 Several suicides also darkened the reputation of the Ritz in the postwar years , including that of horse trainer Peter Beatty from the sixth floor window in October 1949 , and that of French gangster Baron Pierre de Laitre , who strangled love interest Eileen Hill to death in his second floor room in March 1953 when she refused to marry him , before killing himself by stuffing a silk sock down his throat . 
