The waterfall was leaking almost up to the last minute; the final furniture delivery was made with just three hours to go, and for a while it appeared that the camera crew from the Italian Vogue might never find a place to plug in its lights.
“We have to be careful,” said Mr. Rubell, one of the three young entrepreneurs who have risked what one spokesman estimated to be $1.1 million on the proposition that a sizeable segment of the city’s avant-garde disco-goers can be lured to the West Side by a megawatt light show worthy of a Broadway theater.
The music had been blaring for most of an hour before an appreciable number of patrons, many bearing special invitations, managed to make their way past the gate checks.
A surprisingly large number of patrons milling around the entrance chose to wait, apparently on the theory that any place that hard to get into must be worth waiting for.
The result was that from West 54th Street, where several dozen patrons were blocking off half the street, the theater appeared to be packed to its 2500 capacity.
Inside, where Mr. Rubell was pointing out yet another combination of mirrored strobe lights, there were no more than a few hundred viewers to appreciate them.
“I think we have a winner,” he said.
excerpt from Robert McG. Thomas Jr NYT 4/27/77
Wednesday, April 27, 1977
Tuesday, April 26, 1977
Jury Indicts Youth in Rape and Killing In Garment Center
An 18 year old Queens youth has been indicted in the murder and rape of a Brooklyn woman who was with months pregnant and whom he allegedly choked and forced into a furnace, asphyxiating her, DA Robert Morgenthau of Manhattan announced yesterday.
Investigators believe that Mr. Hontoria became angry when Mrs. Brecher rang insistently for the elevator while he was in the basement fixing himself a cheese sandwich.
excerpt from Leslie Maitland NYT April 26th 1977
Investigators believe that Mr. Hontoria became angry when Mrs. Brecher rang insistently for the elevator while he was in the basement fixing himself a cheese sandwich.
excerpt from Leslie Maitland NYT April 26th 1977
Thursday, April 21, 1977
.44-Caliber Death Bullets Called an “Outside” Purchase
The gun is described as a Bulldog .44, a powerful, short-range .44 caliber revolver. Originally designed for police use, it has a four-inch barrel making it concealable in a pocket or under a coat or jacket. The gun is traditionally sold in the South, Southwest and West.
Excerpt from Molly Ivans April 21, 1977 New York Times
Excerpt from Molly Ivans April 21, 1977 New York Times
Tuesday, April 19, 1977
Police Officer Ryan Is Convicted of Killing a Suspect in Custody
A police officer was convicted yesterday of criminally negligent homicide in the beating death of a suspect in a South Bronx station house, the first conviction on record in a slaying by an on-duty New York City police officer.
The defendant, Officer Thomas Ryan, faces up to four years in prison on the conviction, which carries the lightest penalty of four possible verdicts by the jury, short of acquittal.
The Ryan case, in which the officer is white and the suspect was Puerto Rican, was one of a number in recent years to raise the issue of alleged fatal police brutality by white officers against black or Hispanic people, and the first of those to result in a conviction.
In 1974, Officer Thomas J. Shea was acquitted by an all-white jury in the death of a 10-year-old black boy, Clifford Glover, after testifying that he thought the boy had a gun. The acquittal stirred a public outcry and a night of street disturbances in the dead boy’s community in Jamica, Queens. Office Shea was eventually dismissed from the Police Department.
Officer Shea was only the second officer to be tried for murder committed while on duty. In 1924, Robert F McAllister was acquitted of charges that he shot and killed 24-year-old Vincent Fighera near 115th Street and Morningside Avenue.
Another officer was acquitted last February, also by an all-white jury, in the fatal shooting of John Brabham, a 22-year-old black man who was a student at Kingsborough Community College. Officer Walker, too, testified that he though his victim had a gun, but other officers testified that Officer Walker customarily kept a hand a cap pistol similar to one found near Mr. Grabham’s body.
Officers Shea, Walker and Ryan were all represented by the same lawyer.
In the most recent incident, Officer Robert Torsney is awaiting tryial for the murder of 15-year-old Randolph Evans, a black youth who was shot to death at point blank range outside his Brooklyn home last Thanksgiving night. No physical confrontation or verbal exchange has been suggested in eyewitness accounts by police officers or civilians.
