This is a local bar aptly named “Speakeasy”.  It’s located on 5th Avenue at 95th Street. 

Besides being the backdrop to numerous nonlethal stabbings, including one earlier this month when two strangers walked in and stabbed a guy in the chest and back, it was the scene of at least one lethal stabbing. 

Now unfortunately this one falls under the “cannot figure google and the news out” by way of their lack of cooperation for locating any news stories of this, it apparently happened at some point in the last two or so years. 

The basics were that two young guys got into an argument outside of Speakeasy, and ended up stabbing each other, only one of them actually landed a mortal wound.

Senseless…

This is 86th Street between 3rd and 4th Avenue.  The Fedders building in the center with the odd staircase was once the scene of gore.

This scene of gore falls into the sad sad land of “Ungoogleable” – I just cannot find any information on it, but I know that it happened.

It was either in the very late 80s or perhaps very early 90s, the Fedders weren’t there, and in their place was an apartment building.  If memory serves correct I believe that it was early a Sunday evening when out of the blue the building completely collapsed.

I’m talking multiple stories of apartments piled down all on top of one another – leaving at least one person dead inside. 

What a way to go…

This is an apartment building on the narrow and sleepy 100th Street between 3rd and 4th Avenues.

On July 19, 2007 this building was the scene of a horrible death.  The building superintendent found Magdy Okelly in his third floor apartment around 8:30AM bound with duct tape, beaten and stabbed to death.

Several men and a woman were seen leaving his apartment.  Last I heard, nobody has ever been caught and charged with this heinous act of violence.

This is the now restored Shore Road Bike Path.  It runs for several miles along the lower New York Harbor.

It’s quite picturesque at times.

It is also the scene of quite possibly the one stop on the Gore Tour that made me gag and feel sick to my stomach over.

It was along this bike path on July 11, 2005 that Keith Alexander Bonanno met a horrific end while enjoying a bike ride.  I knew Keith as being the local body piercer, and all around friendly guy who I had frequented for some work a couple of times.

This was were his shop was, it is now the home of Brooklyn Ink.

Keith’s shop was Brooklyn’s first body piercing shop.  He was a very knowledgeable and amazing piercer so much so that I didn’t even feel a pinch when he pierced.  Afterwards we’d just shoot the breeze for a couple of minutes just talking.

[photo of Keith: Dee Snider.com]

Keith was way more than just a body piercer, he was the lead guitarist of the influential Thrash Metal band Carnivore, he also toured with Dee Snider’s Sick Muthaf**kers, and besides being an educator at The New School he was an O.G. Blogger. 

From what I gathered from him those couple of times chatting it up with him and from what I’ve read on his blogs, the man was a good man and truly lived life!

Back to the scene of the gore, back in 2005 the bike path wasn’t so smooth or tree lined.

And it certainly did not have this chain link fence protecting the people on the bike path from the Belt Parkway guardrail.

Back in 2005 the bike path was full of deep pot holes and had a mishmash of haphazard repairs.

From what I’ve been told about the accident, Keith wasn’t wearing a helmet and was riding his bike on the bike path when a little kid ran out in front of him on the path.  He apparently swerved so that he wouldn’t crash into and hurt the little kid.

In the process of swerving out of the way he apparently rode his bike into a pot hole, crashing, flipping off of his bike and landing head first into the guardrail – he apparently died rather quickly.

I’m told is that the accident happened in between the 92nd Street and 80th Street highway overpasses.  I walked the length of the path and found this guardrail.

It is spray painted red, and has numerous tie wraps on it – the kind that are used to keep flowers in place – there was also some plastic wrap stuck in some of the tie wraps.  Not one other guardrail post has anything similar to this, so I can only wonder if this is the one.

Thankfully the bike path has been fixed since, but what a terrible yet noble way to go…

Here’s Keith’s blog, it was really good, and here’s his amazing journeythrough getting a massive koi fish tattoo.

This is the very sleepy Marine Avenue near 97th Street.

It is probably the sleepiest location of our Gore Tour as it is avenues and blocks past the last stop on the subway and contains some really big, gorgeous, and well kept homes on the side streets.

When I was a little kid I used to walk through this intersection on my way to and from little league baseball and soccer games.  It was back around the year 1990 that I recall the “Wanted” signs hanging up all over this intersection – back when NYC was a much different place than it is now – back when it was rich with grand theft auto.

As the story goes, man had agreed to meet a potential buyer of a car that he owned on the corner of 97th and Marine.  When the potential buyer showed up, he let on that he wasn’t interested in buying the car and that he was much more interested in stealing the car.

The car’s owner ended up being shot to death during the five finger discount and the shooting thief managed to get away.

I’m not sure if anyone was ever caught in regards to this, and it was definitely one of those moments as a kid that really opened my eyes to the fact that people were crazy enough to do such crazy things so close to where I live.