Manhattan’s Upper East Side is synonymous with wealth, but it’s not immune to violent crime. 

On July 30, 2009, Felix Brinkmann, 90, was found brutally murdered in his E. 65th St. apartment by police officers making a wellness check. He’d been bound and beaten.

“He had injuries to his face,” said Danny Corcoran, then a detective with the New York City Police Department’s 19th Precinct. “Somebody did a lot of damage to him.”

“Nothing jumped out that could have been the murder weapon,” Corcoran added in the “Death After Disco” episode of New York Homicide, airing Saturdays at 9/8c p.m. on Oxygen.

There were no signs of forced entry, suggesting Brinkmann had let his attackers in. The apartment was in disarray, which indicated a robbery. 

“I noticed that there was a big empty spot on Mr. Brinkmann’s desk,” said Morgan Utzinger, a detective with the NYPD’s 19th Precinct. “Something large had been removed.”

Clues emerge in Felix Brinkmann’s murder

Brinkmann’s neighbors didn’t hear or see anything unusual, but a doorman recalled a Black man and woman in their mid-20s visiting Brinkmann.

The woman claimed her name was Mary and that Brinkmann was expecting her. She called him on her cell phone and handed it to the doorman, according to Utzinger. Brinkmann said to send them up.

The doorman told police that he saw the visitors leave that same night, shortly before midnight. They were pushing a hand truck with what appeared to be a TV set on it.

Detectives learned that Brinkmann’s car was missing. As they searched for the vehicle, they reached out for Brinkmann’s phone records. They also looked into a possible mob tie to the murder, which turned out to be a dead end.

“During the ’70s, a lot of the nightclubs were funded by the Mafia,” said New York-based journalist Janon Fisher. “There was a rumor that there may be some organized crime tie with Felix Brinkmann.” 

Felix Brinkmann’s car recovered

The day after Brinkmann was found murdered, his stolen Honda was found in the Bronx. “It was running in the middle of the street,” said Kenneth Staller, a detective with the 19th Precinct at the time of the murder. “The keys were in the ignition.”

Police located an individual who reported seeing a Black man and woman get out of the car the night before Brinkmann was found murdered.

Another man in a van pulled up, according to the witness. They removed something that looked like a safe from the car trunk, put it in the van, and all drove off. 

Felix Brinkmann’s shocking autopsy report 

The medical examiner’s report showed that Brinkmann had been dead for several hours before his body was discovered. 

He’d sustained various injuries including blunt force trauma to his head, a fractured eye socket, broken ribs, and a fractured hyoid bone. 

“He was basically strangled,” said Michael Aherne, then an NYPD detective with the 19th Precinct. “It looked like he was tortured.”

Clues from Felix Brinkmann’s financial and phone records 

A search of Brinkmann’s financial records showed that his credit cards were used in the Bronx after his death on the same day his body was found. 

Detectives determined the stores where the cards were used and reviewed surveillance footage. Two men were seen at a drugstore in the self-checkout line. “We needed to put names to these faces,” said Utzinger.

Investigators also determined from Brinkmann’s phone records that the woman who placed the call to him on the night he was last seen alive and interacted with the doorman was really named Angela Murray.

Angela Murray emerges in the case

Police learned that Murray lived in the Bronx and had a nonviolent criminal history. “We really weren’t sure at that point if she was involved in this murder,” said Utzinger.

Murray agreed to speak with detectives at her apartment but made them wait outside while she tidied up first. Police found a receipt from a drug store near Brinkmann’s apartment, a safe that had been pried open, plus Brinkmann’s ID and credit cards, said Staller.  

Murray was arrested. She initially calmly denied knowing Brinkmann. But when detectives showed her a picture of Brinkmann, she broke down and requested a lawyer. 

Angela Murray names two brothers 

Seated with her attorney, Murray named Aljulah Cutts, 27, and his brother Hasi Cutts, 30, as the men caught in the surveillance video. The two had dozens of low level offenses like trespassing and possession of stolen property combined. 

The brothers were arrested and investigators put them in separate interrogation rooms. 

According to Hasid, Murray was the mastermind. He claimed that Brinkmann picked up a prostitute on a daily basis. That’s how Murray met him and had gotten a view of his wealth, according to New York Homicide. 

She hatched a plan to rob Brinkmann by going to his home and getting him to open his safe, said Staller. “Angela Murray and Aljulah Cutts went up to the apartment.” Hasid drove the van. 

Inside Brinkmann’s apartment, the robbery plan went bad, and a violent fight ensued, leading to Brinkmann’s murder. “They probably wanted him to open the safe and he most likely refused,” said Brinkmann’s son, Rick Brinkman.

Angela Murray and Cutts brothers charged with Felix Brinkmann’s murder

Murray and the Cutts brothers were charged with several counts of robbery and murder. Despite the evidence and confessions, they surprisingly pleaded not guilty. 

In May of 2012, Aljulah was tried. He was convicted of murder and sentenced to 25 years to life. “The judge said that he would make a note to the parole board to ensure that he served 45 years of that sentence before he was up for parole,” said Fisher.

Murray and Hasid changed their plea to guilty. Hasid was sentenced to 15 years for robbery. Murray was sentenced to 16 years to life for murder and robbery.

Find out more about the case in the “Death After Disco” installment of New York Homicide, which airs new episodes Saturdays at 9/8c p.m. on Oxygen.