U.S. Secret Service -- Letter 6/23/98

June 23, 1998
3801 Connecticut Avenue, NW
#136
Washington, DC 20008-4530

Phillip C. Leadroot, S.A.
U.S. Secret Service
Washington, DC 20036

Dear Mr. Leadroot:

This letter will alert the U.S. Secret Service to facts concerning additional persons who, I believe, may have information pertinent to my employment at the law firm of Akin, Gump, Strauss, Hauer & Feld.

In providing the names of the following individuals I note the possible significance of certain biographical facts concerning the father of Akin Gump's founding partner, Robert S. Strauss, Esq.

Robert Strauss's father, Charles Strauss, was a native of Germany who had emigrated to the United States to pursue a career as a concert pianist. He was unsuccessful in this career path in the world of classical music, and ended up the owner of a dry-goods business.

SIDNEY ROTHSTEIN (approx. year of birth, 1935)

Rothstein was an instrumental teacher at my high school, Central High School in Philadelphia. In my first two years of high school I played violin in the school orchestra, which Rothstein conducted. His own instrument was the viola.

Rothstein had shown unusual promise as a young musician. He was a student of the world-renowned conductor Pierre Monteux, and had been the winner of an international conducting competition. In the late 1960's he had been offered, but turned down, the post of conductor of the Dallas Symphony Orchestra, in Texas (coincidentally, Robert Strauss's home at the time).


ELEANOR BETZ ALTER (approx. year of birth, 1938)

Alter was the instrumental teacher at my junior high school in Philadelphia, Wagner Junior High School, which I attended from 1965-1967. Her parents were native Germans (Catholic), and she had lived in Germany and had studied violin there. She resided at Society Hill Towers in Philadelphia (a high-rise apartment complex that had been designed by the noted architect, I.M.Pei). She drove a Volkswagen.

She married another instrumental teacher employed by the Philadelphia Public Schools, Lawrence Alter, on Saturday April 2, 1966 at St. Joseph's Church in Society Hill, Philadelphia. He appeared to be a number of years older than her.

In 1967 a noted African-American composer (I can no longer recall his name) composed a piece of music specifically for our school orchestra, which we performed under Alter. The piece was called the "General Louis Wagner Symphony;" General Louis Wagner had been a Civil War general for whom the school had been named, and was active in the emancipation of black slaves during the Civil War. Coincidentally, Akin Gump partner, Vernon E. Jordan, Jr., is a nationally-prominent civil rights leader.

DAVID FREUND

Freund was an acquaintance of mine in junior high school. He played clarinet in the school orchestra, and was in my home room class in the 7th and 8th grades.

He had attended the Elwood Elementary School in East Oak Lane, a neighborhood in Philadelphia. His mother's name was Florence, and I believe she was a teacher. He attended my high school (Central High School), but he appears to have transferred out in the 10th grade.

He claimed that he "did" Dena Brownstein (that is, "did" in the biblical sense). Brownstein and Freund had attended the same elementary school. In very early childhood, Brownstein had lived on Smedley Street in Philadelphia, just across from my home on 17th Street; we knew each other from very early childhood, but her family apparently later moved to East Oak Lane.

ALINA RUBENSTEIN, M.D.

Rubenstein is a psychiatrist who practices in New York City. She is the daughter of the world-renowned pianist, Arthur Rubenstein. She is a graduate of the Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons in New York (which, coincidentally, is the medical school alma mater of my prior treating psychiatrist, Stanley R. Palombo, M.D.).

I have never had any personal contact with Rubenstein. However, in a letter that I sent to my sister in the year 1992, I mentioned that Arthur Rubenstein had a daughter, Alina, who was a practicing psychiatrist in New York.

Sincerely,

Gary Freedman