About the Book
A Ferry Boat. A Landmark. A Murder That Changed Everything.
The story of the Binghamton – from her working years on the Hudson to her celebrated second life in Edgewater, and the mystery and decline that followed.
The Full Story
For decades, the Binghamton carried passengers across the Hudson. When her working days ended, she found a second life on the Edgewater waterfront. With Manhattan across the river, she became a place for dinners, weddings, proms, and family celebrations. To many in North Jersey, it seemed she would always be there.
Then, in 1997, owner Nelson Gross was kidnapped near the Binghamton and murdered. His death made national headlines. Investigators found the people responsible, but the case left questions and stories that continued to follow the boat.
The Binghamton remained on the waterfront for years afterward, changing hands and names as her condition deteriorated. Eventually the restaurant closed, and the historic ferryboat was lost.
The Secret History of the Binghamton follows her entire journey: the passengers she carried, the people who brought her ashore, the community that loved her, the murder that became entwined with her history, and what happened after the lights went out.
What's Inside
The Ship
From a working Hudson River ferry to a waterfront restaurant – and the long, difficult end of a vessel that had become an Edgewater landmark.
The People
The owners, workers, passengers, diners, and neighbors whose lives crossed the Binghamton’s decks.
The Crime
The 1997 kidnapping and murder of Nelson Gross, the investigation that followed, and what the records reveal.
The Aftermath
New owners, new names, years of decline, and the question of how a place so many people loved could disappear.
An Excerpt
“Nelson Gross's murder entered the Binghamton's story late, and it should not be allowed to eclipse everything that came before it. But it cannot be separated from the Binghamton's history, either, as it undoubtedly altered the course of it's future...”
On the morning of September 17, 1997, Nelson Gerard Gross, a former chairman of the New Jersey Republican State Committee and one-time candidate for the United States Senate, was kidnapped in Edgewater, New Jersey, in front of the restaurant he had owned and operated for almost two decades, the Binghamton. After a manhunt that involved both local police and the FBI, investigators found Gross's body on the New York side of the Hudson River one week later. He had been left below a wooded embankment near the George Washington Bridge, just off the Henry Hudson Parkway - almost directly across the river from the Binghamton. Three young men from Washington Heights were arrested and eventually pleaded guilty in federal court to charges arising from the kidnapping and murder. The legal case supplied an answer to what had happened to Nelson Gross, and the perpetrators went to prison for decades for the crime. However, for some of the people who knew Nelson Gross, or who followed the investigation closely, it never felt like the whole answer.
— From the Introduction
