America 1982-Chapter 586 - 127: Keeping Promises, Good Moral Character
Ed Koch, the congenial old-timer of the Democratic Party, serving his third term as the mayor of New York, received more vile greetings in one week than in all his previous decades combined. Following the systematized route to freedom proposed by Tommy, residents of New York discovered a harsh truth—their city was devoid of freedom.
In New York, not only were homosexuals barred from entertainment venues, but when the New York Giants won the Super Bowl, they couldn’t hold a victory parade in the city either. Mayor Ed Koch vetoed the team’s request for a traditional victory parade in New York without giving a reason, simply exercising the administrative power granted to him by the citizens of New York.
Now, journalists had unearthed the reason he denied the parade: the mayor was somewhat neurasthenic at the time and didn’t want the city to be kept up all night by a bunch of drunken fans causing a racket.
The scandal about his ownership of real estate company stocks was exposed in newspapers and further investigated by journalists. They found that his holdings weren’t limited to a real estate firm; he also owned shares in Murdoch’s New York cable company TLTV, a CTS parking fee collection company, revealing an old corruption case from three years prior.
In 1986, Queens Borough President and Liberal Party member Donald Manes committed suicide. The official reason given was that he faced charges of exposing corruption and ultimately killed himself due to mental collapse. Now, the businesses the mayor owned shares in were found to be exactly the same as the deceased’s, and doubts about whether Donald’s death was truly a suicide began to surface.
The borough president, despite having a handgun, high-dose sleeping pills, and poison—sufficient means for suicide—chose the most bizarre method: he stabbed himself in the heart with a large kitchen knife, holding it in reverse. His wife, who was present, didn’t try to stop him or call the police. Her first reaction was to pull the knife out, hastening his death. She claimed to the police that she wanted to help stop the bleeding. Unfamiliar fingerprints were found on the knife, but due to the wife’s reckless act of pulling out the knife, the police couldn’t capture more detailed fingerprint clues. Of course, the wife steadfastly claimed there was no third party present.
Furthermore, following Donald’s suicide, the investigation promptly concluded. The police ultimately announced that Donald had accepted a $36,000 bribe from the parking fee company. Overwhelmed by stress after the incident was exposed, he chose to commit suicide. The police recovered the bribe money, and the case was closed. Donald’s wife and daughter then inherited the rest of his estate and quietly moved away from New York.
At that time, many New York citizens lamented—could a borough president really commit suicide out of shame over a mere $36,000? The amount he embezzled was even less than his annual salary.
But now, people discovered that CTS parking fee company, which had contracted all parking fees business in New York, did indeed give Donald a bribe of a genuine $36,000, but it was not the total amount—it was a yearly occurrence, going on for at least ten years, and Donald had been Queens Borough President for fifteen years.
Even the bribers weren’t limited to Donald alone. Mayor Ed Koch was revealed to have also received periodic payments of $36,000. If counting from the year 1979 when CTS obtained the New York parking fee business, over ten years, Ed Koch received a total of $360,000 in bribes from just one company.
This completely ignited the fury of New York citizens. One company paid $360,000—God knows how many municipal construction companies had offered bribes. Ten, fifty?
Ed Koch’s response was predictably congenial. He calmly took on all the skepticism and publicly stated that, first, considering the doubts of the New York citizens, he would not seek reelection and second, he was willing to go under investigation. If found guilty, he was ready to face the consequences.
In the eyes of all politicians, this meant he was essentially conceding to the skepticism about him, voluntarily ending his political career. It should be noted that this man was the mayor of New York, the head of America’s largest city. Now, just because he spoke a few words in Murdoch’s defense, he was being stripped bare by countless journalists like a throng of ravenous men, waiting to be taken to court!
Just as he received a call from Murdoch and prepared to have his staff arrange an opportunity to make a statement, former President Reagan, who was now President Bush, immediately cooled down. He realized that there was a flaw in his previous thinking—accepting Murdoch’s favors didn’t mean he had to defend Murdoch. Silence did not affect the money flow; they didn’t dare to deal with the majority of citizens but certainly could handle Murdoch, who did not pay.
No one wanted to be the target of relentless journalists, and it was impossible to silently kill all the reporters trying to expose the news. The best stance was to protect oneself by staying away from Murdoch for now.
"Al, isn’t your good friend going a bit too far? I mean, the way he eliminates himself. I was only hoping he would sacrifice his political life, not end up behind bars," Tommy commented as he watched the recent barrage of exposés in New York against Ed Koch and called Al Gore to inquire.
He wanted Ed Koch to step out and defend Murdoch, then attack him with scandals Koch himself had provided, thus ending his political career. This was a lesson to other politicians ready to speak out for Murdoch: stay silent. But Mr. Ed Koch’s methods were too extreme. The parking fee company, Borough President Donald’s suicide—these were all details he had supplied. If things continued, the man wouldn’t just lose his political life; he might even spend the rest of his days in prison.
