february 1–14, 2021 | new york 39as if he were Russell’s guest. When Gladstone arrived, he went
to the kitchen, ostensibly to make a sandwich, then served her
when she walked by. Gladstone texted that she would pass “all
communications” to her lawyer. “We cannot go thru more our-
selves at [the] moment,” she wrote. The 30th came and went,
but Gladstone and her daughter did not. That afternoon, Russell
called the police, but the officers, standing in the hallway, said
they needed permission from a judge to remove a child.
Now it was July, and Russell settled on a strategy of stub-
born, sunny denial. “Good morning girls, Happy Friday!” she
texted on the 5th, as if she hadn’t just told them to leave.
“Another beautiful day. Please let me know when you can get
me the July payment.” Gladstone ignored her. On the 15th,
Russell called a peace summit on the couch, saying thatshe had
a “compassionate solution”—to offer July and August free if
Gladstone signed an agreement to leave by August 31.Clearly,
Gladstone didn’t have the money, Russell reasoned with her-
self, and she and Bajada could handle being out $4,000 if it
meant avoiding any more confrontation. (Or more fees—the
lawyer she consulted told her an eviction would cost thousands
of dollars and could take up to a year.) Russell shared her own
woes, including her mother and Bajada’s health issues, and
Gladstone described how her ex-husband had filed for emergency
custody, embroiling her and Lily in an expensive court case that
made her miss work. “It feels like this crazy novel,” Gladstone
lamented. “Is this a great person who messes up here and there,”
she said of her former husband, “or is this a bad person? It’s
really hard to tell.”
But Gladstone did not sign. Instead, the conversation
seemed to embolden her in her campaign to occupy the 14-by-
21-foot living room. She started planting Lily, out of school for
the summer, in front of the TV for hours. When Russell asked to
watch The Late Show With Stephen Colbert, Gladstone said the
movies were educational, mandated by Lily’s custodylawyer.
(One was the Dustin Hoffman–Meryl Streep divorce drama
Kramer vs. Kramer.) Their dynamic became excruciatingly
petty. At one point, Russell retaliated by hiding the remotein
her purse. And once, when Russell managed to stretch outon
the couch, Gladstone came into the room and perchedsilently
behind her on the windowsill. The bathroom became another
zone of contention; Russell began brushing her teeth inthe
building’s laundry room because Gladstone would runintothe
bathroom as soon as she heard her get up. On August 1, aftera
month of nonpayment, Gladstone began urgently asking fora
second set of keys, sending Russell a text so long it arrivedas
an attachment.
In Gladstone’s version of these events, it was Russell who was
waging the campaign of terror. She wrote in the text: “You
intentionally intimidated us and used what you know is our
bi ggest vulnerability: our home and safety [...] We didn’t owe
anything we weren’t dirty we’re so clean and organized we’re
respectful beyond reason.” Gladstone said Lily was “profoundly
afraid” of Russell but that she was “trying to make it livable and
peaceful so I remain (beyond) civil but am I showing her that
people can treat you like that and you just smile and fake it?”
Though Gladstone and Lily had arrived with virtually no
belongings (other than Happy), Russell realized by the end of the
summer that they had taken over the living room. Where there
had been just a couch, a few chairs, a desk, and the TV, now there
were dozens of shopping bags, schoolbooks, paperwork, cleaning
supplies, candles, and empty Amazon boxes filling the room.
When Russell moved her TV into her bedroom, Gladstone fash-
ioned its stand into an arts-and-crafts table.
Bajada, the legal owner of the apartment, was still out of the
country, but she was insistent that they start eviction proceedings.On August 31, Russell, who has power of attorney, finally taped a
30-day eviction notice she had filled out at the courthouse to
Gladstone’s door. (Though served correctly, the notice was ulti-
mately filed wrong because Russell waited a day to mail it in.)
Gladstone had taken to locking the door to their room—the apart-
ment’s only route to the fire escape—from the inside, so Russell
had to jimmy it open to remove some of her and Bajada’s things.
In response, Gladstone accused Russell of stealing $500 from
her daughter. “Never touched your money,” she replied. “And what
you are doing is considered harassment and extortion.” She had
never seen cash in the room, much less the “neat stack” on the
table Gladstone described. “Do not attempt to turn this back on
us,” Gladstone responded. “You are not the victim here, Heidi.
Give it all back. What you did is atrocious, and this is just the latest
version.” She texted repeatedly about it for two weeks, threatening
to call the police. “What you’ve done was illegal and intentionally
disturbing. Provide the list of people who broke into our room
along with you,” the messages say. She also accused Russell oftakingtheirpaintbrushesandleaving“behindsomethingthat has
causedmajorrasheseversincethat night.”
Russellstartedtofeellike shewasgoingcrazy.Shehad
GoogledGladstonebefore,butnotexhaustively—she’donce
foundanassociatedpersonnamed“JensKlein”andaddresses
inPittsburgh—anddidn’t wanttopay fora backgroundcheck.
SometimeinSeptember, goingonthethirdmonth,it occurred
toRussellthat Gladstonecouldbe usinganothername.
Searchingfor“KatherineKlein,”shepulledupanaddresson
ChristopherStreet.
Onemorning,Russellmadeherway over. Shewasstunnedto
seethat theground-levelapartment of the prewar condo building
was just steps away from her own. After chatting with a tenant,
she got an email from a former resident of the building who
confirmed that she knew Gladstone. Russell and the woman, who
turned out to be Gladstone’s ex-girlfriend, met up. ForRussell,
their conversation was like falling down a rabbit hole. Shelearned
that she was not the first person in the West Village to have had
trouble kicking Gladstone out. She was just the latest New Yorker
with a room for rent on whom Gladstone had worked a convincing
routine, in the city in which she has an absolute fixation on
PHOTOGRAPH: J.C. RICE (GLADSTONE) living for free.
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