Rotten Mango - #253: Psychiatric Patient Burns Down Entire Clinic Killing 25 Other Patients & Staff -2021 Osaka building fire

Episode Date: April 19, 2023

The hospital staff were frantic trying to save the 26 bodies that were being wheeled into the emergency room. A local psychiatric clinic had suspiciously burst into flames. Mental health professionals, doctors, and patients were being rushed into the hospital. The doctors focused on saving their lives. They started getting to work on a man that was wheeled in with the others. They gave him compressions, checked his vitals, and went to empty his pockets for safety reasons - and they found something odd. Two cans of tear gas, a knife, and a melted lighter. They soon realized they were trying to save the life of the killer. The man who started the fire and would soon kill 26 people. But who would target a mental health clinic and kill those who were already so vulnerable? Full Source Notes: rottenmangopodcast.com To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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in all states or situations. Price is very based on how you buy. Better being better boo. Have you guys ever been to Japan? Have you ever been to Osaka? It's one of Japan's busiest cities. It's actually the most populated city in Japan. It's not Tokyo.

It's Osaka. So just imagine how packed the streets are on a Friday morning. It's the last day of the work week. December 17th of 2021. So this is a fairly recent case, right? It's a little bit chilly, but that's not getting anybody spirits down. They're excited for this freaking weekend. Everyone's rushing to work ready to have their little last push before they can relax. Businesses are opening up for the day, getting ready for the busy days ahead. Everyone's rushing to work ready to have their little last push before they can relax. Businesses are opening up for the day, getting ready for the busy days ahead.

And one of those businesses that would have been swamped over the weekend was this small little psychiatric clinic in Osaka. And it's a relatively small clinic. It's the fourth floor of a multi-story, multi-tenant building that has eight floors in total. Hmm, eight floors and it's on the fourth. Yes, and it takes up the whole fourth floor, but it's not that big of a building. The whole building itself is less than 3,000 square feet. So it's a relatively small clinic. Under and above the clinic, there's cafes and clothing stores and offices.

It's called the Nishi Yumeda Clinic. And even though the psychiatric clinic wasn't big, it was well known in the area. Usually people had nothing but good things to say about the place. Mainly because it was run by this doctor, Dr. Nishi Zawa, and he was really passionate about his work. It's one of the few psychiatric clinics in the Osaka area where they open till 10 p.m. every day. Which is, yeah, I mean, that's pretty late. Like, not a lot of therapists, not a lot of psychiatrists work till that time. I mean, Dr. Nishizawa wanted to make sure that everybody got access to his help. So he's thinking, well, if the 9 to 5 employees get off and therapy is closed, when are they going to get therapy? He mainly focused on helping corporate employees just not

succumb to the stress of Japanese work culture, which like look, Japanese work environment are cut throat. It's competitive, unrelenting. I mean, the pressure is astronomically high. And the clinic focuses on treating patients with depression and panic disorders. So you get a small little clinic that just wants to give people a chance,

just wants to give them some help. So December 17th, 2021, the clinic is hosting this group counseling session at 10 a.m. for patients who have taken leave off of work for mental health. They're ready to get back into the workforce, so they're gonna come to these group counseling sessions and talk about what it's gonna be like getting back into that work culture and how they don't become overwhelmed again.

It's open to the public. Typically anywhere between 10 to 20 patients would show up for this little meeting and the whole clinic was super busy getting ready for this event, getting the room ready. Patients are funneling in, they're filling out the forms, they're checking in with the receptionist. And right outside the building, there's owners walking their dogs before they had to work. There's people in suits rushing to catch the train. Like it's Osaka, it's a busy city, it's a regular morning. Even across the street, there's this little Italian restaurant.

And the restaurant manager's name is Ryan. He's going through all the receipts from his little restaurant. And his employees are setting up because they're about to open. And he's in the bag and he just hears people screaming. I don't know where. He's like, OK, this is really weird. He runs outside dropping all of the receipts behind him. His employees have this crazy look in their eyes.

Did you see? Did you see us? There's a fire across the street. And they're like screaming what's happening? What's happening? They say what are you talking about? What fire? So he runs outside of the restaurant and all Ryan sees is like this intense smoke billowing out of the building in front of him. Like there's black smog filling up the streets. The smell of burning plastic is so intense. It's almost animated.

There's these huge, bright orange flames, like eating up the building in front of him. The whole street is cloaked in a layer of smoke. There's fumes everywhere. He's squinting, and he realizes that the fire is coming from the fourth floor. He's like, is that, am I seeing this right? Is that coming from the psychiatric clinic? And his employee is like, yeah, I think it is. This was a pretty emotional moment for both of them.

They didn't really know the employees of the clinic that well. They didn't even know their names, but they would come for lunch breaks. They would sit down at the Italian restaurant maybe two to three times a week. So he knew them, like he knew that they were very passionate about helping people. They were so friendly, they were just the nicest people. And now they were most likely dead in the fire. Crows are gathering at the bottom of this burning building.

