Real-Estate Executive Steven L. Good Found Dead of Self-Inflicted Gunshot Wound

Well, the more dire the economy becomes the more suicides occur. Well, at least of money managers and other rich folks. The latest is Steven L. Good, 52, who was found dead of a self-inflicted gunshot wound. He was found in his Jaguar in a forest preserve outside Chicago, said the Kane County Sheriff’s Department.

Mr. Good was chief executive of Sheldon Good & Co., one of the nation’s largest real-estate auction firms. His father founded the company in 1965. As chairman of the Realtors Commercial Alliance Committee, Mr. Good said last month in an industry outlook news release that market conditions were “very challenging.”

According to the company’s Web site, Sheldon Good “has sold more than 45,000 U.S. and international properties in more than 100 different classes and produced more than $10 billion in sales.”

Mr. Good wrote a book called “Churches, Jails and Gold Mines…Mega-Deals from a Real Estate Maverick.” In it, Mr. Good tells how he purportedly turned his auction firm into the real-estate equivalent of Sotheby’s or Christie’s. “That book is a must-read for anyone in real-estate auctions,” said Chris Longly, spokesman for the National Auctioneers Association. Source: Wall Street Journal

This latest wave of suicides show how materialistic people are. Poor folks won’t kill themselves. They’ll make do with what they have. Some rich folks freak out once the market goes down. They are in a tailspin and the only alternative for them is suicide. How selfish. This comes on the heels of German billionaire Adolf Merckle killing himself because his fortune dipped a couple billions. A message to all the rich folks contemplating suicide, think about your family first and the anguish and heartache that would ensue.

Filed under: Adolf Merckle, Apparent Suicide, Real Estate, Steven L. Good

Billionaire Merckle Killed by Train, Die Welt Reports, Possible Suicide

German newspaper Die Welt is reporting that German billionaire Adolf Merckle, whose investment company was renegotiating its bank debt, died after he was hit by a train and may have committed suicide, Die Welt reported.

Merckle was struck near his hometown of Blaubeuren, southeast of Stuttgart, yesterday evening, the German newspaper said on its Web site today. Police said he may have killed himself, the newspaper said.

Yep, another investment baron to fall flat on his face. Merckle had lost money from a series of wrong-way bets on Volkswagen AG, a drop in the value of his HeidelbergCement AG stake and increasing debt. The 74-year-old, whose estimated $9.2 billion fortune put him 94th on Forbes’s list of the world’s richest people, was negotiating with banks on a bridge loan to rescue his investment company VEM Vermoegensverwaltung GmbH.

Merckle was to get more than $547 million in bridge loans to rescue VEM, Financial Times Deutschland reported yesterday, citing unidentified bankers. I hate to say it, but Merckle won’t be the last to kill himself over bad investments. It isn’t everyday that people leisurely stroll on the railroad tracks and get hit by a passing train, unless of course, they wanted to get killed.

Filed under: Adolf Merckle, Apparent Suicide, Hit by Train