Linda Stein | The New York Observer

Gabba Gabba Heyday! Filmmaker Mandy Stein Reflects on Hilly Kristal's CB-Genius

Mon, 27 Apr 2009 15:13:58 -0400

“I don’t need any water!” exclaimed an exasperated Mandy Stein, nervously working the red carpet outside the AMC Loews Village 7 cinemas on Friday, April 24, while relatives and aides hassled her with questions, advice and refreshments.

Ms. Stein, daughter of the late Linda Stein, real estate agent to the stars and one-time manager of the iconic New York rock group the Ramones, directed the documentary film Burning Down The...

Murdered Broker Linda Stein Inspires Children's Book About Death

Mon, 21 Jul 2008 13:21:46 -0400

Last May, Linda Stein sat in her living room and told The Observer about her one grandchild: She said her own daughter had "crawled out of her crib when she was two years old and found Iggy Pop rolling a joint on the living-room floor with Paul Simon and Elton John sitting there. So for my daughter to be wrapped up in a white picket fence is the most extraordinary thing."

A few months later,...

Murdered Broker Linda Stein's Daughter, Samantha: 'My Mom And I Giggled About My Gray Hairs'

Wed, 06 Feb 2008 12:25:41 -0500

Samantha Stein-Wells, the daughter of Manhattan real estate broker Linda Stein, who was murdered in her Fifth Avenue apartment last November, is about to turn 35. To celebrate the milestone, she is throwing a birthday party at Marquee, the Chelsea nightclub, tonight.

Here's the invitation Ms. Stein-Wells sent to friends:

Dearest Friends,

This past summer my mom and I giggled about my gray hairs, my...

Elton John Plans a Safari Long-Distance With David Furnish

Mon, 12 Nov 2007 20:23:16 -0500

Elton John and his partner David Furnish were across the world from each other last night, with Mr. Furnish in Australia rehearsing for his role in the musical Billy Elliot while Mr. John found himself at a party held at the new Chopard flagship store at 63rd and Madison to celebrate its opening.

The 60-year-old Mr. John was only one of a list of celebrities to bathe in the fuchsia glow of colored floodlamps pointed...

Stein Murder: Relatives Say Assistant's Confession Was Forced

Mon, 12 Nov 2007 07:19:52 -0500

Brooklynite Natavia Lowery, assistant to 62-year-old star real-estate broker Linda Stein, is held without bail on charges she beat Stein to death after a confrontation in her boss' Fifth Avenue apartment. Ms. Lowery, 26, had been her assistant for four months.

The medical examiner “says she died of multiple skull fractures, and so we’re going to charge that the death occurred because the defendant hit her six or seven times in the head with a...

The Stein Murder Confession: Marijuana Smoke, A Yoga Stick, Kellogg's Diner

Fri, 09 Nov 2007 16:02:00 -0500

According to Police Commissioner Ray Kelly’s press conference just now, Natavia Lowery confessed to killing 62-year-old broker to the stars, Linda Stein. In her confession, he said, Ms. Lowery told police that on the afternoon of the Tuesday she was murdered, Stein had been yelling at her 26-year-old assistant. Stein twice blew marijuana smoke in her assistant’s face, Commissioner Kelly said, even though the assistant complained it was making her ill.

Stein, according to...

Lowery Will Be Charged With Murder This Afternoon

Fri, 09 Nov 2007 13:45:18 -0500

Natavia Lowery, the 26-year-old assistant to the late Linda Stein, will be charged later this afternoon with second degree murder.

“The ME”--medical examiner--“says she died of multiple skull fractures, and so we’re going to charge that the death occurred because the defendant hit her six or seven times in the head with a hard object,” Barbara Thompson, director of communications for the Manhattan District Attorney’s office, just told The Observer.

Contrary to previous reports,...

Big Broker Neighbor On Stein Assistant: 'She Had A Nice Smile'

Fri, 09 Nov 2007 12:07:42 -0500

On Yom Kippur, Linda Stein was in her apartment roasting chickens for her elderly father. "Unknown to her,” neighbor Jerry Miller told The Observer, “I think her maid had stored a basket in the broiler. She put her chickens in the oven, turned it on, of course, and all of a sudden she had a fire.”

So Stein rushed down to see Ms. Miller, who happens to be a broker for the chic Sothby’s...

Linda Stein's Assistant In Custody After 'Implicating Herself' in Broker's Murder (UPDATED)

Fri, 09 Nov 2007 11:04:15 -0500

According to news reports this morning, Brooklynite Natavia Lowery, star broker Linda Stein's personal assistant, and the last to speak with her before the murder, is in custody.

An NYPD spokesman said charges are still pending, but that Ms. Lowery "made statements implicating herself" in Stein's death.

The medical examiner “says she died of multiple skull fractures, and so we’re going to charge that the death occurred because the defendant hit her six...

Uber-Lawyer Ed Hayes on Linda Stein: 'They Killed Her!'

Thu, 08 Nov 2007 12:51:44 -0500

The outlandish and very powerful attorney Ed Hayes, who inspired the character Tommy Killian in Tom Wolfe’s Bonfire of the Vanities, is the perfect match for the late Linda Stein (who inspired the realtor in the movie Wall Street). So he was hired by Stein’s ex-husband Seymour, the Sire Records mogul, to help family members during the murder investigation.

