An Unexplained Death

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An Unexplained Death Page 25

by Mikita Brottman


  “The Right to Be Wrong”: “The Right to Be Wrong,” Editorial, New York Times, July 3, 2010.

  But the Fourth Circuit: All legal documents in the case are archived at http://stansberrysecfraud.com/legal-documents/index.html. Accessed October 12, 2016.

  the SEC’s own website: See https://www.sec.gov/litigation/complaints/comp18090.htm.

  Whatever pseudonym he chooses: September 10, 2012, http://politicalandsciencerhymes.blogspot.com/2012/09/marketsmobs-and-messiahsny-times.html. Accessed June 18, 2016.

  “Truth is not always in a well”: Edgar Allan Poe, “The Murders in the Rue Morgue,” in J. Gerald Kennedy, ed., The Portable Edgar Allan Poe (New York: Penguin, 2006), p. 260.

  On April 27, 1996: “His death was ruled an accident—a stroke or a heart attack—but I think he was done. He didn’t have a lot left to live for. And he never wanted to grow old. He always refused the “senior discount.” Carl Colby, quoted in Maureen Orth, “The Man Nobody Knew,” Vanity Fair, September 2011. See also Zalin Grant, “William E. Colby: A Highly Suspicious Death,” Zalin Grant’s War Tales, http://www.pythiapress.com/wartales/colby.htm. Accessed April 5, 2017.

  Mrs. Ann Rieman Duval: “Mrs. H. Rieman Duval Dead,” Brooklyn Daily Eagle, February 18, 1914. See also “Mrs. Duval Is Mourned: Sister of Douglas H. Thomas Died at Belvedere,” Baltimore Sun, February 19, 1914.

  XI

  Aleister Crowley in the Hotel Café Royale: Fiona Ross, Dining with the Famous and Infamous (Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield, 2016), p. 216.

  “My annual investment goal”: Porter Stansberry, “How I’m Investing This Year,” The Crux, January 2, 2015, http://thecrux.com/porter-stansberry-how-im-investing-in-2015/. Accessed July 16, 2016.

  “a successful businessman”: Mark Ford, “This Man Went from $100,000 in Debt to a $50 Million Net Worth. Here’s How He Did It,” The Crux, August 21, 2014, http://thecrux.com/this-is-one-of-the-biggest-wealth-building-myths-in-the-world/. Accessed July 16, 2015.

  Stansberry Analyst Brian Hunt: Brian Hunt, “A HUGE Bull Market Is Starting Here. Are You on Board?” Stansberry Digest, April 10, 2015, http://thecrux.com/must-read-the-greatest-deal-in-all-of-financial-research/. Accessed July 16, 2016.

  “normally, someone like Steve”: Ibid.

  The BBB lists: See http://www.bbb.org/greater-maryland/business-reviews/publishers-periodical/stansberry-and-associates-investment-research-in-baltimore-md-18012257/complaints. Accessed October 15, 2016, at which time all the complaints had been resolved.

  “Good old bait and switch”: See http://www.bbb.org/greater-maryland/business-reviews/publishers-periodical/stansberry-and-associates-investment-research-in-baltimore-md-18012257/complaints, complaint of September 24, 2015. Accessed October 15, 2016.

  “to the mouse”: J.B.S. Haldane, “On Being the Right Size” (1928), https://irl.cs.ucla.edu/papers/right-size.html. Accessed December 18, 2016.

  XII

  even under the beds themselves: See David Mikkelson, “The Bawdy Under the Bed,” http://www.snopes.com/horrors/gruesome/bodybed.asp. Accessed December 28, 2016.

  “A feet-first jump”: Email from Rod Cross, April 29, 2017.

  “the two-hand push”: K.-P. Shaw and S. Y. Hsu, “Horizontal Distance and Height Determining Falling Pattern,” Journal of Forensic Science, vol. 43, no. 4 (1998), pp. 765–71.

  “an initial velocity”: Ibid., p. 765.

  Out of the 966 “undetermined” deaths: 2006 Annual Report of the Chief Medical Officer of the State of Maryland. See http://dhmh.maryland.gov/ocme/docs/2006AnnualReport.pdf.

  High-profile murders are solved: See Jess Bidgood, “The Numbers Behind Baltimore’s Record Year in Homicides,” New York Times, January 15, 2016.

  “Rey was a very inquisitive man”: Indexed at https://webindexnet.wordpress.com/2009/11/10/rey-rivera/. Accessed July 9, 2016. Many of the conspiracy theories and connections to Agora are contained on this site.

  for those who enjoy conspiracy theories: See http://www.occurrencesforeigndomestic.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/Madsen-on-911-put-options-2015.pdf for the 9/11 theory; http://www.avaresearch.com/articles/1877/Another-Charlatan-From-Faux-Hero-Syndicate-Joins-Porter-Stansberrys-Boiler-Room—.html for Wall Street; and http://theinfounderground.com/smf/index.php?topic=7962.0 for the CIA, the Rothschilds, George Soros, and the Triads. For Lumumba’s murder, see https://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2008/11/412470.html.

