Issuu

The Paper of Record for East and West Villages, Lower East Side, Soho, Noho, Little Italy and Chinatown

January 21, 2016 • FREE Volume 5 • Number 24

An E.V. landlord’s past assault conviction has his tenants more worried BY YANNIC RACK

hile dozens of East Village residents have accused their new landlord of shady practices ever since he bought their buildings last year, they may be surprised to find out that he also has a criminal past. Raphael Toledano, the

25-year-old who last September expanded his real estate portfolio in the neighborhood with the purchase of 16 buildings, is the subject of a state investigation into tenant harassment. In addition, The Villager has learned that he was convicted of aggravated assault and TOLEDANO continued on p. 16

Squadron slams Senate for refusing to consider the Elevator Safety Act BY YANNIC RACK

enants and politicians joined in calling on state legislators to pass a bill that would improve regulation and licensing for elevator workers after a 25-year-old man was crushed to death in an elevator on New Year’s Eve. Stephen Hewett-Brown,

an aspiring rapper from the Bronx, was heading to a party at 131 Broome St. when he was fatally injured in an accident just before midnight on Dec. 31. When the elevator got stuck between floors, HewettBrown reportedly helped others get out, but was pinned ELEVATOR continued on p. 4

Front row, from left, Lenore, 7, Diane, 8, Jenean, 9, and Dorothy, 10, with Romola and David Lloyd Wilkie — later known as Adam Purple — on their passport photo to emigrate to Australia in 1964.

All Purple’s daughters BY LINCOLN ANDERSON

verything is true,” said Diane Beastrom. One of Adam Purple’s former stepdaughters, she called The Villager three weeks ago — the day after the newspaper’s publication of “The dark side of Purple,” an exposé of the urban gardening legend’s shocking history of sexual abuse and imprisonment — to tell her own story. Beastrom, in turn, provided a contact number for her

sister, Dorothy Brooks, in Australia, who in short order recounted to The Villager her years of nightly sexual abuse, culminating in rape, by Purple, real name David Lloyd Wilkie. “He was truly a horrible monster,” Dorothy said. “I am still recovering.” Diane also provided a phone number for Lenore Wilkie, David Wilkie’s youngest biological daughter, who, in phone interviews, similarly shared her vivid memories of growing up in the sexually deviant

household, which she credits with sending her life on a downward spiral into decades of homelessness and prostitution. Lenore also said that when she went to live with Wilkie on the Lower East Side when she was 16, he had her put in an IUD — her assumption being he clearly hoped to have sex with her — and that it left her permanently unable to bear children. In “The dark side of Purple,” Jenean, Wilkie’s oldest PURPLE continued on p. 8

WWW.EASTVILLAGERNEWS.COM

Twin Peaks in the flesh.................page 21 www.EastVillagerNews.com | May 14, 2014

& MORE SINCE 198 PIES 2! O C

COPIES • COLOR PRINTS • FAX • SCANNING STICKERS • RUBBER STAMPS • BUSINESS CARDS LAMINATING • BINDING • VIDEO & CASSETTE CONVERSIONS UNIQUE GREETING CARDS • OFFICE SUPPLIES SAVE TIME: SEND YOUR FILES TO: santo@sourceunltd.com & PICK UP @ STORE!

331 East 9th Street, New York, NY 10003 Phone: 212-473-7833 / Fax: 212-673-5248 www.sourceunltd.com

“It’s worth the trip down the street!”

TRAGIC CRUSTY CODA: David McKee a.k.a. Natas, died in late August in Tompkins Square Park after his pit bull, Jax, earlier that month had gone on a bloody rampage in the East Village, attacking both a dog and a man. Jax’s victims included Sidney, famed punk-rock photographer Roberta Bayley’s pug, who was attacked outside her home on St. Mark’s Place. Sidney received emergency surgery but didn’t pull through. A few days later, Jax attacked Michael Puzzo, chomping him under his arm, after Puzzo tried to defend his girlfriend’s little dog, Bobito, from a Jax attack. One outreach worker had speculated that McKee might have been suffering alcohol-withdrawal effects and fallen and struck his head. Well, the New York City Office of Chief Medical Examiner recently told us the cause of death for Natas (“Satan” spelled backwards), who was a “crusty traveler.” “The cause of death is acute intoxication by the combined effects of heroin, benzodiazepine and alcohol. The manner of death is accident,” Julie Bolcer, the medical examiner’s director of public affairs, reported. “Accident” means it was not “homicide, suicide or natural,” Bolcer explained. By coincidence, a cousin of Natas recently posted a comment on The Villager’s article about the troubled young homeless man’s death, in which she also apologizes for the swath of terror he and Jax blazed through the East Village last summer. He wasn’t some “fauxbo.” He just had a really tough life. For more, see this week’s Letters to The Editor. BAL SAYS NO! As we reported last week, YuhLine Niou has strongly called for a special election for the 65th Assembly District to be held on presidential primary day, April 19, as Governor Andrew Cuomo initially signaled he planned to do. Until now, though, Niou has been the only one taking a firm stand one way or the other on the issue. Word has it that other options would be to hold the “special” in June, or just wait till September and hold an open primary. This week, John Bal,

Arch ’nt yah glad to be reading your community newspaper?

another Assembly hopeful, weighed in, slamming the idea of a special election for the vacant seat formerly held by Sheldon Silver. “There should not be a special election to fill the 65th Assembly District seat,” he said. “The nominating process favors district leaders and political clubs — not our community. Grassroots candidates, such as myself and others, who are not a member of a political club are at a disadvantage.”

HEART-WRENCHING SITUATION: We stopped by the other day to say hi to Ray at his candy store on Avenue A and E. Seventh St., and were disturbed to hear about the difficulty he’s having affording his heart medicine. Back in June, Ray, now 83, underwent heart surgery and had a pig valve put in, along with a pacemaker. But he still needs a virtual pharmacy cabinet of pricey pills. They cost him about $400 a month. He told us he tried forgoing the meds for one month to try to save money, but he really started to feel the effects. He showed us his bag full of pill bottles, and it’s quite a stash — big bottles, little bottles, big pills, little pills — you would think he’s a drug dealer. Obviously, he needs this medicine badly, so that he can keep serving up delicious egg creams and sugar-dusted beignets to the grateful neighborhood. How come Ray can’t have the medicine he needs covered by insurance? Obamacare — where are you? NOW WE’RE COOKING! Like restaurants? Like being on the water? The Hudson River Park Trust is issuing a request for proposals, or R.F.P., for a shortterm lease (four years, two two-year extensions) for a seasonal cafe space near the foot of the Christopher St. Pier. According to the Trust: “This unique waterfront space offers an enclosed cooking kiosk, dedicated outdoor seating and the opportunity for two mobile concession units. The Greenwich Village section of the park is one of the most popular, with frequent free Trust-sponsored events attracting even more park users.” If interested, better hurry up and apply! Responses are due Feb. 8. For more information, go to https://www.hudsonriverpark.org/aboutus/bids-business-opportunities .

CALL TO SUBSCRIBE

646-452-2475

s s i m t n o D g’e issue! a sin l Call 646-452-2475 To Subscribe!

January 21, 2016

EastVillagerNews.com

January 21, 2016

Named best weekly newspaper in New York State in 2001, 2004 and 2005 by New York Press Association Editorials, First Place, 2014 Overall Design Excellence, First Place, 2013 Best Column, First Place, 2012 Photographic Excellence, First Place, 2011 Spot News Coverage, First Place, 2010 Coverage of Environment, First Place, 2009

PUBLISHER JENNIFER GOODSTEIN

EDITOR IN CHIEF LINCOLN ANDERSON

ARTS EDITOR

SCOTT STIFFLER

CONTRIBUTORS ALBERT AMATEAU IRA BLUTREICH SARAH FERGUSON TEQUILA MINSKY CLAYTON PATTERSON JEFFERSON SIEGEL ZACH WILLIAMS SHARON WOOLUMS

ART DIRECTOR MICHAEL SHIREY

GRAPHIC DESIGNERS RHIANNON HSU CHRIS ORTIZ

EXECUTIVE VP OF ADVERTISING AMANDA TARLEY

ACCOUNT EXECUTIVES JACK AGLIATA ALLISON GREAKER JENNIFER HOLLAND JIM STEELE JULIO TUMBACO

MARVIN ROCK

Member of the National Newspaper Association

The Villager (USPS 578930) ISSN 0042-6202 is published every week by NYC Community Media LLC, One Metrotech North, 10th floor Brooklyn, NY 11201 (212) 229-1890. Periodicals Postage paid at New York, N.Y. Annual subscription by mail in Manhattan and Brooklyn $29 ($35 elsewhere). Single copy price at office and newsstands is $1. The entire contents of newspaper, including advertising, are copyrighted and no part may be reproduced without the express permission of the publisher - © 2016 NYC Community Media LLC. PUBLISHER’S LIABILITY FOR ERROR

The Publisher shall not be liable for slight changes or typographical errors that do not lessen the value of an advertisement. The publisher’s liability for others errors or omissions in connection with an advertisement is strictly limited to publication of the advertisement in any subsequent issue. Published by NYC Community Media, LLC One Metrotech North 10th floor Brooklyn, NY 11201 Phone: (718) 260-2500 • Fax: (212) 229-2790 On-line: www.thevillager.com E-mail: news@thevillager.com © 2016 NYC Community Media, LLC

Squadron: Senate must pass Elevator Safety Act ELEVATOR continued from p. 1

CIRCULATION SALES MNGR.

Member of the New York Press Association

At a press conference last week at the Grand St. Guild houses, state Senator Daniel Squadron, speaking at microphone, Assemblymember Keith Wright, to the right of him, tenant leaders and union members said it’s high time that the state Senate pass a stalled bill on elevator safety.

