The world is full of strange and bizarre occurrences, although most of the time, the answers to these mysteries are fairly simple, Occam’s Razor is a scientific and Philosophical rule best described by Sherlock Holmes when he said “When you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth,”
But remember, first you have to eliminate the impossible.
Back in 1928, one of the richest men in the world would be taking a routine flight on his private plane, he would close the book he was reading and excuse himself as he needed to visit the mens room.
He never returned, in fact, he was no longer aboard the plane.
Alfred Loewenstein was born in 1877 in Brussels, Belgium. His father, Bernard, was a german/jewish financier, So, when Alfred was around 20 years old, he followed in his fathers footsteps and began his journey into the world of finance.
He established the Belgian-based banking project called Société Internationale d’Énergie Hydro-Électrique — which targeted developing nations across the globe. Which meant providing third world countries with electric power.
This endeavor soon made him a very wealthy man. Although he was considered by many to be eccentric and a bit of a loose cannon, he could predict market trends and stock values with eerie foresight. As an example, he invested heavily in synthetic silk, for the commodities value to skyrocket right after.
Sure he was known as eccentric, but he was now one of the world’s richest men, so.. He’s allowed to be right?
He had a fascination with all things aviation, the man loved to fly and as one of the richest men on the planet, of course he had his own plane, in fact, he had hundreds of flights under his belt.
In 1908, Loewenstein married Madeleine Misonne, she was from a prominent Belgian family. They would go on to have a son together, although it was widely known that this was a marriage of convenience.
His wife loved the luxurious lifestyle and Alfred liked having a trophy wife.
Although there were some speculation about Alfreds sexuality, it was apparent that this was not the reason for his hologram of a marriage, it was purely because Alfred was obsessed with finance, its all he ever thought about, talked about, it was his main passion, well, that and horses.
In the early evening of the 4th of July in Croydon Airport in England, Loewenstein’s private plane was idling awaiting their passengers arrival, soon , two black limousines arrived and the occupants got out and boarded the plane, being welcomed by the pilot, Donald Drew, who was standing at the plane door to greet them.
Prior to boarding the plane, Loewenstein quickly popped into the terminal to make a phone call to Sir Robert Holt, he was a canadian financial magnate, the call was to arrange a dinner appointment that week.
The people that joined Loewenstein on the plane were pilot Donald Drew, mechanic Robert Little, valet Fred Baxter, secretary Arthur Hodgson, and stenographers Eileen Clarke and Paula Bidalon.
The pilot spoke with his passengers prior to take off and assured them that it was an ideal evening to fly, the skies were clear and the weather forecast was perfect, as such, it was set to be a smooth uneventful flight.
Smooth maybe, uneventful? Definitely not.
The plane, a Fokker Trimotor, had some adjustments to the interior, specifically for Loewenstein, he had part of the cabin made to be a functioning office, he had his own seat which was upholstered and was situated at the front of the cabin, facing backwards.
The plane was also outfitted with soundproofing, this was so that Loewenstein could dictate to his stenographers and can be heard over the roar of the engines.
Between the cockpit and the main cabin, there was also a glass partition, this was so the pilot and the mechanic could easily turn and see into the cabin, right to the rear of the plane.
Towards the rear of the plane was a door, this door leads to the small lobby of the plane and to the only door in or out of the plane.
To the left is also the small toilet, to save space, its designed in such a way that once you enter the loo, the lobby door opens fully locking across the lavatory doorway, when it now becomes the toilet door.
The flight took off from Croydon at 6pm where they would fly across the English Channel to Brussels.
Well, that was the intended destination anyway…
What could go wrong?
Once the plane was up in the sky and was crossing the English Channel, Loewenstein, who until now was sitting reading a book, placed the book on the table and stood up, he excused himself and walked towards the toilet.
After about 10 minutes, people started to wonder if he was ok, so his valet, Fred Baxter, went into the lounge and knocked on the toilet door.
Hearing no response and fearing the worst, he was able to get the door open, and what did he find?
