Brooklyn's Vast Outdoor "Pot Plantations"

We've all heard tales of the occasional lone marijuana plant found growing on a median strip or leftover patch of ground here in Brooklyn, and presumably there are indoor medicinal grow operations keeping a low profile here and there about the borough.

All images: Brooklyn Public Library Brooklynology blog

But we never knew until now that Brooklyn was home to vast outdoor "pot plantations" in the early 1950s, growing in plain sight, with plants "as tall as Christmas trees," if the latest Brooklynology blog post at the Brooklyn Public Library can be believed.


Apparently, in the summer of 1951 alone, 17,200 pounds of the stuff was dug up and eradicated here in Brooklyn (41,000 pounds across the entire city). There was so much pot growing all over the place that special crews of sanitation workers had to be dispatched to uproot the demon weed, groves of which grew in "lush impudence" according to the Brooklyn Eagle, from which these pictures were taken.


One "marijuana plantation" in a Butler Street vacant lot yielded about 100 pounds of the plant. The cited location, at 82 Butler Street, is in the "West Slope" on the other side of the Gowanus Canal. We will be visiting soon to see if any traces are still to be found -- strictly for research purposes, of course.

In the meantime, don't miss the BPL's meticulously researched article on this fascinating subject.

Emmett Grogan: West Park Sloper

Readers with long memories may recall our earlier post about bank robber Willie Sutton, part of our occasional "Outlaws & Outsiders" series. We claim Sutton as a "West Park Sloper" because he lived in Dean Street between 3rd & 4th Avenues.

Actually the Sutton case came to our attention by way of yet another West Park Sloper, Emmett Grogan, who grew up on 4th Avenue in the "West Slope" and was an eyewitness to Sutton's capture, as recounted in Grogan's slightly fictionalized autobiobraphy Ringolevio: A Life Played For Keeps.

Grogan is perhaps best remembered these days as a founder of the San Francisco Diggers. As recounted by their website, the Diggers were an "anarchist guerilla street theater group that challenged the emerging Counterculture of the Sixties and whose actions and ideals inspired (and continue to inspire) a generation (of all ages) to create models of Free Association". The Diggers emerged in part from the famed San Francisco Mime Troupe, and reached an early apex during and after the "Summer of Love" by organizing free food and a free store ("It's free because it's yours!") in San Francisco's Haight-Ashbury community.

We are thus honored to welcome Emmett Grogan into the pantheon of Greater Park Slope Outlaws & Outsiders. We highly recommend his book Ringolevio to students of Brooklyn and of the 1960s.

It is said that Grogan originated the V-for-victory "peace sign" and the expression "Today is the first day of the rest of your life." Which is a true statement, if you think about it...

Digger poster

Emmett Grogan died in 1978 on the F train, en route to Coney Island, apparently of a heart condition exacerbated by heroin use. So, apparently, Emmett Grogan took his last subway ride through Park Slope.

Bob Dylan's 1978 album Street Legal is dedicated to Emmett Grogan, West Park Sloper:


Grogan's legacy resonates in Brooklyn's contemporary blogosphere. One of the authors/personae of the fascinating blog "Who Walk In Brooklyn" is named "Kenny Wisdom", the protagonist of Grogan's book Ringolevio.

Annals of Crime: Willie Sutton

Okay, we're crossing over 4th Avenue with this post, so some folks might say this isn't Park Slope any more. They might say it is Boerum Hill, or Gowanus. But we like to joke around that everything down to the Gowanus Canal is the "West Slope". Deal with it! Maybe we'll go down there some time and plant the Park Slope flag in the middle of Dean Street between 3rd & 4th.

Willie Sutton, West Park Sloper

Willie Sutton (1901-1980) was an accomplished bank robber. It was he who famously responded, when asked why he robbed banks, "because that's where the money is." (Makes perfect sense to us!)

Sutton reportedly stole more than $2M during his career. He was a master of disguises, which earned him the nicknames "The Actor" and "Slick Willie". When not in disguise, he was apparently a sharp dresser. He was also good at breaking out of prison, escaping for the last time in 1932. He never killed anyone during his career, and although he carried weapons in the course of his robberies, they were reportedly never loaded, because he didn't want anyone to get hurt. The guns were just for show. After escaping in 1932, Slick Willie robbed a few more banks, but then laid low for many years. When the FBI created its "Most Wanted" list, in 1950, Willie was 11th on the list.

In 1952, 24-year-old Arnold Schuster was helping out in his father's tailor shop at 5507 5th Avenue in Sunset Park. Schuster was a bit of an amateur detective and was fascinated by the "Most Wanted" poster that had been dropped off in his father's shop by FBI agents. Schuster had studied it carefully for months, and had grown very familiar with the faces on the poster.

