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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<\/p>\nHe walked with a \u201cstrange gait.\u201d <\/p>\n
And attacked women with a metal pipe. <\/p>\n
But he was never caught. <\/p>\n
The so-called Staten Island \u201cBasher\u201d brutalized at least six women during a vicious spree of nighttime attacks in 1980 and 1981. <\/p>\n
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. <\/p>\n
A number of victims were critically injured in the attacks. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe guy had committed some reign of terror of Staten Island,\u201d Sgt. Richard Bracken of the Crimes Against Persons Squad told the Advance at the time. <\/p>\n
Terror on the North Shore<\/p>\n
News of the attacks broke on Dec. 12, 1980, when the Advance reported that cops had intensified their investigation into a so-called \u201cBasher.\u201d<\/p>\n
Three women had been attacked by the same fiend in separate nighttime incidents, two of them on Dec. 3. <\/p>\n
One woman, 41, suffered a fractured skull when she was battered while returning to her home on Emerson Hill. <\/p>\n
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\u2019s tan shoulder bag, which contained $3. <\/p>\n
The third attack took place two days later, when a woman drove her car into an underground tenants\u2019 garage at 700 Victory Blvd. in Silver Lake. <\/p>\n
This victim was set upon and her purse stolen as she tried to enter a stairwell that led to the apartment building\u2019s lobby. <\/p>\n
\u2018Strange gait\u2019<\/p>\n
The Basher was believed to be a white man between the ages of 25 and 30. He was tall, of medium build, and \u201cwalked with a strange gait.\u201d <\/p>\n
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. <\/p>\n
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. <\/p>\n
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. <\/p>\n
\u2018Coward\u2019 strikes again<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
The woman was pummeled as she got off a bus, but she was able to stagger to her home, where relatives called an ambulance.<\/p>\n
That attack prompted police to beef up visible NYPD patrols in West Brighton, Silver Lake, Emerson Hill and nearby areas, including Silver Mount Cemetery. <\/p>\n
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<\/p>\n
One gumshoe called the perp a \u201ccoward.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cHe sneaks up behind them and strikes,\u201d the detective said. \u201cHe doesn\u2019t even give them a chance to resist.\u201d <\/p>\n
The Basher escalates<\/p>\n
In the middle of February, the Basher made a disturbing, and dangerous, change to his method of attack.<\/p>\n
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. <\/p>\n
The woman was discovered almost a day later when her nephew came to visit. <\/p>\n
Women walk in fear<\/p>\n
The Basher attacks made Staten Island women more and more fearful of walking the streets alone. <\/p>\n
\u201cI hope to God he\u2019s not around,\u201d 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. <\/p>\n
Women were escorted from bus stops on Forest Avenue and Victory Boulevard by husbands, boyfriends or male friends. Unmarked police cars cruised the Basher\u2019s North Shore hunting grounds. <\/p>\n
But the villain remained on the loose. <\/p>\n
\u2018Shut up\u2019<\/p>\n
A Silver Lake pediatrician became the Basher\u2019s sixth victim on March 16, 1981, when she was bludgeoned in the underground garage leading to her apartment at 800 Victory Blvd. <\/p>\n
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. <\/p>\n
In this attack, the Basher approached the victim from the front, his metal pipe weapon raised above his head. <\/p>\n
The victim offered her assailant money and begged him not to hit her again. <\/p>\n
But the Basher told her to \u201cshut up\u201d and struck the doctor several more times before taking her purse and fleeing. <\/p>\n
The victim managed to get to her third-floor apartment, leaving a trail of blood in her wake. <\/p>\n
\u2018Local guy\u2019<\/p>\n
Police made a key announcement following the sixth attack. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe have a local guy here,\u201d Carney of the Crimes Against Persons Squad said.<\/p>\n
Carney said, \u201cHe is staying in the same areas, he\u2019s local and somebody on Staten Island knows him.\u201d <\/p>\n
The victimized doctor later told police that rather than limping, the Basher actually dragged one leg behind the other. <\/p>\n
Police surmised that the Basher could be suffering from a hip problem or a leg injury. <\/p>\n
Face of the Basher?<\/p>\n
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. <\/p>\n
![\"staten](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/DRIQJPW7INBADKWGW7JBQJP5QM.jpeg\")
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<\/p>\n
But the sketch didn\u2019t lead to an arrest. The physician attacked in her garage would prove to be the Basher\u2019s final victim. The terror spree was over after four months. <\/p>\n
But the damage went on. <\/p>\n
Never really recovered<\/p>\n
Discussing the cold case in 1984, NYPD Inspector Daniel O\u2019Brien told the Advance that a number of the Basher\u2019s victims had never really recovered from the attacks and \u201care in bad shape.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cFrom what I can gather, some of the women may have permanent injuries,\u201d he said. \u201cThey weren\u2019t in the best of health the last time I saw them.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"He walked with a \u201cstrange gait.\u201d And attacked women with a metal pipe. But he was never caught.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":126317,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[9,24,63,134,136,135],"class_list":{"0":"post-126316","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-staten-island","8":"tag-new-york","9":"tag-new-york-city","10":"tag-nyc","11":"tag-staten-island","12":"tag-staten-island-headlines","13":"tag-staten-island-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/126316","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=126316"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/126316\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/126317"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=126316"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=126316"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=126316"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}