New York

1980s Rap Pioneer The Kidd Creole Charged in Deadly Stabbing of Homeless Man: Sources

Nathaniel Glover, 57, confessed to the stabbing the man, though a motivation for the killing has not been released

What to Know

  • Nathaniel Glover, aka The Kidd Creole, was charged with murder in the deadly stabbing of a homeless man
  • The 55-year-old victim was stabbed on a street in east Midtown on Tuesday night and later died
  • The Kidd Creole was part of Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five, best known for their hit rap song, "The Message"

UPDATE: 1980s Rap Pioneer The Kidd Creole Charged in Deadly Stabbing of Homeless Sex Offender Is 'Extremely Remorseful,' Cops Say

Nathaniel Glover, aka The Kidd Creole of the pioneering rap group Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five, has been charged in the deadly stabbing of a homeless man in Midtown, Manhattan, law enforcement sources tell News 4 New York.

Glover, a 57-year-old Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee, was arrested and charged with murder after being questioned at the 13th Precinct in Manhattan. He had been taken into custody at his home in the amount Hope section of the Bronx earlier on Wednesday. Police said he is "extremely remorseful." 

Glover confessed to stabbing the man, later identified as 55-year-old John Jolly, though a motivation for the killing has not been released, the sources said. He was walked from a police precinct Wednesday night in handcuffs. 

Jolly, a homeless man, was found with three stab wounds to his chest near Third Avenue and East 44th Street shortly before midnight on Tuesday, according to sources, who said he may have been stabbed somewhere else before collapsing at the spot a couple of blocks from Grand Central Terminal. Jolly is a convicted sex offender, according to records. 

He was taken to Bellevue Hospital and pronounced dead less than an hour later, sources said, adding that he had been staying at a homeless shelter in the Bowery and had 17 prior arrests. 

Glover has four prior arrests, the most recent being in 2007 for possession of a knife. In 1995 and 1982, he was arrested for possessing a gun, according to police. A fourth arrest is sealed. Glover worked security at a building on 44th Street near where the victim was found. 

His neighbor, Raymond Sanders, said he woke up to see police in Glover's apartment. "I said, 'What the heck is the police doing here?'" he said. 

Sanders couldn't believe his neighbor was wanted in a killing. 

"He's a nice guy," Sanders said. "All he do is go to work, come home. He's polite, he's very respectful of people. He doesn't say anything out of the way and he minds his own business."

It wasn't immediately known if Glover had an attorney who could comment on the charges. 

Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five formed in the Bronx in the late 1970s. They're most known for their influential 1982 rap song, "The Message." The group broke up in the late 1980s. 

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