Biography
Peter Braunstein was born to Alberto and Angele Braunstein in Kew Gardens, Queens. His father was a Manhattan gallery owner. Braunstein studied abroad at Sorbonne in Paris and is fluent in French. He came back to New York to pursue a PhD degree in History from NYU.
In 2000, he got a job at W magazine, writing mostly about the history and culture of rock music. He also freelanced for the publications mentioned above.
He began dating his coworker, W beauty editor Jane Larkworthy. After breaking up with her, Braunstein started using the magazine's website as a blog to harass his ex-girlfriend, whom he referred to as "BioHazard". He was charged with 37 counts of harassment, pleaded guilty, and was sentenced to three years probation. According to the victim, Braunstein harassed her for 18 months, taped her hands to a chair, sent frightening emails and phone messages to her coworkers and family, and posted her naked photos and personal information on an adult web site. On November 22, 2004, Braunstein cut his own chest with a knife and then claimed his ex-girlfriend attacked him. He was taken by the police to Bellevue Hospital for a psychiatric evaluation and released after two hours. Various parsings of these events had him suffering from what could be described as delusions of grandeur and paranoia. He went back to live with his mother in Queens, which earned him the nickname "George Costanza" among his associates. In 2004 he wrote the off-off-broadway play Andy & Edie about the relationship between Andy Warhol and Edie Sedgwick. Although it played to full houses at the relatively small Shetler Studio Theater, the piece wasn't well received by critics or audiences. He stopped talking to his father after he made a negative comment about the play.
Braunstein also came up with a hit list of "gay men" whom he wanted to "punish."
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