"The Worst Hard Time" page 95: "When the Bank of the United States folded, it had deposits of two hundred million dollars. Fittingly, the bank's biggest office was next to Union Cigar, the company whose president had committed suicide after the stock fell from $103 to $4 in a day."
This episode with the president of Union Cigar was mentioned back on page 74, however the top price was quoted as $113. That mention said he "jumped"...whereas this one deems it specifically a suicide. The Times article was less precise...giving room for falling off the ledge possibility.
Since the Times also says $113...I'm guessing that is the actual amount.
A book, Anxious Decades, refers to it...and says, "Reports of ruined investors committing suicide were greatly exaggerated, but when the stock of the Union Cigar Company fell almost 100 points in a day, its president eluded a waiter's grasp and leaped to his death from a ledge of Manhattan's Beverly Hotel."
According to the NY Times, Beverly was on E. 50th Street...not Wall Street, so not sure what Wall Street building that Egan referenced.
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