Guido Felix Brinkmann, a 90-year-old Auschwitz survivor who was a co-founder of the 1970s disco Adam's Apple at 1117 First Avenue & 61st Street which popularized The Hustle was "discovered bound and bludgeoned to death last night in his upper East Side apartment" as reported by the Daily News:
Police sources said they believe Brinkmann let a man and woman into his apartment who then robbed the elderly man. Police said there were no signs of a break-in and Brinkmann's apartment door was open, his drawers were pulled out and the rooms were ransacked.
Jason Kessler from CNN reports that Brinkmann "spent years in the bar and nightclub business," and "in recent years, he had served as the real estate manager of a mixed-use building in the Bronx."
Brinkmann was the subject of a federal IRS lien in the 1990s, and 1010 WINS reports "Brinkmann had some legal trouble and was arrested in April on a menacing charge after pulling a gun on people in his office in some type of dispute" although "the charges were dropped."
UPDATE: The New York Post reports that police are "looking into whether the female suspect was a sex worker" because the "1970s nightlife impresario periodically brought prostitutes to his home," and the two suspects are leaving a trail:
Police believe she and her male cohort stole Brinkmann's car from a garage beneath the East 65th Street building after tying his hands behind his back, bashing his head in and ransacking his apartment, cops said. The car -- a 2009 Honda with the vanity plate "FELIX B" -- was found in the Mott Haven section of The Bronx yesterday. Several of Brinkmann's credit cards had been stolen and were used in Bronx stores, sources said.
The Post further reports more details on Brinkmann's nightclub days:
In 1947, the Brinkmanns moved to New York. He found his calling when he met club owner Mel Steir and began managing several ballrooms for him. Among them were the Audubon Ballroom in Washington Heights, where Malcolm X was assassinated. In 1969, Brinkmann, Steir and a third partner, Joe Caravello, opened Adam's Apple -- a happening disco and restaurant on First Avenue at East 61st Street. It remained in business until 1991.
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