The New York Times Book of New York

by The New York Times

  “It’s disgusting,” said Ms. Sullivan, who rides the Lexington Avenue line to her job as a nanny on the Upper East Side. “You’re already depressed being on the subway, and this just makes you feel more frightened.”

  It does indeed seem futile at times. Get control of the graffiti blight, as subway bosses finally did in the late 1980’s, and next thing you know, young Visigoths take aim at train windows, boring into the glass with shards of ceramic or broken spark plugs or sandpaper.

  Here’s how bad it can get, said Vincent Ricciardelli, supervisor at the subway’s Jerome Car Maintenance Shop, near Mosholu Parkway in the Bronx. One time, his crew sent out a spanking-clean train on the No. 6 line, a notoriously vandal-prone route. The train made a single run from Pelham Bay Park and came back with 182 scratches.

  They conducted an experiment on another vandal-prone line, the No. 4. Regular windows were coated with thin sheets of a polyester, Mylar. The Mylar is far from scratch-proof. But in the experiment it kept the regular windows from harm—a “sacrificial barrier,” in transit talk.

  Best of all, each sheet can be replaced for one-third the cost of installing a new window. And that, if you will, can save a lot of scratch.

  Underground Artist Admits To Graffiti in 3 Boroughs

  By ANEMONA HARTOCOLLIS | October 5, 2007

  Graffiti artists Alan (tag name ZENO), left, and Anton (tag name KET) painting graffiti on a #6 train at Buhre Avenue stop in the Bronx in 1991.

  THE LEGENDARY 1980’S GRAFFITI CREATOR Mr. Alan Ket, whose real name is Alain Maridueña, was in a Manhattan courtroom making the second stop in what his lawyer, Ron Kuby, termed the “triborough tour”: traveling from courthouse to courthouse to dispose of charges that he had vandalized subway cars in Manhattan, Brooklyn and Queens from 2004 to 2006.

  In the plea deal, Mr. Maridueña, 36, agreed to plead guilty to one felony count of criminal mischief in each of the three boroughs and to pay more than $12,000 in fines and restitution. In exchange, prosecutors agreed that he would not have to serve any prison time.

  Mr. Kuby noted that his client was a recognized artist who has worked as a consultant to companies like Atari, Moët & Chandon and MTV and to the fashion designer Marc Ecko. So in his view, a mural makes sense.

  “You wouldn’t turn down a Picasso simply because Picasso doodled on some other person’s guitar or on some donkey cart in Madrid,” said Mr. Kuby, who is better known for defending left-wing causes and civil rights cases than for his art criticism.

  Mr. Maridueña was arrested in March and accused of vandalizing subway cars in the three boroughs. He was charged with criminal mischief, a felony, and possession of graffiti tools, a misdemeanor. In a novel twist, the police had not caught Mr. Maridueña in the act of painting graffiti. Rather, they executed a search warrant at his home in Manhattan, seized his computer and graffiti-related items, and matched photographs in the computer to photographs of graffiti-painted subway cars with Mr. Maridueña’s tag, KET, on them, his lawyer said.

  After his arrest, Mr. Maridueña said that he had moved beyond painting graffiti after the birth of his daughter, who is now 13, and that the KET tag had been written by copycat artists.

  “Never in my wildest dreams did I think a grown man could be charged with possession of a marker in my own home,” he said.

  Man Tells Police He Shot Youths in Subway Train

  By SUZANNE DALEY | January 1, 1985

  Bernard Goetz was acquitted of attempted murder and convicted of criminal possession of a weapon in the third degree. He served eight months in jail.

  A MANHATTAN MAN SURRENDERED TO THE Concord, N.H., police yesterday, saying he was the gunman who wounded four teenagers on a subway car 10 days ago, police officials said.

  They said the man, Bernhard Hugo Goetz, 37 years old, of 55 West 14th Street, had already been identified as a suspect in the shooting, which took place after the teenagers approached him and asked for money.

  The police said Mr. Goetz, a slim man with blond hair, matched a police composite drawing of the suspect, who escaped into the subway tunnel after the shooting.

