Martin Antonenko
A Fixture
- Joined
- Jul 11, 2008
- Messages
- 9,001
The "Piano Man"...
On April 7, 2005, morning walkers along 'Leysdown' beach...
...the seaside town of Sheerness in south-east England...
...a strange stranger:
The man is in the surf...
...wears a dripping wet black suit, a white shirt and looks clearly confused. He doesn't speak, no matter what language he is spoken to.
The police are called, a doctor examines the man and decides that he should first be taken to the psychiatric ward at Dartford Hospital...:
When they hand him paper and pencil there, hoping that he might write his name, he draws a piano on it...:
The stranger is then led to a piano and he immediately starts playing it - for hours!
Since the mute piano player cannot be identified, investigators are contacting several European orchestras to find out if he is missing there.
To do this, they dress him in the clothes he was found in...:
The case attracts large international attention...
A missing persons hotline in England receives more than 1,000 references to the man's supposed identity:
Some want to see in the unknown a striking resemblance to a Czech pianist.
A woman insists on Danish television that it is her Algerian husband. Others are sure it is an Italian!
Still others believe that the blond man is Scandinavian because he points to Oslo in Norway on a map and draws the Swedish flag on a piece of paper.
Norwegian students then claim to recognize the man as an exchange student from Ireland.
He's even suspected of being a California serial killer after the US police and FBI are on the hunt!
However: All traces are in vain!
Half a year later, in August 2005, the "piano man" will break his silence!
He says his name is Andreas Grassl, he was born in Bavaria on October 25, 1984 and attempted suicide in the sea.
And he talks about his family, their farm and his two sisters.
How and in what way he came to the beach of Sheerness remains unclear - to this day.
One thing is clear: the "piano man" obviously has a severe psychosis, which - as the doctors reconstructed - is said to have happened as a result of losing his job as a musician in Paris.
Andreas Grassl is still in the psychiatric ward to this day...
On April 7, 2005, morning walkers along 'Leysdown' beach...
...the seaside town of Sheerness in south-east England...
...a strange stranger:
The man is in the surf...
...wears a dripping wet black suit, a white shirt and looks clearly confused. He doesn't speak, no matter what language he is spoken to.
The police are called, a doctor examines the man and decides that he should first be taken to the psychiatric ward at Dartford Hospital...:
When they hand him paper and pencil there, hoping that he might write his name, he draws a piano on it...:
The stranger is then led to a piano and he immediately starts playing it - for hours!
Since the mute piano player cannot be identified, investigators are contacting several European orchestras to find out if he is missing there.
To do this, they dress him in the clothes he was found in...:
The case attracts large international attention...
A missing persons hotline in England receives more than 1,000 references to the man's supposed identity:
Some want to see in the unknown a striking resemblance to a Czech pianist.
A woman insists on Danish television that it is her Algerian husband. Others are sure it is an Italian!
Still others believe that the blond man is Scandinavian because he points to Oslo in Norway on a map and draws the Swedish flag on a piece of paper.
Norwegian students then claim to recognize the man as an exchange student from Ireland.
He's even suspected of being a California serial killer after the US police and FBI are on the hunt!
However: All traces are in vain!
Half a year later, in August 2005, the "piano man" will break his silence!
He says his name is Andreas Grassl, he was born in Bavaria on October 25, 1984 and attempted suicide in the sea.
And he talks about his family, their farm and his two sisters.
How and in what way he came to the beach of Sheerness remains unclear - to this day.
One thing is clear: the "piano man" obviously has a severe psychosis, which - as the doctors reconstructed - is said to have happened as a result of losing his job as a musician in Paris.
Andreas Grassl is still in the psychiatric ward to this day...
