LEAP TO DEATH.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXIX, Issue 5268, 30 April 1928, Page 4

LEAP TO DEATH.

A TEMI’ERaMENTaL I’IANIST. DUNNED BY BOOTLEGGERS. At 4 o’clock one morning two boot-i logger.? posing as po', cemen wefre admitted by tiie night clerk in the Hotel Algonquin, Chicago,. and made thejir way to the seventh floor appartment of Ferdinand Steindel, a weill-known pianist, and demanded payment of a cheque for £l5, which they said he had, given them. Steindel, always erratic and temperamental, 'responded to their demand by jumping out of the window.

A hole in the white pall of snow that covered the streeit marked the death spot of the musician, .whose life had; been filled with attempted suicides and. blown-out successes, who had progressed from the position of soloist with leading symphony orches* l tias to the post of high king of jazz in. Chicago’s leading cabarets, who had made money and spent it as he got it, who had been concert pianist in the highly classical orchestra frail as well as in a Chicago movie palace. Before hotel employees, summoned by the hysterical screams of Mrs Louise Steindel, could reach the body of the musician, whirling winds had covered it with snow. The two mysterious men who had goaded him to the point of leaping from the window disappeared.

Police ar,.- seeking the n en, believed to be bootleggers, who. presented, tihemsf.f.ves before E. H. Barger, night clerk ot the hotel, and asked if Steinr del lived theie. When he replied that SteirAlel did, the men opened their ecats to show badges and. produced a cheque for £l5 which they said Steindel had given them and which w;as worthless. They demanded to see him at once.

. “I thought it was a strange hour for police to call, so 1 told: them I would' get stc’ndel on the house ’phone , and that ,he would probably come down to see tiiem in. the lobby. I got him on the ’phone, but he sais to send the men up.” The .man rode up to the seventh floor. A few moments later Mrs Stcindol.’s screams brought hotal employees to tiie room. The two men were gone. The window was. open. Locking out. they sa ; w' Steiindel’s body. Mrs Steindel remained hyste*r,ileal throughout the day. The only clue to tiie suicide came, when she blurted out that she had known about that £l5 cheque, and that she had intended to make it good. In 1920 the pianist married his present wife. When they were living at the, Chicago Beach Hotel the pianist attemptel suicide. He was asked to leave the hotel. Three years later Steindel attempted suicide 'again.