The first timeline has like these punk rock teens and uh,
they're fighting Nazis, So that's like interesting alone is very fun.
The other very fun thing too Short is not reading
these timelines between timelines. The second timeline has too shorten
it and these two I want to see their teens,
their rappers, and they have this epic wrap battle against
Too Short. And then the third one is Petro Pascal.
He is not a hit man, like an enforcer, you know,
the person that collects debt from like okay, yeah, yeah,
that's his job. But he's about to retire, but then
teens go bad, but then things get better, and so
that's his story. He's just this badass. It's Petro Prescal,
you know what I mean. Yeah, And in these again
I said, they're inner twenty timelines, so like at some
point you see them all interacting tiny ways and they
all connect together. In the last timeline, which features the
guy that Pedro Pascal is like really forced to work for.
His name is the guy. The last timeline features the
guy and then a basketball player. I forget his name.
I think it's like Sleepy is his nickname, and he
Sleepy just ends up like kicking like all of the
Nazi people, like, he kicks their ass so bad. He
has a sword. He's wielding the sword that sounds campy
a little bit. Yes, he decapitates someone. It's insane. Wow.
The music top notch. There's the part where he goes
and fights them in their house. Has this E forty song.
I know you know the song, but I forgot the title,
but I mean it's Oakland, Like, of course he's gonna
have an E forty song. But the moment E forty
says something, he's like like just chopping someone's head off,
and like this, those two moments connect so beautifully in
the movie. It's fun. It was, it's my new like
favorite non horror twenty twenty five movie. Wow, it was
a very very very fun watch. It's called Freaky Tales.
I don't know where it's streaming because I rented it
from Scarecrow. I didn't even I never have never heard
of this movie and it came out last year. Oh wait,
did it came out twenty twenty five or twenty twenty four?
I feel like he said twenty twenty four, but I'm
not sure now I'm not sure. Yeah, Like there was
like no promo. I don't like, I never heard of this, yes,
twenty twenty four. Yeah, okay, it's nineteen eighty seven. In
nineteen eighty seven, Oakland was hella freaky that's funny, but no,
it's fun like if you are from Oakland, if you
love Oakland, you're gonna love this movie. It was made.
It was like a letter of love to Oakland, and
I love that anything Oakland related I already like always love,
like yeah, automatically watching it, listen it consuming it. Yes, yes,
but this, aside from it being set in Oakland is
it's such a good movie. And so yeah, that was
my last recommendation. We we got to go. So yeah,
other than that. Oh, one more thing to add I
oh the Patreon at the time. Yeah, by the time
this comes out, I set up a discount. I think
it's a thirty percent discount on all memberships on Patreon. Actually,
I think it was not the first tier, but the
two other tiers on Patreon where we do like bonus episodes.
Sometimes we talk about hunted places, like we share scary
stories and we read on Reddit and react to them.
Other times we share our favorite horror media of a
certain category, like we've done vampires, so theyse Dombi's still
being horror. We just recorded the last part. So you know,
if that sounds cool and you want to support us,
then right now it would be a great time to
do it. You can also give memberships to people and
use that discount code, so so yeah, feel free to
do that. The link for Patreon will be in the
show notes as always, So, yeah, there's a little discount
if you want to take advantage of that and join.
And that was the last thing I wanted to say,
So all right, thank you everyone for listening, and watch
out for Dona and if you know where Amalia is,
tell him, yeah, tell him. Stay Spekilakacha Rue Next Time Bye.
I as Book Tells is hosted by Christina and Carmen,
produced and edited by Christina, researched by Christina Carmen and
with the help of Don Shout Out Don. If you
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