In Officer Ryan’s trial several officers said that they had previously lied under oath to protect a fellow officer. Officer Ryan insisted from the witness stand that it was two of the officers who testified against him who had administered the fatal blows. In all, seven officers testified against Officer Ryan during the trial. All seven admitted having lied in earlier statements about the incident.
NYT Judith Cummings 4/19/77
The defendant, Officer Thomas Ryan, faces up to four years in prison on the conviction, which carries the lightest penalty of four possible verdicts by the jury, short of acquittal.
The Ryan case, in which the officer is white and the suspect was Puerto Rican, was one of a number in recent years to raise the issue of alleged fatal police brutality by white officers against black or Hispanic people, and the first of those to result in a conviction.
In 1974, Officer Thomas J. Shea was acquitted by an all-white jury in the death of a 10-year-old black boy, Clifford Glover, after testifying that he thought the boy had a gun. The acquittal stirred a public outcry and a night of street disturbances in the dead boy’s community in Jamica, Queens. Office Shea was eventually dismissed from the Police Department.
Officer Shea was only the second officer to be tried for murder committed while on duty. In 1924, Robert F McAllister was acquitted of charges that he shot and killed 24-year-old Vincent Fighera near 115th Street and Morningside Avenue.
Another officer was acquitted last February, also by an all-white jury, in the fatal shooting of John Brabham, a 22-year-old black man who was a student at Kingsborough Community College. Officer Walker, too, testified that he though his victim had a gun, but other officers testified that Officer Walker customarily kept a hand a cap pistol similar to one found near Mr. Grabham’s body.
Officers Shea, Walker and Ryan were all represented by the same lawyer.
In the most recent incident, Officer Robert Torsney is awaiting tryial for the murder of 15-year-old Randolph Evans, a black youth who was shot to death at point blank range outside his Brooklyn home last Thanksgiving night. No physical confrontation or verbal exchange has been suggested in eyewitness accounts by police officers or civilians.
In Officer Ryan’s trial several officers said that they had previously lied under oath to protect a fellow officer. Officer Ryan insisted from the witness stand that it was two of the officers who testified against him who had administered the fatal blows. In all, seven officers testified against Officer Ryan during the trial. All seven admitted having lied in earlier statements about the incident.
NYT Judith Cummings 4/19/77
Monday, April 18, 1977
COPS FIND CLUE IN 5 SLAYINGS
A note left behind by a psychopathic killer who struck again this weekend, murdering a young woman and her boyfriend, is rambling and “incoherent,” police sources said. But they indicated that the note seems to confirm links between the killer and a series of previous .44-caliber gun slayings.
They believe the same man is responsible for five murders and three other shootings in Queens and The Bronx, all done with a .44 caliber gun and involving young women with shoulder-length brown hair.
The shootings: a TV parallel
Two of the shootings by the psychopathic gunman stalking The Bronx and Queens came after two episodes of ABC TV’s Starsky and Hutch depicted women being gunned down in similar circumstances. But investigators believe the attacks were “merely coincidental” and dismiss the possibility the TV program was triggering the killer. The first episode in question aired last July 28 (the night before Donna Laurie was killed –
Excerpt from Al Sostchen April 18, 1977 New York Post
They believe the same man is responsible for five murders and three other shootings in Queens and The Bronx, all done with a .44 caliber gun and involving young women with shoulder-length brown hair.
The shootings: a TV parallel
Two of the shootings by the psychopathic gunman stalking The Bronx and Queens came after two episodes of ABC TV’s Starsky and Hutch depicted women being gunned down in similar circumstances. But investigators believe the attacks were “merely coincidental” and dismiss the possibility the TV program was triggering the killer. The first episode in question aired last July 28 (the night before Donna Laurie was killed –
Excerpt from Al Sostchen April 18, 1977 New York Post
Friday, April 15, 1977
Cultist Who Tried for 60 Days in 76 To Revive Follower Jumps to Death
Oric Bovar, the cult leader who was arrested Dec. 8th when he was found trying to revive a follower who had been dead two months, jumped to his death yesterday morning shortly before he was to appear in court on a charge of failing to report a death.
