Posted on 07/16/2006 3:13:35 PM PDT by raccoonradio
NEW YORK - The doctor suspected of blowing up his town house rather than allowing his ex-wife to benefit from its sale has died, nearly a week after suffering critical injuries in the blast, a hospital spokeswoman said Sunday.
Dr. Nicholas Bartha, 66, died late Saturday, said Mary Halston, an administrator at New York Presbyterian Hospital.
Police had been unable to speak to Bartha about the July 10 explosion because he was in a medically induced coma. Authorities have said they were investigating whether he might have caused it rather than sell the town house as part of a divorce judgment favoring his ex-wife.
Bartha's ex-wife, Cordula Bartha, told police she received an e-mail from him shortly before the explosion warning that she would be "transformed from gold digger to ash and rubbish digger."
"I always told you I will leave the house only if I am dead," the e-mail said.
Investigators have confirmed that someone tampered with a gas line leading into the home's basement, allowing vapors to flow for hours until it caused the building to blow up.
The physician, who lived and worked in the four-story landmark on Manhattan's upscale Upper East Side, was the lone occupant during the blast. It leveled the building and left the block covered in bricks, broken glass and splintered wood. At least 14 other people were injured, including 10 firefighters, authorities said.
Rescuers pulled the doctor from the rubble after hearing his calls.
The town house and land were worth nearly $6.4 million, according to the city's finance department. The property was to be sold at auction in October to pay a $4 million judgment against Bartha, though his ex-wife had predicted he wouldn't leave without a fight.
"He has said many times that he intends to 'die in my house,'" Cordula Bartha said in a petition filed last year.
The doctor was responsible for other implied threats against his ex-wife, according to court records.
A 2005 appellate court opinion said the doctor had "intentionally traumatized" Cordula Bartha, a Jew who was born in Nazi-occupied Holland, by posting "swastika-adorned articles and notes" around their home. The opinion also said Bartha had "ignored her need for support and assistance while she was undergoing surgery and treatment for breast cancer."
Cordula Bartha declined to comment on her ex-husband's death, said her attorney Polly Passonneau.
The man's next-door neighbors had sued him Friday, claiming the explosion damaged their cooperative apartment and forced them to leave it. A lawyer for the neighbors said Sunday that the lawsuit would proceed against Bartha's estate.
The lawsuit also names the Consolidated Edison utility as a defendant, accusing it of failing to have proper safety devices.
Con Ed has said it does not comment on pending litigation.
People should get long jail terms for pulling stuff like this. The lawyer should get 3x what the people get.
Please do not put me on your non-ping list.
You are not added.
Depends on the policy. Mine covered suicide after two years. Pass the pills please.......
If a portion of what he alleged about that hospital in New York is true, I hope I am never a patient there.
RIP Dr Bartha.
What an evil thing to wish. How do you know she was the guilty party in this whole disaster? Every bit of evidence points to this man being a vengeful, emotionally unbalanced person. His long disquisition on the subject is not the statement of a mentally stable individual. I am the first to admit that there are rotten ex-wives, but in this case it is wrong to jump to the conclusion that she is at fault when he is so demonstrably a psycho.
bttt
So, in the end, in the afterlife, he will get NOTHING!
You're probably correct. There's a new WRONGFUL DEATH lawsuit, against him, brought by the son of one of his ex-patiants, whom it is claimed he killed with an overdose of meds.
He was ALWAYS nuts and she was NOT "greedy" nor the one who was the "bad" one. You should see what his own divorce lawyer had to say about him...he thought that the guy was NUTS! This would have been a simple divorce, but the crazy Transylvanian doctor was the one causing ALL of the problems! Heck, the dead doctor wouldn't even discuss or listen to his own lawyer. Many times, he wouldn't even show up for meetings with him and when he did, all he would do is scream about how Hillary was a monster and some weird conspiracy theories. When I read that, I wondered what his nic was here!
The man and his family had suffered under the Nazis, yet he tormented his wife ( who is Jewish ), with swastikas all over the house, telling her that Hitler had it right, and the like.
Don't believe ANYTHING that nutcase wrote!
I read half of it. The guy sounded as if he were Freeper material.
The N.Y. Post and local news. :-)
Yup. But he had the libs down pat!
They have money.
When one of his patients said that when he came for an office visit, the doctor had to be gotten out of his apartment, where he spent all of his time on the computer, reading about politics. Then, he would quickly do a very cursory exam and keep the guy and extra 40 minutes, so that he could complain about Hillary and LIBERALS in general. When I read all that, I wondered what his nic here was, or if he was on some other site.
Still, he really WAS a lunatic!
Probably because of his experience in Europe. He couldn't be fooled.
Still, he really WAS a lunatic!
After reading about his wife, I wasn't surprised.
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