Nothing… Loewenstein had vanished.
Baffled by this, Baxter got the attention of Loewenstein’s secretary, Arthur Hodgson, who also checked the toilet…. You know.. Incase Baxter was lying! — He wrote a wee note to explain the situation and passed it to the pilot.
It obviously makes sense to land the plane immediately, so with that being said, there was an airport, Saint-Inglevert, in France, pretty much straight ahead on their flight path and it was only a few minutes away.
But… in a move that made zero sense, the pilot turned the plane back on itself, flew towards the French coast and landed on a beach at Dunkirk. This beach was under the strict control of the French military.
By this time it was around 7:30pm, the 6 remaining passengers all disembarked from the plane onto the beach and waited.
A Short distance away was Fort Mardyk, an officer there, Lieutenant Marquailles, had ordered a group of military police to attend the beach and apprehend whoever landed there.
They were transported back to Mardyk and questioned by Marquailles and the police.
The next day, Marquailles had revealed to the press that they had the passengers and pilot in custody to ascertain the reasons for illegally landing on french soil, he also revealed that, although their reason for doing this was because they had lost their employer somewhere over the English Channel, it took them over half an hour to reveal Loewenstein’s name to the authorities.
It was reported that Hodgeson had been sweating profusely , baxters teeth were chattering and both stenographers wouldn’t stop crying.
Marquailles also reported that he believed the passengers story, saying
“It could not have been play acting. It would have been impossible for those on the aircraft to have acted as they did if Loewenstein had not met with some terrible fate.”
Less than 24 hours after the plane landed on the Dunkirk beach, any official investigations by the french ceased.
This was because technically, whatever happened to Loewenstein, happened outwith the territory limit.
The French basically said it wasn’t their jurisdiction, the British and the Belgian authorities claimed the same thing.
The only person on the planet that seemed care and was demanding answers was his wife, Madeliene.
Now, this COULD be, because there’s a caveat in Belgian law that says that without an actual body, a death certificate cant be issued, then without a death certificate, the will can’t come into effect or be read. This essentially meant that Loewenstein’s entire estate would be frozen for a period no less than 4 years.
So, Maddy needed a body, she issued a reward to French authorities if they took up the search.
As you can imagine, this soon became global news, and a case that was already bonkers, became even more outrageous when newspapers started printing conspiracy theories.
The Exchange Telegraph printed that a French fisherman witnessed a parachute opening around the same time and location as Loewenstein would have been overhead. He further claimed that a few moments later, a yacht was seen racing out to collect him.
The New York Times reported that a car had arrived on the beach and driven Loewenstein away.
The Gazette had put forth the idea that maybe Loewenstein was simply never on board.
Another French newspaper reported that Loewenstein was having an affair with an inmate in an insane asylum and this stunt was used as a cover up to hide the fact that they had both eloped together.
Besides all of the crazy theories, the reality of it all is that 2 weeks had passed and there was no sign of Loewenstein.
Then, on the 19th of July, a small french fishing boat with two fisherman discovered a decomposing body, around 10 miles off the coast of France. It was reported that the body was so badly bloated and decomposed that the men couldn’t keep it on the deck of the small boat due to the smell, so they wrapped the body in a sail, attached it to a line and threw it back overboard so they could tow it back to shore.
The unidentified body was male, wearing silk underwear and socks, he was wearing a wrist watch and further inspection revealed that it bore the inscription of his name, that being Alfred Loewenstein.
The body was unidentified no more.
The Loewenstein family hired a private coroner to perform an independent autopsy.
Another strange fact on this case was that for reasons unbeknownst to anyone, the autopsy report wasn’t released for another 2 months.
The pathologist discovered a large wound in Loewenstein’s stomach and that every bone in his body was broken.
Despite the condition of the body and the time passed in finding him, the investigation was able to determine that Loewenstein was still alive when he struck the water, the cause of death was ruled due to the impact from falling over 4,000 feet.
