The former manager of Ramones, Linda Stein, was found dead at her New York apartment on Tuesday night. Although the authorities initially said they thought her death had been an accident, yesterday afternoon NYC's Medical Examiner announced Stein had been killed by blunt force trauma to the back of her head and neck, and police announced they were launching a homicide investigation. On that investigation, they revealed there was no obvious murder weapon at the scene, nor any sign of forced entry.
Born in New York, Stein began her working life as a teacher, but moved into the music business after meeting her later husband Seymour Stein, co-founder of the legendary Sire Records. During their marriage, Linda worked with her husband while the label helped launch the careers of the likes of Ramones, The Dead Boys and Talking Heads.
After the couple divorced, Linda started to work on music projects independently from Seymour, moving into artist management and managing one of Sire's biggest bands, Ramones, among others. Later she left the music business and started working in real estate, though given her contacts in the music and entertainment industries became known as the estate agent to the stars, helping the likes of Madonna, Billy Joel, Sting and Steven Spielberg find properties.