January 21, 2016

between the elevator’s roof and the third floor when the cab suddenly dropped. Last week, state Senator Daniel Squadron and Assemblymember Keith Wright, from Harlem, stood with tenants and union members in front of the building to call for improved regulation to avoid similar accidents in the future. “In New York, elevators are part of our daily lives. We need to ensure they are up to the safety standards on which lives depend,” said Squadron, who is a co-sponsor of the Elevator Safety Act. Wright is a sponsor of the legislation in the Assembly. “The death of Stephen HewettBrown is a reminder of the need for commonsense standards for elevator work,” Squadron added. The bill, introduced in 2011, has passed four times in the Assembly but has been repeatedly blocked by the Senate majority, according to Squadron — despite its having 40 co-sponsors. He said it would provide baseline worker credentials, which already exist for many other trades, and would ensure better training for personnel

who work on elevators. “To think that the tragic death of Mr. Hewett-Brown could have been avoided with proper elevator upkeep by licensed professionals is more than enough reason to take action today,” Wright said. Tenants at the Broome St. building, as well as two other buildings on Grand St., which together form the Grand Street Guild complex, say they have been complaining about faulty elevators for years — but that their concerns were not addressed by a multimillion-dollar renovation in 2011. “I think we were shortchanged,” said Daisy Paez, the president of the Grand Street Guild Tenants Association, who has lived at 410 Grand St. for 30 years. Paez said problems with stuck elevators and faulty intercoms have started to pile up, and added that she got trapped in an elevator herself just last month. “What happens is, the elevator starts jumping, like you’re on an airplane, and all of a sudden there’s a big drop and the elevator freezes,” she explained. “That’s exactly what happened to me, I had my pajamas on, no cellphone — I knew I was in a bad place.”

She said she got lucky and was rescued. After the deadly accident, though, many older residents of the complex are terrified to use the elevators — but must depend on them every day. “We have a lot of seniors here, and our buildings are high-rises with 26 floors,” Paez said. “So I’m really concerned that the seniors might feel hostages in their own apartment, scared to go out because something might happen to them [in an elevator].” The building’s owner, Grand Street Guild East HDFC, was slapped with two Environmental Control Board violations last year. In addition, Department of Buildings records currently list three open violations for the elevators dating back to an inspection in 2012. Jay Yablonsky, the director of property management at Wavecrest Management, which operates the buildings, said the company was working with D.O.B. and police to determine the cause of the accident. Paez said she hopes conditions might improve soon, now that everyone is paying attention. “It’s so sad that it took a life for people to start moving,” she said. “This is not the way we should be living.” EastVillagerNews.com

EastVillagerNews.com

January 21, 2016

CTOR

EFFICIENT CARE TRAINING CENTER EFFICIENT CARE TRAINING CENTER

ourse

dge

Courses:

Jacket Name 4C 6 x 5.69

GRAND OPENING

HOME HEALTH AIDE TRAINING New to our Jamaica Campus Home Health Aide Training YourFuture Future Starts NOW! Your Starts NOW! Every course you need to be certiﬁed is oﬀered daily.

Su Futuro Empieza Ahora!

Home Health Aide (Day and Evening Courses) Experienced Instructors Job Assistance Provided

INING CENTER

AHORA!

certiﬁcado se ofrece diario. a division of

Day and Evening Courses• Experienced Instructors 54-06 Myrtle Avenue, 2nd Fl. 168-25 Jamaica Avenue JOB Assistance Provided • Se Habla Espanol

Jamaica, NY 11432 Ridgewood, NY 11385 168-25 Jamaica Ave., 54-06 Myrtle Ave., 2nd Fl.718-609-1674 718-307-7141 Jamaica, NY 11432 Ridgewood, NY 11385 718-609-1674 718-307-7141 EXCLUSIVE! Accessible by Accessible by FJE M andBECOME Q58, Q55, B52,A TRAINLTO B26, B54

and Q24, Q56

SECURITY GUARD INSTRUCTOR 40 Hour Instructor Development Course

Instructors: Tom Flynn & Bob Loveridge SECURITY GUARD TRAINING

We have NYS DCJS mandated Security Guard Training Courses: • 8 Hour Pre-Assignment Training Course Become a NY State Certiﬁ ed Job Security Guard Today! • 16 Hour On the Training Course • 8 Hour Annual In-Service

8 Specialty HR. Pre-assignment Courses: • Fire Guard Prep Class OSHA 10 Job • OSHA 30 •CPR / AED 16 HR. •on the Training Fireguard Prep CARE TRAINING CENTER IDC - (InstructorEFFICIENT Development Course)

Su Futuro Empieza AHORA! Jamaica Ave., paraestar certiﬁcado se ofrece diario. 54-06 Myrtle Ave., 2nd Fl.Cada168-25 curso tiene que necesitas Jamaica, NY 11432 Ridgewood, NY 11385 Asistente de salud domiciliaria a division of 718-609-1674 718-307-7141 (Cursos de Dia y de Noche) Accessible by L M and Q58, Q55, B52, B26, B54

January 21, 2016

Accessible Instructores con by experiencia J Ebuscar trabajo Assistimos Fen and Q24, Q56 EastVillagerNews.com

SHAPE UP is a reward at the end of the day—it’s about committing to me. Zumba class gives Rosemary a chance to catch her breath. PHOTO BY Q. SAKAMAKI

A photo of David Bowie during his Ziggy Stardust period amid votive candles and flowers at the memorial in front of his Soho building.

Invest in yourself. Find free exercise classes in your neighborhood at nyc.gov/parks.

Fans bid Bowie farewell, good luck amid the stars BY LINCOLN ANDERSON

lison Dalton was walking down Lafayette St. carrying a bouquet of rust-orange roses, heading to the memorial in front of David Bowie’s building. Although no tears came from her eyes, she appeared as if crying. “They’re the color of ‘Aladdin Sane,’” she said of the flowers, referring to Bowie’s 1973 album. “He had a lightning bolt that color on his face.” The superstar singer died early Sunday in London at age 69 after an 18-month battle with liver cancer. Along with his wife, the model Iman, he had lived at the Soho address since 1999. Asked what Bowie meant to her, Dalton, 59, said, “He was always, in his way, completely honest about what he was going through.” She added her flowers to the memorial, which included cards with “Aladdin Sane” lighting bolts and stars for Starman, a “David Live” album cover, photos of Ziggy Stardust and the Thin White Duke, notes with his famous song lyrics, like “The stars look very different today” and personal notes, like “Love you forever + thanks for more permission to be a weirdo. I hope your crazy space adventure is hella fun.” Similarly, others who came to pay their respects at the memorial in front of 285 Lafayette St. said Bowie’s openness about his ambiguous sexuality, along with his ever-changing stage personas, gave them the courage to embrace their own uniqueness. And of course Bowie’s music was amazing. His anthems, from “Space Oddity” and “Heroes” to “Let’s Dance,” were the sounds for generations of people’s lives. Asked what Bowie was like, a

EastVillagerNews.com

doorman at the tony building said the Starman was actually always very grounded. “He was a wonderful man, very down to earth,” the doorman said, declining to give his name. “He will be sorely missed.” Asked if Bowie had a rock-star ego, he said, “Not at all.” Also among those gathered outside the building was Nikki Sinclaire, 47, who hails from Bowie’s home burg of Brixton, in London. Wrapped in an oversized Alexander McQueen Queen Elizabeth / Union Jack scarf, she was Europe’s first transgender politician. “His music was a big soundtrack of that era,” she said. “I grew up gay / transgender and his music kind of made ‘different’ O.K. You’d have no Boy George, no George Michael without David Bowie. He pushed the boundary and made it O.K. He has culturally made changes politicians could only dream of making.” As for Bowie’s sexuality, she said, “I’m not sure what it was at the end of the day. I don’t think for Bowie it mattered.” A man pointed to the “David Live” album propped up in front of the burgeoning pile of flowers. “Best live album ever — from start to finish,” he announced to the crowd. “I just wanted everyone to know that.” The singer shopped for food at Dean & DeLuca and got sandwiches and chocolate chip cookies at Olives on Prince St., the New York Post reported. Sean Sweeney, director of the Soho Alliance, said he once saw him about a dozen years ago having breakfast in Puck Fair bar, on Lafayette St., looking a bit worn out. Bowie performed in the May 2002 concert in Battery Park City that was part of the first Tribeca Film Festival to boost Downtown after 9/11. January 21, 2016

More women come forward to tell of how Adam PURPLE continued from p. 1

daughter, asking that only her first name be used, and Lenore told The Villager their stories, and provided a cache of family letters and court papers, opening the window onto their father’s arrest for child molestation for attacking Dorothy when he was 37 and she was 12 and the family was living in Australia. Wilkie was convicted and went on to spend up to two years in jail, before being deported, apparently to California, where he spent a short while in Haight-Ashbury. Soon after, he re-emerged in New York City on the Lower East Side, where he reinvented himself as the mysterious yet charismatic hippie figure Adam Purple. Dressed in purple tie-dye and with a succession of two wives named Eve, he created his sprawling Garden of Eden on five lots, which — fertilized by horse manure he collected in Central Park — flourished until 1986, when the city bulldozed it to create affordable housing. In 1999, the city evicted him from the abandoned building on Forsyth St. he had been living in. Wilkie died this past September at age 84 while biking across the Williamsburg Bridge. The Villager article about the white-bearded “gardens godfather” was nothing less than a bombshell. As one stunned local activist reflected, “Your story is convincing. It’s the zeitgeist of the whole thing that harshes my buzz. I mean Adam Purple? It’s like he’s our Bill Cosby.” Now in their late 50s and early 60s, all four women say that only in late middle age have they finally gotten their lives and psyches together and, to the best of their abilities, recovered somewhat from the damage of their chaotic and abusive youths. Wilkie met his second wife, Romola, when their paths crossed by chance in Death Valley, according to Dorothy. Romola was on her way to a new job and was having car trouble and Wilkie, who happened to be driving by, helped her out. They soon married. But their blended family, including two daughters of Wilkie’s — Jenean and Lenore — and two of Romola’s — Dorothy and Diane — turned out to be a far cry from “The Brady Bunch.”

Diane’s story Diane, who now lives in California, said she remembers sailing three months aboard the Orsova to Sydney, Australia. “He hated America. I don’t know why,” she recalled of her stepfather. An Australian immigration entry document states Wilkie’s profession

January 21, 2016

Romola with her daughters, Diane, left, and Dorothy, right, some years after Romola had divorced David Lloyd Wilkie (Adam Purple), who served up to two years in jail for attacking Dorothy.

as journalist and that he planned to work there as one. He had previously worked on a daily newspaper in York, Pennsylvania. However, in Australia, he wound up teaching English and lit-

ences was when a strange man suddenly showed up at the home. “I remember this one night. We woke up to someone in our house,” she said. “He had just gotten out of jail. He called over all the girls. He told me to get into bed with him. He was naked. I think he was a pedophile but I don’t know. “I said I had to go to the bathroom — we had outhouses then. I hid behind a water tank. He came out to look for me in the outhouse, but he didn’t see me. I feel I was very lucky that day.”

