A Very Greenpoint Blind Item: Bad Finger, Part II

November 5, 2008 by
Filed under: Crazy People, Greenpoint Magic 

A couple of weeks ago I struck up a conversation with a local bartender here in the Garden Spot. He, unlike yours truly, was Brooklyn born and bred. What can I say? Some are lucky enough to be born in Brooklyn. Others (like yours truly) are Brooklynites who have to find their way back home. But I digress.

He told me about when his father would bring to him to Greenpoint as a child:

Please dad, don’t make me go! They have chickens running in the streets there!

I assured him that on occasion chickens do, in fact, still wander our streets. He laughed and regaled me with some late night shenanigans he has had the pleasure of witnessing while “closing shop”. This includes but is not limited to:

  1. Finding a drunk woman asleep in a puddle of her own vomit under his car.
  2. Watching blitzed gents from another nightclub roll down the street knocking over garbage cans and generally (for wont of a better way of putting it) fucking shit up. REPEATEDLY.

Ah, progress— or would that be gentrification? In any case his tales made wandering chickens look downright quaint if I say so myself.

All the previous florid (if abject) rhetoric does indeed lead to today’s blind item. A very curious bit of Greenpoint gossip I overheard yesterday. Something so bizarre —yet oddly appropriate— that I feel compelled to pass it along to my fellow Garden Spotters.

It is RUMORED that a certain bar in our fair burgh had a brawl which culminated in a person biting off another person’s finger. Whether or not this is indeed true I do not know (and like the 94th Precinct would confirm it it anyway). Nonetheless it reminds me of a great story I dug up from the New York Times archives and posted just over a year ago. A tale this bad is good enough to run twice. Enjoy!

For those of you who are wondering 214 Franklin Street now houses Hanami Designs. Among other businesses.

Oh how times have changed! Or have they? I’m going to be tightfisted in my prognostication.

For obvious reasons.

Miss Heather

UPDATE, November 6, 2008: This rumor has been confirmed! An anonymous tipster writes:

As a loyal reader of your blog, I thought it my civic duty to confirm the rumor about which you spoke. Indeed, there was a fight in the Red Star bar, between an employee and a patron, the result of which was the patron’s finger being bitten off by the establishment’s employee. The bar held a luncheon after a funeral service for a local Greenpointer, 28-year-old Kevin Krol, who tragically fell at a construction site and after fighting for his life for about a week, succumbed to his head injuries. A fight broke out, a luncheon attendee tried to break it up, the bar employee got involved and the person’s finger was bitten off by the employee. Deliberately? I don’t know. I know the person who is now short by half a finger, and I can only confirm that this definitely happened. I enjoy your blog very much, and you may post this, I only ask that you leave my name and my username out of it. Thanks, and keep up the great work!

Photo Credit: ScareFX.blogspot.com

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Comments

7 Comments on A Very Greenpoint Blind Item: Bad Finger, Part II

  1. iqy3834 on Wed, 5th Nov 2008 12:03 pm

    2. when was this article from? the spelling and grammar seem extremely archaic. Also, it seems like back then writing a (new york times!) newspaper article with blatantly literary flourishes, and taking the liberty to fill in any unknown events with the author’s conjectures was common practice (maybe times havent changed that much lol.) btw nice blog, wandered on from a thrillist mention of your sexy metrocard find.

  2. missheather on Wed, 5th Nov 2008 12:29 pm

    3. August 1878. Thanks for the kind words!

  3. GypsyKat on Thu, 6th Nov 2008 2:57 pm

    4. As a loyal reader of your blog, I thought it my civic duty to confirm the rumor about which you spoke. Indeed, there was a fight in the Red Star bar, between an employee and a patron, the result of which was the patron’s finger being bitten off by the establishment’s employee. The bar held a luncheon after a funeral service for a local Greenpointer, 28-year-old Kevin Krol, who tragically fell at a construction site and after fighting for his life for about a week, succumbed to his head injuries. A fight broke out, a luncheon attendee tried to break it up, the bar employee got involved and the person’s finger was bitten off by the employee. Deliberately? I don’t know. I know the person who is now short by half a finger, and I can only confirm that this definitely happened. I enjoy your blog very much, and you may post this, I only ask that you leave my name and my username out of it. Thanks, and keep up the great work! Michele

  4. Jay on Fri, 7th Nov 2008 4:19 am

    5. “It is RUMORED that a certain bar in our fair burgh had a brawl which culminated in a person biting off another person’s finger.”

    a) the rumor is true.

    b) a bar security guy was involved, and he left with all of his digits intact.

    c) it wasn’t one of the local bars that would first come to mind to most people as the place something like this would happen.

  5. missheather on Fri, 7th Nov 2008 4:53 am

    6. What I want to know is what led up to this.

  6. Jay on Fri, 7th Nov 2008 4:50 pm

    7. Well, it appears that your anonymous tipster was there, while I wasn’t. But as it was told to me by an uninvolved Red Star employee, the bouncer was attempting to remove the guy from the bar. Reportedly he’s known there and “has caused trouble before.” While the two were struggling, someone grabbed the bouncer from behind on his chin, and the guy’s fingertip happened to be in his mouth.

    Again, that’s the way the story’s told at Red Star: it was an accident, and the bouncer was doing his job. There may be other versions.

  7. Guillermo on Fri, 23rd Jan 2009 2:59 pm

    8. It happened.

    The story is a little more involved. It involved 4 people, primarily. There was a customer who was a problem over the course of several months. Started giving the bouncer shit, so, the bouncer lost his temper and bitchsmacked him. Popped him in the head a few times, too. Bouncer stops hitting him, lets him go, and just starts walking up the block. The first guy came out with 2 more guys and they roll up on him and start beating him. Bouncer wasn’t really fighting back. One guy put the bouncer in a chokehold and another guy started whaling on him. First guy just kind of standing around with a bottle. Maybe stomping bouncer here and there. Anyway, the guy who was punching the bouncer apparently tried to gouge his eye out. Bouncer, unable to really move his head and whatnot, bit half of his finger off. They let go, bouncer pops the finger guy in the face and then walks away into the night. Everyone involved got arrested for all different shit, but they all agreed to drop the charges.

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