Donald Manes
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Disgraced Boro Prez Mired In Scandal
By LIZ GOFF
JAMAICA ESTATES- March 12, 1986 : Embattled Borough President Donald Manes, who resigned from his post last month and has been fighting political and personal demons, succumbed to them last night as he took his own life, stabbing himself in the heart with a kitchen knife in his Jamaica Estates home.
Manes’ private nightmare began to show itself in public on Jan 10, when a pair of Queens Highway cops patrolling the Grand Central Parkway spotted a dark blue Ford sedan driving erratically in the vicinity of the highway’s 94th Street exit.
The cops followed the sedan and pulled it over at the 126th Street exit, near Shea Stadium.
When Police Officers Thomas Ievolella and Joseph Byrne asked the driver for his identification, the man took his foot off the brake – sending the car lunging forward into a nearby parking lot fence.
When the driver opened the car door to speak with the cops, they realized he was not just any Queens motorist. The man behind the wheel was Queens Borough President Donald Manes – sitting in a coat drenched with blood from slashes on his left wrist and ankle. On the floor of the car, the cops found a bloody kitchen knife and Manes’ gold watch.
The cops called for assistance, but quickly determined that it was necessary for them to take Manes directly to a hospital.
For the next 12 days, Manes, who nearly died from loss of blood, stuck to a bizarre tale of abduction by two mystery men, who he claimed had been waiting in the car when he entered it at Borough Hall. The men ordered him at knifepoint to make a right turn at Union Turnpike from Queens Boulevard – and then held him in Flushing Meadows Corona Park for five hours, Manes said. During the ordeal, the men cut him with the knife, Manes said.
Many Queens officials expressed support for Manes and his tale of abduction. Mayor Edward Koch and other City officials said they would give Manes the “benefit of the doubt.” But police questioned the story when they were unable to confirm any of Manes’ claims.
The dark underside of the Manes administration was about to come to light, setting off repercussions that would shake the very foundation of City government. The man so often dubbed the “King of Queens” would never again return to his office at Borough Hall.
In a hospital bedside press conference Jan. 21, Manes told reporters, “The wounds I received were self-inflicted. There were no assailants, and no one but me is to blame.” Manes waved goodbye to reporters, knowing he could be indicted at any time.
Daily News columnist Jimmy Breslin was the first to break the real story – that there were hints of payoffs and illegal activities by Manes and his municipal cronies.
What followed was a sordid tale of how Manes used municipal appointments and “favors” in a series of mammoth kickback schemes involving the City Parking Violations Bureau, cable TV franchises and City zoning franchises. Manes’ appointees and associates began to fall like dominos – indicted for their criminal activities or forced to retire from lucrative bureaucratic positions.
After his release from the hospital, Manes drifted off into lonely seclusion at his Jamaica Estates home, where he was constantly under watch by the NYPD. He is said to have killed himself shortly after getting off the phone with his therapist.
Manes had since stepped down as Borough President, elevating his deputy, Claire Shulman, into the position.
