The Missing Millionaire: The Unsolved Mid-Air Disappearance of Captain Alfred Lowenstein
We are diving into one of the great unsolved mysteries of the Jazz Age, a case so baffling it feels like the plot of a spy novel. This is the story of Captain Alfred Lowenstein, the third-richest man in the world in 1928, a man who owned estates across Europe and brokered deals with kings.
But on a clear July evening, while flying from London to Brussels in his private plane, the Belgian financier simply vanished.
The Vanishing Act: Lowenstein was one of only six people aboard his personal Fokker F.VII aircraft. Mid-flight, he stood up, walked to the plane's rear bathroom, and never returned. A frantic search revealed the door was broken and Lowenstein was gone, leaving behind a baffled crew.
The Unanswered Questions: Days later, his body washed ashore in the English Channel. But was it suicide, murder, or a bizarre accident? We explore the compelling questions that haunt this case: Why was the door found broken? Why did the sole witness, his secretary, give a dubious account? And why did Lowenstein's powerful financial backers, who stood to gain from his sudden disappearance, seem so determined to close the case immediately?
A Financial Empire Built on Sand: Lowenstein was known for his extreme ambition and his vast fortune, earned primarily from controlling the hydroelectric power industry. However, his empire was notoriously unstable. The pressure from his business deals—or the threat of their collapse—provided a strong motive for him to possibly stage his own death and disappear.
Join us as we explore the official ruling, the endless conspiracy theories, and the possibility that the Captain of Industry either orchestrated his own demise or was silenced mid-air by people who wanted his secrets to sink with him into the sea.
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TRANSCRIPT:
[00:00:00] Alfred Lowenstein was worth millions. He owned estates across Europe and rubbed shoulders with kings and captains of industry. But on a clear July evening, he vanished from his own aircraft mid-flight, leaving behind a broken door, a battered body, and a mystery that still refuses to be solved.
Hey guys, and welcome to the Moms and Mysteries podcast, a True Crime podcast featuring myself, Mandy, and my dear friend Melissa. Hi, Melissa. Hi Mandy, how are you? I'm doing great. I'm all, uh, caffeinated. I'm heavily caffeinated. How much caffeine have you had today? Okay, so the funny thing is I've had one can of diet Coke 'cause I'm trying to be better, to be more hydrated and so this is really like a freaky Friday kind of thing.
Literally, yeah. We're recording on Friday. Yeah. Well, so I don't do, uh, diet Coke like you. I'm not judging. I I didn't mean for that to sound judgment. So because, oh, I wasn't gonna say that. [00:01:00] What I'm about to say next will, um, show you that I'm totally not judging. So I know you love your, um, diet Coke. I.
Like to consume my caffeine in the form of energy drinks, which is not great, Mandy. So I drink these Alani, that's my favorite brand and I love them. What? They have this flavor that is limited edition. It comes out every year, which is brew and oh gosh, of course it's been out for a couple weeks already.
And I am living my best life. I have drank way too many of these this week. I think I've hit my like maximum caffeine limit, um, right already. For sure. But we're just gonna keep on going. So that's where we're coming. That's so funny. That's where I'm coming to you from today. Okay. Well this is really, uh, this is really something.
I, I appreciate the change. I appreciate switching places every once in a while and not just hoarding caffeine down my gullet all day. So I'm trying my best over here. Good. So our story today begins in Brussels, Belgium, where Alfred Leonard Lowenstein was born either in [00:02:00] 1877 or 1879, depending on what source you read.
His parents, Bernard and Fannie raised Alfred and his sister Helene, in what was later described as very modest circumstances, despite the fact that Bernard was a banker. Alfred's sister Helene died in 1885 when his father Bernard died. The family's finances were left on shaky ground. Alfred's early career began in the military, but he eventually traded his uniform for a banker's desk just like his dad.
He and a fellow officer partnered together and founded their own bank, which I guess maybe back then was easier. I. What have I told you about back then? We would've been stars. Honestly. We, we could've done it all, honestly. I know, and I'm thinking like 50 years from now, people are gonna say that about us.
These two moms, moms just talked into a microphone and it was their job. Right. I could do that now. Yeah. So, um. We just were born in the wrong time. We were, we were. But this opened up a whole new path for Alfred, uh, of course, as you can [00:03:00] imagine. And it allowed him to do a lot of things, including paying off his father's debts.
When World War I broke out, Alfred rejoined the military as a quarter master. Interestingly though, at some point during the war, Belgian authorities actually asked him to resign, but Alfred just came back the next day as a British captain. So. I dunno. You could apparently just do things like that in 24 hours back then.
