12/7/1996 The strange death of Eugene Izzi

December 7, 1996.  Eugene Izzi, a Chicago native, wrote more than a dozen crime novels, but he is best remembered for the strange circumstances of his death.

On this date his body was found hanging by the neck outside the window of his fourteenth-story office in Chicago.  He was wearing a bulletproof vest and had in his pockets, brass knuckles, a can of pepper spray, and a disc with an unfinished manuscript.

The coroner called it suicide but, not surprisingly, his family had doubts.