Connecticut
The first park in Connecticut is almost 200 years old. How to visit this spring
VIDEO: Groundbreaking at Uncas Leap Heritage Park
VIDEO: Groundbreaking at Uncas Leap Heritage Park
Matt Grahn, The Bulletin
As the snow begins to melt and the warmer weather of spring starts to creep in, many people will be heading back outdoors into nature, and for many, that means returning to a local public park.
Whether you prefer to enjoy the spring weather with a run, a bike ride, a picnic or a simple walk, Connecticut has plenty of public parks that make for a perfect spring day.
If you want to immerse yourself in history as well as nature, Connecticut also has plenty of historical parks, with the state’s first park, Bushnell Park, opening almost 200 years ago.
Here’s how to visit Connecticut’s oldest park this spring.
History of Bushnell Park
Located in front of Connecticut’s state capital, Bushnell Park was first established in 1861. However, the idea for the park was first suggested by Rev. Horace Bushnell, pastor of Hartford’s North Congregational Church and graduate of Yale University, in 1853.
According to the Bushnell Park Conservancy, Rev. Bushnell proposed the park for multiple reasons – to clean up the city, create a space where poor children could play and build a beautiful setting that would establish Hartford as the state capital over New Haven, which shared the title of capital with Hartford at the time.
While plenty of parks were popping up in the states in the 1800s, one of Rev. Bushnell’s ideas made this park proposal unique – the sourcing of the park through public funds.
A Hartford City Council meeting in October 1853 unanimously approved Rev. Bushnell’s idea, and in January 1854, Hartford citizens voted the idea through, making Hartford the first city to use public funds for the creation of a park.
After years of securing land and creating a design, Bushnell Park, then called City Park, was established in 1861 under a design by Swiss-born architect Jacob Weidenmann. The original park contained 157 varieties of trees and shrubs, graceful paths, the Park River and several bridges.
Over the years, Bushnell Park has gained many additions, including the Soldiers & Sailors Memorial Arch, the Capitol building overlooking the park, the Corning Fountain, the Carousel and the Performance Pavilion. Due to flooding, the Park River was buried in an underground tunnel in the 1940s, resulting in the destruction of its bridges.
Today, Bushnell Park remains a scenic place to connect with the Hartford community and escape the business of city life.
How to visit Bushnell Park
Bushnell Park is open daily from dusk to dawn. For those driving to the park, 99 Trinity St. in Hartford is the best address to use in a GPS. Metered parking, which is free on weekends, is available around the park’s perimeter.
Bushnell also frequently hosts community events like yoga classes and movie nights, as well as free tours of the Soldiers & Sailors Memorial Arch from May through October.
Connecticut
How a carjacking in Connecticut led back to a man known as the crypto ‘Godfather’ in California
On a leafy Connecticut road in the summer of 2024, would-be kidnappers pulled a couple from their Lamborghini SUV, beat them in broad daylight and threw them into a van, only to be arrested shortly thereafter as multiple witnesses, including a passing off-duty FBI agent, called police.
The investigation would lead police to some sensational findings.
The attack turned out to be linked to a $245 million Bitcoin heist the month before involving the couple’s son. And this week, a California cryptocurrency mogul who authorities say called himself “The Godfather” and had previously hired off-duty sheriff’s deputies to strongarm his enemies admitted to orchestrating the attempted abduction to get a piece of the son’s stolen loot.
The California man, 25-year-old Adam Iza, pleaded guilty Monday to conspiracy to interfere with commerce by robbery. Federal prosecutors are seeking a prison term of at least 14 years when he’s sentenced.
Iza’s lawyer, William Paetzold, didn’t immediately respond to Tuesday phone and email messages seeking comment.
The case is part of an increasing trend worldwide of cryptocurrency theft spilling over to violence.
Nightclub fight spawns kidnapping plot
A month before the abduction attempt, one of Iza’s alleged co-conspirators got into a beef with the couple’s son, Veer Chetal, at a Miami nightclub, according to an FBI affidavit. The man, James Schwab, then told an acquaintance to rob Chetal and his friends at their Miami rental home, authorities said. It’s not clear if the robbery happened.
Schwab’s lawyers didn’t immediately respond to phone messages seeking comment.
Then came the Bitcoin heist. A few weeks after the nightclub fight, Chetal and two other men hatched an elaborate online scheme that involved impersonating technical support staff for Google and a cryptocurrency exchange. They managed to steal 4,100 Bitcoins — worth about $245 million at the time — from a Washington, D.C., resident, according to court documents.
The trio lived large after the theft, spending millions of dollars on cars, clothing, jewelry, rental mansions and nightclub parties before being arrested, prosecutors said. Chetal pleaded guilty last November and awaits sentencing, while the two other men have pleaded not guilty.
Iza and Schwab, meanwhile, came up with the idea to take Chetal’s parents hostage in a bid to snatch some of his ill-gotten riches, the FBI said, citing information from informants. Schwab and Iza’s brother, Saif Faiq, also were charged in the kidnapping attempt and pleaded not guilty.
They recruited six other men to go to Connecticut, paying for their travel and lodging, authorities said. A week after the Bitcoin heist, the group surveilled Chetal’s parents hours before the kidnapping, according to court records.
Abduction quickly goes awry
Sushil and Radhika Chetal were driving in the Lamborghini on Aug. 25, 2024, near Danbury High School when they were rear-ended by a car. A white van then pulled in front of the SUV and several men surrounded them, police said.
The men pulled the Chetals out of the SUV and forced them into their van, beating Sushil Chetal with a baseball bat and dragging Radhika Chetal by her hair. The couple were bound with duct tape and the van drove off, according to court documents.
After witnesses called police, officers soon spotted the van and a chase ensued. The van eventually crashed and four of the men got out and fled on foot but were arrested shortly thereafter. The other two men were later found at a home the group had rented in a nearby town. The Chetals were taken to a hospital and released.
The six men, all from Florida, have pleaded guilty in connection with the kidnapping. Two have been sentenced to 11 years in prison and the others await sentencing.
How the ‘Godfather’ went from a Bel Air mansion to federal charges
Before Iza’s arrest in the Connecticut case, he was under investigation by federal authorities in California for extorting money and property from victims in Los Angeles and elsewhere, court records show. He was charged in that case a month after the kidnapping and later pleaded guilty.
Iza, also known as Ahmed Faiq, was living in a mansion in the Bel Air section of Los Angeles, calling himself The Godfather while running a crypto trading company, Zort. While stealing millions of dollars and funneling it through shell companies, Iza spent freely on luxury cars and other extravagances, including cosmetic surgery to lengthen his legs, prosecutors said.
Beginning in August 2021, Iza paid around $100,000 a month for his personal protection to a private security firm founded by a Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputy that also employed other deputies, prosecutors said.
Iza, authorities said, hired off-duty deputies to act as enforcers against people with whom he had personal and business disputes. He used the deputies to extort, intimidate, set people up for arrest and abuse the legal process, prosecutors said.
The deputies used law enforcement databases to generate information about Iza’s enemies and obtained search warrants under false pretenses, authorities said. On one occasion, two deputies held a victim at gunpoint inside Iza’s home, pressuring the victim to transfer $25,000 to Iza’s bank account, prosecutors said.
When he pleaded guilty in that case in January, Iza also admitted to stealing more than $37 million by fraudulently accessing the business manager accounts of Meta Platforms, owner of Facebook, and their lines of credit from 2020 to 2022. He awaits sentencing after pleading guilty to wire fraud, conspiracy against rights and tax evasion.
His attorney in California, Josef Sadat, declined to comment Tuesday.
Several deputies also were charged in the investigation.
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