And it's that that it was oddly quiet. You know, what do you do? I mean, the fire trucks haven't arrived yet. There's no screams or anything coming from outside the building. From inside the building. This villain's had no idea what to do or how to even help. And then suddenly, they hear a survivor. A voice.

A woman is leaning out of the sixth floor window screaming. Help me! Help me! So this part is kind of confusing because everyone is looking and the fire looks like it's contained on the fourth floor. So she couldn't have escaped, like what's going on? Why can't this lady on the six floor get out? Is maybe the stairway flooded with smoke? Like what's going on?

But everyone is waiting, the fire departments, they arrive. Nobody could really help her until they get there. And within minutes, they're pulling out this ladder, climbing up, saving the woman on the sixth floor. And it was just the most chaotic, intense scene now, once the ambulance has arrived. She was the only person that was saved from the burning building. Twenty-six people would die from the fire.

What? And you know how I said it was kind of eerily silent before then? It became very, very chaotic. Firefighters were dragging lifeless bodies out there trying to perform CPR outside the building to motionless figures. The civilians, they don't really know what to do. There's reporters that are coming in and this older man, he broke free from the crowd and he's stepping forward and he's crying out to everyone. Please, my son, please, my son, my son owns the clinic. Please, where is my son? He is not picking up his phone.

Everyone looks up at the clinic. The fire had been put out at this point. The windows were broken and they could see inside. And all you can see are the charred interiors, like the walls are burned. They don't know how to tell this old man that his son probably won't ever be picking up his phone ever again. So there's a lot of reasons why a fire could start gas leaks. Lithium batteries exploding. Landlords cutting corners, buildings not being up to code, but at this point in the corners, buildings not being up to code, but at this point in the timeline, it was less about that and more about getting everyone from inside the building

to the nearest hospital to try and save their lives. A man was brought in with the group. He was unconscious from the fire, but he was still alive. The hospital staff there trying to save his life, I mean, it's just pure stress. And in their attempt to save his life, they're doing their protocol, they're emptying his pockets. And they kind of look at each other. Inside of his pocket, he had two cans of tear gas, a pocket knife. And they

find out that near his body, there was a melted lighter found. They realized that the man that they were trying to save was the culprit. He was the one that had set the fire and had just taken the lives of dozens of people. As always, full show notes are available at rottonminglepodcast.com. I actually worked with the Japanese researcher for this case to get as much of the information as possible, but with international cases there's always a chance that things are lost in translation, some paths of research are left undiscovered, so please let me know if you have any additional information on this case below in the comments, and side note we have an exciting Rotten Mingo merch drop tomorrow, Thursday April 20th, 1 p.m. Eastern time, this is part of

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and we will be matching. So with that being said, let's get into the story. The violastic for 30 minutes. There were over 70 trucks, fire trucks, and ambulances lined up. Reporters are rushing to the scene. I mean, it's pure chaos. The building was just minutes

from one of Japan's busiest transportation stations, the Osaka station. So it's pretty easy for people to stop by and see what the commotion was about. A shop owner across the street told a reporter while he was shaking his head. You know, fires are really scary. It takes away everything. A thief can take away a few things, but a fire, it takes everything. He was right. In a different part of Osaka, a woman named Nabuko was starting her day. She's eating breakfast with her son, and she's reading these breaking news headlines, breaking news, fire, no, soca, psychiatric clinic. And she just felt this like gut punch in her stomach.

She tried to think, okay, no, there's so many psychiatric clinics here in the city. Like, there's no way. She clicks on the article. She keeps reading and she realizes that her nightmares are coming true. This is where her brother works. This is her brother's clinic.

She runs out of the house with her little baby and starts calling her brother's wife. The wife picks up and she just says, we're already on our way. The hang up. And Nabuku said it was weird. I mean, it felt like life was in slow motion trying to get to her brother's clinic. Everyone in the city is just walking around like it's a good Friday morning. How is it a good Friday morning right now?

Her life is crumbling. It just didn't even make sense. She runs to the psychiatric clinic, and it's a soon to be crime scene. She starts going from police officer to firefighter, begging them, please, I'm Dr. Nishizawa sister. He owns this clinic. Please, can you just tell me if he's okay?

Nobody could say anything. That night, she would finally see her brother. Not at home, not at the hospital, but in a morgue. She said that his eyes were closed and he looked. He looked like he was taking a nap. He looked so peaceful and perfect. She just kept expecting him to wake up. She held hands with her dad, the one that was looking for his body, or looking for his

son at the scene, and the dad reached down, stroked his son's face one last time, and he whispered, you did your best son, you did your best. 26 people died from that fire that lasted 25 minutes. They were all staff and patients of the clinic. So it was clear that this man with the tear gas was targeting the psychiatric clinic. But why? Why of all businesses? There are so many businesses to be angry about out there.

There's conglomerates. There's these evil entities that are ruining the clinic, killing people for a dollar. A psychiatric clinic, like a tiny one? I mean, it doesn't make any sense. Why? The staff are just trying to help people. The patients, they're already vulnerable,

they're seeking help, they're trying to recover. Literally, why? What did they ever do to you? The only person that could properly answer that question was a man who is lying unconscious in the hospital. The hospital we're trying to do everything in their power to save this man. They're trying to save this man that I just killed dozens of people. His name is Morio Tani Motto, and this wasn't the first time he tried to kill someone.

