In 1989, he walked around the East Village around Tompkins Square Park bragging to some of the people he believed were his disciples that he had killed his roommate and girlfriend, Monika Beerle, a Swiss student at the Martha Graham Center of Contemporary Dance, and a dancer at Billy's Topless.
During the 1980s, Drooker was further radicalized by his experiences with the police, due to their actions against squatters in the rapidly gentrifying Tompkins Square Park area and their increasing intolerance of unlicensed street artists and musicians.
He sold newspapers on the corner of Avenue B and 10th Street and played in Tompkins Square Park.
Madison Square Garden | National Park Service | Hyde Park | Central Park | South Park | Yellowstone National Park | Hyde Park, London | Albert Park | Phoenix Park | Longstock Park | Bletchley Park | Yosemite National Park | Times Square | Victoria Park | Tiananmen Square protests of 1989 | Linkin Park | Belmont Park | Trafalgar Square | Jurassic Park (film) | Queens Park Rangers F.C. | Highland Park | Dalymount Park | Golden Gate Park | University Park, Pennsylvania | Park Avenue | Donington Park | Square | Overland Park, Kansas | Buena Park, California | amusement park |
Crowds feature heavily in the book, from the opening crowds of thousands at the mass-wedding at Yankee Stadium, to the crowds living in Tompkins Square Park, to the thousands of mourners at the Ayatollah's funeral as observed on television by Karen.
They played CBGB on Saint Patrick's Day (also Steele's 50th birthday) as well as a free show at Tompkins Square Park in June of that year.