The end of the story. The story that never ends. 

Nick and Gabriele narrate their final days on The Hill, leading up to the day it was finally razed, and tell what they know about what happened to their neighbors and friends in the aftermath. 

They bring together their past and present research but are unable to discover the true story behind the arson/murder of Mister Lee.  

In this final episode, N & G reflect on how creating The Hill: A Thieves Theatre Podcast has intertwined their past and present lives on a metaphysical level. In their search for meaning, uncanny synchronicities tease and taunt. 

“Other animals do not need a purpose in life. ...the human animal cannot do without one. Can we not think of the aim of life as being simply to see?” John Gray, “Straw Dogs” 

“I mean Negative Capability, that is, when a man is capable of being in uncertainties, mysteries, doubts, without any irritable reaching after fact and reason.” -- John Keats 

People v. Fossett: https://casetext.com/case/people-v-fossett 

Greenbaum obituary: https://www.allencares.com/obituaries/Joel-Greenbaum-2/#!/Obituary 

#homelessencampment #homeless #nychistory #1990s #truecrime #shantytown #johnkeats #johnkeatsquote #johngray  

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

Contact Nick and Gabriele: podcast@thievestheatre.org 

@tipionthehill 

An Untamed Network Original Podcast: www.untamedriver.com 

Podcast Management: bfisher@untamedriver.com 

Ad sales: lwestbrook@untamedriver.com 

Plagued by grief and guilt, and estranged from everyone, including Gabriele, Nick wanders the streets hunting for Mister Lee’s murderer. Wearing his ghost shirt, he dances himself into trance-like states, and starts receiving visions, signs... directives for what he needs to do to complete his mission. On his journey into the world of mysticism and magic, he is given comfort and direction from fellow travelers, “mentally ill” street people in the East Village. 

Someone may be ‘out of touch’ with consensus reality, but they’re actually ‘in touch’ with mythic/mystic realms, which other cultures, like Hindu and Native American cultures have long recognized – two different paradigms. In The Matrix terms, it’s the difference between taking the blue pill and the red pill. 

Nick talks about growing up on a farm, hunting and trapping, including snapping turtles... “tortuga.” 

Nick reads part of the narration of their film “Tortuga Crawl.” Gabriele reads her tribute to Mister Lee that was read on the day of his memorial service on The Hill. 

#homelessencampment #homeless #nychistory #1990s #truecrime #shantytown #thematrix #josephcampbell #mentalillness #theherosjourney

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

Contact Nick and Gabriele: podcast@thievestheatre.org

@tipionthehill

An Untamed Network Original Podcast: www.untamedriver.com

Podcast Management: bfisher@untamedriver.com

Ad sales: lwestbrook@untamedriver.com

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 

An Untamed Network Original Podcast: www.untamedriver.com 

Podcast Management: bfisher@untamedriver.com 

Ad sales: lwestbrook@untamedriver.com