Brooklyn, NY – Homicide detectives are investigating the mysterious death of an Orthodox Jewish man who begged for money outside synagogues, even though his massive collection of vintage TV photos was said to be worth millions of dollars.
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55 year old Howard Frank was discovered floating face down in the Gowanus Canal on June 29th, a couple of days after he was last seen outside the Landau shul on Avenue “L” in Flatbush.
“I actually think he was murdered,” said shul regular, Aaron Farrell, when PIX 11 met him outside the synagogue on Friday. “He was always nervous the last few weeks. He was saying he owed $80,000 to someone and he was supposed to meet him.”
The money was apparently owed for Bensonhurst storage fees to house Howard Frank’s huge collection of one million photos ….of TV stars from the 1950’s to the 1990’s. He had ten thousand pictures of the late comedienne, Lucille Ball, and used to license them to magazines and other publications. He started collecting when he was 18, but his business took a “downturn” after the9/11 terror attacks hurt the economy. Still, Frank was trying to find ways to digitize his collection.
On Wednesday night, June 27th, other members of the Landau synagogue noticed Frank left much earlier than usual. His business partner of recent years, Frank Pohole, told PIX 11 that Howard Frank never made it home to Sunset Park, where Pohole had given the collector a place to sleep. Pohole was operating the website, Personality Photos.com, that sought to sell Howard Frank’s collection to serious bidders, if they were willing to offer “eight digits”. Those offering anything less were told to not bother contacting the site.
According to Howard Frank’s estranged brother, Reuven, acquaintances of Howard’s later said the troubled collector was telling them, “People were after him. They wanted to kill him.”
Some believe Howard Frank committed suicide, because he was evicted from his apartment several years ago, didn’t have a job, and owed money.
When we reached Frank Pohole on the phone Friday, we asked him about a document Howard Frank signed about a week before his death, putting a “lien” for $78,000 on his photo collection, in the event he died. This was to cover the storage fees he accumulated over the last, few years.
“Don’t you think it’s curious the timing of him signing this, and then he’s dead a week later?” PIX 11 asked Pohole.
Pohole responded, “Well, there were a lot of other things in Howard’s life he never told me about.”
Pohole suggested that Howard Frank was sharing information about Brooklyn’s Satmar Hasidic community with others, and this could have angered some people.
“Howard kept a lot of things to himself,” Pohole told PIX 11. The business partner said he was cooperating fully with detectives from the 72nd Precinct in Brooklyn and “I told them what I knew.”
When we asked Pohole about the “eight figures” he wanted, before selling the collection, he responded, “You start high, then you work your way somewhere else.”
Howard Frank’s collection contained publicity shots from famous series like “Bewitched”, “Gilligan’s Island,” and “The Partridge Family.” He also had pictures of film stars like Clark Gable and Humphrey Bogart.
Reuven Frank said his brother’s begging—and his photo collection—sometimes helped Frank Pohole pay bills. “He told me he was paying this guy’s property taxes,” Reuven Frank said.
Frank Pohole acknowledged that was the case, at times. He answered all the questions PIX 11 put to him freely.
Howard Frank’s body was prepared for burial by an Orthodox Jewish group, without his brother being consulted, and the family later contacted Shmarya Rosenberg at FailedMessiah.com, hoping to expand the investigation. Rosenberg wrote a lengthy article about the case, speaking to PIX 11 on Friday. Regarding reports that Howard Frank was troubled and suffering from some kind of mental illness, Rosenberg noted, “Most mentally ill people don’t commit suicide.”
Howard Frank had never threatened suicide, according to his brother and sister-in –law. “He wouldn’t kill himself,” said Barbara Frank. “He was eccentric, but he wouldn’t kill himself.”
Yet Frank sensed he was going to die, in the days before he turned up in the Gowanus Canal. “He was saying good-bye to friends and telling them, ‘nice knowing you,’” his brother said.
What did he know about satmar that we don’t know? and whom did he share it with?
Is he the guy that used to stand outside of the bagel hole?
Its sad that in cases such as this, the kehillah is unable to intervene and provide assistance to such a disturbed individual. In the real world, its often harder than it sounds if the individual doesn’t acknowledge the need for help and the family doesn’t work together with the kehillah. The court system is vitually no help if forcing someone like this to take professional assistance.
