September 1990 NYC News | That Was the News Then

The year was 1990. Driving Miss Daisy won the Oscar for Best Picture. Eggs cost just 89 cents for a dozen. And Cheers was the number one show on TV. And in September 1990, this is what we were watching on the news then. Donald Trump versus Leona Helmsley. Two real estate tycoons went head-to-head and traded insults. And Donald Trump and Leona Helmsley now agree on one thing. It's how much they dislike each other. And the war of words is growing. Christopher Jones reports. One might think that when the mighty fall, at least they might have some sympathy for those plummeting with them. But while Donald Trump and Leona Helmsley have been to the mountaintop, they have not exactly been ennobled by the experience. In case more evidence is necessary, the November issue of Playboy magazine carries an interview with Leona, better known as the Queen of Mean, the title of an upcoming CBS television movie. He charges that the owners of the building, that's me, Leona, and their sales brokers, that's you. Get to the point. We may get to know a little bit more about Leona when the movie airs, but we already know just how she feels about Donald Trump. After telling Playboy she did not want to talk about Trump, she proceeded to lash out at him. You watch, she said, he's going to be left flat on his can, and it couldn't happen to a nicer person. Her attack was a clear response to Trump's own remarks to Playboy, published earlier this year. Trump on Leona. She is a vicious, horrible woman who has systematically destroyed the Helmsley name. Leona on Trump. I wouldn't believe Donald Trump if his tongue was notarized. Trump on Leona. Leona Helmsley set the women's movement back 50 years. She is a living nightmare, and to be married to her must be like living in hell. Leona on Trump. He's a sick, sick, sick, sick boy. He lies for his own benefit, of course. Trump on Leona. She's out of her mind, a truly evil human being. And Leona on Trump. He's a snake. Now he doesn't have any money. If Ivana gets one million dollars, she'll be lucky. And it goes on and on. But why hear more? You might get the idea that Queen of Mean and the Donald don't care for each other. I'd say it's the kettle calling the pot black. Now you've got to decide who's the kettle and who's the pot. There must be a lesson in all of this for us, the little people who pay taxes and think three bedrooms make a big apartment. Pick one and then the next time you walk past Trump Tower or Helmsley Palace, smile. After all, if you own one of those places, you'd just be miserable. In the early 90s, crime was bad and New York City was a city in need of help. Well, as you know, those of us in the news department here at Fox 5 have made a commitment to a series of stories aimed at saving our city, a campaign to force the politicians to act and show you how you can help. In fact, here's a chance for you right now. One of the soldiers in the front line in the battle to save our city was murdered. And the police need your help to find a couple of cop killers. They are two of New York's most wanted. We've had too many murders that are unsolved. We need to have a new day. And New York City deserves it. People don't want to live in this city to love it. And they better leave it because the righteous people, the law abiding people in New York are going to start to clamp down on those who would do us in. Ronald Hearn had been a police officer since 1985. He worked at the Veterans Administration Hospital in the Bronx. And as he did until he was shot dead on the job in broad daylight. Now the police and the FBI are looking for two possible suspects. They need your help. At approximately 2.30 p.m. on July 25th, 1988, two black males entered the Bronx Veterans Administration Hospital and attempted to bypass a metal detector that was being used by police officer Ronald Hearn. Hearn apparently noticed a pistol on one of the two individuals and chased him back toward the exit doors as the second male came up from Hearn from behind and shot him five times with a .40 caliber automatic. Both individuals then fled along the brass area of the Bronx VA hospital and jumped over a fence and escaped. I had a particular strong relationship with him because while being a hospital chaplain, I'm also a chaplain of the New York Police Department. And many times I would come in after a police funeral and he would ask me, how was the funeral? How many attended? And I'd tell him maybe six, seven, eight thousand. Oh, he'd shake his head in satisfaction that the turnout was a tribute that the fellow had earned and deserved. Never did I ever think that one day I would be going to his funeral. The first suspect was a male, black, light-complected, approximately 20 years old, 5'10". He was wearing gray shorts and a gray matching t-shirt. The second suspect was a male, black, dark-complected. He was about 5'8". He was wearing red shorts and a matching red t-shirt. Both were wearing gold chains around their necks. Both sported what's commonly referred to as a cameo type haircut, a military style haircut, which is cut short on the sides and long on the top. Taking on the mob, the NYPD tried to put a stop to illegal gambling with a series of raids. Well, you can bet the mobsters in our town are a bit upset right now. New York police have been doing their best to put a dent in the illegal gambling operations to bring the mob millions of dollars a year. Detectives have been staging a series of raids, and Pablo Guzman and