2. Park Central Hotel (formerly Park Sheraton Hotel) – 870 7th Ave.
This Midtown hotel was the unfortunate scene of two murders in the twentieth century. In 1928, Jewish mobster Arnold Rothstein (who was behind the 1919 Black Sox Scandal that fixed the World Series) was shot in the stomach as he walked into room 349 in the hotel. Rothstein was able to stumble outside via the service elevator, but not before he got a look at his killer. Strangely, he refused to share the details with police even as he lay on his deathbed. He died two days later. At the time of his death, Rothstein had over $300,000 in gambling debts.
The Park Sheraton must have been a favorite for gangsters, because in October 1957, the crime scene tape went up yet again. Albert Anastasia, head of the Murder, Inc. gang and founder of the Gambino crime family, was receiving a shave in the hotel barbershop when four men walked and riddled him with bullets. The assassins were never found, but they were purported to be rival mobster Joey “Crazy Joe” Gallo (who himself met an unfortunate end) and his brother. Today, the barbershop has been converted into a Starbucks.