Police were pretty quick to find out who he was, where he lived, because his wallet was found near his body. Now the main question that the police have before he even wakes up is, who is he? Why did he do this? Why did he target the clinic? And how did he actually execute this evil plan? So to answer the first question, the police go to Morios place his residence, and they interview with a ton of the neighbors.

So inside of his house, they find a knife sheath that matched the knife that was found in his pocket. So yes, this is his place of residence. They find a bag of drugs, like prescription drugs, that he had been prescribed by this psychiatric clinic, and he had tried to light them on fire. So he's a patient there? Yeah, he's a patient. Oh, just you wait. He's been to this clinic over 112 times.

Wow. So it's obvious now that he's a patient at the clinic, but maybe something happened. Maybe he felt wronged by them. Like, why was he going to the clinic in the first place? Like, what mental health battles was he struggling with? Police also uncovered evidence that Morio had been planning this attack for a very, very long time.

In fact, he might have been inspired years ago. So he had these old newspaper clippings all around his apartment of the 2019 Kyoto Animation Arson attack. Do you know what happened? OK, so if you guys want a whole separate video on that, please let me know. But it's a pretty extensive case.

Here's a quick summary. Morning of July 18, 2019. So just like two years before this incident, the Kyoto Animation Studio, which side note is this incredibly popular anime studio in Japan, they produce a lot of massive hits. The building was mainly for production staff, so it's not like a theme park or some sort of retail front. It's basically for employees to come and make the animations, and a man that did not work there currently, walked in with a trolley of 11 gallons of gasoline, walked in through the front door, doused

the entire entrance area, and even several employees, like several human beings of the animation studio, with gasoline, and ignited everything on fire. The building ended up exploding. It was reported that he was screaming die as he was doing all of this. He also set himself on fire by accident while he was lighting everything up and ended up trying to flee, but he was actually caught by the police outside. 36 people would end up dying. 34 people would end up dying. 34 people would end up injured.

Oh my God. It was really hard for people to flee from inside the building because the fire originated near the entrance, so they were effectively trapped. But another thing to notice that the fire caused like this mini explosion, which filled most of the floors of the building with toxic fumes and smoke within 30 seconds. So even if you wanted to find a window

to jump out of or some sort of escape route, the time that you would have to do that is next to nothing. The suspect was in custody. He was charged. He's a 42 year old named Shinji Ayo-ba and he accused the animation studio of stealing his work, and that is known to be the motive of why he took 36 people's lives. It is considered one of the deadliest attacks in Japan between civilians in recent history, and Mario had newspaper clippings of this incident all over his house, all over his apartment.

Side note, another piece of evidence was, Mario had bought gasoline from a store before this event took place, which here's the thing about Japan now. If you buy gasoline now, that's not pumped directly into your car. Like if you buy a canister of gasoline, you have to provide your ID and you have to write down the purpose of this purchase. And it's all because of the 2019 Kyoto attack. So it was very easy to trace that he had purchased a ton of gasoline, and he wrote down that it was for his motorcycle, which I don't think that he owned a motorcycle.

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So the police are asking themselves, is this some sort of like copycat crime? Like is he trying to just get notoriety? Is he trying to recreate this? Is he just unhinged? They asked the neighbors if they knew more, yeah, well, and, you know, what can you say about him? One by one, most of the neighbors are like,

oh, I don't know. I mean, he's only been living here for like about a month. So there's not really much I can tell you about him. But maybe ask like that man down the street, that man has been living here for like 35 years. So they go to the man down the street and sure enough, he's a 51 year old who had been in the neighborhood for so long,

almost four decades. And he said, you know, it's crazy. Morio had actually lived here in the 90s. Morio was living here decades ago. In 1995, he lived here with his wife and kids back then. The family wasn't very friendly. They just kept to themselves typically, but then out of nowhere one day, they moved out. Never said goodbye, never tried to contact any of the neighbors just abruptly moved.

I thought I would never see them again. Blast month, Morio moved back, but he was alone this time. No wife, no kids. Okay, more questions now than there are answers like where the hell is this guy's family like did he kill them too? Kind of. Well at least you tried to. Morio Tani Motto was born to a pretty financially stable family. Some would even consider them wealthy, well off. His dad owned a steel metal factory. And the kids, he has four kids, right? All of them were at the factory us kids

learning about the dad's business. They were trained there since they were old enough to be. Mario was actually really passionate about metal work, which I don't, you know, I don't really know much about metal work, which I don't, you know, I don't really know much about metal work, so I can't really say, but he just had this mission throughout his entire life, like this vision in his head. He's going to get his degree. He's going to qualify as a specialist and sheet metal work. He's going to take over his dad's business, bring it to the next level, like he had all of these dreams. And it

seemed like the logical route for him. The family supported him. He was a hard worker. But at the very last second, they were like, sorry, Mario. We're actually going to give it to your brother. We're going to let your brother inherit everything. He was so enraged, he felt so betrayed. He felt slated. He left the family home and actually never talked to his brother ever again.