On February 18, 1952, Schuster had gone shopping in downtown Brooklyn, and had boarded a downtown BMT train at DeKalb Avenue for the trip home. As he gazed at the people seated across from him, one face seemed oddly familiar. He soon realized it resembled a face on the "Most Wanted" poster that he had been studying for months. The man across the aisle looked down, and then got off the train at Pacific Street, in Park Slope, the next stop.

Arnold Schuster also got off the train, and followed his man to a gas station at 3rd Avenue and Bergen Street. He then flagged down a couple of police officers, saying, "I think that guy is Willie Sutton."

Gas Station, 3rd Avenue and Bergen Street -
Possibly the one to which Schuster trailed Sutton

The officers followed the man back to Dean Street between 3rd & 4th Avenues, where they found him changing a dead battery in his car in front of his rooming house at 340 Dean Street. The officers questioned him, and ultimately took him over to the precinct house at 6th Avenue and Bergen Street, a few blocks away, where he was positively identified as Willie Sutton, famous bank robber and escapee.

78th Police Precinct House, 6th Avenue & Bergen Street

New York Times account of Sutton's apprehension
March 9, 1952

It was a huge news story, and when Arnold Schuster's role in Sutton's apprehension was made known, he started receiving threatening phone calls and letters. One of the letters read, "You don't have long to live... Willie has friends."

On the evening of March 8, 1952, Arnold Schuster left his father's tailor shop and began walking to his home at 941 45th Street in Borough Park, between 9th & 10th Avenues, a distance of about a mile. He never made it. A few doors from his home, near the corner of 9th Avenue and 45th Street, he was gunned down, shot once in each eye and twice in the groin, if certain accounts can be believed. His body was found in the driveway adjacent to 913 45th Street. Despite a massive manhunt, his killer or killers were never apprehended.

New York Times, March 9, 1952, p. 1

It was later claimed that Albert Anastasia, a leader of one of the so-called "Mafia" families, had ordered Schuster to be offed after seeing the story on television, exclaiming, "I can't stand squealers! Hit that guy!"

We first heard this story in 2003, and immediately took the bike over to 340 Dean Street to see if the building was still there. At that time it was still standing, although abandoned and boarded up:

340 Dean Street (right) - 2003
Willie Sutton apprehended here

But we were surprised to find that even at that late date, Willie Sutton was not forgotten. Spray-painted on the doorway, back in 2003, superimposed with "KEEP OUT", were the words "Willy [sic] Sutton RIP":

340 Dean Street, 2003 - doorway

This was Willie Sutton's last hideout, just a few blocks from the Bergen Street precinct house; this was his home when he was apprehended due to the hapless Arnold Schuster.

Sometime in the last year or so, 340 Dean Street was demolished, to make way for what will undoubtedly be marketed as another "luxury condo" tower. The site has been quiet of late, so it appears that luxury may have to wait a bit longer in this part of the West Slope.

340 Dean Street (right) - 2010

Al Capone, Park Sloper

Amongst other such notables as Barack Obama, Al Capone was a Park Sloper.

Al Capone mugshot

Young Al is associated with two addresses in Garfield Place, and with P.S. 133. According to his Wikipedia article, his family first lived at 38 Garfield Place, on the south side of the block between 4th & 5th Avenues:

40-38-36 Garfield Place - unprotected

The Capone family immigrated to the United States in 1893 and settled at 95 Navy Street, in the Navy Yard section of downtown Brooklyn, near the Barber Shop that employed Gabriele at 29 Park Avenue. When Al was 11, the Capone family moved to 38 Garfield Place in Park Slope, Brooklyn. (wikipedia)

While living in Park Slope, Capone attended P.S. 133, a few blocks north of his Garfield Place residence. Capone's biography dismisses the school as a "hideous Gothic monstrosity", but the building was well-loved by its neighbors and was the subject of an unsuccessful preservation campaign:

Excerpt from Capone by Laurence Bergreen

P.S. 133 - unprotected "Gothic monstrosity"
C. B. J. Snyder, architect

After being expelled from school, the 14-year-old Capone began running with several Park Slope street gangs. Around the same time, his family moved down the block to 21 Garfield Place, on the north side of the street:

17-19-21 Garfield Place - unprotected

Shortly after he was expelled, his father moved the family to 21 Garfield Place, in the neighborhood that would influence the direction of Capone's life and ultimately, his future. Capone joined two local street gangs, the Brooklyn Rippers and the Forty Thieves Juniors. Among the members were Johnny Torrio and Lucky Luciano. (u-s-history)