A Manhattan Mystery

Welcome To Our Club Stephen

Manhattan Musings
By Stephen MacDonald

When this semi-retired Manhattan lawyer recently got a call from his friend Phelim McAleer, with the kind suggestion that I could become a regular contributor to the Unreported Stories Substack, it called to mind my youngest daughter’s response to the news a couple of years ago that I was retiring from “Big Law”: “Dad, you should write a book!”

Although, thankfully, I didn’t seize my daughter’s suggestion, I am humbled by Phelim’s invitation and have agreed to give it a go as a contributor here.

Phelim also suggested that a few words by way of introduction would be in order.

I was born and raised in New York City and, after a few years in the Boston area for college and law school, I became a commercial real estate lawyer based in Manhattan. My wife and I also took on the challenge of raising a family in Manhattan.

Working in large law firms, I primarily represented institutions such as banks and insurance companies, although at times I also assisted developers (including, for a couple of years in the late 1990s, Donald Trump). Having recently stepped back from the active practice of law, I am currently devoting large parts of my time to reading history, babysitting my grandchildren, visiting places overseas that I had previously been unable to explore, and helping friends conduct historical tours in and around New York City.

I hope to contribute essays here about a variety of topics, including politics, law, and our life in New York City under our Marxist-Jihadist mayor, Zohran Mamdani, and our George Soros-funded, soft-on-most-crime District Attorney, Alvin Bragg.

Although I didn’t happen to see Manhattan DA Bragg during my visits, I traveled from my Upper West Side home on April 4, 2023 to join a demonstration by a hundred or so Trump supporters outside a downtown Manhattan courthouse. At the time my former law client, Mr. Trump, was—to the disgrace of New York’s justice system—arraigned for 34 phony felony charges.

My handwritten sign—“SALEM 1692/ BRAGG 2023”—expressed my sentiments about the New York phase of the multiple witch hunts then being coordinated by the Biden/Sock Puppet “Administration.”

When a jury of my fellow Manhattan residents unfortunately performed their expected role in the inquisition by delivering guilty verdicts against Trump on all charges, I again joined Trump supporters demonstrating near the courthouse.

Screaming Leftists frequently invaded the area cordoned off by the NYPD for Trump supporters, but in that now-departed, pre-Marxist period in NYC government, the police quickly shut down the attacks.

Many conservatives might have an understandably dim view of New York City, it is worth noting that the Trump vote here rose to 30% in 2024.

So there is always more going on in New York than you might think at first glance. As an example of the quirky ways that a history-minded soul like me can find NYC an intriguing place, on Saturday afternoon I stopped by Zabar’s deli on Broadway and West 80th Street to pick up a few items.

Notwithstanding the daunting 90-degree heat, I decided to detour on my way home so as to stroll by this innocent-looking, 100-year-old luxury apartment building located on the corner of West 77th Street and Riverside Drive.

Innocent building hides spy.

If you had walked by that building between 1947 and 1963, you might have encountered one Boris Morros, a Russian immigrant with a successful career as a Hollywood producer.

He also had 13 highly successful years as a Soviet spy. Morros switched sides in 1947 and then spent 10 years as a double agent for the FBI. In 1959, he published a memoir of his espionage career.

Spying in New York

If his title had been a little more fulsome—say, “My Thirteen Years as a Soviet Spy and Ten Years as a Counterspy”—it might have made less of a literary splash and might not have become the 1960 Hollywood film “Man on a String” starring Oscar winner Ernest Borgnine. New York, and particularly Manhattan, has 250 years and counting of espionage history. I hope to offer readers my musings on some of that history, and on other topics, now that Phelim has welcomed me here.