Mark's 10am Monologue.

Curtis Sliwa filled in for Mark Simone and began the show by reflecting on the tragic death of Debrina Kawam, who was burned to death on a New York City subway about a year ago by Sebastian Zapeta, who has since been charged with murder and other offenses. Curtis questioned whether the media has given this heartbreaking story the attention it deserves as we remember the anniversary of Kawam's death. To honor her memory, Curtis and the Guardian Angels held a commemorative event yesterday at the F train station in Coney Island, where the incident occurred.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Now the Guardian Angel of talk radio is here. Curtis
Sleewah guest host the Mark Simone Show on sevent ten.

Speaker 2 (00:09):
Woor oh yeah, let's do it day two.

Speaker 1 (00:26):
As I sit in for Mark Simon, I mean, this
is the guy who's smooth. Remember that song by Shah
Day nineteen eighty four. I remember hearing it in London
first time when I organized the Guardian Angels, their smooth operator.
Nobody's smoother in this business, this thing of ours, this

(00:48):
is the business we have chosen talk radio. Nobody's done
it longer than Mark Simone locally. But I'm sort of
the tagalong thirty five years and to be thirty and
now at the radio station where it all started for me,
not as a host but as a guest. When I

(01:09):
got the bug TV bug was rom Perum. That was
before WOR Radio seven ten, when I was interviewed by
Arlen Francis who had the midday show, when I was
the newspaper Boy of the Year, havn't gotten an award
from Richard Nixon, And I remember the studios they have

(01:30):
fourteen forty Broadway. I think I'm not trying to remember
if rom Perum was actually on Channel nine. I think
it was at the TV studios in Midtown Manhattan, not
far from where the ball is going to drop. Welcoming
in the new year and the change over from the

(01:51):
missing in action mayor the swaggerman with no Plan Eric Adams,
who got windyned in pocket lined over the years. Thank god,
he'll be gone. Has he gotten back yet? Is he
from this perpetual vacation, his travels around the world at
taxpayer's expension, sort of like Matt Lauer, remember before he
got the boot at NBC. Where's Matt Lawa today? Where's

(02:14):
Eric Adams today? On our dime? We're paying for all that.
We'll get into all of that. And then also uh
oh boy. At the dysfunctional home of WABC, the former
house of always broadcasting critics Sliwa, now always bashing Curtis Sliwa,
one of their hosts just he lost it yesterday. Greg Kelly,

(02:39):
Oh my god, he just went on and on. People
were telling me on the streets of Coney Island, listen
to him. This guy, he's having an episode. He certainly was.
Wow And in fact, he used words that I heard
that hadn't been said to me on the radio since

(03:02):
back in nineteen ninety two, I had on as a
guest of Angels in the Morning, where I was hosting
with my wife at that time, Lisa and al Lisa
Evers at Channel five, guy named Louis Kasman who was
like the adopted son of John Gottisenia, and he was
coming on to defend John gottisin You have been found

(03:25):
guilty for the final time triple life without parole because
of the rat Sami de Bolgravano and the memory's tapes
of conversations they had had over the Ravennight Social club
in Italy where he was ordering the executions of his
fellow Gambino crime family members. And Louis Kasman was on

(03:50):
the air and he was defending him, and it was
a very heated discussion, and I remember what Louis Kasmin said.
He said, Curtis, you better keep your mouth shut if
you know what's good for you. And soon after, remember
I got shot five times with the hollow point bullets

(04:10):
in the back of that yellow cab on my way
to WABC. We'll get into that later on. Oh you
know what I missaid, Well, yesterday the Moe Green there
at WABC. Yeah, Greg Kelly's like Mo Green from The Godfather,
you know, tough guy, tough guy, except these Irish not Jewish.

(04:31):
He said exactly the same thing he announces on the microphone,
and I heard it for myself. Curtis, keep your mouth shut.
If you know what's good for you. What do you
think you mean by that? Is that that foe for
gazy rage because he has anger management issues. Well, look,

(04:55):
I'm gonna get into it. We'll do the deep dive.
Dysfunctional former family at WABC tries to still haunt me
to this day even though I'm at the station. You
should all be listening to now War seven ten, the
absolute best with Larry Mente in the morning and then

(05:16):
obviously Mark Simon, my very dear friend in the afternoons.
For many many years, Sean Hannity, the rock ribbed all
American conservative voice of reason from Franklin Square along Island
doesn't get any better. And the whole panoply of shows
that you get here as opposed to where you may

(05:36):
have been. But let's talk about what occurred yesterday. And
I want to give credit to Natalie the wr team
here producer in the morning, who also does the news
from time to time, and she spoke to everybody here
at seven ten yesterday morning before my debut and talked

(05:58):
about how I am The Gardian Angels would be out
at Coney Island Stillwell Avenue to commemorate, memorialize the death
of the Debbie Kowom, also known as Dobrina Kowam from
Little Falls, New Jersey. You say, who's that? Well, a

(06:20):
year ago the whole world knew, at least for the
first nine days when she could not be identified because
she was burnt so badly, turned into a human torch
by an enemy of society. It came to this city
with the royal red carpet rolled out for him by

