I know him. It's Samuel Kapp, though he'll use any other number of
names, usually of people he's known who have passed away. In the
early 70's he was a underground Teamster leader for printing shops in
the Manhattan and Brooklyn areas. He later dropped out of that due to
heart problems and then ended up in charge on the Regency Theater
revitalization program, of which he was a part owner. The famous 2nd
avenue theater property was his and he maintained it at a loss. By
the mid 80's he'd sold off his other properties and bought 55% a
stake in the mostly vacant Citicorp Center Building. That probably
brought him his largest profits before he suffered a stroke in 1989.
After six months of rehab he checked himself out of Roosevelt
Hospital and became homeless. He was a popular poster-child for
mental illness for two years and enjoyed being photographed. He's
been photographed as recently as 2006, though efforts to publish
those photos usually fade or are ruined outright. In 2005 Ed Stiller
of Newsweek claimed he had photographed Kapp outside of the Citicorp
building and wearing a NYC baseball cap with a wool cap pulled over
it. That photo was lost from his computer and all records of it
strangely vanished within a few months. This has been reported at
least 3 times since then. Stiller himself soon contracted a
inexplicable illness that left him unable to keep his body
temperature constant and he died from a related fever a year after
taking the photo. John Kazerowski of the NY Times also claimed he'd
photographed Kapp and 9 months later was killed when he fell through
the ice at Flushing Meadow lake in Queens while shooting skaters.
Samuel Kapp was found frozen and dead in 1998, his face frozen to the
glass of the servace entrance of the Citicorp Building. His body was
clothed as always and he still wore his old building key around his
neck, though it no longer fit any of the building locks. At the time
of his death, Kapp's estate was still worth more than 9 million
dollars.
Sweet dreams...and good night!
--
Thomas (Lord Nikon!)
