‘The Swastika Swishery’: The WWII gay spy scandal.

(Photo Illustration by Lyne Lucien/The Daily Beast/Getty)

In the early part of the 20th century, brothels were commonplace in many neighborhoods in New York City, but in 1942 an inconspicuous two-story redbrick town house at 329 Pacific Street—a run-down block near the border between Brooklyn Heights and downtown Brooklyn