(06:43):
Joe Biden, biorchist Harris and yeah, oh yeah, at that
time the Biden of Brooklyn, Eric Adams, So we'll be
talking about him also later on today the house smiuse
said he was for twenty two years as a cop
in the NYPD. And it seems like in one year's time,

(07:04):
the memory of the most heinous, horrific crime in the
New York City subway system, in fact, in New York
City's history, involving one victim, just wiped from the memory cells.
Credit though to Natalie for bringing that to the surface

(07:27):
of what we would do. I'll get into that momentarily.
And also to the New York Posts Catherine don Levy,
a reporter who had covered this horror a year ago.
They're now doing a video broadcast to sort of remind people,
because it just seems the rest of the media and

(07:47):
most people from them, it's out of sight, out of mind.
Part of that is due to what the City of
New York does not want you to know about. All
the crime in the subway. Look at it, all the
series of stabbings that have occurred of late, all the
homeless and emotionally disturbed. They're still living in the system.

(08:09):
I know. Coming here this morning, I ran into so
many of them, some who I know personally. So we
eulogized Debrina Kwam on the anniversary that horrible death. We
had the reath out. We had pictures people were passing
by a very crowded station where the F train D

(08:31):
train merges with the N and Q. Nobody knew, and
we said to say her name. Nobody knew. And there
are so many thousands of homeless and emotionally disturbed out there.
They won't be home for Christmas. Their home is an

(08:51):
unsafe shelter, a subway car, a subway station, a platform,
a park, or the streets, and they all have a
unique story. His DeBie Kwalms the age of fifty seven,
she had become homeless, destitute, and clearly was emotionally disturbed

(09:13):
when she was set on fire on that f train
on the morning of December twenty second of last year,
at seven thirty. Where was she? From? Little Falls, New Jersey.
Grew up in a small white house. A father work
assembly line at the GM factory in Lynden, no longer operational,

(09:34):
her mother at a bakery store. She had her sister
and brother. An all American upbringing. She was a cheerleader,
mispopularity at Passaic Valley Regional High School, worked in Perkins,
a pancake house as a hostess, got so many of
her friend's jobs there. She was always the life of
the party and as so many of her former schoolmates said,

(09:58):
she was a bright light. Then unfortunately got dimmed like
so many out there. She went on to Montclair State College,
which is right there in Little Falls, got a job
at Sharp Electric and Malwa and Mirk the pharmaceutical company,
and from time to time, we'd go out with her

(10:19):
girlfriends to Vegas of the Caribbean and have a nice,
nice holiday like some of you are having now for
Christmas and New Years. And she meets a guy, and
you know what happened. Something cracked. She began to fall

(10:40):
into an abyss, last known to be working in Atlantic City.
And then, if you follow the timeline, getting arrested from
time to time all along the Jersey Shore for drunken
and disorderly conduct. When no lifelines, she was falling into

(11:02):
Dante's inferno. And then she went back home. She was
searching for her mother. She pounded on that door. A
woman answered the door. She said, I want my mommy.
I want my mommy. I want my mommy. And the
woman who had just recently bought the house from Dobrina's

(11:25):
mother and father, said, I don't know where they are.
I have a realtor's card. Maybe he can track them down.
I want my mommy. She's crying, she's disheveled. The woman
goes and finds the card. She returns to the door
and the next thing she knows to bring and kowamas
running down the block screaming, mommy, mommy, crying. She came

(11:48):
home from Christmas, at least she thought. She soon ended
up over a Grand Central terminal. Almost outreach unit brought
her up to a woman's shelter in the South Bronx.
How crazy is that this woman was from Little Falls,
New Jersey. Soon they took everything from her. She fled.

(12:14):
Where to homeless people go when they flee in the winter,
they go into the subway, so that becomes their home.
And it was for many days until this Monthster found
her set her on fire. Was there a commemoration, a
memorialization yesterday at city Hall? No any other fifty one

(12:35):
city council members, No Jessica Tish the police commissioner, no
one police president, no MTA headquarters.

Speaker 2 (12:44):
No.

Speaker 1 (12:44):
They want that image wiped from our mindsets. It'll never
be white from my mindset. Imagine for so many of you,
how many of your cheer and her grandchildren are coming
home with your parents or grandparents for Christmas and New Years,

(13:07):
and they want to see their mommy. Those are like
her last words that we know of mommy. Where's my mommy?
And yesterday Natalie brought this to your attention here wor

(13:27):
the New York Posts. Catherine don leaving and the rest
of the world wanted to remain oblivious. Not I in
the Guardian angels, No, we want a memorial placed at
that very spot on the f train station to represent
the many thousands of homeless and emotionally disturbed, some of

(13:50):
them buried in Pottersfield you know where that is. A
million bodies are buried there, nameless, faceless individuals. They all
had stories and at least I was able to tell
Debbie Kwalms say her name. No, they won't, but we will.

(14:14):
We will remember. We should always remember. Our number is
eight hundred three two one zero seven ten. That's eight
hundred three two one zero seven ten on this your
place to be seven ten wor