‘I wasn’t able to move. I was praying that it would be over.’ Dorothy

erature at the college level, according to the women. Before traveling to Australia, Diane said, they drove around the States and down to the Panama Canal and back up in a panel van, with pit stops at nudist camps along the way. In America, Wilkie had started brewing his own superpotent beer at home and this continued in Australia, she recalled. The sexual abuse had been going on in America but only increased Down Under. “The worst of it was in Australia, in Kurrajong Heights,” Diane said, referring to a town near Sydney. “He brewed his own beer — that was for his parties — and they said something about acid.” One of her most harrowing experi-

Mother’s abuse Another incident affected her even more deeply, however, because it involved something her own mother did to her during a party, she said. Three of the women say that Romola — who died last March — was complicit in the sexual abuse, though Dorothy strongly denies this. “They were always having parties. She took me in a room and said I had to suck between her legs,” Diane recalled of her mother. “He had told my mom if I didn’t do this he was going to rape me. I never trusted anyone again after that — I was afraid of everyone.” The little girls cursed like sailors, and Wilkie taught them to diss the

Dorothy today in a Facebook photo.

Australian national anthem. “We were raised like animals,” she said. “In school we would say, ‘God save the f---ing queen.’ That’s what he would have us say.”

‘He was nasty’ Jenean had told The Villager about wooden dildos that Wilkie carved for the little girls, and Diane confirmed this. “Yes, I remember all of that,” she said. “He was nasty. And he would read us stories and raunchy comic books. Everything that Jenean has told you is true.” After Romola had divorced Wilkie and he had gone to jail, she was short on cash and put Diane in a “boarding PURPLE continued on p. 9 EastVillagerNews.com

Purple sexually abused them as young children PURPLE continued from p. 8

school,” after which she lived with foster parents. Wanting to flee what she felt was a toxic family situation, Diane wound up returning to America and living with relatives. “I just wanted away from her,” she said of her mother.

Dorothy’s story For her part, Dorothy recalls Wilkie being physically as well as sexually abusive. “I remember his army boots well,” she told The Villager. “We would climb a tree to get away from him. Oh yes, he would kick us with his army boots, steel-toed. That was discipline.” Similarly, her sister Diane said once she was supposed to water the beans outside but was watching cartoons on TV instead, and Wilkie picked her up and threw her down on her back. “I still have scoliosis because of it,” she said. “It hurt very bad after that for a long time. I’m getting chiropractic care for that right now.”

‘It was every night’ Regarding the sexual abuse, Dorothy, the oldest of the girls, said that, after reaching a certain age, she was regularly subjected to it by her stepfather. “For a few years there, it was every night,” she recalled. “Not assaulting me, I don’t know — but I suppose it was a kind of rape. He used his tongue. “He would do it every time he could, from the time I was six to the time I was 12. He was doing things to me — it wasn’t a two-way thing. “He would ‘inadvertently’ wake me up. I would be asleep, and he would want me to be asleep. I wasn’t able to move. I was praying that it would be over. To me, it felt like hours. He would just go on and on, all night. It felt like an eternity.” She, too, remembers the dildos. “Every time we were alone, he made us use those wooden things, all together,” she said. “It was sort of dehumanizing. He was a monster. He knew what he was doing. He was destroying four young minds. He was a horrible, horrible man.” As for why Wilkie did these things, Dorothy said, simply, “because he was insane.” Another time, she said, she was running away down the street for help and Wilkie chased after her in the car. “I thought he was going to run me over,” she said. “I think he thought I was going to tell.” EastVillagerNews.com

PHOTO BY HARVEY WANG

Adam Purple in winter 1982, when he was 52, on his building’s fire escape overlooking his huge Garden of Eden. Purple lived at the bottom of the abandoned building. Four years later, the city bulldozed his garden to make way for public housing.

Sexual assaults Eventually, things escalated even further and one night Romola found Wilkie “molesting” Dorothy. Romola took her two daughters and left him, but eventually returned, after he promised he wouldn’t do it again. But he did, and she had him arrested. On Oct. 28, 1966, Romola wrote to Jenean and Lenore’s maternal grandparents, saying, in part: “Dorothy later complained to me that he still molested her when I left the house (Lloyd had Wednesdays off) and I asked him and each time he would pass over it lightly and the last time he said that she waited in bed for him to come to her, and that I had no business interfering in his affections towards her.” (His family referred to Wilkie as Lloyd when they were in Australia but David afterward.) The judge’s ruling in the subsequent custody hearing for the children refers to two instances of Wilkie assaulting Dorothy and then, immediately after each assault, committing

an “act of indecency upon the girl.” “I do know he raped me the last time, when I was 12 years old,” she told The Villager. Asked if she felt there was anything at all good about Wilkie, Dorothy answered, “No, he was 100 percent evil and insane.” However, she stands firmly behind her mom.

‘We were raised like animals.’ Diane

“I believe that my mother was forced to do things that she wouldn’t normally do,” she said. “She was a very devout woman. Perhaps he had given her drugs. She fought him tooth and nail.” Dorothy said she doesn’t remember the “vulgar placard” that the judge at the custody hearing said witnesses testified having seen in the Wilkies’ home. Jenean recalled

it as a poster of God sodomizing Uncle Sam, with the slogan “One nation under God.” Dorothy said it certainly fits. “I would say so… He just wanted to drop the bomb on America,” she said.

Decadent decor As for the house’s other decor, she recalled, “His library consisted of two whole bookshelves of Sexology magazines, right from the floor to the ceiling. It is all about sex and what to do,” she said of the explicit publication, which ceased publishing in the late 1960s. “And the Kama Sutra — we were made to read that. Of course we didn’t understand it, we were children.” Purple also did give them the Classics Illustrated comics series — comic book adaptations of literary classics — which she enjoyed, which was about the only good thing she could say about him. As for how Wilkie later came by his Adam Purple moniker and why his wives in New York City were named Eve, Dorothy thinks it’s because at one point back in the States Wilkie had been friends with a couple next door, Adam and Eva, who were into psychedelic drugs. She also believes PURPLE continued on p. 14 January 21, 2016

Mamoun’s making its move on St. Mark’s, but not too far BY LINDSAY BU

amoun’s Falafel on MacDougal St. in Greenwich Village is the city’s oldest falafel place and one of the city’s bestknown Middle Eastern eateries. Since opening in 1971, the original Mamoun’s Falafel has expanded to five other locations in the New York area. In its latest move, the falafel king is now relocating its East Village operation from 22 St. Mark’s Place to 30 St. Mark’s Place. Eastern Consolidated commercial real estate firm has arranged a 10-year lease at the new 1,400-square-foot location. The new space is about twice the size of Mamoun’s current East Village site, though just a few storefronts down the street. Mamoun’s workers move at lightning speed when they put together falafel sandwiches, so it’s not surprising that the entire transaction was made in just three weeks. “The landlord is thrilled and Mamoun’s is thrilled to be staying on the same block between Second and Third Aves.,” said Jeff Geogehan, the director of Eastern Consolidated, who represented Mamoun’s. “We didn’t even have time to market the space at 30 St. Mark’s Place.” Hosame Kaid, the current manager of the 22 St. Mark’s Place Mamoun’s, explained that the quick move was spurred by a desire to better serve the customers. “We’re simply moving because of space,” he said. “We’re just expanding to make everything a little better — there will be more seating for customers, and also more kitchen staff. We’re adding a few things to our menu as well, like a special

Chowing down on affordable Mamoun’s fare on St. Mark’s.

homemade rice.” Kaid added that the current Mamoun’s on St. Mark’s will stay open until the new site is com-

pletely renovated and ready. Though he did not know the precise timeline of construction, he predicted the renovations will occur during March.

+ PRESENT

Saturday, February 27th from 10am–3pm

25 Pine Street in FiDi All offerings are FREE and open to the public

Plan your summer in one day! Camp activity trials and registration all under one roof Enjoy free performances, demonstrations, family adventures and summer-themed foods as you learn more about the very best local Day and Overnight Camp options for 2016. Registration is required for drop off and drop in activities. RSVP is appreciated for family Plan & Play day attendance.

January 21, 2016

Battery Park Montessori Summer Camp Sampler drop off available from 10-12 and 1-3 for children 2.5-6 years old.

Pixel Academy Minecraft Club drop in to the Pine Street School Design Technology Lab available from 10-3 for kids 6-14 years old.

EastVillagerNews.com

A Starbucks tutorial RHYMES WITH CRAZY

MileaSubaru.com

BY LENORE SKENAZY

lease pay attention. There will be a quiz. Starbucks recently took out a two-page, fold-out, super-slick ad in The New Yorker to educate us benighted, Folgers-swilling plebes on “The Art of Espresso and Milk.” Using a chart only slightly less complex than the periodic table of the elements (for instance, it did not list barium or neptunium), it showed a sort of timeline of coffee concoctions, starting with: Doppio: “Two shots of espresso. Straight.” Latte Macchiato: “Foamed whole milk marked with shots of espresso.” Flat White: “Sweet ristretto espresso shots finished with whole steamed milk.” Cappuccino: “A shot of espresso topped with a deep layer of foamed milk.” And, but of course: Caffé Latte — “A shot of espresso in steamed milk lightly topped with foam.” Got that? O.K., quick: Which drink dumps a shot of espresso into a cup of foamed barium? Ah, just yankin’ your chain. That’s at Dunkin’ Donuts. As for the Starbucks chart, I didn’t even give you all the concoctions on the list to prevent your head from exploding like an overheated doppio ristretto machine. (Didn’t Ristretto start out by making a boy out of wood? Or am I confused?) Anyway, after all this, the ad explained as if to a dim bulb: “Latte Macchiato: Foamed milk marked with espresso makes it intensely bold.” O.K. While “Flat White,” which is — as you’ll immediately recall — sweet ristretto espresso finished with blah blah blah is “rich & velvety.” Never mind that the pictures of these two ostensibly polar opposite drinks look about as unsimilar as those “Spot the difference!” puzzles you do while waiting for a Greyhound bus. Which perhaps explains why the ad is driving me to drink something stronger than a latte macchiato. (Or was it a caffee latte?) What I mean is: I’m drinking grain alcohol mixed with Yoo-hoo. You see, here’s a company that already asks us to fork over all our cash previously reserved for necessities like medicine and HBO just to drink some scorched caffeine in a pseudo-chatty place where everyone is actually on their phone, staring at their laptops and hogging EastVillagerNews.com

