Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2009/03/22
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]astounding and poignant story well told Regards, George Lottermoser george at imagist.com http://www.imagist.com http://www.imagist.com/blog http://www.linkedin.com/in/imagist On Mar 21, 2009, at 10:03 PM, Brian Reid wrote: > >> it looks so freaky clean >> very sad > > In 1994 I was staying at the Marriott Marquis hotel (Times Square) > in Manhattan. It has a vast atrium in the middle, 45 stories high, > and all of the walkways have balconies that overlook the atrium. It > is tiered; the top 10 (or so) floors are smaller than the next > group, and so forth. I think the reason for this tiered > construction is to allow people on the 45th floor to see some of > the lower floors as they look down. It probably prevents some fear- > of-heights reactions. > > I can't recall exactly what floor I was on. Probably about 16th. It > was the top floor of its tier; the next floor up was a bit > narrower, so you could (say) drop a ball from the 17th floor and it > would land on the 16th rather than in the atrium. > > I was there with my colleague Paul. We had just returned to our > rooms after dinner with some client, and were starting to unwind > when there was a massive THUMP outside the door. We looked. A > person had jumped from an upper floor and his mangled dead body was > splayed out on the rug just outside the door to Paul's room. Ours > was the top floor of our tier; that's where jumpers would land. It > is astonishing how rapidly the hotel security people got there and > got police there. > > It didn't seem right to take a picture, or even to stay and gawk, > so we went downstairs to the bar. But we had an early meeting the > next morning, so after 20 minutes in the bar we went back upstairs. > We figured there would be some way to get into our rooms. > > It was all gone. Not only was the victim removed, but the > bloodstained piece of the carpet had been cut out and a replacement > sewn in its place. It looked freaky clean. We had seen a dead > person on that spot less than an hour before. All of the evidence > that it had ever happened was gone. It looked so freaky clean. Very > sad. > > > _______________________________________________ > Leica Users Group. > See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information