We can't get anything done in 24 hours in 2025. Incredible. Right. In 1909, Alfred got married to a woman named Madeline, who was described by the New York Times as one of the handsomest and most stunningly gowned women about the race courses of Europe, which sounds incredibly fancy, but she and Alfred had a son together named Robert, who went by Bobby.
By the late 1920s, Alfred was beyond rich. He was actually one of the wealthiest men alive. His empire included steamship lines, Belgian railways, manganese, iron mines in Esia, [00:04:00] steel furnaces in Spain, coal holdings in the SAR basin, and massive rubber plantations in the Congo. I don't know what half of that even is, or how you would get into these businesses, right?
We actually had to put pronunciations on two of the words in there, so we truly don't know what's going on there. No clue, right? Yeah. Newspapers called him the mystery man of Europe. They also called him the Belgian Santa Claus. And in a more simple, uh, more simply, sometimes he was just called Midas.
Alfred would explain his fortune by saying that he had an American style, business mindset, and he credited hunches that he followed to his pots of gold, which what a lucky guy. Yeah, he would take a chance on these emerging industries like artificial silk and hydroelectric power, and it often did pay off for him.
But his critic said that his approach was really impulsive and highly irresponsible. He would buy and sell shares of Brazilian businesses to French and Belgian investors. [00:05:00] And just before World War I, Belgian authorities suspected that he was involved in stock price inflation, but the war prevented them from actually going forward with an investigation about it.
By 1928, Alfred was looking at getting his hands in Brazilian traction, which is a light and power company there, or was at the time, and their headquarters were actually in Toronto. He told his associates that he was just beginning some of the greatest schemes he'd ever planned. Meanwhile, Alfred was truly living a life of luxury.
He once sent a plane to Moscow to get fresh caviar for a dinner party that he was hosting. He owned between seven and 11 villas in France, a castle in Brussels, and a state in England, and a regular old house in London. It's a lot for one guy. Alfred was a well-known horse owner and he had several horses at his estate.
In late June of 1928, his horse Magone won the Grand Steeplechase and another one of his horses, Easter Hero won a big hurdle race. [00:06:00] Alfred had actually just purchased Magone because the other three horses he planned to race in the grand steeplechase were unlikely to win. So he bought this one for 1 million francs and a portion of the winnings if Magone did win, which he did.
Alfred was a lover of sport, and he had numerous different coaches for various sports, including boxing, tennis, billiards, golf racket and fencing. Fencing's, not one I've ever. Considered doing. No, I think it's interesting though. Yeah. There was a time when I was trying to figure out something for my son to do, like some kind of sport.
Vincent was definitely up there and I just couldn't find anything near us. It seems interesting. It's just not one, um I've ever tried. But in the mid 1920s, he was working on building an area, as he called it. It was a plane that would seat six passengers and would include a fully furnished bathroom, carpets and armchair that could be removed and replaced with beds.
The plane also had a heating and cooling system. The New York Times also reported that he had a [00:07:00] radio bill in France that totaled $3,500, which is over $65,000 today. Mandy, we don't know what a radio bill is. We have no idea. Is it like serious accent? I have no clue. I really have no idea. And Google didn't help.
I like, I know we can't really help you on that if you guys don't know, I mean. Wow. How dare you not know? Um, if you do know, you could send us a quick email, let us know. That would be great. We'd love to find out what exactly that is. But still $65,000 in today's money. That's a lot of money to spend on anything.
Yeah. So don't complain about people's Patreon. That's what I'm saying here. I'm just kidding. In 1926, an article in the Birmingham News described an average day in Alfred's life as a millionaire businessman. Each day, Alfred would wake up at 6:00 AM and take a ride on one of his many horses, and he had his day broken up into 30 minute chunks.
Mandy, I wanna see what you think about this plan. He would work 30 minutes, [00:08:00] play for 30 minutes. He liked to practice all of his various sports and hobbies every day. So he's just work, play, work, play. What do you think? I'm actually into it. Really I am. And because I feel like they're actually, I don't have anything I can cite for you off the top of my head, but I feel like there have been studies that have shown, um, that people's productivity really does increase when they set a shorter time limit, like a chunk of time to work on something and then they just focus on it for that amount of time.
And then you take a break. I do think maybe taking. 30 minute breaks for every 30 minutes of work seems a little generous, but I guess if you're a millionaire, you can do things that way. But I kind of do work this way myself, honestly. Yeah. Whenever I'm working on the podcast, because I sometimes get, like, my attention span for, uh, writing sometimes is just not there.