Built on the Strength of Experience.

the seat across from them. And now, for us not to sound like idiots there — “I’d like a coffee regular, please” — we have to study gradations between coffee drinks more subtle than the ones between flatworms and tapeworms. (Do not go look these up! Or at least, do not click on “images.”) Starbucks has already amused itself by training us to say “tall,” when we mean “small” — tall being the littlest cup of coffee you can get without whittling yourself a mug on the spot. And some marketing exec earned her wings by convincing us that grande and venti are the two most sophisticated words in the world, even though these really mean, “I am a grand baboon,” and “Excuse me. My vent is open.” Other Starbucks words that you might not realize have direct English translations are: Caffé Espresso Frappuccino. Translation: Milkshake Vanilla Frappuccino. Translation: Vanilla Milkshake Caramel Flan Frappuccino. Translation: Gloppy Milkshake Caramel Ribbon Crunch Frappuccino. Translation: Crunchy Milkshake Double Chocolaty Chip Frappuccino. Translation: Shameless Milkshake Hazelnut Frappuccino. Translation: Milkshake for High-Income Squirrels Shaken Sweet Tea. Translation: Tea with sugar. Duh. And someone who isn’t you got paid (and healthcare, too!) to shake it. Caffé Americano, by the way, simply means coffee. Like the stuff you get at the donut cart, for $1, without having to learn a new language, or inquire as to how artisinally the cart guy plans to dissolve your sugar. And with the extra $4 you save, you can buy several hand-twisted, canesugar-dipped inzuppare ciambellas. You know, glazed donuts. Skenazy is a keynote speaker and the editor and founder of the book and blog “Free-Range Kids”

Start the New Year in a New Subaru 1.9% off APR available up to 63 months+ New 2016 Subaru Impreza Premium SAVE $1058 OFF MSRP

Buy for

21,499

Model#GLF-11, Stk#8217S, 4cyl, am/fm/cd, tilt, cruise, pwr/brks/winds/lks, Bluetooth, Backup Camera. MSRP: $22,557

NEW 2016 Subaru Legacy SAVE $1223 OFF MSRP

Buy for

21,999

Model#GAB-01, Stk#8201S, 4cyl, am/fm/cd, tilt, cruise, pwr/brks/winds/lks, Bluetooth, Backup Camera. MSRP: $23,222

NEW 2016 Subaru Forester 2.5i SAVE $1479 OFF MSRP

Buy for

23,599 23599

Model#GFB-02, Stk#8220S, 4cyl, am/fm/cd, tilt, cruise, pwr/brks/winds/lks, Bluetooth, Backup Camera, Alloy Wheel pkg. MSRP: $25,078 Price includes all costs to a consumer except tax, title & DMV fees. †Avail up to 63 mos on select new models for qualified buyers. Offers subj to prim lender approval with tier 1+2, 700+ FICO Score approved credit for qualified buyers. Prior deals excluded. Cannot combine offers. Pics for illust purp only. Not resp for typos/equip errors. See dealer for details. Offers expire 01/31/16.

Milea Subaru

3201 E Tremont Ave Bronx, NY, 10461 Sales: (888) 698-0525 Service: (888) 698-6070 • Parts (888) 698-5489 DMV#7117764 • NYC DCA#0927744 January 21, 2016

Former Downtown chef dies skateboarding on Delancey BY LINCOLN ANDERSON

Greenpoint man died on the Lower East Side when he tried to hitch a ride on a garbage-hauling truck while skateboarding, police said. The Daily News reported that Richard Oates, 32, had left a successful career as a chef to open a skateboard store, East River Skate Shop, also in Greenpoint. On Tues., Jan. 12, at 1:19 p.m., police responded to a 911 call of a pedestrian struck at Delancey and Norfolk Sts. They found the Brooklyn ’boarder unconscious and unresponsive with trauma to his body. EMS transported him to Bellevue Hospital where he was pronounced dead. Police said that a preliminary investigation revealed that Oates was skateboarding while hanging onto the passenger side of a green Mack truck traveling westbound on Delancey St. But he fell off his board onto the street and was struck by the truck’s rear passenger-side wheels. The News said Oates lost his balance when the truck changed lanes. The investigation is ongoing by the

Richard Oates left a career as a chef to open up a skateboard shop in Brooklyn.

Police Department’s Collision Investigation Squad. It was reported that no charges were filed against the truck driver, 37. According to the News, Oates previously was a chef at Left Bank in the West Village and Freemans Restaurant on the Lower East Side. He was a married father of two young children.

3024 QUENTIN ROAD • BROOKLYN NY

718-339-0700

STONEYCREEKCREMATION.COM Stoney Creek Cremation & Burial Society is an alternative to costly funeral home and cemetery services and merchandise, allowing us to leave a more meaningful, healthier, greener society to those we leave behind. Join our Society today and know you have chosen to leave a footprint for the future. For those wishing to preplan their final contribution to society, if paid in full today we will include the cost of the crematory. ($995 Society’s Service Fee)

Acting as a for profit organization. Crematory fee is not included, death certificates and disposition permits not included in service fee.

January 21, 2016

EastVillagerNews.com

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR The truth was written To The Editor: Thanks to Lincoln Anderson. You did such a good and concise job on “The dark side of Purple” (news article, Jan. 7), and I noticed that the comments fell into three categories: those totally against child molesters at all costs; those who thought if you did better in your life, it’s a credit; and those who just accepted my father as he was in N.Y.C. I think “we” all took him with a grain of salt. Cautious. But he did escape or avoid registering as a sexual offender all these years. He was a deceiver. That’s it. The truth was written. Thank you, and thank you to the N.Y.C. commenters. Lenore

Seeking out the facts To The Editor: Re “The dark side of Purple” (news article, Jan. 7): Thanks to Jenean and Lenore for being so incredibly strong and brave in telling their story. A lot of Lower East Side activists choose to ignore them. One told me they want more “proof” and one said he wants to remember “Purple not David Lloyd Wilkie.” They want to bury this story. Except for Clayton, who expresses well how I feel. You have more then one person — the children of Purple — claiming this horror! It’s a shocking, evil story that cannot be ignored just because someone was an LES hero and activist. It is an activist’s, a writer’s job to seek out the truth, even if it means you don’t like it — or nothing you write is believable anymore and worth a damn. Jenean’s and Lenore’s words are intelligent and compassionate and they ring out clear and true like a bell. Ignore them at your own peril. Regina Bartkoff

head. It makes you think differently. It makes you draw outside the lines. Sometimes you act outside of them, as well. That is because you do not see the lines. You do not see or understand shame or guilt either. You come to New York to reinvent yourself. You make an earthwork garden out of horses--t. You call yourself Adam Purple. You are evicted from your masterpiece. You end up living in a closet. Then you die and a newspaper smears you all over their front page. I thought child abusers never gave it up. Did you ever hear anything like that related to Adam? Teachers used to bring their classes to the Garden of Eden. Hundreds of people attended his memorial. Not one word was said along those lines. You should be ashamed of yourself. Eventually you will be. Laura Zelasnic

Disturbing and amazing To The Editor: Re “The dark side of Purple” (news article, Jan. 7): Amazing job, very well written about a horrible story. What a monster he really was. I always admired the garden but was very glad that I was not friends with him, nor deified him when he died. Good riddance to that narcissistic sociopath. I feel for his daughters and those he abused. As for any journalists who discouraged full disclosure of the truth — well, whoever says anything like that cannot claim to be a journalist. I would add that not telling the full and true story as a way of “protecting the movement” is hypocrisy and betrays the movement itself. It’s no different than the mainstream media if you lie and censor, especially when facts are known and are so compelling. Thank you for the disturbing and amazing exposé. Keep up the good work. Paul Garrin

Shame for Purple exposé! Natas’s cousin speaks out To The Editor: Re “The dark side of Purple” (news article, Jan. 7): Yes, David Wilkie was an acid

EastVillagerNews.com

To The Editor: Re “Crusty punk whose pit bull terrorized East Village is dead” (news article, Sept. 3): To Google my cousins name, David

McKee, and see this article was very hurtful. I would like to apologize to the people and animals who were hurt by David and his dog, Jax. And I do believe that, as well as David is dead, so is his dog. I do not want to make excuses for David’s actions or those of the dog because I could not imagine how I would feel if it was myself or one of my children who was hurt. At the same time, finding this article and seeing a family member called “crusty” was a painful shot to my gut, and I’m thinking that maybe if roles were reversed, the person writing this would feel the same way if it was his family. I understand it is a generalized name for a certain group of people but I had to read the article a few times before I could calm myself and understand that. David was a sad person and was not homeless by choice. He was abandoned at months old by his mother and my aunt. His father’s mother, David’s grandmother, raised him. His father was killed in prison and his grandmother died when he was 17, leaving him homeless. Growing up, David did not have much. My aunt was old and sick and David was a handful. He also had many emotional problems dealing with abandonment. David made stupid decisions and did many stupid things. I’m sorry — but who hasn’t? Do we live in a perfect world? His actions maybe have inadvertently hurt others but he did not do so intentionally. I also just want to add, if it makes anyone feel better: When there was a memorial for my cousin, I let two “traveler” friends of his whom I did not know and their pit bull stay at my home overnight. My own dog ended up being attacked! The world needs kindness and understanding and not so much negativity. Again, I am sorry to anyone my cousin hurt either directly or indirectly.

17 8th Avenue (between 12th and Jane)

www.leftbankbooksny.com leftbankbooksny@yahoo.com instagram @leftbankbooksny

212.924.5638

Lisa Hasenpat E-mail letters, not longer than 250 words in length, to news@thevillager. com or fax to 212-229-2790 or mail to The Villager, Letters to the Editor, 1 Metrotech North, 10th floor, Brooklyn, NY, NY 11201. Please include phone number for confirmation purposes. The Villager reserves the right to edit letters for space, grammar, clarity and libel. Anonymous letters will not be published.

