The NYPD is looking for a well-dressed man caught on camera pummeling a stranger on a subway platform in Times Square last week.
Surveillance footage from inside the Times Square subway station Tuesday evening shows the man in a suit, tie and overcoat winding up and throwing a haymaker at a fellow straphanger as he got off the train.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association
The New York Times on March 13, 1888, labeled the blizzard "the worst storm the city has ever known," and that may just hold true, judging by reports from the time. Location: A grocery store on 11th Street, looking west.
"It is hard to believe in this last quarter of the nineteenth century that for even one day New-York could be so completely isolated from the rest of the world as if Manhattan Island was in the middle of the South Sea," a Times reporter wrote. Location: 63rd Street and Third Avenue.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association
But initially it was the blizzard no one saw coming. When the storm first struck on March 11, temperatures were mild. One weatherman, Elias B. Dunn, predicted that the weather for the next day would be: "Cloudy followed by light rain and clearing." He had checked with the Coast Guards, and nobody expected that a calamitous storm was on its way. Location: Outside the former Astor House, on the corner of Broadway between Barclay and Vesey Streets in Manhattan, one of the first luxury hotels in New York City.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association
On March 12, two separate storms zoomed into the city, one from the north, one from the south. "It was as if New York had been a burning candle upon which nature had clapped a snuffer, leaving nothing of the city's activity but a struggling ember," The New York Sun wrote. Location: On Baxter Street in lower Manhattan.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association
The city was buried in drifts of up to 30 feet deep as winds raged. "Few of the women who work for their living could get to their work places. Never, perhaps, in the history of petticoats was the imbecility of their designer better illustrated," a reporter for the New York Sun wrote. Location: Ms. Porter's School in Farmington Connecticut, where a tunnel has been made for pedestrians.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association
Some of the stories from the time beggar belief. Historian G. J. Christiano writes that one man suffered a gash on his forehead when he fell into a snow drift."The drift was soft and deep, but his head struck the leg of a dead horse buried there. For some time afterward, the man showed his friends the wound and boasted that he was the first person ever kicked by a dead horse." Location: Flushing, Queens.
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Incredible reports say that ice formed on the East River, and many people were able to walk from Brooklyn to Manhattan. Telephone and telegraph lines went down, cutting off communications between major cities. Location: An abandoned horse car is seen outside Hotel Martin at University Place, on the corner of 9th Street, Manhattan.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association
Historian G. J. Christiano describes another odd story from the time, about middle aged man on his way home in Manhattan who becomes overcome by cold. "He staggered to a lamppost for support, hoping he would regain his strength. Instead he fell asleep. His face began to freeze to the post and the cold numbed his jaws, shrinking them so they could no longer hold his false teeth. Finally, he woke from his stupor and stumbled home. There he collapsed from cold and exhaustion. The following morning, he realized his false teeth were gone! He returned to the lamppost and found them there, firmly stuck to the ice on the post." And you think we've got snow troubles? Location: Park Place, Brooklyn
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association
As you can see, the writers of the time were not ones to downplay an event. Of the 1888 storm a Herald reporter wrote: "A horror of darkness deepened on the crowded city and the terror-stricken population cowered at the awful sounds which came from the throat of the whirlwind...The heavens darkened and a great roaring sound came from the thundering clouds. It seemed as if a million devils were loose in the air..." Location: Unknown.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association
Once the storm of a million devils was done, 200 New Yorkers had died, the New York Public Library archives estimates. In the history of New York, the Blizzard of '88 will forever live. Location: 149 Broadway, Manhattan.
The man punches the straphanger several times -- even getting passed by fellow commuters who do not stop to help -- until the victim is crumpled on the ground. The man then walks off.
According to authorities, the suspect asked his victim why he was staring at him on the train before the attack.
The 22-year-old suffered two chipped teeth and swelling due to his injuries.
