He walked with a “strange gait.”
And attacked women with a metal pipe.
But he was never caught.
The so-called Staten Island “Basher” brutalized at least six women during a vicious spree of nighttime attacks in 1980 and 1981.
The Basher, who operated mostly in West Brighton and Silver Lake, would sneak up behind women and knock them on the head with a metal pipe. He would then take their purses and flee.
A number of victims were critically injured in the attacks.
“The guy had committed some reign of terror of Staten Island,” Sgt. Richard Bracken of the Crimes Against Persons Squad told the Advance at the time.
Terror on the North Shore
News of the attacks broke on Dec. 12, 1980, when the Advance reported that cops had intensified their investigation into a so-called “Basher.”
Three women had been attacked by the same fiend in separate nighttime incidents, two of them on Dec. 3.
One woman, 41, suffered a fractured skull when she was battered while returning to her home on Emerson Hill.
A second victim, 48, was attacked that same night after she got off a bus at City Boulevard and Huron Place in West Brighton. The Basher took this victim’s tan shoulder bag, which contained $3.
The third attack took place two days later, when a woman drove her car into an underground tenants’ garage at 700 Victory Blvd. in Silver Lake.
This victim was set upon and her purse stolen as she tried to enter a stairwell that led to the apartment building’s lobby.
‘Strange gait’
The Basher was believed to be a white man between the ages of 25 and 30. He was tall, of medium build, and “walked with a strange gait.”
Victims said the Basher wore a dark watch cap, a blue down vest over a dark sweater or sweatshirt and dark pants during his attacks.
While the manhunt for the attacker was underway on the North Shore, many men who limped or otherwise walked in an unusual way were taken in for questioning by cops.
But police were hamstrung because the Basher mostly attacked his victims from behind and none of the women got a clear look at his face.
‘Coward’ strikes again
The Basher on Jan. 30, 1981 struck for a fourth time, attacking a 47-year-old woman from Alpine Court in West Brighton and fracturing her skull.
The woman was pummeled as she got off a bus, but she was able to stagger to her home, where relatives called an ambulance.
That attack prompted police to beef up visible NYPD patrols in West Brighton, Silver Lake, Emerson Hill and nearby areas, including Silver Mount Cemetery.
Auxiliary police officers search for clues after Staten Island “Basher” had attacked a number of women on the North Shore.Tony Carannante | Staten Island Advance
One gumshoe called the perp a “coward.”
“He sneaks up behind them and strikes,” the detective said. “He doesn’t even give them a chance to resist.”
The Basher escalates
In the middle of February, the Basher made a disturbing, and dangerous, change to his method of attack.
He tracked a 60-year-old woman on her way home from shopping, followed her into her home on Harvest Avenue in West Brighton, brutally attacked her with a pipe and ransacked her home.
The woman was discovered almost a day later when her nephew came to visit.
Women walk in fear
The Basher attacks made Staten Island women more and more fearful of walking the streets alone.
“I hope to God he’s not around,” one woman told the Advance as she walked alone in the middle of the street up Hart Boulevard in West Brighton from a nearby bus stop.
Women were escorted from bus stops on Forest Avenue and Victory Boulevard by husbands, boyfriends or male friends. Unmarked police cars cruised the Basher’s North Shore hunting grounds.
But the villain remained on the loose.
‘Shut up’
A Silver Lake pediatrician became the Basher’s sixth victim on March 16, 1981, when she was bludgeoned in the underground garage leading to her apartment at 800 Victory Blvd.
The physician, 30, who worked at the former Staten Island Hospital, was stuck on the head several times by the Basher, who this time was wearing a dark ski mask.
In this attack, the Basher approached the victim from the front, his metal pipe weapon raised above his head.
The victim offered her assailant money and begged him not to hit her again.
But the Basher told her to “shut up” and struck the doctor several more times before taking her purse and fleeing.
The victim managed to get to her third-floor apartment, leaving a trail of blood in her wake.
‘Local guy’
Police made a key announcement following the sixth attack.
“We have a local guy here,” Carney of the Crimes Against Persons Squad said.
Carney said, “He is staying in the same areas, he’s local and somebody on Staten Island knows him.”
The victimized doctor later told police that rather than limping, the Basher actually dragged one leg behind the other.
Police surmised that the Basher could be suffering from a hip problem or a leg injury.
Face of the Basher?
Later that month, police released a composite sketch of the Basher and revealed that the assailant had apparently followed several other potential victims in prior months but had been scared off by approaching cars or people.
Police released this composite sketch of suspect in Staten Island “Basher” attacks. Six women on the North Shore were bludgeoned with a metal pipe during a four-month terror spree in 1980 and 1981.Staten Island Advance image
But the sketch didn’t lead to an arrest. The physician attacked in her garage would prove to be the Basher’s final victim. The terror spree was over after four months.
But the damage went on.
Never really recovered
Discussing the cold case in 1984, NYPD Inspector Daniel O’Brien told the Advance that a number of the Basher’s victims had never really recovered from the attacks and “are in bad shape.”
“From what I can gather, some of the women may have permanent injuries,” he said. “They weren’t in the best of health the last time I saw them.”