  HUNDREDS EXPRESSED SUPPORT

  A special telephone line that police set up to receive tips to lead them to a suspect instead attracted hundreds of callers who expressed support for the gunman’s actions. Some people offered to help pay legal expenses and others suggested that he run for mayor.

  In response, Mayor Koch condemned the gunman’s act, declaring that “vigilantism will not be tolerated in the city.”

  Neighbors said Mr. Goetz had been active in community affairs and concerned about crime in his neighborhood. He had organized several petition drives to improve police protection on his block, between Fifth Avenue and the Avenue of the Americas, including a recent one after a doorman in the building had been beaten up.

  “But it didn’t really help,” said a neighbor, Scott Sedita, who said he had known Mr. Goetz for about four years. “And I think that made him upset.”

  The police in New York had been looking for Mr. Goetz since Dec. 26, when an anonymous caller told them that Mr. Goetz fit the description of the gunman and was known to have a gun, Chief of Detectives, Richard Nicastro said.

  According to the police, the shooting occurred about 1:30 P.M. on a southbound No. 2 train just north of Chambers Street. The man, neatly dressed and wearing wire-rimmed glasses, had been approached by the teenagers, who asked for the time and then for a match.

  ‘$5 FOR EACH OF YOU’

  The police said the teenagers—one of them sitting next to the man, and the others clustered around—then asked for $5.

  “Yes,” the teenagers have said he responded, “I have $5 for each of you.” He then stood and fired at each of the teenagers, hitting all of them in the upper body.

  The police said that the four teenagers all had arrest records and that three of them were carrying long screwdrivers in their jackets. They lived near each other in the Bronx and apparently were friends.

  Goetz: A Private Man In A Public Debate

  By ROBERT D. MCFADDEN | January 6, 1985

  THE EMERGING PICTURE OF BERNHARD HUGO Goetz is a kaleidoscope of clashing opinions reflecting the debate over vigilantism and public safety that has arisen since he shot four youths who harassed him on a Manhattan subway train. It is also a picture of a lonely 37-year-old man who has sustained two major traumas in his life—criminal charges against his father, and a 1981 mugging that shattered his faith in the administration of justice.

  “As far as Bernie was concerned,” said a neighbor in his apartment building, “it was equivalent to a woman being raped.”

  Bernhard Hugo Goetz was born at Kew Gardens Hospital in Queens on Nov. 7, 1947, the youngest of four children of Bernhard Willard and Gertrude Goetz. The elder Mr. Goetz owned a 300-acre dairy farm near Clinton, N.Y., and for some years he ran a bookbinding company in Queens during the week and the farm on weekends. In 1949, when Bernhard was 2, the family moved to the farm.

  In 1960, the elder Mr. Goetz was accused of molesting two 15-year-old boys at the Clinton farm. A jury found him guilty of 8 of 18 counts. He appealed, and three years later the state’s highest court ordered a new trial. At that point, Mr. Goetz agreed to plead guilty to a single charge of disorderly conduct.

  Ludwig Goetz, speaking for the family, denied that the father had done anything wrong, and said that the boys had lied and tried to blackmail him.

  The aftermath of the 1981 mugging, in a subway station on Canal Street, appeared to bother Mr. Goetz most.

  The apprehended suspect, 16-year-old Fred Clarke of Brooklyn, was taken to Criminal Court. “He was kept for 2 hours and 35 minutes,” Mr. Goetz later recalled. “Now, I was there in the Criminal Court Building for 6 hours and 5 minutes, along with the police officer who made the arrest.” Mr. Clarke eventually pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor, was sentenced to six months in jail and served four months.

  Citing the mugging and his frequent need to carry large sums of
cash, Mr. Goetz applied for a pistol permit later in 1981, but was turned down. The police believe that he went to Florida, where it was not difficult to buy the chrome-plated, .38-caliber revolver used in the subway shootings.

  Seeking to Delay Seizure of Assets, Goetz Will File For Bankruptcy

  By FRANK BRUNI | April 29, 1996

  ENRAGED BY LAST WEEK’S JURY AWARD OF $43 million against him and terrified that he might lose all his possessions, down to the pet guinea pig and chinchilla he considers his closest companions, Bernhard H. Goetz will file for bankruptcy, according to his lawyer, Darnay Hoffman.

