Locked Door Mystery

Chicago mystery writer Eugene Izzi was discovered hanging by the neck outside the window of his 14th floor downtown office. Izzi, who does research by going undercover to infiltrate groups such as militias, was found with copies of death threats in his pockets. He was wearing a bulletproof vest and was armed with a gun, brass knuckles, and chemical spray. Friends say he was so afraid for his safety that he had moved his family out of his house. “He let me listen to the voice mail” of one of the threats, said one friend, a former homicide detective. “A woman said he’d been found guilty ... and he’d be dead by hanging by the end of the year.” But police said the door to Izzy’s office was locked from the inside, and are thus calling his death a suicide. “There’s nothing to lead us to believe it’s a homicide,” a Chicago police spokesman explained. (UPI, AP) ...Now we know why “Columbo”, “Quincy” and “Rockford” were inspired by Los Angeles detectives, and not Chicago’s.