Opinion ID: 331609
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: mr. pfeffer's death

Text: It was stipulated between the parties that Pfeffer died on March 29, 1969 and the death resulted from injuries sustained by him following a fall from the Pioneer Hotel Building to the street below. Pfeffer left the south side of the building from the stairwell between the tenth and eleventh floors and before landing on the street, struck a light pole. The local Justice of the Peace, whose obligation it was to sign death certificates, was seated across from the Pioneer Hotel in the Walgreen's Drug Store at the time of Mr. Pfeffer's death. Judge Jacobson saw the body hit the lamppost. (TR 68) Subsequently, he spent two days checking the police report, the photographs, the investigation reports, going to the top floor and checking out the area in which it was stipulated Mr. Pfeffer had exited the building, and reviewing the death certificate. Based on this investigation, he signed the death certificate showing the cause of death as being suicide. At the time Judge Jacobson signed the death certificate, he was not aware that Mr. Pfeffer had written in longhand a pathetic suicide note to his wife, which read as follows: 'Dear Shirlee. 1. Please use Bring's Funeral Home. 2 Suggest you cremate 3 Make donations to U of A 4 I have let all my friends down. I did a stupid, foolish act by trying to deal with a bad character. He had nothing on me. I was going for a big sale to get everyone paid 5 Make John Battaglia pay all his life for the way this mad dog created a situation for me from which I couldn't extricate myself 6 No man ever had a more worthy son or better wife or could ever find one 7 I can't stand the pressures of letting every one down so I must go this way 8 What I have done will make headlines anywhere, but I don't even have enough imagination to do an unmessy job 9 Shirlee and Jeff, I just don't know another way to salvage something for my friends so I am going this way 10 May God in his infinite wisdom protect you in the days ahead 11 I realize what I have done to you but I have involved too many of my friends with my foolhardy sales to John Battaglia Love, Newt.' The note was discovered after Pfeffer's death in the rear of Mr. Pfeffer's desk. The handwriting was identified by Mr. Whitehill and Mrs. Pfeffer as being that of Mr. Pfeffer.