  Ronald L. Kuby, the lawyer representing Darrell Cabey, said he was not concerned about Mr. Goetz’s maneuver. “Good!” Mr. Kuby said yesterday. “I specifically asked the jury to bankrupt Mr. Goetz.”

  Mr. Goetz is unable to pay even a fraction of the $43 million. And according to Mr. Hoffman, he is concerned that his creditors, having seen the astronomical prices fetched in the recent auction of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis’ belongings, would demand a similar sale of his possessions, including his pets.

  “Now, he doesn’t consider himself a Jackie O.,” Mr. Hoffman said. “But there’s no question that something that was owned by Bernie Goetz could bring in a lot.”

  Scores Killed or Maimed In Brighton Tunnel Wreck

  November 2, 1918

  It’s estimated that 100 people were killed in the wreck.

  A BRIGHTON BEACH TRAIN OF THE BROOKLYN Rapid Transit Company, made up of five wooden cars of the oldest type in use, which was speeding with a rush-hour crowd to make up lost time on its way from Park Row to Coney Island, jumped the track shortly before 7 o’clock last evening on a sharp curve approaching the tunnel at Malbone Street, in Brooklyn, and plunged into a concrete partition between the north and south bound tracks.

  Nearly every man, woman, and child in the first car was killed, and most of those in the second were killed or badly injured. At 11 o’clock 85 bodies had been taken from the wreckage, and the police announced that no more bodies were in the tunnel. The police estimated that at least 100 had been injured.

  District Attorney Lewis announced at midnight that the train was being run by a train dispatcher. This man had been pressed into service in the rush hour because of the strike of motormen, which began in the early morning. At 2 o’clock this morning, as a result of the wreck, the motormen called off the strike, leaving the adjustment of their grievances to the Public Service Commission. The D.A. ordered all the officials of the B.R.T. who could have been responsible and members of the train crew put under arrest. He said the B.R.T. officials had withheld the name of the man who operated the train.

  Just before 1 o’clock this morning, the missing motorman, Anthony Lewis, who is 20 years old, was arrested at his home, 160 33rd Street, Brooklyn, by Detectives McCord and Conroy, and brought to the Snyder Avenue station to be questioned by the district attorney, Mayor Hylan and the police commissioner.

  At 11 o’clock 85 bodies had been taken from the wreckage, and the police announced that no more bodies were in the tunnel. The police estimated that at least 100 had been injured.

  Afterward, it was stated that his story indicated criminal negligence in hiring him to run the train. Mayor Hylan said:

  “This man confessed that he had never run a train over that Brighton Beach line before. He also admitted that, when running around that curve, he was making a speed of thirty miles an hour.”

  A post on the curve warns motormen not to go faster than six miles an hour.

  Trapped Riders Saved In Team Effort

  By JAMES C. MCKINLEY JR. | August 29, 1991

  The derailment at Union Square killed five people. The motorman, Robert Ray, who was drunk and going more than 40 mph, was eventually convicted of manslaughter.

  OFF-DUTY JUST AFTER MIDNIGHT, OFFICER John Debenedetto of the Transit Police was standing with a colleague on a Union Square subway platform waiting for a No. 4 train to take him home. Headlights appeared in the southbound express tunnel.

  Then the train’s wheels screamed. As the two officers watched, it derailed a hundred yards north of the station, smashing and twisting into a mash of crushed metal.

  Stunned, the officers sprinted toward the wreck. Within 15 minutes, they were joined by more than 700 other police officers, firefighters and paramedics, plunged into four hours of terrifying rescue work in a tunnel choked to the ceiling with subway cars that had been shredded like aluminum cans.

  “The explosion was as loud as anything you can think,” the 25-year-old officer said an hour later. “Half the train is cut in half, like a laser sliced it.”

  In the next few hours, rescuers pulled dozens of people from the wreckage and used motor-driven wrecking tools, saws and crowbars to free eight people pinned inside. “There’s metal sticking out, bodies, body parts,” said Capt. Bill Olsen of the Emergency Medical Service. “The train is teetering at points. It’s a very dangerous scene.”

