(7/13/99)
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 today 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. I had just had sex with ten other women.''
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. You aren't special. You're just a fat, pathetic cow whom no one could ever love.'''
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, a naked photo of a San Jose man named Chris DePasquale, 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.''