This is episode 5 of my series where I walk around certain neighborhoods and film a street. In this instance I am on Wyckoff Ave in Bushwick in Brooklyn and I film every building between Palmetto (Myrtle) and Linden St., then I superimpose an image into the video of the same building from 1939-41. I don’t have the exact date of each image but they were all taken during those three years.
This series of videos are quite popular and I have done previous ones in Ridgewood and Glendale in Queens. Just click the play button in the middle of the image below to watch the video.
Located in Middle Village, Queens, the General Slocum Disaster happened in 1904 in one of the worst disasters in USA history. One thousand and twenty one people lost their lives that day, mostly all women and children.
The PS General Slocum was a sidewheel passenger steamboat built in Brooklyn, New York, in 1891. During her service history, she was involved in a number of mishaps, including multiple groundings and collisions.
On June 15, 1904, General Slocum caught fire and sank in the East River of New York City. At the time of the accident, she was on a chartered run carrying members of St. Mark’s Evangelical Lutheran Church (German Americans from Little Germany, Manhattan) to a church picnic. An estimated 1,021 of the 1,342 people on board died. The General Slocum disaster was the New York area’s worst disaster in terms of loss of life until the September 11, 2001 attacks. It is the worst maritime disaster in the city’s history, and the second worst maritime disaster on United States waterways. The events surrounding the General Slocum fire have been explored in a number of books, plays, and movies.
Click the play button in the middle of the image below to watch the video.
My story today is about NYPD Detective Anthony J. Venditti and his encounter with the Genovese organized crime family.
On the fateful evening of January 21, 1986, Detective Venditti entered Castillo’s diner which was in Ridgewood, Queens, whilst on a mission to surveil members of the Genovese family.
Assigned to the case alongside his temporary partner, Detective Venditti, a seasoned 14-year veteran of the NYPD, trailed Federico “Fritzy” Giovanelli, a member of the Genovese crime family, as part of an ongoing illegal gambling investigation. The pursuit brought them to a location near Myrtle and St. Nicholas avenues in Ridgewood, Queens.
Upon entering the diner, Detective Venditti emerged moments later, only to be confronted by members of the Genovese organized crime family. The mobsters shoved him against a wall, prompting Detective Burke to intervene. Her warning, however, was met with gunfire as the suspects pulled out their weapons.
Detective Venditti, struck four times, twice in the head and twice in the back, succumbed to his injuries, while Burke, critically wounded, managed to recover. The tragedy marked the end of a remarkable career, earning Venditti posthumously the NYPD Medal of Honor, the highest tribute bestowed upon an officer.
Today I visit Forest Hills in Queens for a look at The Ramones Ramp. All four original members of the band would hang out here in the 1970s and they all went to school just up the road at Forest Hills High School. It might be a stretch to call the place the ‘Birthplace’ of punk, what with earlier pioneering bands such as Television, MC5 and The Stooges, but The Ramones certainly brought their own style to the punk scene and can definitely be considered pioneers as well.
Walking In NYC 