_______ Malverne/West HeMpstead ______
SPRING FORWARD at 2 a.m. on Sunday. Remember to change your smoke detector batteries.
HERALD Infections as of March 8
5,264
CoMMuNIty uPDAtE
Infections as of March 1 5,124
$1.00
Celebrating a day of reading in W.H.
longtime village assessor honored
Page 13
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MARCH 11 - 17, 2021
Vol. 28 No. 11
OBITUARY
He’s ‘a hard act to follow’ Felice Murale, owner of Fel’s Hair Creations, dies at 74 in 1969 by himself with the hope of developing a better life for his family. His parents, Luigi and At his barbershop, Fel’s Hair Rosa, and siblings Lello and Pina Creations, Felice Murale, who followed in 1971. Murale moved was known as Fel, forged rela- from Bay Shore to West Hemptionships with people through- stead in 1979, and immersed himout West Hempstead. self in the communiSince he opened the ty as a longtime shop with his father, member of the West Luigi, in 1974, it has Hempstead Chamber become a fixture in of Commerce. He the community. attended St. Thomas “People say that the Apostle Church he should’ve retired, for several decades. but he never looked Fel and his wife, at his work as a job Rita, were married to him,” said Murafor 51 years, and had le’s niece Vanessa two daughters, Morrison. “He truly Rosanna and MariFelice Murale loved what he did.” anna. Murale died of Concialdi, who Covid-19 on Feb. 9, at age 74. lives in Seaford, described her Another niece, Gabby Concialdi, uncle as a proud Italian-Amerisaid that his death shocked the can, and said he regularly members of his extended family. attended the annual Columbus “We all know how dangerous Day Parade in New York City. Covid is, but my uncle was “Every year, he knew how to get healthy,” Concialdi said. “He was on that camera during the strong, he went to the gym, he Columbus Day parade,” she took his vitamins and he ate recalled. “He was well known by well.” everyone.” Murale, who was born in Beginning in 1993, Murale Naples, Italy, came to Bay Shore Continued on page 2
By NAKEEM GRANt ngrant@liherald.com
Melissa Koenig/Herald
GEoRGE BlAttI, A former doctor who was operating out of an abandoned Radio Shack in Franklin Square, was escorted into the Nassau County Courthouse in Mineola on March 4. He was charged in the deaths of five of his patients.
Doctor charged with murder Officials: Five patients overdosed on opioids By MElIssA KoENIG mkoenig@liherald.com
Geraldine Sabatasso was a smoker with a history of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease who began seeing Franklin Square-based Dr. George Blatti in 2007 for acute pain she suffered as a result of a neck surgery. He started prescribing her opioids in 2010, and by February 2016, Nassau County prosecutors said, she started complaining of dizziness and shortness of breath, but still,
they allege, Blatti continued to prescribe Sabatasso, of Baldwin, opioids. She died on March 22, 2016, at age 50. Among the other four patients to die under Blatti’s watch were residents of Valley Stream, Hempstead and Floral Park, according to prosecutors. B l at t i p re s cribed the drugs from a number of locat i o n s, a u t h o r i t i e s s a i d , including an old Radio Shack in Franklin Square and the parking lots of a hotel in Rockville Centre, where he
lived at the time, and a nearby fast-food restaurant. Now Blatti, 75, originally from Malverne, faces murder and reckless endangerment charges for overprescribing opioids to Sabatasso and the four other victims, who died between 2016 and 2018, Nassau County District Attorney Madeline Singas announced on March 4. Blatti was charged with five counts of second-degree murder and 11 counts of reckless endangerment, in Continued on page 4