Donald R Manes was a Democratic Party politician from New York City.
21 Facts About Donald Manes
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Donald Manes served as borough president of the New York City borough of Queens from 1971 until just before his suicide while under suspicion of corruption in 1986.
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Donald Manes briefly attended New York University before earning a degree in business administration from Hofstra University.
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Donald Manes moved to Queens with his family as a teenager.
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Donald Manes ultimately ascended to the chair of the Council's Housing Committee and emerged as a protege of influential Councilman Matthew Troy, a strident opponent of then-Mayor John Lindsay who became chair of the Queens Democratic Party in 1971.
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In 1974, Mayor Abe Beame worked with Donald Manes to arrange Troy's ouster as Queens Democratic leader, with Donald Manes assuming the role for the remainder of his life.
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Donald Manes was re-elected four more times through the turn of the decade, serving as a delegate to the 1980 Democratic National Convention during this period.
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Donald Manes's popularity plummeted in late 1985, when he was criticized over two of his pet projects.
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Donald Manes wanted to build a Grand Prix auto racetrack in Queens's largest public park, Flushing Meadows-Corona Park, where the 1939 New York World's Fair and the 1964 New York World's Fair had been held.
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Also that year, Donald Manes worked to build a domed football-baseball stadium in the park, but it was opposed by local businessmen in the Flushing area.
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One of his biggest controversies came in late 1985, when Donald Manes wanted to wire the borough for cable television.
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Donald Manes rejected a proposal by the Queens-based Orth-O-Vision company to place cable lines in the borough, and instead awarded contracts to mega-companies Warner Communications and Time-Life, as well as a cable firm owned by former Manhattan borough president Percy Sutton.
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Shortly after his inauguration for a fifth term, Donald Manes attended a dinner party for the new Israeli consul at Borough Hall in Kew Gardens on January 9,1986.
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Donald Manes left in his own car and was followed by his chauffeur up Queens Boulevard.
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Donald Manes initially claimed that two men had carjacked and attacked him, but later recanted the statement, saying he had attempted suicide.
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In 1978, Donald Manes installed a friend, Geoffrey Lindenauer, who later cooperated with prosecutors, as the deputy head of the Parking Violations Bureau.
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Donald Manes accepted bribes from SRS, a company involved in parking ticket collections, whose owner cooperated with authorities.
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Shortly before 10 pm the psychiatrist was called away from the phone and, while on hold, Donald Manes reached into a kitchen drawer, pulled out a large kitchen knife and plunged the eight-inch blade into his heart.
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Donald Manes's daughter screamed for her mother, who came down to find Manes on the floor in a pool of blood.
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Marlene Donald Manes pulled the knife from his heart as their daughter frantically called 911.
21.
Donald Manes died of a heart attack at the age of 70 in May 2004.