BD”E
How sad…. BDE
עגלה ערופה
“Howard Frank’s body was prepared for burial by an Orthodox Jewish group, without his brother being consulted, and the family later contacted Shmarya Rosenberg at FailedMessiah.com, hoping to expand the investigation. Rosenberg wrote a lengthy article about the case, speaking to PIX 11 on Friday. Regarding reports that Howard Frank was troubled and suffering from some kind of mental illness, Rosenberg noted, “Most mentally ill people don’t commit suicide.””
If the last seven words were not so sad, and so true, they would have qualified for the Shmendrik Awards 2012 – outright.
why would he have anything to do with satmar? or is someone trying to start a smear campaign? I would look at the partner or the brother for answers.
the issue is and was that some organization prevented an autopsy. If a case of suspected murder an autopsy should be made to see if he truly was murdered and gather any evidence if there was or is any
Very sad but makes absolutely no sense, as quoted on their site:
“Howard and I would at some point like to retire before we reach senility. With that in mind, we will entertain serious offers for the collection of more than one million rare images in our posession. We will only entertain serious offers from qualified interested parties. If you are not thinking of a figure well into the eight digits, don’t bother contacting us as you will be wasting our time and yours. Individual major collections are also for sale. Again, only extremely serious offers will be considered. We’re neither desperate, nor in a rush to sell, so we are interested only in serious offers with serious capital resources to back it up.”
Howard Frank was evicted many years ago – sad to say – by a greedy, frum SLUMLORD who has mercilessly evicted other FRUM people & cared little about his tenants. When Howard’s father passed away about 10 years ago, Howard was still a respectable, devoted person. Whether he was mentally unstable is not the point here. He was unemployed for many years because he was his father’s caretaker & stood by his father’s side, 24/7! His father was on a fixed income & left him penniless. Without income, he was clearly unable to pay the full rent monthly.
The day the marshals showed up to evict him, is the day his life began to fall apart. His apartment was a disaster. The bathroom had no floor, kitchen walls were crumbling & light fixtures weren’t working. Howard frequently complained that the landlord refused to make repairs & told him to leave because he had “other people” who were eager to pay rent & didn’t care about the living conditions.
It’s sad that Howard died the way he did. We can all speculate but at the end of the day, his SLUMLORD may need to ask mechila at his kever.
Howard, you were a great man, may Hash-m rest your departed soul.
This is another case of beggers taking advantage of the kindness of our charitable society, when the begger has thousand times more money than those that give him.
I can relate to tens of stories, where money in pailfulls were found after the institutional comitment or death of these ‘beggers’.
Despite all our charity, we get NO reward, as the Noviy said; that we shall be cursed. That our charity will NOT reach worthy and deserving people.
#13
If someone is not paying rent then they should be evicted. Being a landlord is a business and the landlord has a right to expect payment to cover his costs. And the deceased seemed to have had money to have this collection! This is all very fishy!
nebech nebech. he was a broken neshomah i wish could of help him if i would know, mr. kattan of # 13 u have such a big zechus the way, u say it. b d e
What a strange, strange story, the sort of thing one could not write in fiction. My he find rest.
The body must now be exhumed to do a proper investigation as to whether this gentleman was murdered.
I need someone to explain something to me, please.
Can one of you kindly tell me, please, why every time shredready posts a message – any message – you all immediately shoot him down in flames?
Do any of you know who shredready really is?
Do any of you know where shredready lives?
Can any of you tell me what sins he might have committed in the past to warrant this crude and churlish behavior?
Or, being the good G-d-fearing heilige and ehrliche yiddin that you all doubtless think you are, you fondly expect shredready to automatically grant you selicha umechila every time you besmirch his name?
Howard was a close personal friend of mine. He had a heart of gold and was a good man. I’m just now hearing about his death and feel it should be investigated. Yes, he was evicted years ago and suffered terribly after his father’s death and 9/11. His business went downhill after all these events and he was constantly struggling to keep his picture collection in tact hopefully to sell it one day. This death needs to be investigated……the last time I spoke to him he was terribly upset and I wasn’t able to understand what he was talking about. I will miss him terribly.