Solomon B. Stein -- "Tired, He Rests..."

Forced into bankruptcy by a $50,000 gem heist on October 8, 1928, the theatrical jeweler had recently been subpoenaed by the District Attorney's office to appear as a witness at trial for two men charged with the hold-up.  Police speculate that the mental strain combined with Stein's poor health drove the 36-year-old jeweler to take his life in the 12th floor office of the A. S. K. Jewelry Manufacturing Company at 74 West Forty-sixth Street in New York City on May 13, 1929.  A salesman found Stein's body face-down in the office propped up on cushions against a chair.  A tube leading from a gas jet attached to an open blow torch had fallen from his lips.  A poetic note written in pencil found beside the body read:  "Tired, he rests, and life's poor play is over.  Approach thy grave like one who draws the draperies of death about him and lies down to dream, and so falls the curtain on the last act of my life.  Good-bye, everybody."  And in a postscript:  "It takes a lot of gas to kill a man, but it is not so bad."