  The case went to the Court of Appeals: See http://mdcourts.gov/opinions/coa/2005/128a03.pdf.

  “Remember that onlookers”: Serafettin Demirci and Kamil Hakan Dogan, “Death Scene Investigation from the Viewpoint of Forensic Medicine Expert,” in Duarte Nuno Vieira, ed., Forensic Medicine—From Old Problems to New Challenges, Intech, September 12, 2011, http://www.intechopen.com/books/forensic-medicine-from-old-problems-to-new-challenges/death-scene-investigation-from-the-viewpoint-of-forensic-medicine-expert. Accessed July 22, 2016.

  “It has been my experience”: Vernon J. Geberth, Practical Homicide Investigation, 4th edition (CRC Press, 2006). See http://www.practicalhomicide.com/Research/7mistakes.htm. Accessed October 27, 2016.

  “Up to this time”: E. V. Frederick, “Bichloride of Mercury Poisoning by Vaginal Application,” Canadian Medical Association Journal, vol. 10, no. 8 (August 1920), p. 751.

  Death of Mrs. Winifred Tredwell: “Dies at Baltimore,” Cincinnati Enquirer, April 25, 1921, p. 14, and “Woman Kills Herself with Poison Tablets,” Baltimore Sun, April 28, 1921, p. 18.

  “gay young friskers”: Robert Browning, “The Pied Piper of Hamelin” (1842), ll. 113–15. Of course, the fate of the rats of Hamelin is also death, but death in a kinder style.

  XIII

  “When we want to”: George Bernard Shaw, Three Plays for Puritans (New York: Brentano’s, 1906), p. xxvii.

  “Judging by appearances”: Details taken from “Wife Slayer Is Better,” Baltimore Sun, October 30, 1918.

  At the trial: “Webster Hereditary Lunatic, Say Witnesses,” Washington (D.C.) Times, March 29, 1919.

  Suite Ultralounge: “‘Bottle Club’ at Center of Violence at Belvedere,” Baltimore Sun, October 14, 2008, http://articles.baltimoresun.com/2008-10-14/news/0810130089_1_belvedere-bottle-club-paik.

  “a drifter from the city’s south side”: “Baltimore Drifter Pleads Guilty to Murder of Deputy Prosecutor,” Washington Post, October 5, 1982.

  “fond of enigmas”: Edgar Allan Poe, “The Murders in the Rue Morgue,” in J. Gerald Kennedy, ed., The Portable Edgar Allan Poe (New York: Penguin, 2006), p. 232.

  Jayne Miller’s WBAL-TV 11 news clip: See http://www.wbaltv.com/article/suicide-or-murder-evidence-reviewed/7054411. The transcript is still on the site (as of December 25, 2017); the video has been removed, but can be seen here: http://invanddis.proboards.com/thread/5923. Accessed December 21, 2016.

  XIV

  There are degrees of intention: See Richard Reichbart, “Western Law and Parapsychology,” Parapsychological Review, vol. 12, no. 2 (March–April 1981), pp. 9–11.

  An article in Forensic Science International: M. S. Domènech, H. M. Alcázar, A. A. Pallarès, I. G. Vicente, J. C. García, C. V. Gutiérrez, and J. M. Muñiz, “The Murderer Is the Bed: An Unusual Case of Death by Traumatic Asphyxia in a Hotel Folding Bunk Bed,” Forensic Science International, vol. 220, (July 2012), pp. 1–3. Accessed July 28, 2016.

  a sewer worker was overtaken by fumes: N. Barbera, A. Montana, F. Indorato, N. Arbouche, and G. Romano, “Domino Effect: An Unusual Case of Six Fatal Hydrogen Sulfide Poisonings in Quick Succession,” Forensic Science International, vol. 260, published online January 29, 2016, e7–e10.

  “death may come on”: L. Oesterhelweg and K. Püschel, “‘Death May Come On Like a Stroke of Lightning’”: Phenomenological and Morphological Aspects of Fatalities Caused by Manure Gas,” International Journal of Legal Medicine, vol. 122, (March 2008), pp. 101–7.

  “the jump speed is almost the same”: For those interested in a more detailed analysis: according to Profess
or Cross (email, October 19, 2016), the time T to fall through a height H is given by T = square root of (2H/g), where T is measured in seconds, H in meters, and g = acceleration due to gravity = 9.8 m/sec2 (assuming the fall was straight down from rest or from a horizontal jump—that is, Rivera was not already moving up or down at the top). During that time, Rivera was moving horizontally at speed V if he jumped outward at speed V. The horizontal distance traveled before landing is therefore X = VT. From the top of the Belvedere, H = 36 m, X = 13 m, so T = 2.71 seconds and V = 4.80 m/sec. From top of the Belvedere parking lot, H = 6.93 m, and X = 5.89 m, so T = 1.189 seconds and V = 4.95 m/sec.