The 59-year-old mystic and astrologer jumped from his 10th-floor apartment at 817 West End Avenue , at 100th Street, leaving a note, the police said. Mr. Bovar was arrested in December with five of his followers who had been praying over the dead member’s body. Mr. Davis said he knew of no basis for reports that Mr. Bovar had asserted that he could jump out of a window and come back without falling.
Mr. Bovar and his friends were arrested in the apartment of Alexandros Hatzitheodorou, 29, at 60 Riverside Drive, at 76th Street. Mr. H had been dead since Oct 9th, the police said, and the group maintained a constant prayer vigil in the expectation that he would revive. Mr. Bovar at one time had 200 followers, including well-known entertainment personalities Bernadette Peters and Carol Burnett have acknowledged knowing Mr. Bovar but they said they had broken off contact with him.
A man of compelling presence to many, Mr. Bovar was said to have undergone a personality change – an emotional breakdown, according to some – about two years ago. When he began telling followers he was Jesus Christ and when he began his attempt at resurrecting Mr. H, some followers left.
The bizarre story of Von Mierers, whose death last year from AIDS spared him a likely prison sentence, brings to mid the even weirder story of Bernadette Peters's guru. In the seventies, Oric Bovar, who was renowned in Broadway circles for his uncannily accurate astrological charts and prescribed meditations that brought inner peace to such disciples as Peters, Carol Burnett, the ever-seeking Marsha Mason, and Neil Simon, became convinced that he was Jesus Christ and claimed that he could endure a year without going to the bathroom. One follower became convinced that Bovar was indeed divine when, during their first telephone conversation, he received an electric shock. On Christmas Eve 1975, Bovar instructed his followers to look up at the sky, and they saw him create a star.
As Bovar went bonkers, some of his followers dropped off, but not Peters. In the summer of 1976, he announced that Christmas would now be celebrated on his birthday, August 29. He began arranging marriages for his devotees--"Someone would come into the room and he would say, 'This is your husband--you must marry him,'" one recalls--and spent his free time watching The Exorcist. He put his followers on strict diets and forbade them to have sex.
Bovar's greatest feat was to have been the resurrection of twenty-nine-year-old Stephanos Hatzitheodorou, a disciple who died of cancer in his New York apartment in the fall of '76. After covering the body with a shawl, Bovar and five disciples kept a vigil over the corpse, chanting, "Rise, Stephan, rise, rise, rise." It was only then that Peters, whom the New York Times called one of Bovar's most loyal devotees, jumped ship. For two months, the group changed over the body, until a woman who identified herself as Mary Magdalene called the cops. His arrest for violating the health code by keeping a decaying corpse in the apartment marked the beginning of the end for Bovar, who was now referring to himself as "my son, Oric Bovar." Hours before he was to answer his doubters, he jumped out a window, intending to appear in resurrected glory in court.
Farnsworth Fowle April 15, 1977 New York Times
The 59-year-old mystic and astrologer jumped from his 10th-floor apartment at 817 West End Avenue , at 100th Street, leaving a note, the police said. Mr. Bovar was arrested in December with five of his followers who had been praying over the dead member’s body. Mr. Davis said he knew of no basis for reports that Mr. Bovar had asserted that he could jump out of a window and come back without falling.
Mr. Bovar and his friends were arrested in the apartment of Alexandros Hatzitheodorou, 29, at 60 Riverside Drive, at 76th Street. Mr. H had been dead since Oct 9th, the police said, and the group maintained a constant prayer vigil in the expectation that he would revive. Mr. Bovar at one time had 200 followers, including well-known entertainment personalities Bernadette Peters and Carol Burnett have acknowledged knowing Mr. Bovar but they said they had broken off contact with him.
A man of compelling presence to many, Mr. Bovar was said to have undergone a personality change – an emotional breakdown, according to some – about two years ago. When he began telling followers he was Jesus Christ and when he began his attempt at resurrecting Mr. H, some followers left.
The bizarre story of Von Mierers, whose death last year from AIDS spared him a likely prison sentence, brings to mid the even weirder story of Bernadette Peters's guru. In the seventies, Oric Bovar, who was renowned in Broadway circles for his uncannily accurate astrological charts and prescribed meditations that brought inner peace to such disciples as Peters, Carol Burnett, the ever-seeking Marsha Mason, and Neil Simon, became convinced that he was Jesus Christ and claimed that he could endure a year without going to the bathroom. One follower became convinced that Bovar was indeed divine when, during their first telephone conversation, he received an electric shock. On Christmas Eve 1975, Bovar instructed his followers to look up at the sky, and they saw him create a star.
