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Young "Hippie" Couple Busted For Explosives Called "Well-To-Do" Heroin Junkies
By
Jen Chung
Published Jan 1, 2013
Modified Jan 4, 2013
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By
Jen Chung
Published Jan 1, 2013
Modified Jan 4, 2013
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The young couple who were arrested for possessing explosive powder and a sawed-off shotgun in their West Village apartment were described as "admitted heroin addicts" by the NYPD. Aaron Greene, 31, remains remanded while the arraignment of girlfriend Morgan Gliedman, 27, was postponed after the suspect gave birth to a baby girl.
The police raided the couple's apartment at 8 West 9th Street in Manhattan on Saturday morning. According to Police Commissioner Kelly, they were "acting on a tip from a couple whom Gliedman and Greene let use their shower after meeting them in Washington Square Park." A criminal complaint says that Hexamethylene Triperoxide Diamine (HMTD) was found in the apartment (HMTD has been used in successful and planned bombings), as was a "collection of pages" entitled "The Terrorist Encyclopedia" and a sawed-off shotgun and ammunition.
NYPD spokesman Paul Browne told the NY Times, "It’s an ongoing investigation that aroused our concerns, obviously, because of the weapons, including the explosives, and the material found in the apartment, including these handbooks involving weapons of mass killing. What it means is still unknown.... We haven’t made a connection to any known plot or any connection to any known terrorists." A police source told the Daily Beast, "It looks like they’re junkies. Well-to-do junkies, not terrorists.” The criminal complaint, though, did not mention any drug paraphernalia.
A neighbor characterized the pair as "hippie-types" to us, noting that Gliedman, who went to the Dalton School and NYU, was "always very friendly, very nice," while Greene, a Harvard graduate, was "kind of cold, not the type of person who encouraged politeness. He never said a word to me." And one neighbor, in speaking with the Daily Beast, called Gliedman a "seemingly... happy-go-lucky girl" when she moved into the apartment during her NYU years:
After graduating from NYU, Gliedman earned a master's degree in creative writing at the Art Institute of Chicago, according to her Facebook page. She returned to her apartment two years ago, no longer manifestly happy and not looking so lucky.
“A very changed person,” the neighbor says.
Greene moved in around the same time, according to her neighbor, who describes both Greene and this very different Gliedman as “very unsociable people.”
"They were very insular and seemed kind of in their own world," the neighbor says.
The neighbor remembers that Gliedman often had friends to the apartment during her NYU days. That changed when Greene took up residence.
“They kept the apartment filthy and they had vermin problems,” the neighbor says.
The neighbor lends credence to the police view when he adds, “There was always a heavy cloud of smoke emanating from the place, and one got the sense that they were both heavily into drugs.”
The neighbor added about Greene, "To be honest, you could smell him before you saw him."
Greene has a history of arrests, from multiple weapons charges to a 2011 fare evasion. Glideman's mother, who apparently had visited the her daughter and the apartment many times in recent months, told the Times that her daughter was innocent, "[Greene]'s trying to pin it all on her."
Other neighbors on the street are stunned and annoyed. One fumed to the Daily News, "I’m absolutely enraged some idiotic rich girl was messing around with explosives 100 feet from where I live."
[UPDATE] This article originally referred to Greene as a "Harvard grad." That is incorrect. Read our correction here.
Tagged
aaron greene
bomb
explosives
heroin
junkies
morgan gliedman
nypd
west village
Jen Chung
Jen Chung is a former WNYC and Gothamist editor.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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