They were estranged for more than 30 years for the rest of their lives. And once he left his family home, he was just lost. He was bouncing around trying to get any job that he could. So a lot of, you know, restaurant work and all these things just odd jobs like washing dishes and for a while things weren't looking great. But then in 2003 he's like, you know what, I have a skill. I have literally I have a skill. I should just get a job at a sheet metal factory. So that's what he does in Osaka. And it kind of went back to his roots.

It utilized his skills, which was a great choice. From the moment that he started working at this factory, the owners fell in love with him. They were so impressed. Like they had nothing but praise for the sky. He was leagues ahead of the other workers. He's constantly getting promoted, promoted, another raise, another raise, another raise. You could just tell which pieces were done by him. That's how good he was.

Compare to everybody else. You could literally tell his work apart. He was also very passionate about training the younger workers. So he's not very competitive. He just also very passionate about training the younger workers. So he's not very competitive. He just wanted everyone to do well. He just wanted everyone to learn more about sheet metal work. And the only thing that they noticed about him was that he's very sensitive when his work was criticized. But after the agitation would wear off, the owner said, you know, he could see where we were coming from. He could see where the

criticism was coming from. And we were just trying to help. So I mean, overall, it seems like a well-adjusted guy. He's making enough money to support a family, so he gets married to a nurse. They settled down in the apartment, and they have two young sons. Now, we don't really know much about the family, other than the fact that they weren't that friendly

to their neighbors, and other than the fact that they got divorced in 2008. And ever since then, Mario has been completely alone. So in 2003, he's at the height of his life. Great job, married with kids. Like five years later, divorced, and everything else in Mario's life just starts going downhill. His whole attitude changes. He starts showing up late to work. He would just skip work with short notice. The owners are trying to talk to him because he had been such a valued employee for so long.

They're like, we don't want to fire you, but what's going on? And at one point, his boss is like his unqualified therapist. His boss is like, I don't know what to do. I'm just trying to listen to the guy. He just seems so lonely. He just seems so stressed. He just seems so stressed like He's nobody

And in 2010 about seven to eight years after working in that factory Morio silently quit and just vanished He stopped answering calls from co-workers his bosses didn't answer any text messages just disappeared It's at that after quitting his job, Morioport all of his energy and to trying to get his wife back and to trying to get his family back. Okay, but just picture this, right?

He's mentally fragile. He's desperate. So imagine the way he's trying to get his wife back. It's not gonna be the most romantic way. Like let me try to rekindle our love babe, but maybe it's more of an attempt ruled by fear and desperation, like, you gotta come back to me. She starts rejecting him.

She's like, you're spiraling. I can't be with you. And he falls into this depression. He starts wasting all of his money on horse race betting. And he just couldn't let go of the idea that family must be together. That's like his thing. In 2011, Mario tries to make it a reality.

His elder son invites Morio to come over and spend time with the family. So the ex-wife, she didn't want to get back together, but she didn't cut him off completely. Like, she wants him to be a part of the kid's lives and they're not really kids anymore, but you get it. How old is the son? I want to say early 20s at this point.

OK, so adults. Yeah. So Mario accepts the invitation, makes his way to his ex-wife's house, and he's walking in with a little smile. But it's not really like a happy smile. It's just like a weird unsettling smile. Mario had several kitchen knives in his bag and he was there because he wanted to end his life and take his family with him so that the

family could quote B together. So the family had dinner and they're sitting around the table laughing, reminiscing and Morio he just couldn't get himself to do it. I mean everyone's laughing and having a good time like he loves these people, right? So we can't do it. And instead, everybody goes to bed that night, but Moriel and his eldest son. So his ex-wife and his youngest son, they go to bed. Him and his oldest son, they stay up at night to talk about life and work and family and their sharing drinks.

And it's supposed to be this moment where, despite everything that's happened, Father and Son are bonding. But it all comes crashing down at six in the morning. Morio pulls out his knife with a six-inch blade and starts stabbing his son in the head. He stabbed him in the head multiple times. Thankfully, his son was able to fight him off and get help. When the police arrived at the scene, both father and son were taken to the hospital. They were drenched in the sun's blood.

And after this incident in 2011, Moria was sentenced to five years for the attempted murder of his son, which is insane. Five years for attempted murder, for stabbing your own son in the head and face over and over again Like how does it even make sense? Wow, I don't know that's

Yeah, wow the trauma the sun's gonna have yeah like the recovery like Like forget about the mental even the physical to it's on the head Yeah, from your dad. Wow like forget about the mental, even the physical too, it's on the head. Yeah. From your dad. Wow. And then just like the trauma of, you know, the mom was seeing the sun recover, seeing her child recover. And I'm sure there's maybe even levels of guilt of like,

maybe I chose the wrong person to have children with like, maybe this is all because me, maybe it's because I left you know, there's, there's always ways that the human brain blames ourselves for things, but there's so many levels of trauma. And the court was like, let me hear out, Morio. Let me hear out his trauma. Zumorio argued that he was depressed and lonely. He just wanted to die and he wanted to take his family with him so that they could be reunited.

