Ten Little New Yorkers (17 page)

Special to
The New York Times

Two Die in Suicide Pact
by Jayson Blair

Larry “Kinky” Friedman, a rapper from Receda, California, and Winnie Katz, who ran a day-care center in Queens, died last night in a fall from the Triboro Bridge. Mr. Friedman, best known for his recent hit, “Ol' Bill Lucas Had a Lotta Mucus,” had been currently working on his autobiography with this writer. His friends remember him as a quiet, well-mannered, impeccably attired, pipe-smoking opera buff. Though Mr. Friedman's musical tastes included rap and opera, he was a man of many other pursuits, passions, and hobbies.

“He collected matchbooks from many restaurants,” said his close friend Dr. Stephen Rambam, of the Midtown Ophthalmology Clinic. “He never missed a Yankee game,” said Larry “Ratso” Sloman, a large, somewhat inebriated Irishman, “or was it the Mets?” “I'm sure he's now wandering in the raw poetry of time,” said Mike McGovern, a priest at Our Lady of the Tire Iron.

Ms. Katz apparently met Mr. Friedman through an Internet chat room for Jewish singles. Their relationship, according to Chinga “Chonga” Chavin, a ventriloquist friend of Ms. Katz's, was loving, but could be stormy at times. “That's because she was a Mets fan,” said Chavin. “Or was it the Yankees?” The autobiography upon which Mr. Friedman and I had been diligently working will now be published posthumously. The book contains stories about Mr. Friedman and his close friends, Willie Nelson and George W. Bush. Mr. Friedman had titled his book
My Willie, Your Bush.

Though divers have searched the river, the bodies of the two star-crossed lovers have not been found.

This brings to 12,984 the number of suicides this year in the city. Police Captain Buddy Cooperman believes it's mostly due to overcrowding. “There are, of course,” he says, “other factors.” Ms. Katz has no next of kin. Mr. Friedman's family could not be located in Receda, California. He leaves behind only a stray cat who apparently had wandered into his loft.