So I have a little, uh, half hour timer, uh, hourglass, but it's like for 30 minutes. And so sometimes I will just use that and I'll set it and I'll be like, you're gonna just do this for 30 minutes, and then when it's over, you can get up and walk around for a second and whatever. But it just, I love that. Me on [00:09:00] task, you know, for at least 30 minutes.
Like, I know I'm not gonna get distracted, I'm not gonna look at my phone, I'm not gonna whatever. I'm just gonna, you know, until that runs out. And I find that to be very helpful. So actually, I think Alfred was onto something with his whole work in 30 minute chunks thing. I like that. I feel like I need a little more time.
It's kind of like napping. If you tell me I can take an hour nap, I'm not gonna be able to fall asleep because it's gonna be 45 minutes of me thinking I'm, I'm not gonna be able to fall asleep. And then finally And it worth it falling asleep. Exactly. So like I can't put timers on things like that. And productivity, I know what you mean.
When I'm editing, actually I edit like in chunks as well. So I guess I kind of do the same thing. I edit to add breaks and then it kind of just gives me a goal and also a break. Here's the thing. Fencing 30 minutes, it's gonna take you 30 minutes to put the outfit on, right? I don't think you can do fencing, right?
Sometimes I feel like you need more than 30 minutes for some of these activities. Exactly. But Alfred did make international headlines in 1926, after he offered Belgium the country a $50 million interest free loan for [00:10:00] two years to help stabilize their frank currency. This would be equal to over $908 million today.
Wild loaning a country money is just wealth. I wouldn't even understand if I was born in the 1920s, I still couldn't do this. No, let's be honest. When asked to confirm the offer to Belgium, he casually waived his hand and said, I could offer bigger loans also without interest. Oh yeah, I know. Lucky you. He then offered France a similar loan, but for 2% interest.
So we guess he didn't like France. Maybe nearly as, as much as Belgium. Maybe not. That same year, Alfred was the victim of a robbery when what would be equal to $25 million worth of jewelry was stolen from one of his homes, which I don't care how rich and powerful you are, how secure your home is, why would you ever have that much jewelry in your home?
I don't know. There was a lady on housewives, uh, real Housewives of Salt Lake City, and she had a $60,000 ring and she went to the bathroom and then [00:11:00] couldn't find it. No, like in the airport, like digging through the trash bins and stuff. It was a big deal, but that was my thought too, like why would you wear something like that traveling?
Like if you lose it, it's gone. You, there's just nothing you can do. So having $25 million worth of jewelry, wild, not in the bank. But then why would you own it? I don't know. I have a lot of question. I know. Well see. I guess I am just not really like a jewelry type person. And in terms of that, because I feel like I, I do like beautiful things that look pretty or whatever, but I feel like there's a limit to that because then at some point you just don't even wanna wear it like I have, I'd be scared, you know what I mean?
Right. Like I do have a, like one necklace that I'm always like, I can't lose this. You know what I mean? Like, this is the one that like, I have to, you know, I only take it out for special occasions and like whatever. And it's like, it's not even like it's worth millions of dollars or anything, but it's like right.
I don't like wearing it because I'm scared that something's gonna happen to it while I'm wearing it. Yeah. So I'm like, I'm gonna be responsible for what happens here. Right. Totally. Exactly. So I feel like, uh, you know, just to even think about having jewelry that's [00:12:00] worth that much money to me, is this, I can't think about it because like I'm, you know, I, I don't know.
Why would you own something that you're never gonna use? But I guess rich people do wear $500,000 necklaces. I would also feel a little like a target. Like that would worry me if people knew I had that much. Yeah, for sure. So in this case though, where the, uh, couple had their jewelry stolen, it was reported that they came home around 2:00 AM and didn't notice anything unusual at first.
It actually wasn't until seven o'clock the next morning that a butler found the bedroom furniture had been overturned and the safes were empty. There was a. A guest bedroom that had been ransacked. So the couple said they heard nothing, and that led to rumors that they may have been drugged with some sort of gas.
Alfred also owned a fleet of airplanes, which is how he preferred to travel instead of traveling by boat, he was constantly working. Even when he was on board one of his planes, he actually even built a small landing space in Lester Shear for himself and his [00:13:00] friends. In the spring of 1928, Alfred set out on a tour of the United States and Canada with his wife and five of their friends.
