69

THE FOLLOWING IS A typed transcription (NYDA-#146-121AT) from an original recording (NYDA-#146-121A) made on 11 September, 1968, at Mother of Mercy Hospital, New York City. The witness is Gerald Bingham, Sr., resident of Apartment 5A, 535 East Seventy-third Street, New York, New York.

QUESTION: Glad to see you looking better, Mr. Bingham. How do you feel?

BINGHAM: Oh, I feel a lot better. The swelling is down, and I received some good news this morning. The doctors say I won’t lose the sight of my right eye. They say the sight may be slightly impaired, but I’ll be able to see out of it.

QUESTION: Mr. Bingham, I’m glad to hear that … real glad. I can imagine how you felt.

BINGHAM: Yes … well … you know. …

QUESTION: Mr. Bingham, there are just a few details in your previous statement we’d like to get cleared up—if you feel you’re up to it.

BINGHAM: Oh, yes. I feel fine. As a matter of fact, I welcome your visit. Very boring—just lying here.

QUESTION: I can imagine. Well, what we wanted to clear up was the period around three thirty on the morning of 1 September, 1968. According to your previous statement, you were at that time in Apartment Four B with the other tenants and the doorman. You were being guarded by the man who struck you in the face and kicked you earlier in your own apartment. This man was carrying a weapon. Is that correct?

BINGHAM: Yes, that’s right.

QUESTION: Do you know anything about handguns, Mr. Bingham?

BINGHAM: Yes … a little. I served with the Marines in Korea.

QUESTION: Can you identify the weapon the man was carrying?

BINGHAM: It looked to me like a government issue Colt .45 automatic pistol of the 1917 series.

QUESTION: Are you certain?

BINGHAM: Fairly certain, yes. I had range training with a gun like that.

QUESTION: At the time in question—that is, three thirty on the morning of first September—what was your physical condition?

BINGHAM: You mean was I fully conscious and alert?

QUESTION: Well … yes. Were you?

BINGHAM: No. My eye was quite painful, and I was getting this throbbing ache from where he had kicked me. They had put me on the couch in Mrs. Hathway’s living room—it was really a Victorian love seat covered with red velvet. My wife was holding a cold, wet towel to my eye, and Dr. Rubicoff from downstairs was helping also. I think I was a little hazy at the time. Perhaps I was in mild shock. You know, it was the first time in my life I had been struck in anger. I mean, it was the first time I had ever been physically assaulted. It was a very unsettling experience.

QUESTION: Yes, Mr. Bingham, I know.

BINGHAM: The idea that a man I didn’t know had struck me and injured me, and then had kicked me … to tell you the truth, I felt so ashamed of myself. I know this was probably a strange reaction to have, but that’s the way I felt.

QUESTION: You were ashamed?

BINGHAM: Yes. That’s the feeling I had.

QUESTION: But why should you feel ashamed? You had done all you could—which was, incidentally, much more than many other men would have done. You reacted very quickly. You tried to defend your family. There was no reason why you should have been ashamed of yourself.

BINOHAM: Well, that’s the way I felt. Perhaps it was because the man with the gun treated me—and the others, too—with such utter, brutal contempt. The way he waved that gun around. The way he laughed. I could see he was enjoying it. He shoved us around. When he wanted the doorman to get away from the window, he didn’t tell him to get away; he shoved him so that poor Tim O’Leary fell down. Then the man laughed again. I think I was afraid of him. Maybe that’s why I felt ashamed.

QUESTION: The man was threatening you with a loaded gun. There was good reason to be frightened.

BINGHAM: Well … I don’t know. I was in action in Korea. Small-scale infantry action. I was frightened then, too, but I wasn’t ashamed. There’s a difference but it’s hard to explain. I knew this man was very sick and very brutal and very dangerous.

QUESTION: Well, let’s drop that and get on. … Now, you said that at about three thirty—maybe a little later—four of the others came in and moved all of you to Apartment Four A across the hall.

BINGHAM: That’s correct. I was able to walk, supported by my wife and Dr. Rubicoff, and they got us all out of Apartment Four B and into Four A.

QUESTION: Did they tell you why they were moving you?

BINGHAM: No. The man who seemed to be the leader just came in and said, “Everyone across the hall. Make it fast. Move.” Or something like that.

QUESTION: He told you to make it fast?

BINGHAM: Yes. Perhaps I was imagining things—I was still shaky, you understand—but I thought there was a tension there. They prodded us to move faster. They seemed to be in a big hurry now. When they first came to my apartment earlier in the evening they were more controlled, more deliberate. Now they were hurrying and pushing people.

QUESTION: Why did you think that was?

BINGHAM: I thought they seemed frightened, that something was threatening them and they wanted to wind up everything and get out in a hurry. That’s the impression I got.

QUESTION: You thought they were frightened? Didn’t that make you feel better? BINGHAM: No. I was still ashamed of myself.