The iconic Mineshaft -- the inspiration for Al Pacino's descent into the gay underbelly in the 1980 film Cruising -- may have been a Mafia joint according to suggestions by some. The Mineshaft operated at 835 Washington Street in Manhattan's meatpacking district from 1976 until closed by city officials in 1985 at the height of the AIDS epidemic. The owners -- including an ex-NYPD cop -- subsequently were convicted on various charges in connection with its operation. Prior to the Mineshaft the premises housed a series of gay dives -- including at least one suspected of being mob-controlled -- and at one point police even acted on a report that a poor soul whacked by wise guys was buried under the concrete in the basement of the building.
In Beyond Shame: Reclaiming the Abandoned History of Radical Gay Sexuality (Beacon Press: 2004), Patrick Moore writes:
Perhaps the most famous S/M club that ever existed was New York's Mineshaft. Opened in October 1976, the Mineshaft operated continuously until 1985 at 835 Washington Street (the corner of Little West Twelth) in the Meatpacking District. Other clubs and private parties catered to even more specialized tastes, but the Mineshaft epitomized the sexual frontier. Although it was always rumored to have been Mafia-owned, the Mineshaft was managed by the godfather of leather sensibility, Wally Wallace, who died of heart failure in 1999.
The supposed Mafia control of the Mineshaft seemingly was suggested by Jack Fritscher in Leather Dolce Vita, and he generally credits the Italians for the S&M phenomenon that swept through the gay community in the 1970s. Fritscher writes that "[t]he original gay leather bar was an Italian-American invention inspired by the leather world's nicely capitalistic drive to make money. Ask the Mafia."
Fritscher documents an alleged conversation that he had with Harold Cox -- an associate of Wally Wallace in a venture involving gay leather bar The Lure -- in which the Mineshaft apparently was identified as "a Mafia bar": "When it came to money, Wally was no crook. He was personally very honest, but he had worked for some shady types. So when we started The Lure, kind of to give him a job after the Mineshaft closed, we had to tell him he did not need to drive to New Jersy to buy liquor, and he did not have to pay people under the table. We were not a Mafia bar." (Just to be clear: Harold Cox was not involved in the operation of the Mineshaft.)
Apparently the bosses at the Mineshaft were slow to comprehend the impact that AIDS was having on business, and Fritscher recounts an alleged story on Wally Wallace having to explain that the drop in revenue in the mid-1980s was not due to employee skimming: "I wouldn't say the Mafia was slow on the pick up, but in 1984 profits dropped so sharply at the Mineshaft that the good fellas called in Wally Wallace and his staff, one by one, and accused them of skimming the cash register. It took nearly six months for the godfather to believe what Wally Wallace said: AIDS was killing their paying customers."
The Department of Health ultimately closed the Mineshaft in 1985 as a threat to public health. A November 8, 1985 article ("City Closes Bar Frequented By Homosexuals, Citing Sexual Activity Linked To AIDS") by Joyce Purnick from the New York Times states:
New York City yesterday closed a bar frequented by homosexuals, contending that it permitted "high-risk sexual activity" linked to the spread of AIDS. * * * [T]he city asserts that the bar -- the Mineshaft at 835 Washington Street, near Little West 12th Street, in Greenwich Village -- is not only in violation of the new anti-AIDS regulations but also is a public nuisance and has been operating without a liquor license. * * * The Mineshaft is a "notorious and well-known place," in the words of Richard Dunne, executive director of the Gay Men's Health Crisis. In graphic depositions written by city inspectors, a portrait emerged of a dark place with black walls, back rooms, open cubicles without doors and the accouterments of sadomasochism. They reported seeing many patrons engaging in anal intercourse and fellatio -- the "high risk" sexual practices cited in the state rules -- and hearing sounds of whipping and moaning.
Following the closure of the Mineshaft several individuals tied to its operation -- including ex-NYPD cop Richard Bell -- were indicted on a host of charges. A March 1, 1986 article ("6 Tied To Late-Night Clubs Indicted in Conspiracy Case") by Kirk Johnson from the New York Times states:
Six former owners and employees of two Manhattan after-hours clubs were indicted yesterday on charges that they evaded liquor and tax laws and then conspired to impede investigations of those crimes. * * * Three of the men -- who prosecutors said were principals of the clubs, the Mineshaft and Hell Fire -- already face charges under an indictment in December stating that they tried to bribe a witness to leave the state so that he could not testify in the investigation. * * * Yesterday's indictment charged all six men with conspiracy. Two employees, John Pascarella . . . and David Givens . . . were also charged with coercion. The third employee, John Clark . . . who is believed to have fled the country, was charged with perjury. * * * The three purported principals, Richard Bell of 500 East 77th Street; John Dobson, of 20-48 47th Street, Astoria, Queens, and Vincenzio Caravello of 603 Sixth Avenue, Brooklyn, were released on the bail posted after the December indictment. * * * Mr. Bell, a former New York City police officer, pleaded guilty in 1980 to a third-degree burglary charge after two convictions for stealing cocaine from undercover officers were dismissed on appeal. He was dismissed from the Police Department in 1973.
In November 1986 Bell was convicted at a bench trial on the "bribery and tax fraud charges in the illegal operation of the Mineshaft," and four others pleaded guilty for their roles as then reported by The Associated Press.
Prior to the opening of the Mineshaft in 1976 the premises had housed the gay bars Cycle, Den, Zodiac and O.K. Corral at various times from 1970 to 1975.
In 1972 police dug up the concrete basement floor at 835 Washington Steet on reports that they would find the body of an unfortunate soul whacked by good fellas. A June 11, 1972 article ("Police Crews Dig for Body Under Basement in 'Village'") from the New York Times states:
Two police emergency crews with jackhammers and shovels were digging yesterday beneath a concrete basement floor in Greenwich Village in search of a body believed to have been left there in a "mob rubout" more than a year ago. According to the police, the basement, at 835 Washington Street at the corner of Little West 12th Street, is beneath a bar -- no longer in business -- called "The Den." The police said that this bar, which lost its license last January, catered mainly to homosexuals. * * * The police said they could give no details -- not even the victim's name -- because it might prejudice a case.
The 835 Washington Street premises earlier was home to the gay bar Zodiac which was busted in July 1971 with eight other gay watering holes -- some of which allegedly were tied to reputed Gambino soldier Paul DiBella -- by a "joint strike force of nearly 400 federal and city police officers" as then reported in an article ("Raids Close 9 After-Hours Bars Linked to Mafia") from the New York Times: "Officials said the tawdry, ill-lit gathering places, most of them in Greenwich Village, were a lucrative source of income for the Mafia."