  I have read numerous articles: See, for example, T. C. Atanasijevic, S. N. Savic, S. D. Nikolic, and V. M. Djoki, “Frequency and Severity of Injuries in Correlation with the Height of Fall,” Journal of Forensic Science, vol. 50, no. 3 (May 2005), pp. 608–12; G. Lau, P. L. Ooi, and B. Phoon, “Fatal Falls from a Height: The Use of Mathematical Models to Estimate the Height of Fall from the Injuries Sustained,” Forensic Science International, vol. 93, no. 1 (April 22, 1998), pp. 33–44.

  One such study conducted in Denmark: Pete Kines, “Construction Workers’ Falls Through Roofs: Fatal Versus Serious Injuries,” Journal of Safety Research, February 2002, p. 10.

  At the time of his death: “Norfolk Man Found Dead in Baltimore,” Washington Post, February 3, 1929, p. M18.

  “The bourgeois interior”: Walter Benjamin, “Reflections and Aphorisms,” Commentary, vol. 65, no. 6 (June 1978), p. 59.

  “And because our reason”: Edgar Allan Poe, “The Imp of the Perverse,” in J. Gerald Kennedy, ed., The Portable Edgar Allan Poe (New York: Penguin, 2006), p. 74.

  XV

  It is true that Rivera: See, for example, J. I. Escobar, E. T. Randolph, and M. Hill, “Symptoms of Schizophrenia in Hispanic and Anglo Veterans,” Culture, Medicine, and Psychiatry, vol. 10, no. 3 (September 1986), pp. 259–76.

  “[They] refused to pay”: http://www.physics.usyd.edu.au/∼cross/FORENSIC-PHYSICS/SanJose.htm.

  XVI

  Hamilton’s close friend and neighbor: These are kept track of at http://chamspage.blogspot.com/2012/01/baltimore-harbor-floaters-baltimore.html. Accessed December 25, 2016.

  Illustration Credits

  Endpaper illustrations and illustrations here, here, and here, by Caroline Harwood.

  Photographs here, here, here, here, here, here, and here, courtesy of Allison Rivera.

  Photograph here, Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, LC-B2-2488-12.

  Photograph here, Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, LC-D4-19121-12.

  Photographs here, here, here, here, and here courtesy of the Maryland Historical Society, photographers unknown.

  Photograph here © WBAL-TV Channel 11 News, broadcast, May 21, 2007.

  Photograph here © WhiteMarlinOpen.com, reproduced with permission.

  Photograph here © Washington Times. It appeared on October 29, 1918.

  Image here © St. Louis Post-Dispatch. It appeared on February 2, 1929.

  Image here © Who’s Who in Delaware County, ed. John T. Donahue (Chester, PA: Press of Chester Times, 1925).

  Photographs here, here, and here taken by the author.

  Photograph here © MLS listings, photographer unknown.

  Image here, photographer unknown.

  Acknowledgments

  I am grateful to all my interview subjects and correspondents, both anonymous and pseudonymous, and I owe an extra thanks to those people who were prepared to speak to me on the record: Megan Raney Aarons, Cynthia Alcala, Carlos, Jack Horton, Freddie Howard, Stephen Janis, Steven King, Lisa O’Reilly, Maria Rivera, and especially Allison Rivera. Thanks also to Beverly Bambury, John Barry, Rod Cross, Caroline Harwood, Paul Jaskunas, Oliver Munday, Saul Myers, Dereck Mangus, Ruth Toulson, Eglute Trinkauskaite, and Charles Tumosa. Thanks to the team at Henry Holt: Serena Jones, Madeline Jones, Kenn Russell, and Declan Taintor, and thanks to David Sterritt, for everything.

  About the Author

  MIKITA BROTTMAN is the author of several previous books, including The Great Grisby and The Maximum Security Book Club. A professor of humanities at the Maryland Institute College of Art, she lives in Baltimore’s old Belvedere hotel. You can sign up for email updates here.

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  Contents

  Title Page

  Copyright Notice

  Author’s Note

  Epigraph

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Notes

  Illustration Credits

  Acknowledgments

  About the Author

  Copyright

  AN UNEXPLAINED DEATH. Copyright © 2018 by Mikita Brottman. All rights reserved. For information, address Henry Holt and Co., 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010.

  www.henryholt.com

  Cover design by Oliver Munday

  The Library of Congress has cataloged the print edition as follows:

  Names: Brottman, Mikita, 1966– author.

  Title: An unexplained death / Mikita Brottman.

  Description: First edition. | New York: Henry Holt and Company, [2018]

  Identifiers: LCCN 2017055730 | ISBN 9781250169143 (hardcover)

  Subjects: LCSH: Rivera, Rey, –2006. | Missing persons—Investigation—Maryland—Baltimore—Case studies. | Falls (Accidents)—Investigation—Maryland—Baltimore—Case studies.

  Classification: LCC HV6762.U5 B76 2018 | DDC 363.13—dc23

  LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017055730

  e-ISBN 9781250169150

  First Edition: November 2018

  Our e-books may be purchased in bulk for promotional, educational, or business use. Please contact the Macmillan Corporate and Premium Sales Department at (800) 221-7945, extension 5442, or by e-mail at [email protected].

 

 

 


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