Reclusive heiress Huguette Clark died yesterday at the age of 104 in Beth Israel, where she has resided the last 20 years of her life. Her obituary in the Times describes her as "certainly the last link to New York's Gilded Age" (no relation to its current Gilded Age). Her extended family sued her longtime attorney Wallace Bock, and accountant Irving Kamsler for "suspicious transfers" and mismanaging Clark's estimated $500 million fortune, but a judge ruled that the money remain under their control, despite a continuing investigation by the Manhattan DA's office. Through a spokesman, Bock said of her passing "She died as she wanted, with dignity and privacy. We continue to respect her wishes for privacy." more ›

As the Manhattan DA investigates how lawyers have been handling 104-year-old Huguette Clark's $500 million fortune, they've found she has been living under an assumed name in Beth Israel hospital, and that those listed as her "next of kin" do not even exist. She lists a "Jose River" as a husband, though she has not been married since 1930, and says he can be reached "c/o Justina Batien." There is apparently no record of anyone with that name in the US. A close friend of hers previously said, "Her closest friends have always been her dolls," so let's just hope she didn't list them as her contacts. more ›

Now that St. Vincent's hospital has delivered its last baby and is closing for good, displaced Greenwich Village patients have been flooding Beth Israel hospital across town. According to the Daily News, Beth Israel has seen a 25% increase in walk-in patients in the week since St. Vincent's shut down, and daily admissions are at an all time high. Beth Israel also got hit with twice their average number of ambulances two days after St. Vincent's stopped accepting them. more ›

The police are looking for a man suspected of stabbing two Key Food employees, one of whom died at a hospital two hours after the afternoon attack. Other employees at the East Village store say James Gonzalez, a part-time maintenance worker, stabbed ex-girlfriend Tina Negron with a 10-inch knife, because he was upset over their breakup. more ›

Two female Key Food employees at the Avenue A and East 4th Street store were attacked by a knife-wielding man. The police originally said one of the woman died, but it turns out that one is "clinging to life" while the other is in critical condition. more ›

Natasha Lyonne – remember her? – has resurfaced, and not at the morgue! In fact, the young hellion seems to be doing quite well for herself – at least that’s the portrait painted by this convivial Times profile, in which reporter Robert Simonson smokes Marlboro Lights with her on the roof of Theater Row, where she’s to appear in the new Mike Leigh play Two Thousand Years. Though off the horse, the actress isn’t all yoga and Celestial Seasonings – she’s quick to point out that she usually smokes Marlboro 72’s, because they’re “like something Robert Mitchum would smoke.” more ›

Add "Do you play video games?" to the list of questions you might want to ask your surgeon. more ›

Queens Hospital to Help the Neediest more ›

Honestly, we're stunned. Growing up in the East Village we've always taken pride in how well our neighborhood handles its diversity. We were raised firmly believing that if you were black, white, yellow, male, female, straight, gay, old, young, sober, drunk, high, local, tourist, etc., it just didn't matter. Even in the bad old days of crackheads and Bowery drunks you at least had the sense that if you were being beaten on the street that someone would come and try and help out (we were so naive). Needless to say the idea of a man being beaten and kicked in the middle of 14th Street and First Avenue at 1:30 AM by four youths screaming homophobic slurs makes us sick to our stomachs. more ›

(Boys and) Girls Just Want to Have Sun more ›

Ooh - the Continuum Center for Health and Healing has started to use leeches in a treatment for osteoarthritis in the knee. Leeches have been used in other kinds of surgery, but apparently this is the first time leeches have been used to treat the knee. No one is sure why leeches are able to give osteoathritis sufferers relief, so the clinic is looking for more volunteers (it's run by Beth Israel, so it's not some quack scheme) to take part in the study - the volunteers do need to shell out $600, though. more ›

Wallenberg, a Williamsburg resident, said that the doctor at Beth Israel believed that a lot of the burn would scar permanently. She is considering legal action against Con Ed, which is now partially burnt onto her back. Wallenberg, a receptionist and DJ, is described by the Post as a 26 year old skateboarder. Note to the Post from Gothamist: no describing people as skateboarders unless they are Tony Hawk, et al. more ›