On New Year’s Day in 1984, 18-year-old New Yorker Jonny Habib was beaten to death with a baseball bat in an Upper East Side arcade, the victim of a possible mistaken identity and what one report called “a spasm of teenage machismo.” The arcade was running without a license, and according to some reports, other patrons continued playing their games as the murder took place.
Habib — described as a tall, lanky young man with a love of electronics, videogames and girls — was the son of separated parents, and the grandson of a Turkish rabbi. He was a dancer, and had a particular fondness for disco rollerskating and hanging out at Studio 54. On the morning of the first, plans to hang out with his girlfriend fell through, so Habib headed down to the Games, Games, Games arcade to play Atari’s Star Wars, one of his favorites.
