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Twenty years ago Martin Scorsese made a movie about my life … Drugs was my downfall … I’m Henry Hill, the real Goodfella. The Real Goodfella, National Geographic 2017
I started hanging out with mobsters when I was ten, eleven years old. ibid.
I started dealing weight in marijuana and I started dabbling in cocaine too. ibid.
If Pauli had found out, no-one could have saved us … In a matter of weeks I became addicted to it [heroin]. ibid.
Wiseguys don’t talk like that with those corny lines, only cops do. ibid.
In 1988 a judge removed Henry from prison for his own safety. He served the remainder of his sentence in rehab. ibid.
In 1975 New York City was on the verge of collapse. For 30 years the politicians who ran the city had borrowed more and more money from the banks to pay for its growing services and welfare. By in the early ’70s the middle classes fled from the city, and taxes they paid disappeared with them. So the banks lent the city even more. But then they began to get worried about the size of the growing debt. Adam Curtis, HyperNormalisation, BBC 2016
Out of eight members, nine of them were bankers … The financial institutions took power away from the politicians and started to run society themselves. The city had no other option. The bankers enforced what was called austerity on the city … To them there was no alternative to this system: it should run society. ibid.
No-one opposed the bankers. ibid.
The rise of a new powerful individualism that could not fit with the idea of collective political action … ‘the revolution was deferred indefinitely.’ ibid.
Trump started to buy up derelict buildings in New York, and he announced he was going to transform them into luxury hotels and apartments. But in return he negotiated the biggest tax break in New York’s history worth $160 million. The city had to agree because they were desperate. And the banks seeing a new opportunity also started to lend him money. And Donald Trump began to transform New York into a city for the rich, while he paid practically nothing. ibid.
New York: the city that never sleeps. It’s home to some of the biggest, the richest, the busiest places and people on the planet. New York: World’s Richest City, Channel 5 2022
One of the most expensive places to live on the planet, with the average house price in Manhattan reaching around one million dollars. ibid.
We shadow the stressed out staff in Grand Central Station as they face line delays and a major incident. New York: World’s Richest City s1e2
The New York Sanitation Department: It’s the busiest garbage collection department on Earth with over 7,000 uniformed workers and 2,000 garbage trucks. ibid.
An estimated two million rodents call the Big Apple home. ibid.
In New York City bigger is always better. And for cabbie Solomon, one of its eight million residents, it’s the towering buildings that make the city so distinctive. New York: World’s Richest City s1e3
Empire State Building: at 443 metres high with 102 floors and 73 lifts, this world-famous landmark is so big, it even has its own postcode. ibid.
The Brooklyn Bridge 1883: Rising 276 feet above the water it stretches 5,989 feet from end to end. Four massive cables hold up a suspended central span of 1,595 feet and 6 inches. When the bridge opened in 1883 it was the longest suspension bridge in the world. Rob Bell, World’s Greatest Bridges s2e4: Brooklyn Bridge, Channel 5 2017
Ohio 1866: The John A Roebling Suspension bridge. ibid.
It [Brooklyn] shattered accepted notions about how long bridges could stretch, what they should look like and even how their built. ibid.
Easter Sunday 1937: New York: a shining city. The shining city. A diamond set betwixt the Hudson east and Harlem rivers. Scary Tales of New York s1e1: The Model & the Maniac, Sky History 2023
Sometimes a true crime story [Robert Irwin] comes along so good everyone wants a piece of it. The East Sunday massacre triple homicide in midtown in the spring of ’37 was exactly that kind of story. The mags and the rags instantly go crazy over one of the victims, Veronica ‘Ronnie’ Gadeon, a beautiful model for true crime titles including my own. ibid.
A bloody thumbprint left behind at the scene. It’s a stone-cold whodunnit. And one with sex fiend blazoned all over it in 72-point Railroad Gothic. ibid.
With Bob, all good things come to a violent end. ibid.
‘I said to myself I would sacrifice Ethel.’ ibid.
March 20th 1927: Deftly switchboard operator May Ruth Brown misdirects a call to a hotshot director Albert Snyder. And it plays out like a screwball comedy. The busy guy at the end of the line gives the doll a piece of his mind. And slams down the phone. But a couple of minutes later he rings her back, and by the end of the call he’s invited her to apply for a job at the magazine. This turns out to be one hell of a wrong connection. Scary Tales of New York s1e2: Double Indemnity
They call is Double Indemnity … It is clear all is not well in the Schneider home … Ruth shares this dark secret with Judd; she also reveals her solution to the problem. ibid.
Nothing in the way we reported the trial undermines the image of Ruthie as a primo femme fatale. ibid.
‘I struck Albert on the head. One blow.’ ibid.
Ours is a tale of broken promises, bigamy, bad wigs, voodoo, love and murder … The Lonely Hearts Killers. Scary Tales of New York s1e3: The Lonely Hearts Killers
A small ad in the broadsheets might be the answer. ibid.
Martha Beck … A letter arrives from a fellow offering ‘tender companionship and maybe more’. His name: Ray Fernandez. ibid.
‘People who knew him before said that his personality really changed after his head injury. ibid. Dr Nell Darby
Albert Anastasia … First chance he gets, Albert along with three of his seven brothers, takes to sea and jumps ship in the port of New York. Scary Tales of New York s1e4: Haircut for a Mob Boss
Witnesses against Albert Anastasia can expect a very short life. ibid.
Lucky Luciano and Albert Anastasia are soldiers for Joe the Boss Masseria. ibid.
Albert Anastasia is made underboss in the Mangano family. ibid.
March 29th 1951: A bomb might be about to go off. Not for 3 minutes but for 16 years … Between November 1940 and January 1957 that’s exactly what the fine people of New York had to live with. 32 bombs, 22 explosions, all over the city. Tick-tocks left like Easter eggs. Scary Tales of New York s1e5: The Mad Bomber
The bomber pens dozens of letters, many of them to the press. ibid.
‘I knew the game was up. They asked me all sorts of questions … FP stands for fair play.’ ibid. George Metesky
New York City’ ants: they are thriving because of junk food. David Attenborough, Planet Earth s3e7: Humans, BBC 2023
Pavement ants are so successful here that they outnumber human New Yorkers a thousand to one. ibid.
In the shadows of New York City there may be a vicious monster on the loose. In areas that are not usually home to large predators. MonsterQuest s3e23: Tiger in the Suburbs, History 2009
A plane takes off for a routine flight from New York. But within seconds the aircraft is in trouble. On the ground below New Yorkers witness the terrifying sight. As the pilot struggles at the controls, the aircraft is torn apart. Within seconds the plane plummets to earth, smashing into a once-peaceful suburb. 265 people are dead. Seconds from Disaster s3e3: Plane Crash in Queens
The truth will rock the aviation industry to its core. ibid.
AA flight 587 [Airbus A300-600R]: Hundreds of firefighters from across the city are fighting the blaze … Airports are closed and all civil aircraft are grounded … Americans fear their worst nightmare is unfolding once more. ibid.
Witnesses saw the plane break up in flight … Five extreme movements of the rudder causing the plane to lurch violently … The pilot broke the aircraft. ibid.
2004: Terrifying explosions rock New York City … The manhole cover hits the car with the force of a missile … The pressure from these escaping gasses builds up in the manhole. Strange Evidence s1e3, History 2024