In a wide?ranging interview with The Daily Signal, CNN legal analyst and author Elliot Williams revisits one of the most polarizing criminal cases in modern American history—the 1984 New York City subway shooting involving Bernhard Goetz.
Williams documents the story in his new book, “Five Bullets: The Story of Bernie Goetz, New York’s Explosive ’80s, and the Subway Vigilante Trial That Divided the Nation,” which was published this month.
The book examines how Goetz, widely dubbed the “subway vigilante,” shot four black teenagers on a New York City subway train. One victim was left paralyzed and brain?damaged. The incident ignited fierce national debates over crime, race, gun rights, media bias, and vigilantism—arguments that still resonate decades later.
Williams, a former Justice Department and Immigration and Customs Enforcement attorney, said the case drew his attention because of the many issues that endure today.
“Goetz’s story is remarkable in that it ties together so many issues—particularly ones I’ve thought about in some way or another for my entire career: race, crime, media bias, and violence,” he told The Daily Signal.
A City on Edge
Williams places the shooting in the broader context of New York City in the 1980s, a period marked by soaring crime rates, fiscal instability, and a pervasive sense of fear.
“Pretty much the main headlines in a newspaper today are about fights between law enforcement and people in cities,” Williams noted, “but just take a step back and think about the homicide rate—2,000 people a year, roughly at that point.”
By comparison, he said, present-day New York City sees roughly a quarter of that number annually.
Crime, graffiti, and urban decay dominated public perception in the 1980s, reinforced by cultural depictions of a city in crisis.
Against that backdrop, Goetz’s actions struck a deep nerve.
“A lot of people felt, ‘This guy finally did what needed to be done because the police can’t keep us safe,’” Williams said. “The incident just touched a lot of people and really sort of polarized the city.”
What Happened on the Train
Williams carefully distinguishes between what is known and what remains disputed about the shooting.
“What we know for a fact,” he said, “ is there’s a downtown two express train. One of the guys approached [Goetz] and either asked for money or demanded money. To this day, no one has said definitively which of the two it was.”
Goetz, who was carrying an unlicensed revolver, fired on all four teenagers. Afterward, he fled to New Hampshire before turning himself in to authorities.
Despite the incident, Goetz was embraced by many New Yorkers as a symbol of resistance to crime.
Media, Fear, and Narrative
Williams emphasized the role media—especially tabloids—played in shaping public reaction.
He pointed specifically to the New York Post, which had recently been acquired by Rupert Murdoch, and its emphasis on sensational coverage.
“When people are scared, they turn to the news, get more scared, and turn to the news again,” Williams said.
In an era before cable news and social media, tabloid headlines dominated public consciousness, reinforcing a sense of fear that shaped how the case was understood.
Despite a recorded statement in which Goetz said he wanted to hurt the teenagers as much as possible, he was acquitted of all felony charges.
“The defense took a gamble,” Williams said, describing the decision to play the confession for the jury. “They thought that if we can play this for the jury and have them get a sense of the fear that he felt, we can actually probably get a couple of them to vote to acquit.”
The strategy worked.
Political Implications
Williams’ book also explores how the case became a springboard for several prominent political figures, including Rudy Giuliani and Al Sharpton, who were both in their early 40s at the time.
“They were ambitious,” Williams said. “They wanted to build names for themselves—and they did.”
The case also elevated Curtis Sliwa and the Guardian Angels and provided the National Rifle Association with a potent public symbol.
“He was as perfect a face, at least on paper, for the NRA’s new mission as anybody else could have been,” Williams said, though the organization later distanced itself from Goetz personally.
Williams noted that New York City’s gun laws at the time were far stricter than those in surrounding areas, a disparity the NRA sought to frame as a civil rights issue.
An Unrepentant Man
Williams also interviewed Goetz himself, an encounter he described as unsettling.
“He’s unrepentant,” Williams said. “It was never, ‘This is a tragedy.’ It was, ‘Those guys needed to be shot … I don’t care if that kid’s paralyzed.’”
Williams said he expected at least some reflection.
“Anytime someone’s paralyzed and brain-damaged, it’s kind of a tragedy,” he said. “And there’s just none of that from him.”
Williams said the case remains a mirror for American anxieties about crime, race, self?defense, and trust in institutions.
“I thought maybe this would be good to revisit in 2026,” he said, “and just see how ripe the subject matter still is for us today.”
As debates over public safety, media narratives, and gun rights continue to dominate national discourse, “Five Bullets” offers a reminder that many of today’s fiercest political arguments were forged underground—on a subway train in a city gripped by fear.