The judge was like, for that reason, I'm just going to give you five years. So I guess he was given less years instead of if he had been like, I just wanted to kill my son because my son was pissing me off. The judge was like, oh no, you're so evil. Let me help you. It's safe to say. Even though he got off so easy with the justice system, his family had no longer wanted anything to do with him.

I mean, it took the family such a long time to recover after what happened. I don't even know if they'll ever fully recover. The eldest son refused to let this be his life, though. He started working and tried to move on. And in 2016, Morio was released from prison. He was free, but he had absolutely no one. Nobody. He didn't have his family. His brother that he was estranged from, his own children were gone, his ex-wife was gone. He had no friends. He had no one. To further prove this, later when the police went through his phone, he didn't have a single saved contact on his phone.

He was completely and utterly alone. And it was also very hard for him to find a job after you got out because of his criminal record. He had a hard time readjusting into society and reintegrating into life. And also I'm not telling you this to try and elicit some sympathy for the guy. Trust me, I'm not.

I'm just walking you through what happened, right? And I know it sounds like, oh my god, no poor guy had nobody, but that's not what I'm thinking at all. I do think that there are a lot of conversations to be had about isolation, though, and how it can lead people to do very drastic things, but nothing excuses murder, especially mass murder. So anyway, Moria has no job, no friends, no family, nothing, his mental health is just spiraling downward and it's getting really scary. And as of 2021, even his bank account was completely empty. Like he had no savings to fall back on.

He had nothing left. So one month prior to the fire, he settles down in his very, very old apartment that he had once shared with his family back when they were happy, which, look, I can't imagine that to be good for anyone's mental health. When you feel alone, to go live in the place that you used to live with your family and you used to have a great life, like you're just asking to dig up old wounds and then pour salt directly into them, Like it's not smart. It's suspected that he made the decision in that apartment to take his own life and to take

down as many people with him. He chose the clinic, which is an odd choice because the clinic was the only place that tried to help him when he was at his lowest. Maybe there were arguments, disagreements on treatment. I don't know, right? Maybe he wanted them to change his life. Maybe he thought the clinic was going to make him whole again and make his ex-wife take him back. And they weren't able to do that because therapy isn't magic.

And maybe he blamed them for it. Maybe he was irrationally angry. We don't know. But we do know that Moriel went to that clinic a lot, close to 112 times. He originally started going in 2017 to treat his insomnia, and he reported feeling lethargic. But somewhere in those 112 visits, he went from being interested in his treatment into being interested in mass murder. Six months before the fire, with every visit,

he started documenting on his phone how many people were in the clinic at all times. He started staking out the clinic on Fridays, Thursdays, and Fridays. He recorded the daily comings and goings of the clinic employees, the patients he would write on Thursday, September 9th, at 9.13 pm. Dr. Nishizawa, the clinic head, left through the first floor entrance of the building. He even noted how he was gonna take measurements

of exit doors. He recorded that certain Fridays, the clinic would hold these group counseling events where anywhere between about 20 people would be gathered inside the clinic, and he decides that's the time. Because the clinic is small. The most people would be gathered in the clinic at those counseling sessions. And he knew that there was going to be another session Friday morning, December 17th, 2021. He even rehearsed his attempt at his own

house several times before the actual fire. Now, a few weeks before the fire on December 3rd, Morio initiated another part of his attack. He applied Kalk to the fire extinguisher door. Like, you know how fire extinguishers are usually placed behind a glass door where everyone can see it. And like, you open the door. Oh, he jammed it. He applied sealed it with Calk. Calk is like if you look at the back splash of your kitchen,

you know the white parts, it's like this cemented glue that seals everything. It's like waterproof. That's Calk. He got a Calk gun and just caulked it up. Wow. Wow. And like nobody noticed because nobody really looks

at the fire extinguisher until you need it, it would be really, really, really hard to open that door if it was all caulked up. Then the night before the fire, security cameras caught someone fiddling with the emergency exit of the clinic. Apparently, Morio had tried to seal the emergency exit of the building with tape. Like he's like trying to tape the door shut. He goes home the night before the fire and he makes some last minute checklists. He writes on his phone, must confirm lighter works.

And have to bring knife. Friday morning, security cameras caught Moriel on his bicycle heading towards the clinic. There's video of this that's been released and he's got these like paper bags and his little bicycle basket. Police assumed the paper bags held cans of gasoline or like liquid gasoline and he was trying to be discreet with it. Going around Japan with highly flammable liquid is not taken lightly anymore. So he was hiding it in the paper bags. Now let's talk in the paperbacks. Now let's talk about the actual crime. There's only one exit from the psychiatric clinic.

