On a dimly-lit avenue within the grungy East Village sits a New York establishment the place on any given day, sheepish, lovelorn males looking for connections stream by way of the door.
However within the entrance of the Turkish & Russian Tub on East tenth Road hangs {a photograph} of 1 very well-known face.
The grainy {photograph} reveals a younger Diddy, his face barely hidden beneath a baseball hat, posing with a good friend.
It was taken throughout one in all many visits homeowners say the rapper made all through the course of the 90s – when he was on the top of his sport because the King of Hip Hop.
Now, as he sits in a squalid jail cell accused of intercourse trafficking and horrendous abuse, the visits carry with them darkish questions on how the rapper hid his unhealthy obsession with intercourse in plain sight of the world that revered him.
P. Diddy is pictured with a good friend throughout one in all his frequent visits at The Turkish & Russian Tub. The {photograph} hangs proudly within the foyer of the East Village establishment
The unassuming three-story townhouse, nestled on tenth Road within the East Village, has been a vacation spot for locals and celebrities alike since its founding a century and a half in the past.
The unassuming three-story townhouse has been a vacation spot for locals and celebrities alike since its founding a century and a half in the past.
Since 1892, women and men have flocked to this legendary bathhouse for its well being advantages—to wash, steam, loosen up, and rejuvenate.
Many go to innocently, searching for a spot to rinse off town after a tough day’s work.
However for Diddy, the attract was deeper.
That is in response to his former bodyguard, Gene Deal, who claims he visited to ‘cruise’ for male companions.
On a latest wet afternoon in September, DailyMail.com visited the infamous bathhouse.
Alongside Diddy’s image are these of different well-known patrons – none of whom discover themselves in the identical authorized bother the rapper is now drowning in.
John F. Kennedy Jr., Danny DeVito, LL Cool J, Liev Schreiber, Matthew McConaughey, Hugh Jackman and Russian MMA fighter, Igor Zinozier.
The genuine Russian Room is among the areas of the bathhouse the place P. Diddy frequented
The sauna, also called the schvitz
The gang included males of assorted ages, professions, and demographics.
Some had been newcomers. Others, veteran splashers. Many had been match and muscular whereas others regarded well-fed with beneficiant bellies.
By 2pm, almost 100 males had streamed by way of the basement of the bathhouse—some wrapped in small loincloths, others utterly bare.
Whereas many had been there for nothing greater than a steam, others shortly acquired frisky.
When the lads weren’t taking a dip within the heated freshwater pool or utilizing the steam and sauna rooms, they indulged in therapeutic remedies—mud and salt scrubs, shiatsu massages, or the trademark platza oak leaf.
In keeping with some workers members, that was one in all Diddy’s favourite remedies.
The chilly plunge pool
One of many steam rooms
The out of doors rooftop deck
In an video interview with The Artwork of the Dialogue, Diddy’s former bodyguard Gene Deal spoke in regards to the file producer’s journeys to the Russian and Turkish Tub months earlier than he was arrested for operating a felony enterprise.
Deal claimed his boss would secretly meet up with homosexual males within the steam rooms, generally 3 times per week.
‘So that you heard the rumors. I used to attend outdoors the Turkish baths for him,’ Deal informed the producer, ‘that is the place a number of homosexual males meet and all take sizzling baths collectively,’ he mentioned.
‘So that’s the reason, you already know, twice, generally 3 times per week, me and the driving force could be outdoors.
‘He’d run into the Turkish tub—you bought that big-ass tub at house, however you wish to come right here?’ he laughed.
John F. Kennedy Jr. was one of many notables whose image held on the wall on the legendary bathhouse
{A photograph} of Matthew McConaughey can also be displayed within the bathhouse
Actor Danny Devito with mates
Blues Brothers: Dan Akroyd and John Belushi
Diddy has by no means addressed the claims.
The bodyguard additionally spoke about a few of different Diddy’s escapades, recalling one in all their journeys to an unique bookstore.
The tub just isn’t just for male patrons—there are designated instances for women-only, and co-ed ‘couple’ instances, when the lads need to be wearing shorts.
The tub gives yearly and month-to-month memberships or simply one-day passes beginning at $60. Stroll-ins are additionally welcome.
For Diddy, the times of an expensive go to to the bathhouse that carries the sly probability of getting fortunate are over.
It is protected to say his showers in Brooklyn’s infamous Metropolitan Detention Heart are way more straight ahead – and solitary.
Precisely what he did or did not stand up to will stay hidden in a cloud of steam.