This trip was for both business and pleasure. He hoped to meet American businessmen to learn more about how they had achieved their success. Why? You've done enough, you're loaning to other countries. What do you need to learn? What more is there, right? How could you be any more successful? So he had plans though to stop in New York, Chicago, California, and also a stop in Canada.
While he was in America, he had a staff of four secretaries, two typists, a chauffeur, a private investigator, which I'm not sure why you need that. Uh, a masseuse, a pilot, and two cars. Maybe you hire a pi. So. The people in that town don't have a PI to hire to look after you. So it's kind of a pre preemptive thing, I guess.
So. So his assistants were treated generously, but also maybe brutally at times. Uh, Alfred did have an impulsive nature and a quick [00:14:00] temper. He was known to snap at his employees that offended him and he was actually fined for assault twice in France. But despite this other sources reported that Alfred was always kind and considerate towards those around him in what was almost a very eerie foreshadowing of what would later happen to Alfred.
He narrowly escaped death when he jumped from his plane before the propellers actually stopped. Uh, moving during a trip to Philadelphia and his hat was actually knocked off his head by this propeller that was still moving. Alfred left from New York by boat on May 18th to return to Europe, but he had plans to return to the United States in the fall of that year, and we're gonna get into so much more after a quick break to hear award from this week's sponsors.
So before the break, we met Alfred Lowenstein, a Belgian banker who rose from modest beginnings to become one of the richest men in the world. By the 1920s, he controlled. Railways mines shipping and plantations. He lived in [00:15:00] castles and villas, and he even designed his own luxury area. He was known for bold financial moves.
He had a quick temper and a taste for extravagance, but his fortune and fame also came with scandals from shady business rumors to a massive jewel robbery, and by 1928. Alfred was chasing even bigger ambitions. So despite being insanely rich, it was reported that Alfred had some financial setbacks in the early summer of 1928.
And one of those big issues was that a $25 million American loan was rejected and he had already planned to use the money for developments. And this wasn't a devastating loss for Alfred himself, but it was for his friends and his acquaintances. The loan was needed due to a slump in the Brussels market, and it was rumored that Alfred was a victim of over speculation.
But German stocks he was invested in had recently dropped 20 to 50 points, and people were still hopeful that the finances would bounce back. There were several reports in 1928 [00:16:00] that Alfred was in poor health and had been suffering from high blood pressure, which sometimes led to chest pains, irregular heartbeats, headaches, feeling faint and erratic behavior and feelings.
He was prone to absent mindedness and would often walk into the wrong room because his mind was so preoccupied with everything going on and all the speculation surrounding him. Then on July 4th, 1928, Alfred was traveling on one of his planes from CRO in England to Brussels with his valet, Fred Baxter, his secretary Arthur Hodgson, two typists named Mila Lon and Edith Clark, as well as the planes mechanic.
Robert Little, and the pilot Captain Ronald Drew. Alfred was reportedly in good spirits and he was talking and laughing with those on board that day. Fred Baxter recalled that Alfred was sitting at the back of the plane next to a glass partition that separated the cabin from the cockpit. He was reading a book, but then he put the book down and walked towards the back of the plane.
Fred noticed that Alfred was smiling as he walked [00:17:00] away. Alfred was gone for five to 15 minutes when Fred decided to get up and check on him, but he couldn't find Alfred anywhere on the plane. Alfred's collar and necktie were later found. When Fred looked at the door that was at the back of the plane, he noticed that it was unlocked and open.
He went back to the glass partition to get the pilot's attention, but. The pilot couldn't hear Fred over the sound of the engines, so Fred got a piece of paper and wrote the words, captain gone. The pilot later said that his first impulse when he found out that Alfred may have fallen from the plane was to swing it around and go back, but he quickly realized just how futile that would be.
So instead, he safely landed in Dunkirk, France and went to inform the police that Alfred had fallen out of the plane, mid-flight over the English channel. The pilot stated that Alfred intended to go to the bathroom, but he opened the wrong door and fell out of the plane into the water. 4,000 feet below.
The day after Alfred's disappearance was announced [00:18:00] the financial market in London, Paris, Brussels, and Berlin experienced a disruption when some stocks he was invested in dropped 30%. After Alfred disappeared, Ronald Drew flew the plane back to Croydon, where it was examined. The investigation didn't reveal many clues about what happened to Alfred.
They did see that the lock of the door he fell from was just held by a piece of wood, which was splintered, and the doorframe had a piece of wood almost entirely broken away from it, but the door still functioned normally. It was actually designed to open outward, which. I guess it makes sense, but it kind of seems like a terrible design for airplane doors to open outward to me.