As Bovar went bonkers, some of his followers dropped off, but not Peters. In the summer of 1976, he announced that Christmas would now be celebrated on his birthday, August 29. He began arranging marriages for his devotees--"Someone would come into the room and he would say, 'This is your husband--you must marry him,'" one recalls--and spent his free time watching The Exorcist. He put his followers on strict diets and forbade them to have sex.
Bovar's greatest feat was to have been the resurrection of twenty-nine-year-old Stephanos Hatzitheodorou, a disciple who died of cancer in his New York apartment in the fall of '76. After covering the body with a shawl, Bovar and five disciples kept a vigil over the corpse, chanting, "Rise, Stephan, rise, rise, rise." It was only then that Peters, whom the New York Times called one of Bovar's most loyal devotees, jumped ship. For two months, the group changed over the body, until a woman who identified herself as Mary Magdalene called the cops. His arrest for violating the health code by keeping a decaying corpse in the apartment marked the beginning of the end for Bovar, who was now referring to himself as "my son, Oric Bovar." Hours before he was to answer his doubters, he jumped out a window, intending to appear in resurrected glory in court.
Farnsworth Fowle April 15, 1977 New York Times
Thursday, April 14, 1977
Gun Group Offers a $200 Reward To Victims Who Kill Assailants
A federation of 135 pistol and rifle clubs in New York with 5000 members is offering $200 to any victim of a robbery or assault who shoots and kills his attacker, the president of the organization said last night.
“The object, obviously, is to encourage citizens who are properly licensed to carry firearms to defend themselves because of the complete breakdown of the criminal justice system in New York,” said Jerry Preiser the 42-year-old president of the Federation of Greater New York Pistol and Rifle Clubs.
Mr. Preiser, a manufacturer of girls clothing who carries a .45 automatic, said three businessmen who had killed assailants in the city in the last week would receive checks for $200 and scrolls of commendation at a ceremony Friday afternoon at 2 Penn Plaza.
Police Commissioner Michael J Codd said he was “appalled.” “These people are looking for trouble,” he said.
“This is dangerous to the people who are doing the shooting and dangerous to bystanders,” he continued. “Our experience has shown that untrained civilians lose half the gun battles they get into.”
“I don’t think people are going to be running out to qualify for the reward. I don’t see people running to shoot somebody for $200. What I’m trying to do is encourage the right to self-defense.”
The situation is New York these days, Mr. Prieser said boils down to three choices for the law-abiding citizen.
“You can abandon the city to the hoodlums,” he said. “You can abjectly accept the assault or death, hoping things will get better, or, the choice which we think is the best choice, you can recognize the fact that this is war – call it what it is, “war” – and fight back.
Joseph Treaster NYT 4/14/77
“The object, obviously, is to encourage citizens who are properly licensed to carry firearms to defend themselves because of the complete breakdown of the criminal justice system in New York,” said Jerry Preiser the 42-year-old president of the Federation of Greater New York Pistol and Rifle Clubs.
Mr. Preiser, a manufacturer of girls clothing who carries a .45 automatic, said three businessmen who had killed assailants in the city in the last week would receive checks for $200 and scrolls of commendation at a ceremony Friday afternoon at 2 Penn Plaza.
Police Commissioner Michael J Codd said he was “appalled.” “These people are looking for trouble,” he said.
“This is dangerous to the people who are doing the shooting and dangerous to bystanders,” he continued. “Our experience has shown that untrained civilians lose half the gun battles they get into.”
“I don’t think people are going to be running out to qualify for the reward. I don’t see people running to shoot somebody for $200. What I’m trying to do is encourage the right to self-defense.”
The situation is New York these days, Mr. Prieser said boils down to three choices for the law-abiding citizen.
“You can abandon the city to the hoodlums,” he said. “You can abjectly accept the assault or death, hoping things will get better, or, the choice which we think is the best choice, you can recognize the fact that this is war – call it what it is, “war” – and fight back.
Joseph Treaster NYT 4/14/77
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