And this is what the attorney had to say about Linda Stein when The Observer...

My Linda Stein: Powder Keg Full Of Sound, Fury

Tue, 06 Nov 2007 20:17:00 -0500

One of the many things I’ll miss about Linda Stein was dropping by her comfy Fifth Avenue penthouse on late weekday afternoons where an impromptu salon of sorts would form. There was always an unexpected collection of people—real estate brokers exchanging co-op board and sales gossip, a pop star down on his luck, a billionaire from Australia to whom Linda was trying to sell a $20 million apartment, or a pot dealer from Harlem...

The (Plentiful) Life and Death of Linda Stein

Tue, 06 Nov 2007 19:47:12 -0500

At around 10:30 on the night before Halloween, 34-year-old film producer Mandy Stein rode on the subway from an evening business meeting to her mother’s co-op at 965 Fifth Avenue. She took the elevator, hand-operated by an attendant, to the 18th floor, and entered the apartment to find her mother lying facedown on the floor in a pool of blood.

The elder Ms. Stein, who had recently battled breast cancer and...

NYPD: No Arrests Yet in Stein Case

Fri, 02 Nov 2007 18:12:02 -0400

There’s a rumor going around the high-end brokerage community today that Linda Stein’s ex-assistant Raoul Garcia Bernal is in custody. Mr. Bernal, described in the papers this morning as a “handsome Romeo type” known as The Cuban, reportedly fell out with Stein before her murder.

A source from the NYPD tells The Observer that no arrests have been made: “If he’s being questioned, if he’s being looked at closely? I...

At Linda Stein's Funeral, Recalling a 'Chic and Fabulous' Anti-Grandma

Fri, 02 Nov 2007 16:07:52 -0400

Linda Stein, the quintessential star real estate broker, would have been elated to see her overfilled service today at Riverside Memorial on West 76th Street.

“She’s up there with The Ramones, reveling in the publicity,” eulogized Danny Fields, who co-managed that glorious punk band with Stein in the ‘70’s. Mr. Fields arrived late with Joey Ramone’s brother Mickey Leigh, and wasn’t let into the overfilled service until just before his speech.

...

The Stein Investigation: Pot Dealers, A Hammer, Red Paint, The Cuban

Fri, 02 Nov 2007 10:23:50 -0400

The reports this morning on the investigation into mega-broker Linda Stein's death are like bad pulp fiction: For starters, The Daily News says cops are looking for pot dealers who delivered to Stein's apartment: "All of them dressed well and some delivered weed to her flat in wooden boxes inlaid with ivory, pals said."

And the murder weapon, according to that paper, was a hammer.

Then there are the reportedly spurned men, like Stein's ex-lover...

Remembering Linda Stein

Thu, 01 Nov 2007 18:00:30 -0400

Real estate broker Linda Stein was found Tuesday night bludgeoned in her 18th-floor apartment at 965 Fifth Avenue. She was 62.

Nearly all news reports of the murder called Stein a “broker to the stars,” which misses the point. It’s not that Stein represented celebrities; it’s that she was the star herself: a hard-charging, wine-drinking, enormously magnetic persona. She was the first and essential luminary New York agent.

'No Suspects' in Linda Stein Homicide

Thu, 01 Nov 2007 11:21:23 -0400

When Manhattan mega-brokers are found bludgeoned in their posh apartments, scary stories follow. But despite a report this morning that the late Linda Stein had broken up with a "Latin lover-type last year"--a man that then "would show up uninvited at her beach house"--the NYPD told The Observer this morning that there are no suspects in the homicide...

A Spring Sit-Down with Linda Stein

Thu, 01 Nov 2007 10:46:56 -0400

In early May of this year, The Observer's Max Abelson sat down with Linda Stein to talk about her two careers--the first as a music manager for the likes of The Ramones and her second as a highly successful broker to stars like Sting and Billy Joel. Stein was found murdered on Tuesday night in her Fifth Avenue apartment.

Some excerpts from the May interview are below. The complete interview can be read here.

Celebrity Broker Linda Stein Found Murdered (UPDATED)

Thu, 01 Nov 2007 07:29:51 -0400

Linda Stein, the original celebrity real-estate broker, was found by her daughters bludgeoned to death Tuesday night in her Fifth Avenue apartment.

Ms. Stein, who sat down for an interview with The Observer in May, became a broker after her breakup with Seymour Stein of Sire Records. Before that, she had been a fixture on the downtown music scene, helping to form the careers of New York artists like The Ramones and Madonna. She...

Return to C.P.W.: Donna Karan Lands $11 Million Co-op

Sun, 31 Oct 1999 19:00:00 -0500

Just as her six-month lease on a Wooster Street loft is about to run out, Donna Karan, who has been searching for a permanent Manhattan home for years, has finally found one. According to sources, the fashion designer signed a deal to buy a 16-room co-op at 55 Central Park West from record executive Seymour Stein for just under $11 million in mid-September and the building's board approved her application on Oct. 25.

The...