In another version, Baxter forced open the toilet door only to find it empty, with no suggestion that he found the exit door open. In one account Baxter found the toilet cubicle empty and the exit door of the aircraft open and flapping in the slipstream. Accounts differ slightly as to what happened next. Apparently, after about ten minutes had passed, and aware that his employer had not returned to his seat, Fred Baxter went to check on him, fearing that he might have been taken ill. The configuration of the aircraft was such that the door to the lavatory and the exit door were situated opposite one another, and separated from the main seating area by a third door that opened to a short passageway. The aircraft was cruising at about 4,000 feet when Loewenstein, who had been working quietly, got out of his seat and went to use the lavatory at the rear of the cabin. A short while later they were airborne and heading out over the Channel. Smooth it may have been, but uneventful if certainly wasn’t.Īt a little after 6pm the aircraft, a Fokker FVII, was prepared for take-off. The weather was fine, and Drew was expecting a smooth, uneventful flight. Accompanying him on the flight were pilot Donald Drew, mechanic Robert Little, valet Fred Baxter, secretary Arthur Hodgson and stenographers Eileen Clarke and Paula Bidalon. It was against this background that on the early evening of 4 July 1928, Alfred climbed aboard his private aircraft at Croydon Airport, England, for a comparatively short flight across the English Channel and Northern France, to Brussels, where he lived with his wife, Madeleine. Alfred Loewenstein may have been wealthy and powerful, but he had his enemies. However, by 1928 they had seen no return on their investments and were rapidly losing patience with the slightly dodgy financier. 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. Apparently the pair 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. 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. Regardless of the legitimacy of his business dealings, by the 1920’s Alfred Loewenstein was one of Europe’s most powerful financiers, and thus among the richest men in the world at the time. Many went further, claiming he was unscrupulous or even downright crooked. His father, Bernard, was a banker and it was no surprise when his son followed in his footsteps. Alfred Leonard Loewenstein was born in Brussels, Belgium on 11 March 1877.
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