Nick and Gabriele knew from all the articles written about it that the fire was designated as arson, but neither the press nor they were privy to any information as to how that was determined.  

Who committed the arson and why? Dan Hays from the New York Daily News wrote five articles trying to get to the bottom of the cops’ involvement before his editor pulled the plug. At the same time, Nick was doing his own investigation around the blue wall of silence until grief and guilt at not having been there to save Mister Lee overtook him. 

The fire was started at around 5am on a morning when Nick was sleeping comfortably in his Brooklyn bed, which drove him literally crazy. When he got to the Hill that morning, he walked into a crime scene investigation, with Mister Lee uncovered, frozen manikin-like, unrecognizable, and, most eerily, upright in a kind of kneeling tai-chi position that looked like he faced the smoke, the fire -- death -- head on, with acceptance and courage, like a warrior. 

The next day, it was front-page news in the New York Daily News: “Shanty Inferno – arsonists target poorest of the poor; one killed.”  

“Residents of the modern-day Hooverville, on the Manhattan side of the bridge, said the blaze was set by two pistol-carrying drug dealers from a nearby public housing complex who bore a grudge against a resident who survived.” 

But that wasn’t the full story. And now the circus began: Rev. Melvin Walker (an Al Sharpton wannabe), Dan Hays (Daily News reporter), the city medical examiner, the cops, ADA Greenbaum, Spencer, the Hill’s drug lord... all had agendas that N & G needed to navigate. 

Gabriele and Margaret Morton were taking care of business – getting the body released from the medical examiner to the funeral home, going to the funeral, planning the memorial at The Hill, etc., while Nick was wandering the streets getting more and more lost, both within himself and from Gabriele. 

#homelessencampment #homeless #nychistory #1990s #drugwars #policecorruption #truecrime #shantytown 

For extensive documentation and to purchase the book, "The Hill": thievestheatre.org 

Contact Nick and Gabriele: podcast@thievestheatre.org 

@tipionthehill 

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