Two Men Found Dead in Same Apartment Within Days

A 45-year-old New York man described in a news account as a "gay legend" in that region was found dead last month in a Washington apartment where another man had been found dead four days earlier, according to police.

No cause of death could be learned in either case. Police said they are waiting for toxicology and other tests.

The New York man was identified as Dean Johnson of Brooklyn. Police said his body was found Sept. 20 in an apartment at the Envoy Towers at 2400 16th St. NW. Police said the second man, Jordan Cronkin, 26, who had no fixed address, was found in the same apartment Sept. 16.

Police said they did not know whether the deaths were related but indicated that they found the circumstances unusual.

"It would make anyone's eyebrow go up," said Inspector Rodney Parks, who heads the police department's violent crimes branch.

A friend said Johnson was a celebrity in the New York gay nightlife scene and was known as the leader of a punk-rock group, a performer, a party promoter and a doorman at clubs.

"I can't begin to tell you how famous Dean was," said the friend, John Penley of New York, who said he had produced Johnson's first record.

A headline on an article about Johnson posted on the Web site of the New York Post called him a "gay legend."

Police said they have found no outward signs of foul play in either case.

Few residents of the seven-story brick apartment house said they knew much about the incidents. They described the building opposite Meridian Hill Park as a clean, quiet and safe place where tenants largely keep to themselves.