The Black Palace and The San Juanic Explosion

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 aren't joining the podcast considerably going to say five star review, we would really appreciate it. If you don't want to the professor review, just don't leave a review. But don't leave anything lower than that, please, I'm just kidding. You can reach out to the podcast at at Spooktales at gmail dot com. You can go to our website at bookitos dot com and fill out the contact form. If you want to support the podcast, you can join our Patreon where we send exclusive stickers, have bonus episodes. Eight dollar members get an exclusive key chain. It's super cool. I got new ones and these ones are huge. And if you want to support but you can or don't want to join the patreon, that's fine too. You can also get some merch You can find shuret sessay, spooky and old English letters. There's a beanie. I love the beanie. There's also a hat. There's a no Mam Miss shirt which is a fan favorite. There's a lot of options, scrap tops, sweaters, it's almost swetter weather. We're nearing a spookie season, so yeah, get your hoodies, you're gonna need them. If you don't want to do all that, that's fine too. You can just listen like you're listening now, and that's the best support that you can give us. 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