Barton Lidice Benes was born in Hackensack, N.J. on Nov. 16, 1942, the son of Marie and Richard Benes. His father, a son of Czech immigrants, gave him his middle name in memory of Lidice, a Czech town destroyed by trton Benes died on May 30, 2012, after a battle with HIV and AIDS that lasted more than 25 years. I interviewed Barton for the first time 10 years ago. He and his apartment were a reporter's dream. Inside an 800-square-foot studio was crammed 40 years worth of work, including his devastating AIDS pieces, which were usually quite funny at the same time. Barton and his apartment became addictive. I met him when he was deep in the throes of making relics out of celebrity garbage. -- Source of annotation: Marvin or Ruth Sackner.