Because you just for the fact that if you lean on it, it opens outward instead of having to like pull it. You know what I'm saying? Like I feel like any door that opens outward is gonna be easier to fall through For sure. So I feel like that's a little weird, that that was just odd to me. Uh, but investigators and officials told the media that.
It actually would not happen that way. The way I just [00:19:00] described how easy it might be to lean on it and fall out because it would actually take a lot of strength to open the plane door due to the pressure on the plane, which was traveling at about a hundred miles an hour. Alfred Secretary Arthur Hodgson said, I can't understand how it all happened.
When Baxter and I went back through the door separating the cabin from the little vestibule I saw that the catch upon the outer door was unfastened and that the door was only held shut by the rush of the wind outside. I tried to push the door open, but found it almost impossible because of the wind.
One expert told the New York Times that when a plane is flying, it takes more than ordinary effort to push open the door, and Alfred was perfectly familiar with his own plane, so it was definitely not an accident. This expert said that only a drunken man could have been so distraught as to continue to push open the door against that kind of air resistance.
And my question is, would a drunken man even be able to, tests were conducted on the plane to see if more safety measures were needed on that type of plane to prevent another passenger from [00:20:00] accidentally falling the inspector of accidents for the air ministry reenacted ways in which someone could exit or fall from the plane while it was in the air.
This whole thing blows my mind what he decides to do. So, yeah. The Binney end goes up a thousand feet, which is 3000 feet lower than Alfred's flame was flying and Major Cooper threw his body violently against the door that Alfred had fallen from, and so the door opened about six inches and then immediately closed due to the wind from the propellers.
So this is the part that I got lost on. Major Cooper then tied a rope around his shoulders and was held by other passengers as he attempted to exit the plane and climb onto one of the struts. Which he did manage to do after a lot of difficulty. Once he was outside the plane, it was hard to move because the force of the wind was pushing him against the body of the plane.
So after these tests, it was concluded that nothing needed to change on this particular plane. The other passengers on Alfred's plane that day were interviewed and [00:21:00] testified in front of a special police commissioner. They all said they believed that Alfred's death was an accident. Alfred's wife, Madeline said that she wanted the plane to be sold and never wanted to see it again.
When Alfred's disappearance was announced, his friends and acquaintances started sitting outside of the state waiting for any news about Alfred's whereabouts. By July 8th, Alfred's family had released a statement that there was no doubt he was deceased. Passengers on the plane gave depositions in an effort to have him legally declare dead.
Alfred's family wanted him declared dead as quickly as possible because they knew they were in for a complicated process when it came to settling Alfred's estates, and they wanted to get through it as smoothly and quickly as possible. Especially if you're out here giving loans to countries, right? Like how are you going to even figure out what he has?
And so it was expected that it could take years to settle everything. The entire estate was estimated to be about $40 million. He left his wife and his son $9 million [00:22:00] each. And we still have more to get into after one last break to hear word from this week's sponsors. Before the break, we learned that in the summer of 1928, Alfred Lowenstein was facing some financial setbacks and health problems, but nothing that suggested there was really any disaster in the immediate future.
Then on July 4th, he boarded his private plane for a short trip from England to Brussels, and he never made it. After he stepped toward the back of the aircraft, Alfred simply vanished. His valet later found that the rear door of the plane was unlocked and open. And so the pilot landed in France to report that Alfred had likely fallen into the English channel.
Investigators tested the plane and they interviewed witnesses, and while they did officially rule it an accident, there were still a lot of questions about how Alfred could have possibly forced the heavy door open while the plane was in the mid air. Within days, his family pushed to have him declared dead so that his vast estate that was worth an estimated $40 million back then.
I can't even imagine how many millions of dollars that would be [00:23:00] in today's money. They could start to begin to settle that. After Alfred's disappearance and his assumed death, rumors started to circulate that it had all been an elaborate hoax and Alfred had really run off to elope with a woman he'd been having an affair with.
These rumors allege that Alfred secretly converted to Catholicism and was entering a monastery, and that he'd been granted asylum by a Belgian religious order. Others claim to have seen him in different countries and even outside of his own properties. A French fisherman near Dunkirk said he saw a man parachute down over the English channel and that a man was then seen landing on a dock in London.
The fisherman did not try to save the man that he saw because he said another boat was near where the man was descending. Dunkirk police said that the incident was not even reported to them. It was also reported that Alfred withdrew $500,000 in cash before the flight. But of course, with the way Alfred spent money, that may or may not have been unusual for him.
