In 1965, a vagrant named Turk McDonald managed to insinuate himself into a high-stakes midtown poker game, and walked out with the deed to the genteel Murray Hill bar called Francis’s. McDonald immediately expelled the old clientele, renamed the place Turk’s and brought in a crowd of hard-core alcoholics. For 10 years between 1966 and 1976, Turk’s hosted an annual 72-hour drinking contest known as Turk’s Folly. Over the years, at least 40 contestants were rumored to have died of alcohol poisoning and been secretly interred in Turk’s basement. In 1977, McDonald — succumbing to a brain tumor — declared that until his death, beer and liquor would be sold for five cents a glass. Drifters, derelicts, and other old, impoverished alcoholics poured in from everwhere. The bar’s overtaxed toilets soon gave out, turning Turk’s into what Post columnist Steve Dunleavy called “a beloved cesspool” — the raw stench of which caused three neighboring apartment buildings to be abandoned by their residents. Turk McDonald’s last wishes stipulated that he was to be entombed in his pub, and on May 12th, 1977 his alcohol-ravaged body was laid out on the bar, and the doors and windows bricked over forever.

In 1965, a vagrant named Turk McDonald managed to insinuate himself into a high-stakes midtown poker game, and walked out with the deed to the genteel Murray Hill bar called Francis’s. McDonald immediately expelled the old clientele, renamed the place Turk’s and brought in a crowd of hard-core alcoholics. For 10 years between 1966 and 1976, Turk’s hosted an annual 72-hour drinking contest known as Turk’s Folly. Over the years, at least 40 contestants were rumored to have died of alcohol poisoning and been secretly interred in Turk’s basement.

In 1977, McDonald — succumbing to a brain tumor — declared that until his death, beer and liquor would be sold for five cents a glass. Drifters, derelicts, and other old, impoverished alcoholics poured in from everwhere. The bar’s overtaxed toilets soon gave out, turning Turk’s into what Post columnist Steve Dunleavy called “a beloved cesspool” — the raw stench of which caused three neighboring apartment buildings to be abandoned by their residents.

Turk McDonald’s last wishes stipulated that he was to be entombed in his pub, and on May 12th, 1977 his alcohol-ravaged body was laid out on the bar, and the doors and windows bricked over forever.