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NYPD Identifies Brooklyn Artist Who Snuck Trump's Tombstone Into Central Park
By
Emma Whitford
Published May 10, 2016
Modified May 10, 2016
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By
Emma Whitford
Published May 10, 2016
Modified May 10, 2016
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The anonymous Brooklyn-based artist who conceived, commissioned and planted a Donald Trump tombstone that stood in Central Park on Easter Sunday morning has been identified, concluding a month-long joint NYPD-Secret Service investigation into the March 27th incident.
Artist Brian Whiteley, 33, was outed by the NY Times on Monday.
Whiteley did not immediately respond to our request for comment on his big reveal on Tuesday morning. According to his artist bio, his work focuses on "our obsession with the unreal, the uncanny and our apparent, underlying need for these strange fascinations to be actualized."
The NYPD visited Whiteley on Monday to confirm his role in the stunt, according to the paper. No charges were filed against him.
When we spoke with Whiteley in early April, he asked that even his gender be withheld, fearing that he would face charges for making a death threat—an interpretation of the piece he said "right wing publications" were propagating.
But it was the images that Whiteley shared with us, published along with our April 2nd interview, that ultimately led investigators to his door. The NY Times reports that there were no finger prints left on the 420-pound granite stone, and that while park surveillance footage showed a group of people unloading the stone from a box van, the license plate was illegible. There were no witnesses.
Here's the investigators' breakthrough, from the NYT:
The [Gothamist] story included photos of the stone, including one before the engraving, when it was blank in what appeared to be a showroom. It stood among other models on a store’s chipped tile floor.
How many stores in the city make headstones?
Officer [Donald] Sadowy and Sgt. David Cuce decided to visit one to ask about the stone's design in hopes that it was unique to a particular store. They chose one at random, Supreme Memorials, on Fourth Avenue in Brooklyn, in business 65 years. They arrived April 4. The fourth-generation owner met them inside.
The officers recognized the showroom and its chipped tile floor.
"We were, honestly, smiling," Officer Sadowy said. "We were kind of caught off guard."
Supreme Memorials owner Michael Cassara quickly admitted to making the stone, describing Whiteley as a "hipster" client. He gave Whiteley's name to the investigators, as well as surveillance footage of the artist loading the stone into a box truck.
It took Whiteley five months to plan for and execute the headstone, which depicted Trump's name over the epitaph "Made America Hate Again." He told us after the fact that his goal was to give the Republican candidate—since dubbed his party's nominee—a jolt.
"I was trying to find a way where I could literally connect to Donald and say, 'Wake up man,'" he said. "I was trying to get him to understand what he would be remembered for at this point."
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central park
donald trump
election 2016
made america hate
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Emma Whitford
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