  The rescuers spoke less of individual heroism than of dogged teamwork. At 3:45 A.M., as Mayor David N. Dinkins and Transit Authority officials were talking to reporters, a group of 20 men and women finally freed the last trapped man, an off-duty conductor, Steven Darden, 33. Mr. Darden had been buried in tons of debris in the third car, with only his left arm free, the police said. An officer spotted the fingers wiggling.

  Several Emergency Service Unit officers and firefighters said they worked for three hours trying to keep Mr. Darden alive. “He was pinned by some steel wreckage from the waist down,” Officer Andrew Nugent of Emergency Truck 1 said. “If the wrong move were made, we would have impaled him.”

  The officers used saws to cut away portions of the doors above Mr. Darden and then dug out the debris under him while the paramedics ran intravenous tubes into his arms to pump blood and plasma into him. The whole time Officers Robert Bierman and Joseph Grogan talked to him, about his girlfriend, about his pain, about living.

  After most of the other debris was cleared, Officer Donald Costliegh, who was underneath the wreckage looking up at Mr. Darden, jammed a hydraulic jack under the remaining metal sheet pinning him and pumped it off. They pulled him out at about 3:45 A.M. Mr. Darden was taken to St. Vincent’s Hospital. He suffered open fractures to his left forearm and a collapsed lung, said Dr. Jesse Blumenthal, the director of the hospital’s trauma unit.

  Girl Pushed in Front of Oncoming Subway; Hand Severed

  By LAURIE JOHNSTON | June 8, 1979

  A 17-YEAR-OLD FLUTIST AND SOPRANO suffered a severed right hand yesterday when, witnesses said, a youth pushed her in front of an oncoming IND subway train at the West 50th Street station.

  The girl, Renee Katz, a senior at the High School of Music and Art, was attacked about 8:15 a.m., while she was on her way to the school at 135th Street and Convent Avenue in Manhattan.

  Miss Katz, who lives in Flushing, Queens, remained conscious while she was pinned between the train’s second car and the platform overhang until she was taken by ambulance to Bellevue Hospital. Her severed hand, found by the police between the tracks after the train was removed from the station, was sent to the hospital packed in ice from a nearby bar.

  An operation to reattach it, begun about 10:30 A.M. by a 12-member Bellevue surgical team, was expected to continue until early today. In yesterday’s incident, Justo Barreiro, motorman of the train, said he saw the slightly built young woman, with her shoulder-length hair and wearing jeans, pushed from the platform by a black youth “between 15 and 17 years old” wearing orange pants and a brown shirt. The assailant, Mr. Barreiro said, fled immediately to the street.

  “She was screaming for her mother and about how ‘I’ve got to go to college,’” Mr. Barreiro said. “Everybody in the train could hear the screams but there was really nobody on the platform to chase the kid who pushed her.”

  Once a Victim, She Is Seeking New Spotlight

  By CLYDE HABERMAN | November 21, 1997

  EVEN IF YOU KNEW NOTHING ABOUT HER, YOU could
tell right away that something really bad had once happened to Renee Katz. When she smiled hello, she stretched out her left arm to shake hands.

  Nothing personal, the smile said. But no way was she going to entrust her fragile right hand, which had been through so much, to the grip of a stranger.

  If you are a longtime New Yorker, odds are fair that the name has jostled old memories and set you to wondering, “Renee Katz, wasn’t she the one … ?’”

  And the answer is, yes, she was. She was the one who lived every subway rider’s nightmare one day in 1979.

  How many times has she been called upon to relive that morning? More than she’d care to count, she said the other day. All it takes is for somebody to land on the subway tracks, and, sure as God made the rush hour, the question will be asked: Whatever happened to Renee Katz?

  What happened is that she got on with her life, and that includes music. At 36, she is trying to make a career as a cabaret singer. Playing the flute or the piano is out of the question. But she can hold a mike in that well-bandaged right hand, and can deliver a ballad as sweetly as a breeze caressing the leaves. She has just recorded her first CD.

  She cannot escape the fact that her personal disaster was a turning point for many New Yorkers, permanently altering how they behave in the subways. The subways are safer now than in 1979, but they are still not safe enough for Ms. Katz. “I’ll use them in the daytime, with lots of people around,” she said. “But I don’t take them more than I have to.”

  Why Our Hero Leapt Onto the Tracks and We Might Not