Jack Hastings (1925-1991) was born in Harlem, one of seven children of Irish immigrant parents. He enlisted with the U.S. Marine Corps in 1943 and served in the South Pacific in WWII. He joined the New York Police Department in1947, and soon after, married and moved to the Boulevard Gardens housing project in Woodside, where he and his wife raised five children. In Hastings' 20-year career with the NYPD, he was highly decorated and rose to the rank of Detective 2nd Grade. After retirement, he tended bar at the Garden Grill on 31st Avenue, and on October 15, 1991, he was murdered as he was leaving work at the bar.