It was right in front of the reception and waiting area. So the only way to get in and out of this fourth floor clinic is through that one staircase, one elevator, and that's it. There's no back door, there's no emergency exit. That's the only way in and out. Just one door. That's it. There's no back door, there's no emergency exit, that's the only way in and out. Just one door, that's all. And that's where the fire started. It was a very strategic placement, very similar to the Kyoto Animation Attack, conveniently blocking everyone from the stairs and the elevator, even people in the waiting area, the reception area, would have a hard time getting

out because they have to get through the blaze to get to the stairs. Everyone inside was instantly trapped. The rooms in the back were windowless. So there wasn't even a way to climb out of a window. The only windows were in the reception area right next to the fire. And even then you're talking, you're on the fourth floor and there's a fire blazing right next to you like, I don't know how you would get down. According to one female survivor who managed to leave before the blaze took over, she said

that she saw Moriel enter the clinic looking like a patient. Police were able to pull up CCTV and confirm a lot of this. Moriel is seen getting out of the elevator onto the fourth floor at around 10.13 a.m. He's carrying two paper bags, one in each hand. He places them at the entrance, right in front of the clinic heater. It's said that these bags appear to be leaky. The bags were placed on the floor

out of view from the reception desk and away from the staff at the counter. So he places the bags down, walks in further towards the reception area, and the receptionist is set to have been smiling at him. Which is this big smile welcoming him into the clinic, and he takes out his wallet and pulls out his clinic card. Which just basically proves that he's a patient of the clinic, And he's pretending like he's there for this group counseling session. And it's just so sad. Like, there seems to be a very trusting relationship between the staff and Morio. Morio checks in, returns to the area in front of the elevator out of view from staff.

He takes out a cigarette lighter from his pocket. He tests it in the air several times to make sure that the flame comes out and that it works. And then he squats down, slowly tilts one of the paper bags and liquid, presumably gasoline starts spilling out onto the floor right in front of the heater. And he takes out the lighter and lights up the gasoline. Flames instantly burst up. I mean, this is right next to the heater. The flames are as high as the ceiling almost instantly.

And in that moment, there are more than 20 people inside this clinic. And he had just lit a giant fire next to the only exit on the entire floor. There were a few survivors like the lady that got out before the blaze, that's how I put the bags down. There was the lady on the sixth floor that we talked about. There were, I think, like the lady that got out before the blaze, that's how I put the bags down. There was the lady on the sixth floor that we talked about. There were, I think, another two more people near the emergency exit

that were not inside the clinic, but were near the exit, saw the flames, and then ran back down. But that was it. Everyone else, all the staff, all the patients, they're going to die in the fire. So all of them are seen on camera running towards the back of the clinic away from the fire, which is very natural instinct. But back there, there's no windows, there's no way out. They had nowhere else to go.

And the big problem with the back is there is a door blocking off the main entrance area. So the reception area is blocked off with a door. That door was said to be closed to block the fire. But the treatment room is a curtain. Like, you know, those medical offices, the smaller ones that use a curtain. Mm, yes. So there was a part that was just a curtain

that's not really gonna hold the smoke in the fumes back. And the only exit and entrance, like I said, is engulfed in flames. So they're trapped. And Morio is seen on CCTV grabbing the second bag of gasoline and throwing it at the already raging fire. He has now blocked the exit route completely. Is he inside or? Yeah, he's inside. And he's watching as the fire is burning bigger and bigger, and then he makes his way towards the back of the clinic where the victims are trying to hide. And at one point, a victim tries to run towards the elevator, basically trying to get through the fire to escape.

But Morio throws himself in front of the victim, trips him, and ultimately stops him from his attempt at escape. And it's very obvious, just by looking at the footage, a, Morio had set the fire, b, Morio has no plans of escaping himself, and see he doesn't want anyone else to escape either. He wanted to die in that fire, and he wanted to take down as many people as possible with him.

Eventually, the fire becomes too big, and the CCTV camera starts to get very distorted. The video turns black, The camera shuts off. Forever. Who's gonna catch us? What a police! It was the height of the crack era and instead of locking up drug dealers, some New York City cops had become them. I would suit up in my beautiful arm and we're gonna want some drug dealers

and I know how to do it really well. This is the inside story of the biggest police corruption scandal in NYPD history and the investigation that uncovered it all. Did you consider yourself a rat? 100% I save my soul just like everybody else does. Listen to and follow the set an Odyssey originals documentary podcast series available now in the Odyssey app Apple podcasts or wherever you get your shows. I'm not a big guy, man, but I love being that dirty mother f***er. The firefighter show up, and all the victims were found huddled at the back of the clinic,

which again is the furthest point from the exit, and furthest away from the fire. Most of them are dead by the time emergency services arrive at the scene. All the victims had suffocated. They died from carbon monoxide poisoning. They were trapped gasping for air, literally breathing in nothing but toxic fumes while they slip into unconsciousness until they slowly lost their lives. Like this is a really really really really evil way to end someone's life. And even before a hospital staff found tear gas

in Mario's pockets, even before police went through the CCTV footage, police suspected him of being the fire starter. First of all, the location of the fire starting just didn't make sense. I mean, the fact that the fire extinguisher door was completely caulked up, the firefighters heavily suspected Arsene from the get-go.

