Rightly or wrongly, the Big Apple is well-known for its violence. Here are a few famous people who ended up on the wrong end of a New York gun.
THE FIRST “TRIAL OF THE CENTURY”
On a warm afternoon in June 1906, as famed architect Stanford White sat watching a show at the new Madison Square Garden (which he had designed), nobody thought much about the young man who approached him wearing a long black coat despite the heat. When the man, Harry Thaw, pulled a gun, the high-society audience initially thought it was a part of the show. But when White slumped over dead, panic ensued.
Thaw had been madly in love with the beautiful Evelyn Nesbit, a model and chorus girl whose looks had also caught the eye of White and actor John Barrymore, among others. Thaw repeatedly asked Nesbit to marry him, but she put him off, saying that she and White were having an affair.
The jealous Thaw was furious that White had “taken her honor,” but he and Nesbit did eventually marry. Soon after, she told friends that Thaw was suspicious and abusive. He seemed obsessed with thoughts of his wife and Stanford White until, on June 25, his anger finally spilled over.
The case first went to trial in January 1907 amid a frenzy of media coverage in which the sensationalized case was referred to as the “trial of the century,” but the jury ended up deadlocked. Thaw pleaded insanity at his second trial and was committed to the state hospital in Fishkill, New York. He escaped briefly to Canada, was extradited back to the U.S., and was finally released in 1915. Evelyn Nesbit had been granted a divorce while Thaw was still in prison, and they went their separate ways.
YOU’RE FIRED!
On August 9, 1910, New York mayor William J. Gaynor was boarding a ship at a dock along the Hudson River, in preparation for a vacation cruise. Photographer William Warnecke hung around after the other photojournalists left, figuring he could get a good, casual shot of Gaynor. But instead, he caught an assassination attempt: Disgruntled ex-city employee James Gallagher stepped up to Gaynor and shot him in the throat…at the exact moment that Warnecke snapped a photo. Gaynor survived, but the bullet was never removed, and three years later, he died from the lingering effects of the bullet lodged in his neck. Gaynor remains the only New York City mayor to have been shot while in office.
YOU NEVER KNOW WHO’S IN THE AUDIENCE
Malcolm Little of Nebraska grew up to be one of the most controversial civil rights leaders in American history: Malcolm X. His admirers called him a great advocate for African Americans, but critics demonized him for advocating violence and racism. For many years, Malcolm had been an outspoken leader of the Nation of Islam, a religious organization whose mission was to raise the economic, social, and spiritual position of African Americans. But a 1963 falling out with the group’s leaders led Malcolm to leave the group.
On February 21, 1965, Malcolm X attended a rally in Washington Heights. Just as he stepped onto the stage to speak, Thomas Hagan, a disgruntled Nation of Islam member, pulled a sawed-off shotgun from underneath his coat and shot the civil rights leader in the chest. Malcolm’s supporters immediately rushed forward, tackling and attacking Hagan before he could be captured and arrested by police. Hagan and two coconspirators were taken to jail, but Malcolm X died immediately. It was reported afterward that the civil rights leader had been afraid for his life and had begun carrying a pistol for self-defense, but he was unarmed when he was killed.
I’M NOT A FAN, REALLY
In 1967, writer and feminist extremist Valerie Solanas met artist and filmmaker Andy Warhol outside his studio in New York City and handed him a script she’d written, hoping that he might produce it. Initially, Warhol was interested, but after reading the play (an angry, pornographic, man-hating story), he suspected that Solanas was working with the police—he’d been accused of producing pornography in the past and feared a setup, so he didn’t contact Solanas about the play. Eventually, though, Solanas got in touch with him, and they began a shaky collaboration. Warhol gave her a role in two of his movies, but in the end, her extreme views and behavior ended the relationship.
Q: What do rapper Tupac Shakur and punk-rocker Sid Vicious have in common? A: Both spent time in Riker’s Island.
On June 3, 1968, Andy Warhol arrived at the Factory, a New York art studio where he made his films…and Solanas was waiting for him. She pulled out a gun and fired three shots; two missed, but one hit Warhol in the chest. Then she shot another man (art critic Mario Amaya) before fleeing. Solanas later turned herself in. Warhol survived—but barely—and suffered health problems from the injury for the rest of his life. He died in 1987. Solanas was tried and declared criminally insane. After many years in mental hospitals, she died in 1988.
THE VOICES MADE HIM DO IT
As a teenager, Mark David Chapman loved the Beatles, especially John Lennon, but the admiration grew to obsession and disillusionment as he grew into adulthood. Twice, he left his home and his wife in Hawaii and flew to New York to kill Lennon, thinking that fans would someday mention his name along with those of the Fab Four. But he changed his mind both times. (Once he needed to buy bullets, and the second time, he had a brief change of heart.)
On December 8, 1980, Chapman met an unsuspecting John Lennon on the street, chatted with him, and got him to autograph a copy of an album for him. Chapman later claimed that “voices” were telling him to kill Lennon even during that meeting, but it wasn’t until later that night that the “voices” won. As Lennon and his wife Yoko Ono returned home to the Dakota apartment building, Chapman fired five times…and four of the bullets hit the musician.
Chapman didn’t run. He didn’t even try to deny what he’d done. Police said afterward that he was polite and noncombative when they arrested him. Chapman eventually pleaded guilty to murder and was sent to Attica. John Lennon lived for half an hour after the shooting, but died on the way to Roosevelt Hospital.
IT’S A RAP
Many rap artists have been shot in New York City, but rapper Lloyd Banks might be one of the most incredible. Banks grew up in South Jamaica, Queens, and released his first album with the group G-Unit in 2003. But on September 10, 2001, Banks was shot at a nightclub in Queens, the victim of stray gunfire. Some accounts say he walked himself to a hospital, but Banks told MTV that he ran there…10 blocks. He woke up the next day to the devastation of 9/11.