Hitting water from that height has the same effect as hitting solid ground.
Loewenstein was buried in a cemetery in Brussels, in a tomb belonging to his wife’s family, the Misonnes. However, his name was never carved on the slab covering his casket, so he was in effect buried in an unmarked grave.
So, the main theory is that whilst he was walking to the bathroom, he had accidentally opened the wrong door and fell out of the plane.
The New York Times later reported that Loewenstein was growing increasingly absentminded and that people close to him had said that he would blunder through wrong doors in his home or office, whilst his mind was occupied with grandiose schemes.
I mean, c’mon, that’s just a wee bit convenient don’t you think? There’s a huge difference from walking into a closet by mistake and stepping out of a plane at 4,000 ft.
The reason that this was the most popular theory is because that’s the story everyone on board stuck to….
…or agreed to stick to….
So, at some point the pilot and the mechanic had to fly the plane back to England. It was later reported in court, that during this time, they agreed to perform a wee test. So once they were at the same height and airspeed as they were back on July 4th, they then opened the plane door, just to see if it was possible, they reported to the judge that not only was it possible but they were able to do it with ease.
The problem is, because there were no other qualified witnesses or professionals in the court that day to contest this information, the judge had no choice but to take the men at their word.
Most if not all of the aviation world at the time called bullshit on that, there was never any instance of anyone EVER having falling out of ANY plane door.
Plus, both the toilet door and the door to the plane, looked nothing alike, the plane door had a clear window on it for a start.
A popular aeroplane publication commented on the case saying
“Everyone who knew the machine agreed that the door never opened by accident”.
Major J P Cooper was the chief inspector of the UK air ministry at the time, he carried out a wee investigation of his own and after thoroughly inspecting the door, he found that it was in perfect working order and showed no faults of any kind.
RAF pilot George Terrell was asked to comment by a Toronto based newspaper, he reported;
“Even if a man could get the door open — A super strong man — as soon as the pressure was released, the door would slam shut, furthermore, as soon as the outside door was opened the slightest bit, everyone inside would be aware of it. A blast of wind would blow through the cabin”.
No passengers reported any such event, none of them heard any kind of noise or felt the sensation of wind.
It was also reported that although Loewenstein was considered to be a physically strong person, he had been ill in the weeks leading up to the flight with rheumatoid arthritis. Which would make him physically weaker than normal.
Even if he was in peak physical condition, it was deemed almost impossible for him to be able to open the door, especially by accident.
An investigative reporter for the evening standard, Norman Rae, in efforts to uncover the truth, conducted his own experiments on a similar model aircraft.
Whilst in flight, he couldn’t even get the door to budge a little bit even when he put all of his body weight behind it and tried with all his strength.
Iits safe to say that Loewenstein did not accidentally fall out of the door.
The 2nd theory is that Loewenstein took his own life leaping from the plane. It was also reported that he was in alot of financial trouble and the pressure got to him.
There’s several issues with this theory, the obvious one is that all of the reasons why the first theory was debunked still holds up here, he would not be able to open the door, at all, and if by some miracle he did, still, he couldn’t have done it undetected.
Also, if this was his plan, then why did he stop off at the terminal prior to the flight to make a phone call to arrange a dinner for the very next week?
When the plane had landed on the beach, the mechanic, Robert Little found handwritten notes by Loewenstein on his table, these notes were about money in and out, plus business plans and ideas going forward. This certainly doesn’t sound like someone that was moments away from leaping to his own death on purpose.
So, that rules out accident and suicide, lets take a wee look at the 3rd theory.
That Alfred Loewenstein was murdered.
Many people involved in the investigation have said that although its pretty impossible for someone to open the door mid-flight, it would be possible for 2 men working together to get the door open.
Lets also look at the behaviour of the other crew and passengers on this strange flight.
Apparently it was a known fact and even printed in Loewenstein’s obituary that he wasn’t into reading and never read a book, yet the passengers reported that he was reading a book before getting up to visit the bathroom.