And while everyone else was found in the back of the clinic in the treatment rooms, Morio was found near the source of the fire. So he was clear, he wanted to kill them. And now he's in the hospital unconscious, the doctors are trying to save his life so that he could answer to his crimes, and the police decided to release his identity to the world before they knew if he was gonna make it or not. Before he had a trial. They believed that the country needed answers to what happened

and with all the evidence that they were able to compile on Morio, I mean, it seemed pretty clear that he did it. There's CCTV footage that he did it. There's even a lot of motive backing it up. Like, he wanted to die. He wanted to take as many people with him as possible. But he is still alive while everyone else has died. Yeah. How is he alive?

Exactly. Maybe he's at a location that's closer to the door. So there's like fresh oxygen. Like a window or something. Yeah. maybe there's window. Okay, wow. So his identity was released to the world and Japan was, I mean, heartbroken is to put it lightly. Like, I think they just didn't understand how someone could do this.

And also, how someone that looked like Mario could do this. Mario is a 61 year old man who looks like a harmless grandfather. And I get it, you know, I get it, young people do evil things, old people do evil things, but I don't know, people were just kind of confused. Like if you saw this grandpa in the street, you would want to, you would want to help him across the crosswalk. He just looks so nice. And why, to mental health professionals. The whole country was shaken,

but ours and cases aren't that new in Japan. So we briefly mentioned the Kyoto animation attack, but in September of 2001, there was this huge case in Tokyo that killed 44 people. This is actually one of Japan's worst ours and cases in modern history, but no suspect has been identified to this day. It's been categorized more as a blast. So in Tokyo, there was this big gambling building

that people had gathered to play at Ma-Jong, and around 1 a.m., the whole thing exploded and burned for like five hours. People were jumping out of windows covered in blood, crowds were forming below the building, just watching helplessly as people risked injuries and jumped from this burning building. Like it was scary. It said that the whole street smelled like melted plastic and it made you want to gag and it made you just devastated for what was going on. It was incredibly tragic.

The explosion was said to have been a result of arson. A suspect has never been caught and if you're like like wait, why haven't I heard of this? This is actually not that well known Because just 10 days later September 11th happened in the US and that completely dominated the international news cycle So it's just kind of been a forgotten piece of news, I guess. And throughout the years, Japan seems to have an arson problem. And I say problem because, you know, any one life lost to arson is too many lives lost.

But if we are to criticize any country, I do want to put a disclaimer. I'm American, I live in America. And like, it's very clear that we have a problem in this country with mass murders. And the gun problem here is far, far worse. So I don't want anyone to hear the next part and be like, see, gun laws are strict and people still find ways to do evil things. No. Arson has been a problem in Japan and has been seen as

the preferred method of mass murder. And it's due in part to Japan's strict gun laws. For example, if an evil person gets really with the angry, an America the easiest way is to grab their gun that they can buy at the local store and do something. In Japan, there are no guns that are easily accessible, and using something like a knife would take too long. It's way too personal. You would have to be very close to the victims, and there's a chance that you would get disarmed relatively quickly.

So starting a fire is less personal and causes a lot more damage to a lot more people. Now are there as many arson attacks as there are shootings here? No, but I'm just saying, you know, arson has become a problem for Japan. So Japan has seen some devastating arson cases, and it doesn't really make it less shocking or painful. Everyone was just waiting to see what would happen, to see if this man would stand for his crimes. But in December 30th of 2021, Morio died in the hospital.

He never regained consciousness from carbon monoxide poisoning. He died without ever standing for his crimes. He died with literally so many unanswered questions by the police, the family members of the victims. There was just a sense that nobody was really going to get closure after this. A lawyer representing the family members of the victims said, you know, there's no words to express the feelings of the bereaved families towards the suspect. Now he's died without apologizing or serving a prison sentence after taking so many lives. So now the public, no why Morio did what he did, how it happened, but it still didn't

make sense. How do 26 people die from a fire on the fourth floor? Like there were questions being raised about building safety, building code. The Japanese government started a full-blown investigation into it, and they saw that, though the building was equipped with the legally necessary devices, like fire extinguishers, guide lights, automatic alarm systems, the building didn't have sprinklers. So the law in any multi-tenant building that is larger than 3,000 square feet is required to have sprinklers, but this building was smaller than 3,000 square feet.

So there were legally no sprinklers installed. They were not breaking any codes, violations, or laws. But then there was another law. Building standard laws state that large buildings with more than six floors. This building has eight floors. More than six floors are required to have two staircases that lead to the ground floor. This building didn't have that. They only had one.

But when you look into the law, it was revised to say any building built after 1974, and this building was built prior to that. So technically, they didn't break any law or regulation in that respect either. And because Tani Motto, Morio, started the fire next to the clinics entrance and even through gasoline at the only evacuation route, no one could reach that one staircase in the building.

