-Caveat Lector-
"[Frankel] is believed to be hiding in Europe after vanishing in May
with perhaps billions of dollars in other people's money."
Missing Financier Had In-House Harem
By BRIGITTE GREENBERG
.c The Associated Press
SHIRLEY, N.Y. (AP) - Martin R. Frankel roamed his Greenwich, Conn., estate in
his pajamas like the Hugh Hefner of high finance, keeping a live-in retinue
of young women he met through personal ads.
Frankel described some of them as ``ex-girlfriends,'' but it isn't clear how
many of the women he had sexual relationships with. At least some of the
women performed office work at Frankel's unlicensed securities brokerage.
The 44-year-old bachelor is believed to be hiding in Europe after vanishing
in May with perhaps billions of dollars in other people's money. He is
accused of looting insurance companies and a phony charity he set up in the
British Virgin Islands.
Citing unidentified sources, The Hartford Courant reported Tuesday that
Kaethe Schuchter is believed to be traveling with Frankel. Before he
disappeared, he reportedly wired nearly $1 million to a New York City travel
agency, where he kept an account in her name.
Long before Frankel disappeared and the international manhunt began, police
got a glimpse of his personal life, including his alleged penchant for
sadomasochistic sex, while investigating a suicide at the compound.
On Aug. 8, 1997, Frances Burge was found hanged with a rope from the back
deck of one of two mansions on Frankel's compound. The death was ruled a
suicide.
Ms. Burge, 22, was Frankel's houseguest. She had responded to an ad in the
Village Voice in the summer of 1996. Frankel sent a limousine to pick her up
in Shirley at the small house with the crumbling front porch where Ms. Burge
lived with her father, Clarence.
Clarence Burge has declined to comment on his daughter's death. Ms. Burge's
mother, Gabriella, who lives nearby, said that the young woman's life was
never the same after she answered the ad.
According to Frankel, that first meeting was rocky.
``Frances did not look as I expected,'' he told police after her death. ``She
was overweight but was a nice person. During that evening, Frances had taken
her clothes off and wanted to have sex. I did not want to.''
Ms. Burge told her mother that Frankel had asked her to strip.
In any event, Ms. Burge became part of Frankel's circle and later moved into
one of his two Greenwich homes.
``She said that he had met somebody, and he was, like, telling her that she
was so smart. She just loved that,'' Mrs. Burge said. ``I said, `You have to
be careful about people conning you, people who tell you you're so
special.'''
Like many of Frankel's followers, Ms. Burge appeared to have light duties, if
any. Frankel told police Ms. Burge was a ``general helper.'' She told her
mother she was working as an office assistant. She told friends that she was
giving him investment advice.
Frankel's bodyguard, David Rosse, told police that his employer was a
benefactor to numerous women he met over the Internet and through personal
ads. Many were allowed to stay at the mansions.
``Some of these girls think that they might be my girlfriend someday,''
Frankel told police. ``The girls do not get paid a salary, but I give them
money as they need it.''
The exact number of Frankel's women is unknown. A former housekeeper put the
total number of workers at the residences at 100, including office and
domestic staff.
Denise Paladino, a friend who worked with Ms. Burge at a Shirley video store,
said Ms. Burge came back to town one day and announced that she had found a
new job. Ms. Burge said she was working for a wealthy older man who wandered
the two estates in his pajamas.
``My impression was that he was a Hugh Hefner type,'' Ms. Paladino said.
``His money was spent on the people who worked for him, and she could do
whatever she liked.''
By all accounts, Ms. Burge was a confused and complicated woman before she
became one of Frankel's attendants. Her father told police his daughter had
been hospitalized twice for depression. Friends said she was taking
medication, seeing a psychiatrist, and sometimes told distressing tales of a
suicide attempt and a lost baby.
After Ms. Burge's suicide, police searched her room on the Frankel estate.
They found a film and literature on sexual bondage, a leather riding crop and
ropes. They also found a pad with a handwritten draft of an ad that began:
``Young woman looking for a special relationship with that special kinky fun
erotic person.''
Mrs. Burge told The New York Times that her daughter was trying to learn
about sadomasochism. The young woman had said she had gone with some of
Frankel's other girlfriends to a racy New York nightclub called The Vault.
Neither Ms. Burge's family nor police blame Frankel for her death. But
friends such as Ms. Paladino are surprised that Ms. Burge would kill herself.
Ms. Paladino recalled that her friend had stopped by the video store shortly
before her death.
``She definitely had changed,'' Ms. Paladino said. ``She had lost weight. She
had a brand new car, a beeper, a (cellular) phone. She said she loved her
job. She said she loved where she was.''
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