January 21, 2016

Purple sex-abuse survivors have spent their He also showed her a purple robe that he had worn in court after police busted him with a massive crop of pot in his Lower East Side garden. Over the course of her two visits, she met both the first and second Eve, and liked them both, though felt Eve No. 2 was “more mature.” Each of the four young girls was affected differently by their abusive childhood environment, she said. Of them all, Lenore seems to have the best memories of her youth. “I was the youngest one, it affected me differently,” she said. “Diane was shy and awkward. Dorothy was sleek and sensual. Jenean was reserved, withdrawn. I was just a kid, a baby. I was the youngest, I was his favorite. He bounced me on his knee, carried me on his shoulders. He’d be playing on his guitar and smoking his pipe and winked at me. I was his little girl. We all sang folk songs. Everyone played instruments except me. It was so much fun. We were cultured.”

PURPLE continued from p. 9

that in Australia Wilkie was synthesizing LSD with his students at the school where he taught.

Lenore’s story As for Lenore, her older sister, Jenean, had described her as the “most damaged” of all the girls. Lenore had shared her memories of her father in a five-page handwritten letter to The Villager, parts of which were published three weeks ago in “The dark side of Purple.” Contacted by The Villager for this follow-up article, Lenore said she wasn’t sure at first if she wanted to give an interview, but ultimately decided to do it and get it all off her chest. Unique among her sisters and stepsisters, Lenore actually lived with her father during two separate stints on the Lower East Side after he had had become Adam Purple. In fact, Wilkie sent Eve to find Lenore at a home for wayward girls in South Dakota and bring her back to New York to live with him. Lenore had actually come to New York a year earlier to try to find him, without success. “I was more sexually deviant, in a bad way. It would be very personal to tell my story,” Lenore told The Villager at the outset. By “deviant,” she was referring to her own experiences after she lived with her father. However, her father’s apparent desires upon his youngest daughter were clearly deviant — as in the ultimate taboo, full-on incest — in her view.

Made her get IUD “My father got me an IUD and it made me sterile,” she said. “I’m sure he wanted to have sex with me. I was very naive and only 16 and only had had sex twice. He didn’t want me to get pregnant. He took me to a doctor with a fake ID that said I was 21.” Dorothy and Diane both told The Villager that Lenore had related to them how Wilkie made her get the intrauterine device and how it had left her sterile. In part of her letter to The Villager that was published in “The dark side of Purple,” Lenore wrote, “So I spent the first part of the summer of my 16th year working in David’s garden and sleeping in Adam and Eve’s bed, not sleeping while they screwed and hoping they didn’t ask me to join in.” Asked last week if Wilkie ever did have sex with her back then, she said, “No!” There wasn’t much discussion before Wilkie, two months after her arrival, took Lenore to get the birth-control device. “He asked me if I wanted it,” she recalled. “I said, ‘I guess so.’ I didn’t know it could damage you. He probably lost out on the whole deal because he paid the doctor and he got no sex with me.” Having never given birth, it was extremely painful for her to have her cervix dilated to insert the IUD — but her father came prepared. “He gave me some smoke that was kick-ass!” she said. “It soothed my pain. I don’t know where he got it, because his homegrown stuff was good but not that good.”

January 21, 2016

Kids’ sex shows

Adam Purple a.k.a. David Lloyd Wilkie on his folding bike outside the Time’s Up headquarters in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. For his last couple of years, Wilkie lived in a small room at the environmental and cycling group’s space. He died in September of heart failure while biking on the Williamsburg Bridge, possibly returning from grocery shopping in the East Village.

‘We had to play with ourselves and each other and imitate adult sexual acts.’ Lenore

Good garden memories Lenore said she loved the Garden of Eden. Her main job was to clear the weeds around its brick pathways. “He couldn’t get rid of them because he didn’t want to use chemicals,” she said. “He s--t in a bowl with newspaper in it and buried it under blackberry bushes because that’s a plant you could do that to and could eat it,” she recalled of Purple’s famed “night soil.”

However, in “The dark side of Purple,” Jenean had said the girls “were trained to perform.” She didn’t elaborate much, though — but Lenore did. The “performances” happened at the parties that Wilkie and Romola frequently threw, up to several times a week, as the naked prepubescent girls acted out X-rated skits that Wilkie directed. “Jenean has blocked this out,” Lenore said. “There would be a bed in the living room and we would have to play with ourselves and each other and imitate adult sexual acts. ‘Can you do this?’ ‘Can you do that?’ Like two of us at a time. ‘You two… . ’ Diane and Jenean. Dorothy and me. Me and Jenean. Dorothy and Diane. All different combinations. Never boring,” she quipped. “We pretended to [have sex]. We weren’t stupid. We went along with it as long as we had to. Like lesbian sex — putting crotches together. You just play like an adult and pretend you’re in love. We were completely brainwashed.” The guests would watch the kids’ show, but not everyone would. “Oh, just some of ’em,” Lenore recalled. “Some of ’em would be drinking and talking — it was just like an attraction at a bar.” Similarly, though less evocatively, Diane said the girls “played with themselves” at the parties. But Dorothy said she doesn’t remember the sexual skits, noting, “A lot of what went on was blocked by my young mind.” The girls didn’t have to strip off their clothes because they were usually already naked anyway. Romola often went around topless in the Australian heat, Lenore said. “We lived naked most of our life,” she said. “One day I realized I was naked when a neighbor boy came by. I hid behind a little scrub bush.” Like Diane, she recalled the family hitting the nudist camps before going to Australia. “We’re used to be naked, it was part of our upbringing,” she said. “We ate lean,” she added. “We lived on sauerkraut and corned beef, no toys, nothing — barely clothes.” PURPLE continued on p. 15

EastVillagerNews.com

lives suffering and recovering from the effects PURPLE continued from p. 14

‘Play with your toys’ Lenore remembers the dildos, too. However, these were not used in the erotic skits the children had to perform. “Those were for his own private measurements,” she said, “so he would know when we were big enough for him to enter us. That’s why Dorothy told me to stop doing it. I’ll never forget her telling me that.” They would only use the dildos in the basement, up to “several times a week, if we wanted to,” she said. Wilkie called them their toys. “He’d say, ‘Why don’t you go play with your toys?’ He would watch a lot.” In addition, Lenore and Jenean both recall their father making them watch him pee. Lenore noted this behavior is known as “grooming,” in which the predator conditions the victim. In fact, all of these behaviors — from pressuring a child to engage in sexual activities, indecent exposure of the genitals to a child, displaying pornography to a child, actual sexual contact with a child and viewing of the child’s genitalia — are textbook examples of sexual abuse.

Pre-Purple memories Lenore also remembers when Wilkie was on trial in Australia for attacking Dorothy, and how she cried because she was too young to attend. Both of his daughters recall how the family used to move, frequently and suddenly. Lenore said, even as a young girl, she figured this was because he had either gotten into trouble for some sexual or other incident or was running away from a girlfriend. Again, at least for Lenore, there were also some good memories mixed in with those of the chaotic sexual abuse. “He came home with an electric banana that he made in Australia, with lights that flashed in different times,” she said. “It was beautiful. It didn’t really look like a banana, it was like a tube.” She, too, remembers his high-octane beer, made in garbage cans, with sugar and yeast, and heated by light bulbs.

Curious about dad As for why she sought out her father after his release from prison, she said, “I was curious what he was like. Everybody had told Jenean and me, don’t try to find him, don’t talk to him.” It didn’t freak her out to see her former college professor father now as a longhaired hippie bedecked all in purple. “When I came to New York, I just accepted him,” she said. However, not long after she got the IUD, she left Wilkie because he wasn’t feeding her enough. The vegan diet Wilkie and Eve ate was too spartan for her. “In the morning, they would have a mung beansprout shake — with banana, whatever they had left over — and brewer’s yeast,” she recalled. “For lunch, they’d have like cantaloupe or salad or bread and some cheese. I split from him because I had to get something to eat.” EastVillagerNews.com

PHOTO BY LINCOLN ANDERSON

A van parked on Avenue A last week sporting a message from September praising Adam Purple as the godfather of urban gardening and alerting people to his memorial at La Plaza Cultural in the East Village. None of his family members attended the memorial.

From Purple to trouble She wandered over to Washington Square, where she met a man who offered her a joint. It turned out, though, he was a pimp. “He was on the prowl,” she said. At first, she actually thought the idea didn’t sound too bad. “I thought, I liked sex and I liked money,” she said. But it soon became a nightmare and she found herself in the Bronx working as a prostitute that fall and winter. “The guy beat the s--t out of me a few times,” she recalled. “It was horrible, guns and chains. Yeah, I’ve seen it all, I haven’t done it all. He shaved my head. I got away, I went to a Krishna temple in Brooklyn.” She left the city, but returned a few years later, again at first living with her father on Forsyth St. After a painting job fell through, she found herself working as a prostitute again to make money. “When I came back at 19, I was walking the streets,” she said. “I wasn’t going to go to a massage parlor. “He was sort of a grouch the second time,” she recalled. “The first time he was just a pervert.” This time around, he complained about her cigarette smoking. “I rolled my own from a Drum pouch,” she said. “He used to smoke a pipe but quit. He was a macrobiotic vegetarian Zen Buddhist, so he didn’t like the tobacco in his pure peace.” Again, she left him, but once more ran into trouble. “I was on the streets,” she recalled. “These five

guys surrounded me with five guns. They drugged me with a mind-suggestive drug and made me do a triple-X-rated blackmarket film. They said, ‘You wanna make $25,000?’ I never got anything. Afterward, they dumped me in a bathroom in Grand Central.”

Homeless years For 24 years, starting at 16, Lenore was homeless. “I would sleep anywhere — side of the road, abandoned building, under a bridge, out in the woods,” she said. She sometimes would hang out with the Rainbow Family and also the STP (Sagittarius, Pisces, Taurus) Family, the latter sort of the forerunners to today’s train-hopping “crusty travelers.” “The STP was like the beginning of all that,” she said. Her lifestyle continued this way — homeless, prostitution off and on — until age 40, when she finally found a good program for the homeless in Montana, where she now lives in an apartment. “That’s when I got off the streets,” she said. Asked if she felt being raised in a hypersexualized environment — where the tots were “trained how to give pleasure to a man” — led her to become a sex worker, she said, “I do, definitely.”

