Joe Levine spread the word on Saturday, forwarding a copy of a newspaper article on the killer's rampage which spanned nearly 28 hours and two boroughs. After stabbing people in a crowded subway, he then drove to the home of his former girlfriend, killing her and stabbing her mother.

At that point I'd only seen the story but had not heard confirmation that the pedestrian was the Stephen Tanenbaum known in the numismatic community.David Gladfelter wrote:

On Sunday I heard from John Kraljevich, who writes:

A fugitive with a knife, who the police said had left behind a calamity of murders and broken lives in Brooklyn, was captured by officers at Times Square on Saturday morning after stabbing another victim on a subway train, investigators said.

It was the culmination of a roller-coaster of violence that included three fatal stabbings; a hit-and-run homicide; four other stabbings; four auto thefts, including two carjackings; death threats against several others who got in the way; a dangerous manhunt by hundreds of police officers; and for millions of New Yorkers a round-the-clock ordeal of a killer on the loose in the city.

Mr. Kelly said he had never encountered a crime spree like Mr. Gelman's. "It's so horrendous and bizarre," he said at an afternoon news conference. "Obviously, if he wasn't apprehended this morning, he could have injured, killed, many more people."

The arrest was the climax of a 28-hour drama in which, the police said, Mr. Gelman killed his mother's companion as well as his former girlfriend and her mother in knife attacks at two apartments in Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn, then seized a car, stabbed the driver, fatally struck a pedestrian and sped away.

To read the complete article, see:Suspect in Brooklyn Stabbing Spree Is Captured(www.nytimes.com/2011/02/13/nyregion/13stab.html)

The stabbing spree started just after 5 a.m. Friday, when police say Gelman fatally knifed his stepfather, Aleksandr Kuznetsov, at their apartment in Brooklyn's Sheepshead Bay neighborhood. Gelman had gotten into a fight with his mother after she refused to allow him to use her Lexus, and Kuznetsov intervened and was attacked, Kelly said.

Police found the 54-year-old man's body at his home in the predominantly Eastern European immigrant neighborhood. The Ukrainian-born Gelman and his mother became naturalized U.S. citizens in 2004 or 2005, Kelly said.

At about 10:30 a.m., several blocks away, Gelman entered the home of his ex-girlfriend and used a kitchen knife to fatally stab her mother, 56-year-old Anna Bulchenko, Kelly said. When 20-year-old Yelena Bulchenko arrived home at about 4 p.m., she found her mother dead in a pool of blood and called 911, police said.

Gelman apparently was still in the house, chasing Bulchenko as she fled outside and stabbing her 11 times as she died, Kelly said.

He then sped away in the Lexus to Brooklyn's Midwood neighborhood, rear-ending a Pontiac. The driver confronted Gelman and was stabbed three times in the chest but survived and was in stable condition, Kelly said.

Gelman drove off in the Pontiac, hitting 62-year-old pedestrian Stephen Tanenbaum, who died of his injuries, police said. He later abandoned the car, engine running, in the driveway of a private house in Midwood, not far from a freight railroad line "Gelman frequented as a graffiti artist," Kelly said.

To read the complete article, see:Police: Man kills 4 in stabbing rampage in NYC(www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2011-02-12-new-york-stabbings_N.htm)

Donald Erlenkotter, Editor and Past President of the Civil War Token Society forwarded this from the CWTS Hall of Fame section on the Society's Web site:

David Gladfelter writes: