The snaggle-toothed stalker wanted for allegedly shooting a Staten Island commune leader was caught on videotape withdrawing cash from a Manhattan bank, police said yesterday. Rebekah Johnson – who has been on the run since the May 29 shooting of Jeff Gross – was taped Sept. 20 at a Commerce Bank at 42nd St. and Madison Ave., police said.
She is begging for Rebekah Johnson to surrender in shooting of commune leader “Becky, dear, we love you dearly and are anxious for your safety,” is the message that Margaret Johnson of Virginia hopes will reach her fugitive daughter — wanted by police since Memorial Day, when she allegedly shot and wounded Ganas commune leader Jeff Gross. Mrs. Johnson phoned an Advance reporter yesterday and asked that the newspaper relay her plea. “The police have you labeled as armed and dangerous, and if they find you, could very well hurt you badly. Please do what you know is right. Go
But police, despite ‘full search,’ fail to find woman wanted in ambush of commune leader Like smoke in the wind, Rebekah Johnson allegedly turned up yesterday afternoon at a New Brighton apartment where she used to live. And then vanished. The 11th reported sighting of the fugitive wanted in the shooting of Ganas commune leader Jeff Gross had a new twist: On every other occasion, police have been able to confirm the identity of the woman mistaken for Ms. Johnson, but this time, they found no one. We don’t know if she was in there or not, said Capt. Richard
Cops are hoping that a segment on “America’s Most Wanted” tonight will help them catch the woman suspected of shooting a commune leader outside the group’s Tompkinsville enclave in May. The show, airing at 9 p.m. on FOX 5, will explore the personality of shooting suspect Rebekah Johnson through interviews and items cops found inside her Jersey Street apartment in New Brighton. They include a silhouette target riddled with bullet holes and books about sexual harassment at work and cults, said Jon Leiberman, a show producer who conducted the interviews included in tonight’s seven-minute segment. One of the books is
But shot guru sez he kicked mad attacker A Staten Island commune leader shot by an obsessed stalker preached peace and love yesterday toward his alleged attacker – even as it was revealed he got in one swift kick at her. “I really don’t carry any grudge against her. I’m sure they’ll catch her,” Jeff Gross, 51, told the Daily News in a bedside interview from St. Vincent’s Hospital Staten Island. “I’m not mad at her. What good is that going to do me? How can you be mad at someone who is mentally ill?” Gross added. Gross, a co-founder
A few rules exist at Ganas, a collection of 100 souls who live on Staten Island in what may be New York City’s only commune. Shared meals and wife-swapping are O.K. Freeloading, violence and pointless negativity are not. Rebekah Johnson, a former Ganas member, had violated all three prohibitions even before she was suspected of gunning down and seriously injuring one of the group’s founders on Monday night, residents say. In 1989, she quit working at the commune-run thrift store, stopped contributing to the group’s joint finances and began spreading prodigious amounts of negativity. “She was just causing trouble everywhere,”
My Nights in Hippie Haven June 1, 2006 — It all seems like a loopy and slightly depressing dream. I once lived at Ganas, the Staten Island commune where an apparently deranged former resident shot a respected longtime member this week. I was as shocked as the next person to learn about the bloodshed among otherwise peaceful geriatric hippies, and I don’t claim to know anything about events leading to this tragedy. But I guess in a place with group marriages and “safe sex societies,” you have to be prepared for surprises. It was 1998. I was new to the
A former member of a Staten Island commune built around the ideals of nonviolence, conflict resolution and open relationships is being sought in connection with the shooting of one of the group’s founders late Monday night, law enforcement officials said yesterday. The police said that the injured man, Jeff Gross, 52, was ambushed and shot three times in the chest and arms as he returned to the commune’s group of homes on Corson Avenue, not far from the ferry terminal. Mr. Gross was in stable condition last night at St. Vincent’s Hospital Staten Island, where he had surgery. Law enforcement
It started as a hippie dream of simple living, but has turned into a New Age mini-empire with lucrative property holdings stretching from Staten Island to Spain. The Ganas community was founded by six people on Staten Island in 1978, in a building members rehabbed on a shoestring. But the group has since grown to roughly 100 people living in 10 buildings on a hilltop in New Brighton – with additional holdings in upstate New York, Brooklyn, Virginia, California and Spain. With a real estate portfolio estimated at $10 million – the majority mortgage-free – the commune is more than
A kinky commune of Staten Island that preached peace and love was rocked by violence when a woman booted from the group returned with a grudge – and a gun, cops said. Rebekah Johnson – who had waged a decade-long campaign charging the Ganas commune was rife with sexual hijinks – was on the lam last night after allegedly seriously wounding organization co-founder Jeff Gross. The 43-year-old suspect hid in the bushes outside one of the hippie haven’s 10 Staten Island homes and ambushed Gross, 51, as he walked along Corson Ave. on Monday night, cops said yesterday. Johnson unleashed