‘Stepmother was guilty’ She also feels Romola was even more guilty than her husband, simply because Wilkie was so comPURPLE continued on p. 23 January 21, 2016

Toledano ’12 assault conviction worries tenants TOLEDANO continued from p. 1

causing bodily injury less than four years ago, and once was charged with trying to swindle a bank out of hundreds of dollars, according to New Jersey court records and police reports. In a 2012 confrontation that landed two teenagers in the hospital, Toledano allegedly beat the two youths with what police reports alternatively describe as a “crowbar,” “a branch” and “a metal or wood object approximately two and a half feet long.” The violent assault earned Toledano, who was then a realtor, two years of probation. And in a separate case three years earlier, Toledano was charged with defrauding TD Bank of $500 in a scheme involving multiple withdrawals from three different banks. Only 19 years old at the time of that earlier incident, he was charged with one count of theft by deception and entered into a pretrial intervention program — which provides defendants, often firsttime offenders, with an alternative to traditional prosecution. The complaint was ultimately dismissed in 2012. A spokesman for Toledano and his company, Brookhill Properties, dismissed any discussion of his client’s criminal record as “character assassination.” “These alleged incidents from years ago have absolutely nothing to do with Brookhill Properties or the company’s conduct as a landlord,” he wrote in a statement. But to many of Toledano’s tenants, who have joined together to fight back against their new landlord’s practices, the convictions merely affirm the negative impression they already have. “It’s pretty crazy who we’re dealing with,” said Ben Lebovitz, a tenant at one Toledano-owned property, 97 Second Ave., who successfully fought off an effort to evict him last year. “How does it feel that that guy is my landlord? It’s scary,” he said. “Maybe I’m just paranoid, but I definitely creep around corners when I walk down my stairs and look who’s waiting outside my building,” Lebovitz said. “Although now he apparently prefers using lawsuits instead of crowbars,” he added. Both the state attorney general and the state’s Tenant Protection Unit, or T.P.U., are currently investigating Toledano and the management company he hired and later fired, Goldmark Properties, on charges of tenant harassment. The probes came after residents of one of his buildings, 444 E. 13th St., took Toledano to court over alleged attempts to drive them out of their rent-regulated homes through illegal construction and persistent threats and buyout offers. Representatives for the attorney general’s office as well as the state Department of Homes and Community Renewal, the agency that oversees the T.P.U., would not comment on the investigations because they are ongoing. Meanwhile, though, tenants claim that the harassment isn’t letting up. In a letter sent to Toledano on Jan. 5, tenants urged their landlord to stop serving them with notices to vacate and holdover lawsuits, threatening to shut off their heat and hot water, pressuring them to accept buyout offers and following them “in and around their buildings, after hours, on the street, and close to where they live.” The letter was signed by the Toledano Tenants

January 21, 2016

Raphael Toledano was probably not smiling like this when he was arrested for aggravated assault a few years ago in his hometown in New Jersey.

Coalition, a group that meets once a month and includes representatives from many of the buildings owned by the investor. “Our work is essentially just trying to keep people from taking crappy buyout offers and knowing their rights,” said Lebovitz, who now informs other tenants of their rights through the coalition.

‘How does it feel that that guy is my landlord? It’s scary.’ Ben Lebovitz

Nina D’Alessandro, who started the group last July after complaints first started to amass, said it now includes 19 different buildings across the East Village and Chelsea. She has lived at 231 E. Fifth St., which Toledano owns, since 1978. “It’s very sad and disturbing news,” D’Alessandro said of the landlord’s prior conviction. “It really makes one very uneasy to be at the hands of somebody like this.” In police reports obtained by The Villager, Toledano is described as someone who was known to

the authorities in his hometown of Lakewood, N.J. According to the police report in the assault case, which occurred on April 9, 2012, the victims testified that Toledano and two other men showed up at the victims’ house in a black Lexus with New York license plates. Toledano then got out of the car and attacked two of the four boys, ages 16 and 17, on the front lawn, according to the report. “Toledano had the crow-bar and he [and a fellow attacker] chased [the victims] towards the house attacking them along the way, and yelling at them ‘Don’t talk to my sister! Don’t be messing with her!’ ” the police report said. One of the officers who responded to the incident and arrived after the attackers had already left, described in his report seeing “a large amount of blood on the front door as well as a trail of blood on the floor.” “I observed a male party sitting on the couch, with what appeared to be a large gash on the top of his head,” the officer wrote. “I asked the male who did this, he responded Ralphie Toledano [sic] hit him with what he thought was a crowbar.” The victims were treated at a nearby hospital. One of them had at least two separate head wounds that had to be stapled, according to the report, and the other one reportedly suffered a broken jaw, which hospital staff said would require surgery. Police later searched the car Toledano was driving at the time of his arrest later that same night, and found a blood-smeared Blackberry phone belonging to one of the victims, according to the report. The incident, together with his previous run-in with the law, paint a picture that is alarming to those that have to deal with Toledano today. Stephanie Rudolph, a lawyer at the Urban Justice Center who currently represents the tenants of nine apartments at 444 E. 13th St., said the conviction raises serious concerns for her clients. “There were a lot of really scary threats made at 444 E. 13th St. by agents allegedly hired by Mr. Toledano,” she said. “I think that it’s particularly worrying to now learn that Mr. Toledano himself has a violent criminal past.” In their lawsuit against Toledano, Rudolph’s clients claim that they were threatened with losing their heat and hot water, as well as having their belongings thrown out into the street and the police called on them. Court papers in the E. 13th St. case also show that the landlord claimed in his defense that the “relocation specialists” that allegedly harassed tenants at the buildings were not employed by Toledano and therefore outside of his control. “It’s definitely something that has been concerning to my clients,” David Frazer, a lawyer who represents three East Village tenants in active court cases against Toledano, said of the assault conviction. “Particularly when you couple that with his persistence, where people come home and there are multiple messages from him on their answering machines or cell phones,” he added. Regarding accusations of harassment, the Brookhill spokesperson insisted that Toledano and his employees treat every tenant with respect. “These baseless accusations are false and do not reflect or represent the feelings of the tenants we interact with on a daily basis,” he said. “Over the course of the next year, we will continue ensuring that all of our tenants’ needs are met.” EastVillagerNews.com

So much more than killing monsters Narrative video games of note in 2016

BY CHARLES BATTERSBY

ideo games are still behind other media when it comes to being respected as a form of narrative art — but there are designers who excel at creating story-driven interactive experiences which allow players to explore richly detailed worlds, speak with compelling characters, and learn the histories of fictional cultures. Accompanying this year’s usual new crop of mindless shooters, monster-killers, and phone-tapping time wasters will be games whose stories will engross players in their worlds.

THE LAST GUARDIAN Release Date: TBA, 2016

Team Ico is a developer that has made cult hits like “Ico” and “Shadow of the Colossus” by employing non-verbal narrative storytelling. Their characters rarely speak — and when they do, it is in inhuman languages, or just saying each other’s names. “Ico” and “Colossus” told tales of ruined kingdoms, heroic sacrifice, and the selfish refusal to let a loved one pass on — all without directly saying anything. Players had to observe their surroundings, and extrapolate the history of these characters and their worlds. In Team Ico’s next game, “The Last Guardian,” players control a human boy who befriends Trico — a giant bird/dog/cat monster. The two of them will need each other’s help to escape a crumbling castle. Because Trico is a giant animal that doesn’t speak, players will have to figure out how to give him instructions, and read his body language to guess what he wants. The game has no definite reEastVillagerNews.com

IMAGE SOURCE: SONY

The giant chimeric creature Trico is your companion in “The Last Guardian,” which features narrative storytelling not driven by dialogue.

lease date, but is coming sometime in 2016. In the meantime, the developer’s older games are available on PlayStation 2 and 3.

DEUS EX: MANKIND DIVIDED Release Date: August, 2016

The first game in this series arrived in 2000, before futuristic dystopias were all the rage, and it was ominously prophetic about the 21st century. Players took control of a cybernetically-augmented government agent who had to unravel a global spider web of conspiracies. What sets the “Deus Ex” franchise apart from the crowd is that

almost any obstacle can be circumvented through stealth, hacking, negotiation, or non-lethal weapons. Of course, if players want to shoot their way through life, they can do that too. The fourth game in the series, “Deus Ex: Mankind Divided,” will focus on how cybernectically-augmented people (“Augs”) are being discriminated against by the rest of humanity. Like the best of science fiction, the story is a metaphor for real world issues, with Augs standing in for any oppressed group. “Mankind Divided” is a direct sequel to the last game, “Human Revolution.” The series, thus far, still holds up, and is highly recommended for cyberpunk and conspiracy enthusiasts.

MASS EFFECT: ANDROMEDA Release Date: Fall, 2016

“Mass Effect” is a science fiction series that has three prior games. The original trilogy is a masterwork of galaxy-spanning storytelling, during which players guide a single character through hundreds of hours of adventures. What makes this trilogy particularly engrossing is that players shape the story by deciding what their character will do at certain points in the game, and these decisions carry over through each game in the series. Friends and GAMES continued on p.18 January 21, 2016

Intriguing stories engross gamers in other worlds

IMAGE SOURCE: MICROSOFT

The time control on display here is a major component of “Quantum Break,” in which players battle futuristic baddies. GAMES continued from p. 17

lovers can die along the way, and galactic politics can shift based on what the player chooses to do. This year, fans are getting another installment in the series. The details are being kept secret, but it is known that this game introduces a new playable protagonist. The previous games created a vast galaxy full of alien civ-

ilizations, each with their own history and culture, so there is a great deal left to explore out there. “Mass Effect: Andromeda” is a new direction for the franchise, but the team at Bioware has rarely made missteps, so it’s a title to look out for. Science fiction fans who haven’t tried the older “Mass Effect” games should leap into the trilogy now, to be caught up in time for the fall release of “Andromeda.”

THE NEW SOUND OF

BROOKLYN The Community News Group is proud to introduce BROOKLYN PAPER RADIO. Join Brooklyn Paper Editor-in-Chief Vince DiMiceli and the New York Daily News’ Gersh Kuntzman every Monday at 4 pm for an hour of talk on topics Brooklynites hold dear.