Also, why did the plane refuse to land at the nearby airport that was straight ahead and turn around to land on the beach?
Loewenstein was also renowned for being tea total and never drank alcohol, yet the coroner found alcohol in his system.
Lets look at a few points that support this theory.
So, years later, prior to his death, the mechanic, Robert Little was married to a wee wife called Julie Little, and Robert told her a very intriguing story.
He said around the time of the incident, he was sitting in the cockpit at his station, he had glanced round through the clear partition and saw Loewenstein suddenly stand up, removing his jacket, collar and tie, he said he looked like he was choking or gasping for air.
He told his wife that he had suspected Loewenstein had been poisoned.
If this theory holds up and he was infact murdered. Then that poses another 2 major questions, who done it? And why?
Lets take a look at suspects…
Obviously the suspects are the people on the plane with Loewenstein. But lets look at the crew for a minute.
Robert Little, the mechanic, reported that he was at the controls during the incident, but thats not accurate, he had passed his control over to Donald Drew, the pilot as soon as he noticed Loewenstein was missing. This also means that it was Drew’s sole decision to land on the beach instead of the airport.
Also, why did neither pilot nor mechanic use the radio system to inform others that someone had fallen from the plane?
Drew had also given contradicting stories as to whether or not he turned the plane around to look for Loewenstein prior to landing on the beach.
In my experience, when peoples statements change…. Thats not a good sign.
Also, remember i mentioned that a short time after landing, Robert Little had discovered hand written notes made by Loewenstein? Well these were never handed over to the authorities.
Some investigators speculate that this could be because the notes could make the suicide theory more implausibele, and its thought that he took the notes to reinforce the suicide theory and steer people away from the idea of murder.
Remember also that the crew testified to a belgian judge that they were able to open the plane door whilst flying back to england. . . an act that we’ve already discovered would be impossible. Therefor they were lying.
If one or two or more people on that plain were party to the murder of Loewenstein, that would mean that everyone on board would be complicate and need to take a vow of silence.
Later, a book was published called “The man who fell from the sky” by author William Norris, he says in his book that someone likely paid everyone off.
Money is always the great motivator.
So now the big question is .. who?
The obvious one that comes to mind is Loewenstein’s wife, she was the one who would gain the most from his death, although it was reported that they did have a good relationship.
As you can imagine, a tycoon of his stature had many many business relationships, there were no shortage of people who would have liked to see Loewenstein gone.
Loewenstein was a major stock holder in a company called “International Holdings”, along with his partners, Frederick Szarvasy and Major Albert Pam.
With Loewenstein gone, the other 2 would see massive financial gain.
After Loewenstein’s departure from the world, the stock crashed considerably, if a person or persons had advanced knowledge of the event, they could make a killing , no pun intended.
The author I mentioned earlier, Norris, during his research discovered that Szvarvasy and Pam made a massive profit and announced this from “Transactions of a special nature”. Their profits were over $13 million dollars which by today’s standards is around $200 million.
Theres another theory. And one that i found VERY interesting.
This theory goes back to the idea that Loewenstein’s wife had hired the crew to kill her husband and that she subsequently paid off the rest of the staff. It was suggested that mid flight, the crew of the plane actually removed the door completely, along for them to dispose of a heavily intoxicated Loewenstein and this is why they landed on the beach instead of an airport, so they could replace the door without being detected.
Crime writers Robert and Carol Bridgestock have speculated that Loewenstein faked his own death and disappeared because of the financial irregularities in his businesses. This theory is supported by the facts that the body was buried in an unmarked grave, and that his wife did not attend the funeral.
Almost 100 years ago that private plane landed on the beach at Dunkirk, no one could have imagined the mystery that was about to unfold. Whether it was by murder, by accident or by his own hand, one of the richest men in the world would be dead. The 6 people that were with him that day have all since passed away, so the curious case of Alfred Loewenstein is truly an unsolved mystery.
Thanks for reading! — Im away for a cup of tea.
