Alfred Léonard Loewenstein was a Belgian financier and third richest man in the world at the time. His business interests ranged from a company providing hydro-electric power facilities to developing countries, to a purported drug deal made with American racketeer Arnold Rothstein.
The two planned to vastly increase the supply of heroin to the United States, and in so doing create an international drug ring throughout Europe and the U.S. In 1926 he founded a company called International Holdings and Investments Ltd., which raised vast amounts of money from wealthy individuals keen to invest in the business of such a successful man. However, by 1928 they had seen no return on their investments and were rapidly losing patience in Alfred.
On the evening of 4 July 1928, Alfred left from Croydon Airport to fly to Brussels on his private aircraft along with six other people. While the aircraft was crossing the English Channel, Alfred went to the rear of the aircraft to use the lavatory. In Alfred’s aircraft, a door at the rear of the main passenger cabin opened on to a short passage with two doors: the one on the right led to the lavatory, while the one on the left was the aircraft's entrance door.
When he had not reappeared after some time, Alfred's secretary went in search of him, and discovered that the lavatory was empty, and the aircraft's entrance door was open and flapping in the slipstream. The employee (along with the others on the aircraft) asserted his belief that he had fallen through the aircraft's rear door and plunged several thousand feet to his death in the English Channel.
A fishing boat spotted a decomposed corpse floating near the French coast. It was identified as the body of Alfred Loewenstein thanks to various clothing items. His widow Madeleine arranged a private autopsy to determine the cause of death. The examination found no signs that could indicate foul play or suicide. However, a small amount of alcohol was detected in his blood, which is odd considering Alfred never drank.
The strangest thing about how the whole incident was handled is that there was little effort to get to the bottom of what had happened. An official inquiry, in which no one was under oath, concluded that Loewenstein’s death was accidental. That conclusion was in great part based on the testimonies of Donald Drew (the pilot) and Robert Little (the mechanic). Both men insisted that the exit door was easy to open and that it was entirely possible for Lowenstein to open it by accident. As we will see later, the veracity of this claim will come under intense scrutiny.
So, was it just an unfortunate accident? This seems highly unlikely. As you would expect, the airplane exit door was not as easy to open as the pilot and mechanic had claimed. In fact, numerous tests to check the door’s stability were conducted in the weeks following the incident Some even involved men from Accidents Branch of the British Air Ministry throwing themselves at the entry door at an altitude of 1,000 feet! The door withstood the weight with relative ease. The conclusion was clear and simple: No one could have fallen out of the plane by accident.
Who wanted to harm Alfred Loewenstein and why?