Nude Man Found Dead in Upper East Side Bathhouse

Tragic, but in a Judy Garland kind of way ...

Via NYDN:

A 45-year-old man was found dead Sunday, sitting naked on a toilet in the bathroom of a 24-hour bathhouse on the Upper East Side, a police source said. Cops said emergency responders found the man about 2:35 a.m. inside the bathhouse, which bills itself as “New York’s premier social relaxation club for gay and bisexual men.” A police source said narcotics were found and that the death appeared to be an overdose. Release of the man’s identity was pending notification of his family in the Philippines. 

The X-rated website for the members-only club on E. 56th St. offers a “midnight express” coupon for $10 rooms from midnight until 8 a.m. on weekdays, and premier rooms for $36 with a $10 per-hour overcharge. The site says the club has been in operation since 1976. 

Front desk worker Dexter Edwards insisted the man didn’t overdose and had died of a heart attack. “It’s not a sex club,” he said. “It’s a social club for men. We have steam rooms, saunas and showers.” He told a reporter she couldn’t go inside the club because of her gender. “We don’t get complaints,” he said from behind a partition. “We are quiet. We do everything within the law.”

A manager at Lips, a drag queen-themed restaurant located at the same address, declined to comment.