12 JUN 08

Searching for the hedge-fund swindler

Launch 5 Searches For Jumper

By Phil Reisman
Journal News columnist • June 12, 2008

Did he or didn't he?

Only the Hudson River fish know for sure.

Nevertheless, I joined a nautical search party aiming to find the body of hedge fund swindler Samuel Israel III, who may or may not have jumped off the Bear Mountain Bridge to avoid doing prison time.

Volunteers with Launch 5 search the waters of the Hudson River near the Bear Mountain Bridge for the body of Samuel Israel. (Photo by Frank Becerra Jr./The Journal News)

That Israel pulled a hoax and is still very much alive seems more than likely since the choice between a 20-year federal sentence and the finality of suicide would hardly seem palatable to a man well-versed in the flimflamming arts.

One of the great mind-blowing mysteries is why in the world the federal authorities allowed Israel to drive himself unescorted to the federal pen in Ayers, Mass. You'd think they at least would have slapped an ankle bracelet on him to keep tabs on his whereabouts.

Bill Smith

According to the cops, Israel's 2006 GMC Envoy was found on the midspan shoulder around 12:30 p.m. Monday. On the dashboard of the car was a bobble-head doll of Stewie, the evil baby in the popular "Family Guy" cartoon series - a detail that may tell us much about Israel's inner self.

Written in a layer of dust on the hood of the abandoned vehicle were the words, "Suicide is Painless," another lie from Sam the Scam.

Bill Smith, a volunteer with Launch 5, aboard the Patrolman Henry A Walburger, searches the waters of the Hudson River near the Bear Mountain Bridge for the body of Samuel Israel June 11, 2008. ( Frank Becerra Jr. / The Journal News )

If he really jumped, the 48-year-old Israel discovered the brutal fact that suicide is anything but painless when he hit the hard surface of the river from 155 feet or so. Crooks who steal in the neighborhood of $450 million and get cornered might look for the least painful route of escape - and a pretend death doesn't hurt at all.

Israel is probably on his way to Brazil. Or he is journeying to Maine on the Appalachian Trail.

Anyway, his body was not found after I joined Greg Porteus and Bill Smith of the volunteer Launch 5 search and rescue team, who had embarked from Ossining yesterday afternoon in the venerable Patrolman Walburger, a 52-foot patrol boat named after a New York cop killed in the line of duty in 1964.

See the video at: A Search for Samuel Israel

The boat chugged 10 miles north to the Bear Mountain span and, using sonar and binoculars, Porteus and Smith scanned the brown, turbid waters beneath the bridge and within the shadow of the noble hill named Anthony's Nose. A large blip showed up on the sonar, but it may have been a school of fish. Smith saw something drifting off in the distance. Only a log.

I can't honestly say I was very disappointed. After a couple of days underwater, Israel would not be a pleasant sight to behold on a full stomach.

Before heading out, I consulted the bible of forensic science, the third edition of "Practical Homicide Investigation," written by Vernon J. Geberth, a former New York City police detective whom I met years ago when I covered police news in the Bronx. There's nothing in the way of destruction to the human body that Geberth hasn't seen. His book is not for the queasy.

Scan the index and it's easy to understand. He's got a three-page entry on "Flies and maggots" alone.

As it stands, Israel is considered a fugitive. But If he really made the fatal leap, he would be classified as a "floater."

Bill Smith a volunteer with Launch 5 aboard the Patrolman Henry A Walburger

On Page 313, Geberth writes:

"Most bodies will sink upon drowning only to rise later when the gases from putrefaction begin to inflate the body, causing it to rise to the surface. The amount of time before this occurs depends upon water temperature, the condition of the body (fat or thin), and other variable such as currents."

It goes on, but you get the picture.

Geberth was in the middle of teaching a class on homicide in Minneapolis when I reached him on his cell phone yesterday. He said that if Israel is in the river, it will take a couple of days before his body reappears in all its gruesome glory. Israel's chubby physique would be a factor.

"People who are heavy are more apt to float to the surface than someone who's thin," Geberth said.

Greg Porteus a volunteer with Launch 5 aboard the Patrolman Henry A Walburger, searches the waters of the Hudson River near the Bear Mountain Bridge for the body of Samuel Israel June 11, 2008. ( Frank Becerra Jr. / The Journal News )

Porteus was aware of that and other floater arcana. He's assisted in pulling plenty of people from the river, alive and dead. The rescues can be harrowing - like the time they navigated through choppy waters and saved a family of four in a Jet Ski accident and narrowly missed colliding with a tugboat.

Searching for suicide jumpers has become all too frequent. Porteus recited the death toll.

"There was the 14-year-old kid ... and one down here," he said, pointing off the starboard bow. "One just across from Charles Point ... and one at the Tappan Zee. That's four that I can remember that we were involved with.

"What's a shame is that the families are a wreck. This one family ... we came up here looking for the father. Bad weather, torrential rain and fog. The whole bit. But the kids kept calling us. 'You gotta find our dad.' It's a terrible waste of life."

Greg Porteus a volunteer with Launch 5 aboard the Patrolman Henry A Walburger, uses sonar as he searches the waters of the Hudson River near the Bear Mountain Bridge for the body of Samuel Israel June 11, 2008. ( Frank Becerra Jr. / The Journal News )

At 6 p.m., I got off the boat at a pier on the Rockland County side of the river, where two tattooed men and a little girl had been fishing. I could tell they were having a great time. The men drained a six-pack of beer, but it didn't look like they had caught any fish.

Porteus and Smith continued on with their search for Sam Israel, a white-collar criminal. There were a few more nooks and crannies along the river they wanted to inspect before calling it quits.

They said they'd call me if Israel resurfaces.

Reach Phil Reisman at preisman@lohud.com or 914-694-5008. See more stuff at lohud.com/reisman.

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Anyone with information regarding this tragic event may contact New York State Police Investigator, Matt Manza, at NYSP Cortlandt, 914 737 7171.

In the last decade, 9 people have leaped to their deaths off the Bear Mountain Bridge and 27 have ended their lives by plunging into the waters below the Tappan Zee Bridge.

Launch 5 on the Hudson River near the Bear Mountain Bridge

For more information about Launch 5 go to www.launch5.com or www.ratlines.com

www.ratlines.com Revised: 08/19/08

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