[00:24:00] Many people questioned whether Alfred was ever even on the plane, but all six other passengers insisted that he was there. Yet. Another theory was that Alfred did not fall from the plane, but instead he made a quick getaway in a car when the plane landed in France. Within days, newspapers began publishing information regarding insurance policies that Alfred had.
While it was unclear who took out the policies, it was believed that they could be held by people who own stock in his companies. On July 10th, a judge in Brussels ruled that Alfred's assumed death was an accident, but he wouldn't sign a death certificate because Alfred disappeared in an English plane over French waters, and Belgium didn't have any jurisdiction over him when he died.
All I ever learned from things like this is never die away from your house. Yeah, because it gets so complicated for sure that everything changed. On July 19th when Alfred's body was found in the English Channel by a fishing boat 10 miles off of Cape Greenes, France. That boat's [00:25:00] captain decided to retrieve his body and transport it to a wharf in Boone.
The boat captain thought it was the body of a sailor who fell or died by suicide. Alfred's body was dressed in only his underclothing socks and one shoe, which caused a lot of confusion as people struggle to understand what exactly happened to his clothes. Some thought that perhaps Alfred survived the fall, and then frantically tried to remove his clothing to keep afloat.
While another theory suggested that he purposely removed his clothes, threw them into the water below, and then jumped from the plane. But there isn't really any explanation for why he would've needed to throw his clothes down ahead of him or how that would make any sense. That's the dumbest thing I've ever heard.
Yeah, me too. Is is it like to catch them and hope they land on dry ground and then you fall in the water and you hope you make it and then you have dry clothes? Yeah. I don't know. Doesn't make sense. No. Alfred's body was ultimately identified by his watch, which was inscribed with his name and address.
Some reports say the watch was only engraved with his [00:26:00] initials, but either way, they were able to figure out that it was Alfred and his family later made a visual confirmation. Alfred's body was described as being battered and an autopsy showed wounds to his chest, temple and shoulder. His face was disfigured and both of his feet were broken.
Impressions of his teeth were taken during the autopsy. It was concluded that Alfred died from the impact of hitting the water, not drowning. We're talking 4,000 feet in the air. Crazy. Yeah. But now that he was confirmed dead, a formal investigation into how exactly he died was opened. In August and September that year, conflicting reports came out whether or not any toxic substances were found in his system.
French autopsy surgeon, Dr. Paul, said that he found toxic substances in Alfred's organs, but the exact substances weren't disclosed, nor was the amount of it found in his body. Later, the official autopsy report was released and it stated that there was no poison found in his system and that he died upon [00:27:00] empath when he hit the water.
It was also determined that Alfred did not have an unusually high blood alcohol level. It was determined that Alfred likely fell accidentally, and the report explained that they had found lesions in the kidney and heart, which could cause what they called giddiness, half consciousness and even brain trouble.
They suggested that Alfred may have been overcome with an attack is how they worded it while passing the plane door, causing him to tumble violently into it, forcing it open enough for him to fall through it. They said the giant bruise on Alfred's right shoulder reinforces theory. On October 26th, 1928, the inquest into Alfred's death was officially closed and his death was ruled accidental.
However, modern day sleuths have other theories. Some still question whether the body they found in the English channel was even Alfred. They argued that after decomposing salt water, it would be difficult to conclusively identify the body. Also, I'll give the sleuth this one [00:28:00] if you're really identifying him from his watch.
It just means you could put a watch on anybody. It doesn't really matter. I know the family identified him, but it doesn't sound like there was a lot to identify. Right. And they said his face was disfigured and everything, so. Yeah. Right. So if somebody's saying this is your person and you think it could be, you might.
You might agree. I don't know. Furthermore, people found it strange that Alfred's wife Madeline did not attend his funeral and that he was buried in an unmarked grave despite having plenty of riches for an elaborate headstone. These things lead some people to believe that Alfred did disappear on purpose and did not die by falling out of the plane.
True. Because who's gonna make a nice like cemetery plot for someone that's not even dead, right? Yeah, exactly. Those who believe that Alfred died by accident believed that he probably opened the wrong door on the plane because his mind was busy elsewhere, and then he just stepped forward without realizing there was nothing in front of him.
I could maybe believe this if it weren't for the fact that it was extremely difficult to open the door. Like, like I said, it's not like you just open the door and just whoopsy daisy. Like [00:29:00] there I go. Right. Um, kind of thing. But one of Alfred's friends told the media that Alfred slept very little in that he was constantly absorbed with his financial affairs, and he often appeared to be very absent-minded.
