Warning: This article contains spoilers for the first two episodes of American Horror Story: NYC, which aired October 19, 2022.
'Do you know what it feels like to have hot needles hammered into your nail beds? It feels like an injection of flame, an incineration of every nerve in your body, shooting inward from your fingertips. I was abducted last night. Someone drugged me, tied me up, tortured me--held a blade to my heart. I was held captive for hours. I don't know who did this to me, but I am certain that our boys in blue know that a killer is preying on and butchering gay men in Lower Manhattan.'
-Gino Barelli, AHS: NYC
In the premiere of AHS: NYC, we're introduced to a New York owned by the people, not the gentrified few. We've all seen it in films. Bums filled the alleyways, building cardboard lean-tos, warming themselves with trash can fires. Punks armed with switchblades roamed the streets, and ten foot high walls of garbage lined the sidewalks, filling the island with a horrific stench.
The gay community at that time was a buffet. Everyone was obsessed with the forbidden fruit. They'd crowd warehouses, cruise parks, stalk piers, and frequent bath houses and bars. Nobody cared about them. Nobody wanted them. They were lost and abandoned, so when they came to the police to tell them about a killer on the loose, it was no surprise that the cops refused to listen.