our crew went along for some exclusive, very dramatic pictures. Pablo is at the precinct in Queens right now where some of the suspects were taken. Pablo. John, we are here at the 109 precinct in Queens. Actually, we could be at almost one of about a half a dozen locations throughout the city. This is some of the places where, as you can see right over my shoulder, some of the bookies were busted. They were processed. They are being brought now to central booking. This one gentleman has a problem, we're told, with his Achilles tendon. That's why they are taking some extra time with him. He was busted in the Whitestone area. Last night and tonight, there were some 15 locations that were hit. It was part of a joint operation of the New York State Police and NYPD. They called it Operation Halftime. That's because of football bets, college and professional, and also, as you know, we are in the midst of baseball pennant races. Get ready now. We want you to pay attention to this. It's going to go by you rather quickly. You are about to experience what we experienced last night and tonight as we accompanied the police on a raid. You're going to get the sights and the sounds of raids with the New York City Police. Police! Watch the game on here as they're recording in case there's a mistake. In the closet, you'll see a hotline switching system. They'll have one number and it switches to all the five lines. In this case, they got six lines. This is just one sheet of many sheets that we've covered over here. What's your guess? What's your best guess on what kind of action was going on? Just looking it over roughly, I'd say he's doing about $200,000 a day. I did, yes. Accountable, $1,102,122. You know, we quote these figures. Nobody really believes it, but, you know, they typed this up themselves. And there are places like this all over the cinema. Yeah, we got the Expos. The Expos, $29,000. They cleaned out. Yeah, we got the Reds, San Diego, $15,000. Red Sox, Yankees, $16,000. I have been on drug raids, gun raids, and I have really not seen anything like the numbers involved in gambling raids. And yet we all take it for granted. In fact, a lot of people laugh at this, but this is the Greece where the rest of organized crime gets its capital to do the rest of its business. Gambling is almost, again, taken as a joke, but it is quite lucrative indeed, as we found out over these last couple of nights going back again to last week. Reporting live from Queens, Pablo Guzman, Fox News, Channel 5. Back to you in the studio. Thank you very much, Pablo, for that exclusive report. And finally, we take a look at the forecast Nick Gregory did back on September 24th, 1990. Nick has joined us now with the weather. Nick? Well, we can now say fall weather. It's not fall-like anymore, right folks? Fall came in yesterday, and well, you see the cool air here came in with fall as well. The things will be getting a little milder, I think, as we go through the next couple of days. Today was nice, just sort of sun dodging the clouds, but the sun again, you get the idea. 62 is the high, 48 the low. That's the Manhattan Bridge that you're looking at tonight. No precip in the city today, really anywhere in our tri-state area. 89, the record high in 1959. Now you notice the record highs are getting a little bit lower, sign of the season. And 40, the record low in 1963. Also, the record lows are getting lower, sign of the season. 57 right now, humidity 62%. Wind is calm, and the pressure 2999, and it's rising. And here come temperatures across the area. You'll find the cool spots in northwest Jersey, 49 at Vernon, Sparta 42, 47 at Morristown, but still 60 out in Queens right now. Iceland 55, 46 in western Connecticut. Here's a satellite picture, and you can see that we have just a few clouds that have been with us during the day, but they've disappeared as the sun went down this evening. And we have very cool, unstable air that moves down. The sun tries to heat up the air, and the result is the clouds start to form, and that's exactly what happened during today. But the real clouds that are causing some showers across the upper Great Lakes will slide to our north, so we're not looking at any big weather problems. In fact, look at the country. It's basically quiet. High pressure's in control across the deep south, and that brought down the cool air to our part of the country yesterday and today. But it's warming things up in the midsection of the country as the winds come up out of the southwest and south there, causing temperatures in the 70s and even into the 90s in the high plains. Now tomorrow, the high will basically build in through the southeastern states. Our winds will kick around and more out of the southwest, so we'll get rid of this little cool 60s stuff that we've seen, and we'll start heading up into the 70s. And with all of this weather basically staying the way it is this week, this area passes to the north, this area stays off to the south, and we stay okay. So clear and cool overnight. 50 in the city, 40 to 45 north and west. Lots of sunshine tomorrow. Just some fair weather clouds again, but nice and mild. A high of 72 degrees. Here comes the five-day forecast, I hope. And you'll see that we have some nice weather again on Wednesday, a little milder with sunshine 75. Look at that, 76 on Thursday. Nice, pretty nice for most of Friday, except we do run the chance of a shower or two Friday night into early Saturday, and then it should dry out for the weekend. And that was the news then.