Hide Article Text (OCR)
Sunday Inciden tsBarnard Student Raped in Park; Gridder BeatenYoungsters Quietly Watch While Coed is AttackedYouth Aims Gun At Backus ’ ChestBy JOEL BENNETTA nineteen-year-old Barnard sophomore who transferred here this fall because she wanted to live in New York was raped at knifepoint by four youths in Morningside Park late Sunday afternoon.The slight, pale rape victim, who transferred to Barnard from a small New England college, was interviewed by Spectator yesterday, after she said that she wanted the story to be told so that others would not venture into Morningside Park.Speaking in a calm and almost emotionless voice, she described the assault. She said the four youths raped her at knifepoint, compelling her to engage in sexual intercourse and oral and anal sex acts as a group of children quietly watched.The attack came one week after Morningside Heights law enforcement officials told Spectator that Morningside Park was a drug-infested, crime ridden area, and that no one should attempt to cross the park, which separates the Columbia community from neighboring Harlem.The rape victim explained that she had taken a subway uptown at about 5:30 p.m. after returning to New York’s Port Authority from a visit with her grandparents, who live in upstate New York.“I took the first train that said uptown,” she said. The train, however, was not the Broadway Local that stops at 116th Street and Broadway, but the Lenox Avenue line.(Continued on Page 2)Photo by Arnold BrowneMorningside ParkBy JONATHAN MISHKINEd Backus, a defensive halfback on the varsity football team, was assaulted and held at gunpoint early Sunday morning during a robbery attempt on College Walk.Although Backus, a sophomore, prevented the approximately nine youths who approached him from stealing any money, he later had to be treated at St. Luke’s Hospital for a large cut above the right eye, which required four stitches to close. Backus was released short-tly afterwards.The story was pieced together yesterday through interviews with Backus, Dave Hahn, a close friend who was near the scene, of the incident, Robert Deming, Head Resident of Carman Hall, and police from the 26th precinct.Backus was walking between Kent and Hamilton Halls, near the Amsterdam Avenue gate, at 3:30 a.m., when he and a woman companion were approached by several youths who demanded money from the football player’s(Cont‘:.nued on Page 2)
Newspaper Details
New York Columbia Spectator
New York, New York, US
Tue, Oct 15, 1974
Page 1
Full Page
Clipped by
Anonymous
USA 01 Jan 2025
Other Publications Near New York, New York
New York Stars and Stripes
New York Weekly Tribune
Barnard Bulletin
New York Times
New York Evening Times