One of the stenographers on board said that Alfred was known to get sick on airplanes, and that maybe in an attempt to get to the bathroom, the plane jolted and Alfred accidentally put his weight on the exit door and caused it to open, and he fell out. Stephen Punt confirmed the symptoms of high blood pressure combined with altitude sickness could have led to Alfred accidentally falling from the plane.
According to those who knew him, Alfred was in no way suicidal and any speculation that he took his own life on account of his financial troubles were just that speculation. One friend said that even if Alfred had lost a few tens of millions of Francs, it still wouldn't have influenced him to jump to his death.
Additionally, Alfred's religious beliefs made it unlikely that he would've died by suicide as well, but despite his family's insistence that his death was an accident, [00:30:00] newspapers still reported that it was a suicide and pointed to his recent financial issues as a reason. But. This, like I said, doesn't make much sense because even though Alfred, you know, wasn't gonna be receiving the money that he had expected, he was in no way financially ruined.
Right. This was one of the richest men in the world. So kind of, that's what his friends were saying. They're like, even if he did have this loss, you know, this one time or on this particular thing, he wasn't no way was he in, down and out, you know? Right. As a person. So the theory that Alfred was murdered did come up shortly after Alfred's body was found.
His brother-in-law asked a coroner in Paris to examine Alfred's body, and he said that he was unwilling to accept the accident theory because it was concluded through tests that simply opening the plane door and falling out was highly improbable, if not impossible. And at the same time, the suicide theory they felt was equally absurd though he said the possibility of murder was there.
He said he didn't really suspect anyone and he wasn't accusing anyone of anything. [00:31:00] Naturally. When someone with Alfred's Wealth dies, under bizarre circumstances, suspicion turns to potential rivals and Alfred. He had plenty. One of them was Dr. Henry Dreyfuss, the powerful chairman of the British Celanese Company.
He and Alfred were locked in a bitter tug of war, and eventually Alfred sold off his holdings, but he wasn't ready to let things go. Just before his death, Alfred was asked if he'd ever call a truce with Dr. Dreyfus, and he said, quote, never. I'm busy now, but when I come back from Brussels, I shall have more time than I will settle Dr.
Dreyfuss once and forever. Some reported that Alfred had been feuding with the entire Dreyfus family, but no serious investigation and two potential foul play was ever pursued. By the 1980s, Alfred's death was still sparking wild theories. The Manchester Evening News suggested a particularly sinister scenario that Alfred's Valet, who was Fred Baxter and his secretary, Arthur Hodgson, had secretly drugged Alfred to make him sick.[00:32:00]
In this alleged version of events, the Truman followed Alfred. When he went to the bathroom, they found him unconscious and they threw him out of the plane. A few years later, in 1987, journalist William Norris revisited the case in his book titled The Man Who Fell From the Sky, which is actually a very good and literal.
Name for this book. He leaned heavily on the murder theory, but stopped short at pointing the finger at anyone. In particular, he did suggest that it was Alfred's wife Madeline, who had the most to gain from his death, especially since their marriage was reportedly strained. But by 2014, William Norris had changed his stance a bit and admitted there was actually no evidence that Madeline needed money nor any evidence of other lovers, and ultimately no clear reason that she would've wanted Alfred dead.
Instead, he floated another possibility. He said that Alfred's latest venture, the international holding company, was set up with two other men and it was structured. So if one of them died, [00:33:00] control automatically shifted to the other partners, which could have been a powerful move. Mandy, if one of us died, it does shift to the other person.
So please, I promise I won't kill you. Don't kill me. Okay. I promise. Pinky swear. Thanks. One of the strangest developments came after Alfred's death. His valet, Fred Baxter went to work for Alfred's son Bobby. Not long after that, Fred was found dead with a gun in his hand and it was officially ruled a suicide.
But remember circulated that he may have been silenced to keep him from talking. Stephen Punt traveled to the Netherlands to examine the same type of aircraft that Alfred had been flying in, and he was told that it would've been impossible for the cabin door to swing open mid-flight without the pilot being aware of it.
That's kind of where I land like. How, how could it be 10 or 15 minutes, you know, if the pilot can't hear because of all the engines and he's inside. Um, the idea of opening a door is gonna be so much louder and everybody would [00:34:00] hear it. They believed it was absolutely absurd to suggest that Alfred could have simply slipped out the door without anyone noticing.
