  Rhymeswithrawk Member Username: Rhymeswithrawk Post Number: 862 Registered: 11-2005 |
A while back in a thread about the Book Tower, people were trying to remember details about a woman who jumped from a skyscraper and killed a man she landed on. Well, for those who care, I found the deets in an old Detroit Free Press article. I cannot post in the original thread because it's closed: Dec. 15, 1973 Woman Leaps and Two Die Body strikes pedestrian (no byline) A Detroit woman who had been undergoing treatment for mental depression plunged to her death from the 13th floor of the Book Building in downtown Detroit shortly after 9 a.m. Friday. A pedestrian struck by her hurtling body also died 2½ hours later in a hospital. Several passengers on a bus, stopped just a few feet away on Grand River, saw the woman's body strike the man, an airline employee who was apparently on his way to his office in the Book Building. THE VICTIMS were identified by police as Sarah Watson Leisen, 30, of Detroit, and Raymond Dolan, 29, of Dearborn. Dolan had gone to work earlier than usual Friday morning. One of the passengers, Barbara Johnson, 29, of 1537 Minoch, described what she saw from the window of the bus: "It looked like it was a rag doll falling. I thought at first that somebody had thrown a rag doll out of the building. It didn't seem real." | ||
Irish_mafia Member Username: Irish_mafia Post Number: 988 Registered: 10-2003 |
Thanks R, That was my old neighbors daughter. I remember it pretty well | ||
Rhymeswithrawk Member Username: Rhymeswithrawk Post Number: 871 Registered: 11-2005 |
Amazing how journalism has changed. Mentioning that she had mental depression in the lead of the story? It's not even attributed to anyone. Says who? | ||
Paulmcall Member Username: Paulmcall Post Number: 369 Registered: 05-2004 |
Maybe she just thought she could fly? | ||
Patrick Member Username: Patrick Post Number: 4873 Registered: 10-2003 |
There have been a few jumpers in the Book Tower. The IBEW Local 58 had an office in there and the head jumped out the window. This must have been in the mid to late 60s. | ||
Gistok Member Username: Gistok Post Number: 5260 Registered: 08-2004 |
Bet there were a lot of jumpers downtown back in November of 1929... | ||
Ray1936 Member Username: Ray1936 Post Number: 1867 Registered: 01-2005 |
I remember two jumpers (separate occasions) from the 7th floor of Police Headquarters back in the early 80's. One was a man about to be charged with a sex crime, and he dove through a closed window on the Clinton street side (pane of glass didn't slow him a bit), and the other was a hooker about to be booked in the vice squad. She bailed on an inside window onto the garage roof below (building is actually "U" shaped). As I recall, she was handcuffed to a chair and took the chair with her. Both fatal, of course. | ||
Jimaz Member Username: Jimaz Post Number: 3117 Registered: 12-2005 |
On a lighter note, does anyone recall any parachutists (base jumpers) operating in Detroit? | ||
Bagman Member Username: Bagman Post Number: 93 Registered: 06-2004 |
Jimaz, I have thought about base jumpers in Downtown for many years. Having a key to the roof of the Penobscot Building I would take friends up there and once had a friend who did Base jumps tell me that at 625ft he could do it, but the way the building is constructed at the top you could never clear the lower parts of the building that get wider as you get farther down. He did say that there are a few buildings that it could be done from, but the winds between buildings would make it a very dangerous jump......Which is probably why we never saw it done, no matter how empty downtown has been over the years....My dad used to say on Saturdays we had cannon practice down Griswold....talk about empty |
