James Gales found dead in his apartment... after months missing

[Dakota Valkyrie]

A Vietnam veteran was found dead in his Brooklyn home yesterday -- months after neighbors began complaining to the city about an unbearable smell coming from the apartment.

James Gales, 62, was often seen pushing himself around in his wheelchair at the Breukelen Houses in Canarsie, where he lived for 17 years, until late January when he mysteriously disappeared, neighbors said.

EMS workers, dispatched to the building by an anonymous 911 call, found his badly decomposed body at 11 a.m. after breaking down the door.

Gales appeared to have been dead for months, a police source said.

Neighbors began noticing the horrific stench coming from Gales' first-floor apartment around the time he disappeared and placed calls to the Health Department, police and Housing Authority to complain.

But the frustrated tenants said they got no response.
[...]

Legions of flies overtook the hallway, which reeked so badly that it made neighbors ill.

Jina Perkins said she set up rolls of fly-tape every morning before leaving for work. By the time she came home, they were completely covered in insects.

"My kid started to get sick and nobody did anything," she fumed.

Gales' cousin, who lives on the sixth floor, noticed he had disappeared, but eventually abandoned the search.

"When he went missing, we assumed he was in the [VA] hospital. We checked the hospital, but couldn't find him there," said Debra Gholson. "He was a nice, well-liked guy."

Gales' brother, Kenneth, said he went to visit his brother almost 50 times over the past six months, but never got a response.

"I'd go there and couldn't get in," said Kenneth. "[Building management] told me they didn't have the authority to let me into the apartment if I didn't have a key."

The medical examiner is set to perform an autopsy today to determine an official cause of death, but sources said it appears Gales died of natural causes.

A NYPD spokesman said cops visited the apartment several times and Gales even let them in on occasion. But the spokesman couldn't say the last time they saw him alive or checked the apartment.
[...]

Gales suffered leg injuries in a subway accident 28 years ago. He developed gangrene as a result, but stubbornly refused to have his diseased limbs amputated.

"He told me, 'I came into this world with two legs, and I'll go out with two legs,' " Perkins said.

Housing Authority spokesman Howard Marder said the incident was under investigation.

http://www.nypost.com/seven/07262009...oom_181460.htm

Why could the housing authority not do a welfare check themselves? Even the reports of the stench should have given them enough cause. Didn't anyone file a missing persons claim? Everyone, from his family on, let this man down.

Too many questions and sad answers.

[Just my luck sucks]

Gales suffered leg injuries in a subway accident 28 years ago. He developed gangrene as a result, but stubbornly refused to have his diseased limbs amputated.

Wow! How long can someone live with gangrene?

[Rockin Ma]

Neighbors began noticing the horrific stench coming from Gales' first-floor apartment around the time he disappeared and placed calls to the Health Department, police and Housing Authority to complain.

Flies and insects everywhere?
It's not rocket science. None of these people knew it smelled like someone or something died?

[cubby]

Poor, poor man, so sad, so very sad.

[carolinablue]

he was a veteran for God's sake. he served in the hell hole that was 'Nam; how could he just be forgotten. didn't anyone check on him? when he "just disappeared" nobody tried to see him? just reporting a bad smell is not enough by a long shot; someone, anyone, could have and should have kicked the door in. i know i would broken in somehow, a decomposing body has a distinctive odor, you can't mistake it for anything else. i hate to think of anyone, much less a veteran, dying alone and forgotten. major fail on everyone.

[Rockin Ma]

That's the puzzling part. His brother came by his place 50 times in the last six months I think I read.

I don't believe anyone thought he was missing with the smell, and it didn't appear he was hated by his neighbors so why? Were his disability checks cashed? Did they just think the smell was a rotting pizza?

[Dakota Valkyrie]

That's the puzzling part. His brother came by his place 50 times in the last six months I think I read.

I don't believe anyone thought he was missing with the smell, and it didn't appear he was hated by his neighbors so why? Were his disability checks cashed?

Disability checks must have been direct deposit and rent taken out automatically. Otherwise I'm sure the housing authority would have tried to boot his butt out long ago.