QUANTUM BREAK Release Date: April 2016, exclusively for Xbox One

Plenty of video games have heroes who can control time, but Remedy Entertainment popularized this effect with “Max Payne,” a third-person shooter game. Released in 2001, it was about an ex-cop who would enter a stylish slow-motion mode during gunfights. Aside from the “bullet time” effect, “Max Payne” also has an excellent story, with a hard-boiled narrative delivered by its surprisingly eloquent killing machine. Remedy’s next game, “Alan Wake,” was about a verbose novelist trapped in a horror story that he wrote. Of course it was riddled with loquacious narration, and clever plot twists. Remedy’s upcoming game, “Quantum Break,” is about a man who gains the ability to control time, and must use it fight the minions of a ruthless corporation from the future. Given Remedy’s history of combining gunplay with storytelling, this should be one of the most thoughtful action games of the coming year.

DREAMFALL CHAPTERS Release Date: TBA, 2016

In 1999, point-and-click adventure games were at their most popular, and many players still insist that the genre hit its high point with that year’s “The Longest Journey.” It was about a woman who could shift between two worlds. One was a fantasy realm, and the other was a futuristic city right out of science fiction. It got a sequel in 2006 called “Dreamfall,” but that game ended in a cliffhanger. This final installment in the series is called “Dreamfall Chapters,” a five-part “episodic” game. The first of these five chapters arrived in 2014, and the fourth in December 2015. With its blend of sci-fi and fantasy, the game appeals to a wide audience. The series has three playable characters, and gamers will certainly find themselves drawn to at least one. New players should have enough time to try both of the previous games before this magnificent 17-year journey reaches its end.

Each show will feature in-studio guests and call-out segments, and can be listened to live or played anytime at your convenience. WITH

SPONSORED BY

JOSEPH LICHTER, D.D.S.

VINCE DIMICELI

GERSH KUNTZMAN

LISTEN EVERY MONDAY AT 4PM ON BrooklynPaper.com/radio 18

January 21, 2016

IMAGE SOURCE: FUNCOM/RED THREAD GAMES

A screenshot from the sci-fi/fantasy game “Dreamfall Chapters,” the final installment of a long-running series that began in 1999. EastVillagerNews.com

COURTESY THE ARTIST AND NICELLE BEAUCHENE

“Pure Potential No.1 through 4” / 2015. Colored pencil, ink, and graphite on antique ledger book pages. 54 1/2 x 202 inches (48 ledger book pages).

Stunningly intricate and deeply meditative

Despont’s drawings invoke her recent Bali roots BY STEPHANIE BUHMANN

er first solo museum exhibition, “Louise Despont: Energy Scaffolds and Information Architecture” features a site-specific architectural installation and several series of largescale drawings. These works, all of which were commissioned by The Drawing Center, promise to be deeply influenced by Despont’s recent relocation to Bali. Best known for her stunningly intricate drawings on antique ledger paper, Despont employs compasses, stencils, and rulers to create deeply meditative compositions. One of the architectural works on display, for example, will hold a monumental frieze drawing composed of no less than

EastVillagerNews.com

COURTESY THE ARTIST AND NICELLE BEAUCHENE

“Return to Formlessness” / 2015. Colored pencil and graphite on antique ledger book pages (71 x 112.5 inches, 20 ledger book pages).

seven panels. For Despont, each drawn line symbolizes the invisible energy that flows mysteriously through the human body. In addition to her own work, Despont has also invited conceptual artist Aaron Taylor Kuffner to present his gamelatron, an original instrument created by him that is a robotic variant of the gamelan, the traditional Balinese and Javanese orchestra that includes vibraphones, drums, chimes, bells, and gongs. Jan. 22–Mar. 20 at The Drawing Center (35 Wooster St., btw. Grand & Broome Sts.). Hours: Wed., Fri., Sat. & Sun., 12–6 p.m. & Thurs., 12–8 p.m. (free every Thurs., 6–8 p.m.). General admission, $5 ($3 for students/ seniors, free for children under 12). Call 212219-2166 or visit drawingcenter.org.

COURTESY THE DRAWING CENTER

Despont has invited conceptual artist Aaron Taylor Kuffner to present his gamelatron, a robotic variant of the traditional Balinese and Javanese gamelan.

January 21, 2016

Listen to any Hollies

Anniversary of a hit prompts memories of swinging London BY JIM MELLOAN

his month marks the 50-year anniversary of the debut of The Hollies on the Billboard Top 40. “Look Through Any Window,” penned by the prolific young songwriter Graham Gouldman, later of 10cc, peaked at No. 32 on the January 22, 1966 chart. I was 10, and, as far as I recall, unaware of The Hollies. But when my family moved to London in November of 1966, the band’s glorious three-part harmonies and catchy melodies suffused the airwaves. Thanks to the BBC TV show “Top of the Pops” and DJ Alan Freeman’s BBC radio show “Pick of the Pops,” I became a committed chart-tracker. And in the spring of 1967 I walked down to Harrods, near our house, went up to the fourth-floor record department, selected The Hollies’ “Carrie Anne” out of the giant slots that held each of the current hit singles in order of chart rank, and paid my 10 shillings — my first-ever record purchase. (Later that year, on that floor, Harrods debuted the ultra-groovy Carnaby-Streetesque “Way In” store-within-a-store.) The core of the group, Allan Clarke and Graham Nash, were friends since age five in Manchester. Like the Beatles and many bands of the time, they got started as part of the skiffle craze of the late ’50s. They came up with their name in December of 1962 as both a tribute to Buddy Holly and a nod to the season. After an appearance at Liverpool’s famed Cavern Club in January of 1963, they got an audition for a record contract, which they won. Band member Vic Steele played guitar at the Cavern Club gig, but he didn’t want to be a professional musician — so Tony Hicks replaced Steele for the audition, then assumed his place in the group. By the time “Look Through Any Window” was released, the band had had quite a few hits, both covers and originals, on the UK charts.

HOLLIES.CO.UK

L to R: Allan Clarke, Bobby Elliott, Eric Haydock, Tony Hicks and Graham Nash.

Their follow-up to that one was a bit of a misfire: they recorded George Harrison’s “If I Needed Someone” and released it as a single, learning just days later that the Beatles were including the song on their “Rubber Soul” album. (But what a great version; I didn’t know about it until I started researching this article.) The single went to No. 20 on the UK chart, but wasn’t released here. The Hollies finally made their name in the US with “Bus Stop” — another Gouldman composition, which peaked at No. 5 both there and here. At the time we moved to London, “Stop Stop Stop” (a Clarke-NashHicks tune notable for its banjo part) was climbing the charts. I don’t really remember that one from the time, but I definitely recall “On a Carousel,” by

CALL TO SUBSCRIBE

646-452-2475

January 21, 2016

the same three, from February of ’67. It was “Carrie Anne” that I found irresistible, however. That one came with springtime lunch hours in Regent’s Park, near where I was enrolled at the American School in London (ASL). Coming close after the Beatles’ “Penny Lane,” both sunny and infectious songs epitomized the glory that was Swinging London in 1967. My mom purchased “Penny Lane/Strawberry Fields Forever,” and I decided it was my duty as a budding music consumer to buy “Carrie Anne” on my own. “Carrie Anne” was the first commercial song ever to incorporate steel drums. I recall one clueless reviewer at the time praising The Hollies for their innovative use of a “toy piano.” In 1995 Nash revealed that the song was actually inspired by Marianne Faithfull, who Nash had a crush on, but who was having an affair with the married Clarke at the time. In the fall of ’67 The Hollies released “King Midas in Reverse,” a lush, ambitious song written solely by Nash. I have a memory of hearing that one, or thinking about it, in the lunchroom at ASL, amidst the junior high bustle and steaming cups of hot soup in yellow plastic cups served by Cockney lunch ladies. I don’t know if I reflected upon the fact that the lyrics mirrored my

own plummeting social status — but they did. This one only went to No. 18, a relative disappointment, and that was the beginning of the end of Nash’s time with The Hollies. After that one, he and Clarke wrote “Jennifer Eccles,” a catchy piece of fluff that returned The Hollies to the UK Top 10. By now, though, Nash had broader ambitions. He had written “Marrakesh Express,” but he’s said that The Hollies didn’t seem very interested in working on it. He had been spending more time in the US, and had met David Crosby and Stephen Stills, and so decamped to form Crosby, Stills & Nash and move on to the next part of his career. The Hollies had a big hit in 1969 with “He Ain’t Heavy, He’s My Brother,” a ballad that was a departure from their poppy harmonies, and their other notable successes in the ’70s were the rocker “Long Cool Woman in a Black Dress” and “The Air That I Breathe.” It was their version of Springsteen’s “4th of July, Asbury Park (Sandy),” retitled as just “Sandy,” that got me working on performing that one around 10 years ago. Clarke retired in 2000, but Tony Hicks is still with the band, and they will commence touring the UK and Europe in March. Happy anniversary, boys. EastVillagerNews.com

Just Do Art BY SCOTT STIFFLER

A KICKSTARTER KICKOFF FOR “LEAVES OF GRASS I TRIMMED WITH MY MOWER”

His body and soul bled dry by 1,000 humbling cuts coming from obligations to work and family, the caged bird that is the suburban dad seeks solace in the little things: grilling meat in the back yard, small talk with his fellow bread-winners, and by-thenumbers lovemaking sessions with his wife “in the bed I paid for from my job.” Laugh if you must, but there’s a certain wounded dignity to this quiet struggle — and it’s all been captured by self-anointed “Dad Poets” Ralph Dobis and Zeke Anderson, in their new collection of rhymes: “Leaves of Grass I Trimmed With My Mower. In order for these contemporary Walt Whitmans to grow a spine (the kind that binds book), they’ll need your help. That’s why Dobis and Anderson — the satirical personas of Upright Citizens Brigade regulars Mark Vigeant and Sam Reece — are seeking donations to fund a first edition printing of “Grass.” The authors will be reading selections from this alternately defeated and defiant tome, at the launch event for their Kickstarter campaign. The night of silly dadthemed jokes, poems and songs will feature special guests Dan Chamberlain, Anna Drezen, Doug Smith and Ike Knight Bardia Salimi. Free. Fri., Jan. 29, 8:30 p.m. at The Drama Book Shop (250 W. 40th St., btw. Seventh & Eighth Aves.). Visit facebook. com/events/956706321070758.

