John Nolan, then a senior detective on the robbery squad, did not arrive at the diner until after many of the victims had received medical aid.

''When I was first called to the scene I just figured it was a couple of drunks that had gotten into a fight,'' he said in a recent interview. ''Most of the victims were gone, and I could only see a few police cars outside. Since there were no windows and a large solid wood door I had no idea what was inside. When I opened the front door I stepped into the largest crime scene I had ever witnessed. All I could see was underwear, men's underwear, women's underwear. Bandages covered the floor.''

Mr. Nolan remembered one victim he saw about two weeks after the attack.

''She was wearing a light-colored blouse and a dark skirt, her arms folded from shoulder to shoulder as if to protect her breasts,'' he recalled. ''She reminded me of all the pictures I had seen of people from concentration camps, people who had lost all hope. Her face spoke volumes. There was sadness in her eyes. She had very dark circles around her eyes that contrasted with her white skin. She obviously had not slept. I thought how tragic it must have been for her and how tragic it still must be.''

Mr. Nolan spent 24 years with the Nassau County Police Department, retiring as commander of the homicide bureau. ''I saw a great deal of inhumanity,'' he said, ''but this case surpasses all the others because of the brutal nature of the criminals involved.''

Arrests Follow Within a Day

The shootings, the beatings, the rape and the robberies at the diner all took less than an hour. The first arrests took less than a day. The Nassau County Police Department linked the Cadillac stolen in Brooklyn to the crimes, tracked it back to East New York and alerted the city police. They captured Michael Williams, James Martin and Robert Samuels as they left an apartment building in the neighborhood on their way to fence the goods they had stolen just hours before. The other two gang members escaped, but turned themselves in later.

The five were arraigned on charges involving 3 rapes, 2 sodomies, 15 assaults and 84 robberies, involving victims ranging in age from 16 to 63. The 822 counts to which they pleaded guilty included second-degree attempted murder, first-degree rape, first-degree assault and first-degree robbery.

The defendants were sentenced to more than 3,000 years apiece. But under the law, their time served could total no more than 30 years, with eligibility for parole in 15 years.