Thursday, April 10, 2008

The Mark Glass Affair : Only Partly True


The 1959 LMRC team photo is a cornerstone of the Knickerbocker Village site. During the 2nd annual reunion the whereabouts of a teammate, Mark Glass (arrow), was discussed. It was mentioned that he has become an Orthodox Jew living in Brooklyn. My searching came up with this article about an orthodox Mark Glass who was a notorious slumlord. An excerpt
Landlord Is Charged With Waging Campaign of Terror, By JOHN SULLIVAN, October 3, 1997
A Manhattan landlord with a string of aliases, a store of weapons and a hefty real estate portfolio conducted a campaign of terror to drive tenants out of a Lower East Side building so that he could raise rents, according to prosecutors, who yesterday charged the man with arson and attempted murder.
Prosecutors said the man lived in a $2 million home in Brooklyn, but they were certain of little else about him, including his name. The defendant was identified in court papers as Mark Glass, although his lawyer said his name was Alvin Weiss, and prosecutors contended that he used at least eight different names, three drivers' licenses and three Social Security numbers.
Arguing against bail, a prosecutor, Francine James, described Mr. Glass as ''a very violent and uncontrollable man'' and said the charges of attempted murder and arson were only ''the tip of the iceberg.''
Ms. James said Mr. Glass had tried to drive tenants out of the run-down apartment building with rent controls at 42 Clinton Street so he could rent the units at a higher rate. She said two tenants who complained of ''deplorable conditions'' at the building became the targets of a murder plot, in which Mr. Glass hired someone to kill them with drug overdoses. ''Because of their complaints, their deaths were ordered,'' Ms. James said.
The defendant's lawyer scoffed at the prosecution account, saying his client was an upstanding citizen, not the violent mystery man portrayed in court.

After studying the details of this and other stories about this Mark Glass, it's inconceivable that this is the Mark Glass we know. However afterwards, a mysterious person appeared at Tanahey Park asking about someone who is often confused with me. It became evident that I had offended someone named Mark Glass.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

The Mark Glass in the article did not start using that name until he went into business. Knowing him and his family, I can assure you that he, himself, is not the person described in the article.

Either way, it's not the man you were looking for.

Anonymous said...

the person described in the article, Mark Glass = Alvin Weiss

Anonymous said...

mark glass = alvin weiss = mark weiss = arwen properties, arwen equities