Did they just think the smell was a rotting pizza?

LMAO!

[Rockin Ma]

Residents of an apartment building in Brooklyn are asking for answers after one of their neighbors was discovered dead in his unit Saturday morning.
The body, identified as 60-year-old James Gale, was found in the Breukelen housing complex in Canarsie on 105th Street.
Neighbors say they have been complaining about the disgusting stench coming from Gales' apartment.
A man who just happens to work for the medical examiner's office, according neighbors, saw the apartment window open on Saturday.
When he passed the opened window, he apparently knew immediately that there was a dead body inside. Neighbors say they first noticed a stench, then flies and finally maggots. They say they called Housing Authority repeatedly, but staffers who responded didn't enter the Mr. Gale's apartment.
Neighbor, Jessie Livingston lives directly above the apartment where the body was found.
She showed Eyewitness News how she wrapped her pipes in tape to try to keep the stench out of her apartment.
Residents want to know why it took so long go into Gales' apartment and see if he was alive.
Neighbors say Gale was a veteran and his rent was paid directly by the Veterans' Association. Sources say there was never a missing person report filed for him.
But residents and neighbors are not satisfied and say that the stench should have been enough of a clue that there was a dead body in the building.
"It's smelled horrible. It was an odor I never smelled before. I knew it was a body. I kept telling the neighbor, this man is dead in that apartment," neighbor Livingston said.
Eyewitness News is told man found dead had some medical issues, including gang green. He apparently ended up losing some of his limbs.
New York City Housing Authority spokesman Howard Marder says officials are investigating when and how the man died, and records of any complaints aren't immediately available.

If people knew he was deceased, why oh why not call the police. Why the housing authority?

http://abclocal.go.com/wabc/story?se...cal&id=6933043

[Misskittychaos]

Oh sweet Jesus. This is an epic fail on too many levels. This poor man was dead and rotting and no one open the door to check on him?

[Dakota Valkyrie]

...Eyewitness News is told man found dead had some medical issues, including gang green...

Oh, come on, where is the editor? For that matter, the writer?

Gang green? Is that like one of them gang colors they ban in high school? Is it the gang that inhabits the Garden Party?

[MichaelJCheaney]

It NEVER occured to anybody that perhaps if they would have reported him missing to the Police....that they perhaps could have entered the building?

MORONS!

[Rockin Ma]

I noticed that too, but I must now ignore those typos and incorrect spellings, they drive me nuts and are never fixed when reported.

[myra manes]

If people knew he was deceased, why oh why not call the police. Why the housing authority?

http://abclocal.go.com/wabc/story?se...cal&id=6933043

The entire story is fucked up ..

*sigh*

[Aslan]

Eyewitness News is told man found dead had some medical issues, including gang green

The Crips and Bloods are gonna be soooo pissed.

Sorry. I agree with the disgust here. We (as a people) had no issue recognizing him and utilizing him for the military while he was alive. He returns and is set up in virtual isolation? No one even cared enough?
That brother must be full of it, 50 times in the last 6 months? Gee. That's strange.

RIP James. Thank you for your service

[Dakota Valkyrie]

A Vietnam vet found dead and badly decomposed Saturday in his garbage-strewn Brooklyn apartment after neighbors repeatedly complained of a foul smell was alive as recently as April, cops revealed yesterday.

Police went to James Gale's apartment at Breukelen Houses in Canarsie three times on "complaints of a foul odor" between January and April, said NYPD spokesman Paul Brown.

In each case, "it was determined that the source of the odor was the occupant's medical condition, which included gangrene," Brown said. "In one instance, medical assistance was rendered, and in other instances declined."
[...]

"While the matter is still under investigation, it can be said that [Housing Authority] management and our social-services unit made repeated attempts to contact and assist Mr. Gale," said authority spokesman Howard Marder.

http://www.nypost.com/seven/07272009...oli_181615.htm

[Valasca]

Myself, I'd have busted the door down, risking the charge of B&E.
But then, I'm more educated than the average bear, knowing a smell like that likely means something died.