And that's why the woman on the sixth floor couldn't get down because smoke was billowing up and down the staircase. So even though the building was not technically breaking any laws, the public demanded the laws be revised or something to be done about it. And I believe the government now is having fire departments across Japan conduct emergency fire safety inspections on, I think, close to 30,000 multi-tenant buildings. All of Japan is just coming together to try and figure out

how to fix this issue, how they can come together to mourn the loss of all these lives that were lost in the fire. And not a lot has been released about the lives of the victims that were lost in the fire. But there are a lot of stories about Dr. Nishizawa, the owner of the clinic. He was 49 when he died. And everyone who knew him said that he just, I mean, that man worked

like that's what they say. He worked 12 hours a day just to help people. He took very few days off, always had a smile on his face. I mean, he was just so, he was just so passionate about his work. He was empathetic. He knew that meds alone wouldn't fix someone. He just wanted to be their first patients. He just wanted to listen to them. He would selflessly devote his life to his patients and they genuinely loved him.

So he looked for finding ways to help his patients in ways that actually worked. So for example, one patient of his was diagnosed with ADHD. And he was feeling a lot of self-esteem issues and frustrations because he can't concentrate at work. He felt useless. He's making the same mistakes that work over and over again. His boss thinks he's incompetent.

He's underperforming. He feels like he's bad at his job no matter how hard he tries and he's just so frustrated. And Dr. Nishizawa is like, it's not you, it's the job. When you have ADHD, you need to find a job that you get excited about. You need to find a job that fits your personality and that you can use your personality and turn it into something that can work for your benefit.

Which technically, these are all great words in theory, but harder said than done, right? That's why Dr. Nishizawa helped him get a job training at a farm and the patients that he came alive at the farm. He just felt so capable. He was doing well, he got excited, he was motivated, he was for the first time ever, excelling at something. He felt like his life had been saved by Dr. Nishizawa.

And he said that he just wanted to tell him that he saved his life. But now he couldn't. It wasn't uncommon to see people line up outside the clinic before they opened. That's the reputation that Dr. Nishizawa had. And do you remember Dr. Nishizawa's sister? She spoke out about her brother and her loss. And she said that her brother was just like kind soul. He was really cool.

That's what she said. He was this cool brother growing up. He never got mad at her, even when they got into these big fights, and he's five years older than her. He was like a bit of a history buff. He constantly tried to teach her about history. And she would laugh. And she was called going through his apartment after he passed. And when they were younger, he had gotten into college and she was still in school, so she's still living with her parents. And she had written them all these letters while he's in college. She would just write cute little sister things like, oh, I'm so glad you came home from summer break.

I loved studying with you during summer break and watching TV with you at night was so fun. I wish you could stay home forever. She would write another one like, I'm writing to you again, cause I know studying must be really hard, but I want you to do your best. Take the physician license next year.

Take the physician license exam next year. I believe you're gonna pass. She was really lonely, being separated from her brother and she would write them all these letters, but he never wrote back. So she felt like he didn't really care or maybe he was too young to care, but she was going through his apartment

and she found all of her letters just pristinely kept in these cute little momentum boxes and he had never gotten rid of them. I guess they were very special to him, he had kept them after all these years. And he just really cared for people. So you know, after he's gone, his patients are struggling to not only with their lives as they were, but dealing with the grief and the shock of what happened. They felt even more vulnerable than before.

So someone had to step in and try and help them. So there was a doctor, Dr. T, who came in and tried to fill Dr. Nishizawa's shoes. She says herself that there is no way to replace someone like Dr. Nishizawa. But there is a connection. Dr. T was actually Dr. Nishizawa's teacher when he was first starting his studies.

So they knew each other for the past 15 years. And they were very close and yeah. And a full circle moment that is very bittersweet. Dr. Nishizawa's sister was able to see how much of an impact her brother had on his patients. they created online forums to help each other get through the loss of Dr. Nishizawa. And his sister now wants to follow in his footsteps. She is now formally training under Dr. T, just like Dr. Nishizawa did. Yeah.

And she said she feels like her brother is with her cheering her on, telling her that she's doing well, encouraging her. But overall, it's just a devastating case. You know, one patient wrote, I've been doing my best while keeping Dr. Nishizawa's words in my mind. I am where I am today thanks to him. I'm just glad I met you, doctor. Another patient wrote a letter to Dr. Nishizawa as a way to grieve, and they wrote,

I've always been supported by you, Dr. Nishizawa. After this incident, I'm very worried about whether I'll be able to do my best to the world without you. But I'm going to live my life the way you would want me to, so that you don't have to worry about me. These letters were given to Dr. Nishizawa's wife and she said that she couldn't stop the tears from flowing as she read about just the legacy and the impact that her husband left on his patients. And that is the case of what

happened in Japan in 2021. What are your thoughts on this case? I mean, do you feel like this is closure enough or is it frustrating that Morio passed without standing for his crimes? Do you think that any of this is like a bigger conversation? I saw a lot of Japanese netizens say that even though what he did is inexcusable, we need to think about how to fix it in the future,

how to prevent things like this. And the one thing that the one kind of motto that's circulating online is don't isolate the isolated. What are your thoughts on that? But I hope you guys stay safe and I will see you guys on Sunday for the mini-shoot.