Here’s a candidate for New York mayor with a plan of power to the people. Mailer, one of America’s greatest authors, teamed up with newspaper columnist/author Jimmy Breslin (who aimed for city council president) to run on a libertarian platform proposing to turn New York City into the nation’s 51st state to solve the crime, welfare, pollution, housing, transportation and other such irritations that afflicted Fun City at the time. I ran into Mailer at a private political event on the Upper West Side on June 12, 1969. I aimed my camera. I should have known better. This is the pugnacious fellow who nine years ago stabbed his second wife Adele with a pocket knife during a spat in their flat. I took a shot. That enraged the politico wannabe. He turned on me with a pugilistic squint. “Don’t you ever shoot a flash in my eyes again,” he scowled, “or I’ll have the boys after you!” My nerves were shot. This man is dangerous. Is he campaigning for master of Gotham or don of a Mafia family? I split before he could pull a knife on me.