The Jose Hess
Diamond
Engagement
Ring.
The Strange Story Of Mr. Fink
Locked doors, no gun, a murder victim.
H NS l'HU I U
ELIZABETH APPLEBAUM ASSOCIATE EDITOR
Soon after, detectives arrived.
Seeing the body, they quickly
concluded that Fink had killed .7'\
himself.
But there was a big problem.
No gun.
Detectives searched exten-
sively. New York City's finest
were sent to the scene, as well.
But no one could make sense of
it. A bolted door, windows un-
broken and locked from the in-
side, and absolutely no murder
(or suicide) weapon. ,_\
Naturally, the case grabbed,
and held, the public's attention.
Everyone offered a guess as to
what had really happened, the 1
most popular being that, for
reasons unknown, Fink had
created a secret contraption,
hidden in the walls, with which
he shot himself by some kind of
remote control.
But it simply wasn't true. -\
Not only did detectives scour
every inch of the facility, they
tore up the ceilings and the
walls.
They found nothing.
In the end, police declared
the case a murder.
The story of Mr. Fink's
strange demise continued to fill
the pages of newspapers for _
years afterward. In addition to -\
Ben Hecht, director Alfred
Hitchcock was said to have
been intrigued by the case, and
considered making a film about
Isidor Fink.
The case remains open to this
day.
.
Leonard Bernstein: Not young at art.
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Q: My 3-year-old son loves tele-
vision cartoons, especially "Tiny
Toons." His favorite character is
Taz, the Tasmanian Devil. My oth-
er son, a day-school fourth-grad-
er, recently told us that "Taz"
actually is the name of a rabbi. Now
my little one is confused and wants
to know if all rabbis are like the
cartoon character. I've admonished
my older son for telling his little
brother such silly things, but he in-
sists it's the truth. Could there re-
ally be a rabbi named "Taz"?
A: It sounds like your fourth-
grader is learning his lessons
well.
Yes, there actually was a rab-
bi identified as Taz (although
it is pronounced Tahz). "Taz" is
an acronym formed from the
Hebrew words Turei Zahav
("Golden Rows"), a commentary
on the Shulchan Aruch, Code
of Jewish Law, written by Rab-
bi David ben Shmuel ha-Levi
(1586-1667).
Rabbi David spent the last
13 years of his life as rabbi of
the Polish city of Lvov (known
to Jews as Lemberg; today, it is
the Ukrainian city of Lviv). Al-
though he wrote much, the
Turei Zahav was his most im-
portant work, and he has come
to be known as the Taz.
Q: I recently read The
Mystery of the Fabulous
Laundryman by Ben Hecht,
which I understand is
based on a true story
about someone Jewish.
Is that so?
A: It is indeed, and
certainly the case
that inspired The
Mystery of the Fabu-
lous Laundryman is worthy of
an entire episode of "Unsolved
Mysteries," at minimum. It's
that bizarre.
The murder victim — or
rather, the supposed murder
victim — was one Isidor Fink,
born in 1899. His body was dis-
covered on March 9, 1929, at a
laundry he owned on East 32nd
Street in New York City.
It wasn't exactly the best
neighborhood; robberies were
rampant at the time. Fink was
known to be especially cautious,
though, keeping his doors and
windows locked at all times.
On March 9, a woman living
next to Finks laundry called po-
lice to report a strange sound.
She had heard three quick
shots — almost certainly from
a gun — then a hard thud, like
a body falling.
The first to arrive on the
scene was a patrolman, Albert
Kattenborn. He pushed re-
peatedly at the front door, but
was unable to enter; it had been
bolted shut, from the inside.
Atop the door was a small
glass window. The patrolman
managed to break the window
open, then sent a small boy
through to open the front door.
Kattenborn walked in. Isidor
Fink was dead on the
floor. Two bullet
wounds
pierced his
chest; one
was through
his left wrist.
Kattenborn imme-
diately sealed off the
premises.
0: I loved the music and style of
the late composer-conductor±\
Leonard Bernstein. My guess is he
was a child prodigy. Is that so?
A: Not really. In fact Mr.
Bernstein, born in 1918 in
Lawrence, Mass., showed no in-
terest whatsoever in music un-
til he was 10. Then, an
acquaintance asked his moth-
er to keep an upright piano in
the Bernstein home. Young__
Leonard was intrigued, and—\
quickly began teaching himself
to play. The composer of West
Side Story and "Kaddish,"
among others, he died in 1990.
Send questions to Tell Me Why,
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