Bernhard Goetz
E196226
Bernhard Goetz is an American man who gained national notoriety in the 1980s as the "Subway Vigilante" after shooting four teenagers on a New York City subway train, sparking intense debate over crime, self-defense, and race.
All labels observed (2)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| Bernhard Goetz canonical | 2 |
| John Wojtowicz | 1 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T1756707 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Bernhard Goetz Context triple: [Bernhard, hasNotableBearer, Bernhard Goetz]
-
A.
Reginald Denny
Reginald Denny was an English-born actor and occasional aviator and inventor, best known for his prolific work in early Hollywood films and serials during the 1920s–1940s.
-
B.
Gabriel Harris
Gabriel Harris is an American percussionist and musician best known for his work with his mother, folk singer and activist Joan Baez, as well as other world and folk music artists.
-
C.
Henry Bowers
Henry Bowers is a sadistic teenage bully and one of the primary human antagonists in the 2017 horror film adaptation of Stephen King’s "It."
-
D.
Charles McNaughton
Charles McNaughton was a British actor active in the early 20th century, known for his character roles in films and on stage.
-
E.
Terry Nichols
Terry Nichols is an American domestic terrorist best known for helping plan and carry out the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing alongside Timothy McVeigh.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Bernhard Goetz Target entity description: Bernhard Goetz is an American man who gained national notoriety in the 1980s as the "Subway Vigilante" after shooting four teenagers on a New York City subway train, sparking intense debate over crime, self-defense, and race.
-
A.
Reginald Denny
Reginald Denny was an English-born actor and occasional aviator and inventor, best known for his prolific work in early Hollywood films and serials during the 1920s–1940s.
-
B.
Gabriel Harris
Gabriel Harris is an American percussionist and musician best known for his work with his mother, folk singer and activist Joan Baez, as well as other world and folk music artists.
-
C.
Henry Bowers
Henry Bowers is a sadistic teenage bully and one of the primary human antagonists in the 2017 horror film adaptation of Stephen King’s "It."
-
D.
Charles McNaughton
Charles McNaughton was a British actor active in the early 20th century, known for his character roles in films and on stage.
-
E.
Terry Nichols
Terry Nichols is an American domestic terrorist best known for helping plan and carry out the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing alongside Timothy McVeigh.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (50)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
American person
ⓘ
engineer ⓘ human ⓘ vigilante ⓘ |
| alias | Subway Vigilante ⓘ |
| charge |
assault
ⓘ
attempted murder ⓘ reckless endangerment ⓘ weapons possession ⓘ |
| civilJudgment | liable for shooting Darryl Cabey ⓘ |
| countryOfCitizenship | United States of America ⓘ |
| dateOfBirth | 1947-11-07 ⓘ |
| dateOfEvent | 1984-12-22 ⓘ |
| educatedAt | New York University ⓘ |
| ethnicGroup | German American ⓘ |
| fieldOfStudy | electrical engineering ⓘ |
| hasCause | fear of crime in New York City in the early 1980s ⓘ |
| hasContext |
high crime rates in New York City in the 1980s
ⓘ
public debate over race and crime in the United States ⓘ public debate over self-defense laws in the United States ⓘ |
| involvedWith |
Barry Allen
ⓘ
Darryl Cabey ⓘ James Ramseur ⓘ Troy Canty ⓘ |
| legalOutcome |
acquitted of assault
ⓘ
acquitted of attempted murder ⓘ convicted of illegal weapons possession ⓘ |
| legalProceeding |
civil lawsuit by Darryl Cabey
ⓘ
criminal trial in New York ⓘ |
| mediaCoverage | extensive national media attention in the United States ⓘ |
| mediaNickname | Subway Vigilante ⓘ |
| name | Bernhard Goetz self-link ⓘ |
| notableEvent | shooting of four teenagers on a New York City subway train ⓘ |
| notableFor | 1984 New York City subway shooting ⓘ |
| notableWork | electronics repair business ⓘ |
| occupation |
businessperson
ⓘ
electronics engineer ⓘ |
| placeOfBirth |
Queens
ⓘ
surface form:
Queens, New York City
|
| placeOfEvent |
Lexington Avenue Line
ⓘ
surface form:
IRT Lexington Avenue Line
New York City Subway ⓘ |
| politicalActivity | ran for public office in New York City ⓘ |
| politicalCandidacy |
candidate for mayor of New York City
ⓘ
candidate for public advocate of New York City ⓘ |
| residence | New York City ⓘ |
| sentence | six months in jail ⓘ |
| sexOrGender | male ⓘ |
| subjectOf |
books about crime and self-defense in New York City
ⓘ
numerous newspaper articles ⓘ television news coverage ⓘ |
| timeServed | approximately eight months ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: Bernhard Goetz Description of subject: Bernhard Goetz is an American man who gained national notoriety in the 1980s as the "Subway Vigilante" after shooting four teenagers on a New York City subway train, sparking intense debate over crime, self-defense, and race.
Referenced by (3)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.
this entity surface form:
John Wojtowicz