THE FIFTH ANNUAL MISS TWIN PEAKS PAGEANT

During separate visits to a dream world Red Room, FBI agent Dale Cooper is told, in backwards-speak, “That gum you like is going to come back in style” and “I’ll see you again in 25 years” — by, respectively, The Man from Another Place and the Homecoming Queen whose murder Cooper has been charged with solving. Visionary burlesque producer Francine “The Lucid Dream” knows these scenarios well, along with every other strange and wonderful twist associated with David Lynch and Mark Frost’s 19901991 surreal soap opera “Twin Peaks” EastVillagerNews.com

PHOTO BY IAN STROUD

Song of my dad bod: Ralph (pictured) and Zeke launch a Kickstarter campaign for their Whitman-like book of poems, Jan. 29 at The Drama Book Shop.

PHOTO BY DAN DEMETRIAD

Kitty Lunn performs at the Jan. 26 bake sale and karaoke bash, to benefit Theater for the New City’s fundraising goal: $30,000 for a new handicapped lift.

PHOTO BY FILIP WOLAK

The bodies are rock hard real — but the owls are not what they seem, at Jan. 30’s Fifth Annual Miss Twin Peaks Pageant.

— returning, gum-style, for new episodes in 2017. But why wait? “The Pink Room: David Lynch Burlesque” has been keeping the “Peaks” flame burning since Feb. 2011, when its debut coincided with the anniversary of Laura Palmer’s death. This installment has characters from the show vying for your attention and love, along with the title of Miss Twin Peaks (a nod to the show’s coveted pageant honor). Expect supremely odd and undeniably alluring talent competition displays from the likes of Audrey Horne, Shelly Johnson, Norma Jennings, The Log Lady, Josie Packard and others — as portrayed by “Lynch Burlesque” regulars Amelia Bareparts, Boo Boo Darlin’, Bunny Buxom, Foxy Vermouth,

Minx Arcana, Montana, Satanica, Matt Knife and Schäffer the Darklord. Sat., Jan. 30. Doors open at 11 p.m., show at 11:30. At Joe’s Pub at The Public (425 Lafayette St., at Astor Place). For tickets ($20), visit joespub.publictheater. org or call 212-539-8500. Artist info at francineburlesque.com.

FUNDRAISER: THEATER FOR THE NEW CITY APPRECIATION DAY

Low-cost ticket prices year-round and a free roving street theater production every summer keep the provocative, political, experimental, and often wonderfully loopy work of Theater for the New City (TNC)

accessible to the masses — but the essential East Village complex’s lower level theater is currently off-limits to the TNC’s handicapped staff, patrons, and performers. Help correct this situation by heading into your kitchen, getting creative with butter and eggs and whatnot, then bringing your favorite goodies to TNC’s bake sale — whose proceeds, along with much-appreciated contributions of any amount, will kick off fundraising efforts to replace the theater’s broken handicapped lift (cost: $30,000). Between browsing the bounty of sugary goodness, there will be a special presentation by playwright JeanClaude van Italli, plus performances by the all-girl Japanese Taiko drumming/ dance troupe COBU. Kitty Lunn, whose Infinity Dance Theater features artists with and without disabilities, will perform “In Time Like Air.” A biographical piece created for her by Peter Pucci, this duet for dancer and wheelchair is set during a snowstorm (referencing the accident that caused Lunn’s injury). Before and after the pros, sing the praises of TNC by belting out your favorite song, Karaoke-style. Free (donations accepted via bake sale proceeds or cash contributions). Tues., Jan. 26 at 7 p.m. At Theater for the New City (155 First Ave., btw. E. Ninth & E. 10th Sts.). For info, visit theaterforthenewcity.org or call 212-254-1109. January 21, 2016

January 21, 2016

EastVillagerNews.com

Purple sex-abuse survivors are still healing PURPLE continued from p. 15

pletely bonkers. “David had an excuse for being out of it,” she said. “He was so, so, so, so insanely genius that he couldn’t get to reality. Life was a game. Romola was no innocent bystander. She should have been prosecuted. “Oh, he was crazy,” she said of her father. “I’m sure he had a diagnosis if he ever went to a shrink. He was a genius and a strange duck and he did the best he could.” Romola, in one of her letters to Jenean and Lenore’s grandparents when Wilkie was facing prison, had written that he could have avoided jail and been out on bond if he only submitted to psychological treatment. “He was too good for that,” Lenore said. “He could play games with anybody. Oh, they would have locked him up if they could have, but he wouldn’t let ’em.”

Purple’s positive legacy Of the four women, Lenore and Jenean — but especially Lenore — despite Wilkie’s sexual deviancy, still value his contributions as a guerilla gardener and sustainability pioneer. “He showed me his plan for greenhouses and [ecologically based] cities, his urban planning,” Lenore said. “He was way ahead of his time, in terms of an ecological, carbon-safe environment. That’s his gift to the world, not his urban gardening. What he did before, it still counts — and also what he did after. He reinvented himself. I don’t care what anyone else says, it counts.” Another of his best traits was his resourcefulness, she said, a product of his rural Missouri roots. “Reusing, recycling — he was from the old school. He grew up on a farm,” she said. His father was German — very strict — she said. But he died when Wilkie was young in an electrical fire in a printing shop he had in the back of their property. She thinks that printing shop inspired Wilkie’s trademark rolled-up leaflets advocating the likes of “World Bike-in,” “General Rent Strike,” “World Orgy” and “World S--t-in” that he would hand out to people as he biked up to Central Park to scoop up horse manure for the garden.

Therapy and recovery Like Jenean and Lenore, Dorothy turned to therapy in midlife to help her, at last, deal with the traumatic EastVillagerNews.com

Lenore today. For 24 years, until age 40, she was homeless. “I couldn’t cope,” she said of her life before. “I was really emotionally disturbed. When you’re on the streets, nobody cares. But where I live now has a really good homeless program.”

feelings she had locked away deep inside. Her therapist taught her to forgive, “or it eats you up inside,” Dorothy said. Still, she can never fully forgive Wilkie for what he did to her. “I think he ruined things for me,” she said. “It’s very hard to recover.” Of the memorial service that was held for Wilkie at La Plaza Cultural, she said, “He doesn’t really deserve it. He was a monster. When they rang me to tell me he was dead, I thought, ‘Thank God’ — and then I said I shouldn’t say that because I forgive him. It was a reflex,” she said with a laugh. Lenore has been twice married and twice divorced. She just turned 58 and is finally trying to quit smoking. Dorothy, who worked as a taxi dispatcher, has a daughter. Diane, who has children of her own and has also had horses, has worked many jobs, her longest as a coal miner. “I was one of the first women to work at a coal mine in Wyoming,” she said. “I can operate heavy machinery. But I feel like I have a glass wall above me — I just could not break into the field.” A loner, she recently joined a motorcycle club that includes police officers. Riding and hanging out with them, she said, she finally feels “safe.” Jenean, who has a son and worked in the mental-health field, four years

ago pulled up stakes and moved to an “intentional community” in the Northwest to find herself. She had said she decided to tell her story to The Villager to highlight the issue of complex post-traumatic stress disorder, which she self-diagnosed after other mental-health professionals had failed to identify it in her. Diane is the only one who never sought professional help. “I never had counseling because I had too much to do,” she said. However, she added, “If Jenean didn’t speak out — I am so glad she did. It gives us a voice.” In fact, following the publication of “The Dark side of Purple,” Jenean visited Diane, not having seen her since their childhood days in Australia. Both agree, though, that the reunion could have gone better, but at least they tried.

‘Why he was alone’ “That’s it, I’m done,” Lenore said after telling her tale to The Villager. “So now people will have the full story — of why he was alone. Even the Eves couldn’t put up with him. Even Adam couldn’t put up with him,” she said of Purple’s only son, Adam David, with Eve No. 2. (Adam David now lives in China, where he teaches English literature to Chinese students. He did not want to be quoted in the previous article and requested that his last name not be

printed.) In fact, there is at least one more daughter of Wilkie — Nova Dawn, who he had with Eve. No. 1. Lenore said she knows their real names, but would not divulge them, wanting to protect their privacy. Wilkie clearly avoided detection on the Lower East Side all these years for his past conviction. Why that happened is partly because, prior to 1996, New York did not have a sex offender registry. A New York Police Department spokesperson explained that the sex offender registry works “going forward — not backward.”

Breaking the cycle Studies have shown that sex offenders have a high rate of recidivism — even more so if they have never gone to jail for the crime — while their children are also more likely to become abusers themselves. Above all, Jenean and Lenore both emphasized that they are thankful that the cycle of generational sexual abuse has not repeated in them or Diane or Dorothy or any of their children or any of Wilkie’s other children. According to them, Wilkie’s sister Anna revealed that Wilkie was sexually abused by his own mother, while Jenean and Lenore’s birth mother, Ann, said there was also sexual abuse on her side of the family. “We beat the odds,” Lenore said. “None of us became abusers. We can heal. We all broke the cycle.” January 21, 2016

Coverage Countdown to January 31, 2016!

Y u must apply for enrollment through Yo www.nystateofhealth.ny.gov by January 31 to have health insurance in 2016. • Do you need health insurance? • Are you shopping for coverage but haven't made a decision yet? • Have you already chosen a plan, but want to reconsider? • Do you know about the new Essential Plan, with monthly premiums that are either FREE or $20 based on your income? Fidelis Care can answer all your health insurance questions and help you apply for enrollment through www.nystateofhealth.ny.gov.

We are here to help!

Call 1-888-FIDELIS for more information or to make an appointment with a Health Benefit Representative. You can also visit fideliscare.org/offices to find a community office close to you. Get a free estimate by visiting the Affordable Care Advisor at fideliscare.org/enroll - all in 60 seconds or less! To learn more about applying for health insurance including Child Health Plus and Medicaid through NY State of Health: The Official Health Plan Marketplace, visit www.nystateofhealth.ny.gov or call 1-855-355-5777.

1-888-FIDELIS | fideliscare.org (1-888-343-3547) • TTY: Y 1-800-421-1220 Y:

January 21, 2016

EastVillagerNews.com