On the afternoon of December 22nd, 1984, shots rang out beneath the streets of New York from the

subway's number two, 7th Avenue express train.

Good evening. It is Christmas Eve in New York, and the talk of the town is not peace on earth,

but the violence among us, this time in the subways, where a vigilante and his gun brought terror this past weekend the victims were four

teenagers eyewitness news has been on top of this story from the very start of it

and tonight we have team coverage as police press their search for the

vigilante we begin with Milton Lewis who spent this day riding with people who

trust their lives to the subways every day.

A Greenwich Village man named Bernard Getz shot four black teenagers who he believed were about to

assault him. The incident made international news amplified by the city's shameless tabloid newspapers

because it's so perfectly embodied all the cultural stereotypes about New York City.

Gets became a sort of folk hero, the so-called subway vigilante, who took things into his own

hands because the city's weakened and in-up services could not protect him.

But this is also a moment of fairly recent

occurrence, at least in terms of the other events we speak about on this show. And so many of you,

no matter where you're from, may remember parts of the story or perhaps misremember it.

The facts of this case only really came to light within the courtroom,

playing out for years in the mid-1980s. To help lay out a clear picture of this seminal moment

in 1980s, New York, I'm joined today by Elliot Williams, the author of the gripping new book

Five Bullets, The Story of Bernie Gets, New York's explosive

80s, and the subway vigilante trial that divided the nation. And then at one point I picked up

the phone and called, and I'm, next thing I know, I'm interviewing Bernard Gets.

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