It was also pointed out that the bathroom door and the exit door looked nothing alike. This wasn't Alfred's first time on this plane, which I agree with. It was his freaking plane. Right. How could he really get that confused? I see. Going into the wrong door in your house, whatever. Right. But I feel like on your plane, the second you hit some resistance, you're not gonna try anymore.
No, exactly. You're gonna realize what's happening. Literally. You're like, yeah, exactly. Exactly. Alfred's story didn't end with his tragic fall from the skies. In fact, tragedy seemed to follow his whole family for years to come. Just two years after Alfred died, Hollywood tried to cash in on this mystery with a film called Such Men Are Dangerous.
In an ironic and eerie twist, while filming a parachute stunt for the movie, seven crew members were actually killed in an airplane crash. Whoa. Yeah. Alfred's wife Madeline passed away in [00:35:00] 1938. After her death, she and Alfred's son, Bobby, took over the family business. He already had a name for himself as a wealthy socialite and talented polo player, and he split his time between Paris and London.
But then when World War II broke out, Bobby was living in New York and instead of staying where he was, he returned to Belgium and joined the army. After King Leo pulled the third surrendered Belgium to Germany. Bobby made his way to England and joined the air transport auxiliary and ferried aircraft for the Royal Air Force, which was convenient for the military because Bobby already knew how to fly.
Unfortunately, fate repeated itself In 1941, Bobby was killed in a plane accident near Maidenhead, England at just 31 years old. Several of Alfred's cousins, his uncle and other relatives, also suffered premature and tragic deaths. As for what really happened to Alfred Lowenstein. We still don't technically know and probably never will, [00:36:00] although I can easily see why some of these, uh, modern day sleuths on the internet have a heyday with this one because, well, my two theories are basically that every single person on the plane knows exactly what happened to this guy and maybe had mm-hmm.
Something to do with it or. I don't know. I really don't know. Or he wasn't on the plane. Or he wasn't on the plane and he faked his death and it was not his body, like you said, that they found in the English Channel. They just said, this is a body and this is, this is Alfred Lowenstein, and everyone kind of went with it.
So I don't know. I feel like there's no way it was there. It didn't happen. Like the people onboard the plane, the conclusion claim. Mm-hmm. Right. They did. It didn't. It wasn't where someone just got up and walked to the bathroom and never came back and no one heard a thing and no one knows where he went.
Like that's, I don't believe that at all. I totally agree. And we're not living in a time with noise canceling headphones. Like everyone's there in the moment. They're sitting there, they, that's their boss. And you're gonna tell me you hear a noise and you don't get up and go look and see what happened.
But I mean, how large [00:37:00] even is this plane? It only, I mean, there's six people on board, you're telling me that. No sick. No. None of those people had a visual on, or at least, I mean. The exit door to the plane. It's not like it would be hidden like you, like you're gonna walk down a hallway where no one can see what's going on down there like, right.
I feel like all of this stuff has to be pretty visible to the passengers on the plane, or at least a couple of them. I don't know. Yeah. I just find it really odd. Like, how could someone walk to where the exit door was and no one else on the plane had a visual or any kind of like, not even a, yeah, I don't know.
I just, I don't get it. I kind of like the theory that he faked his own death and had like, and his wife was pissed about it and she was like, go ahead. I'm not going to your funeral. I'm not going to your fake funeral and I'm not going to buy you a nice headstone or whatever. There have been stories like that where somebody has faked their death and their partner either knows or learns about it and it's horrified.
So I don't know what, well, especially in these cases when someone has like a lot of money, right? Yeah. And like [00:38:00] as we know, when you have a lot of money, you know what they say. Mo money Mo problems. Exactly. My thought. Exactly. Yes. I feel like Alfred Lowenstein was just one of those people, I don't know. He had the means to make himself disappear voluntarily.
Mm-hmm. He had the money to do so. Although I do question. I don't know. That's why it's a mystery. We just don't know. That's a mystery. We dunno. It feels like any way you go down this, like it's possible. There's a stopping and there's a stopping point, right? Yeah. Like it goes so far and you're like, huh, go down another path.
Same thing. So yeah, if you, it's really interesting. If you take your own death, you wanna take your money with you. I guess they didn't find any evidence that he socked away money or hid money away in preparation for his disappearance. I don't know. I mean, he was a banker. He could have figured it out. I somehow, I know, I know.
I have more questions, more questions than answers about this one for sure. That's how most of my life goes. Yeah. Um, this was an interesting one though. Yeah, definitely. Uh, I really enjoyed this one. This one was a lot of fun. But thank you guys for listening and we will be back next week. Same time, [00:39:00] same place.
New story. Have a great week. Bye.
