Linda S. Stein

Linda Stein (April 24, 1945 – October 30, 2007) was an American rock music manager and real estate broker.

She began her career as a teacher, but left teaching to manage the Ramones with Danny Fields. She also managed singer/songwriter Steve Forbert.

She wasmarried to and advised Seymour Stein, president of Sire Records and vice president of Warner Bros. Records, who was instrumental in launching the careers of Madonna, The Ramones, Talking Heads and The Pretenders. She was a fixture in clubs from Studio 54 to the Mudd Club and later a reliable voice in gossip columns, aided by her quick wit and fanciful way with a four-letter word.

In the 1990s, Stein left band management and became a "real estate agent to the stars". She landed mega-million-dollar apartments for Madonna, Sting, Angelina Jolie, Billy Joel, Christie Brinkley, Bruce Willis, Jann Wenner, Michael Douglas, Steven Spielberg and Elton John.

According to her friend, author Steven Gaines, Stein reportedly inspired two movie characters: the real estate agent (played by Sylvia Miles) who sells a high-rise apartment to Charlie Sheen's character in Oliver Stone's Wall Street, and a predatory record executive in the 1998 movie 54.

On October 30, 2007, Stein was found dead in her apartment in Manhattan. The county coroner ruled Stein's death a homicide and attributed the cause to "blunt impact trauma to the head and neck". At the time of her death Stein had been battling a brain tumor.

Arrest, confession and conviction of assailant

On November 9, 2007, Stein's former personal assistant, Natavia Lowery, was arrested. According to reports, the assistant killed her boss because Stein "just kept yelling at her." She also claimed that Stein had blown marijuana smoke into her face and made a racial slur, but an autopsy determined that there was no marijuana in Stein's system. While in police custody for questioning, police say Lowery waived her Miranda rights. She recounted her version of the events in a videotaped confession. At a December 13, 2007 court hearing, however, the Lowery family disrupted the proceedings to loudly accuse Stein's daughter Mandy of killing her mother, and afterward Lowery's mother approached Mandy Stein, saying "You know you did it." On May 3, 2010, Lowery was sentenced to the maximum 25 years to life for murdering Stein, including 3 years for the theft of $30,000 from her.

The New York County Surrogate's Court determined that Stein died intestate. Accordingly, under New York State law her next of kin, her two daughters, inherited her estate. On December 18, 2007 they filed a petition with the court asking for control of Stein's estate. It was accepted the same day. Stein's daughters indicated they were considering suing her employer, real-estate brokerage Prudential Douglas Elliman, as well as the temporary agency that employed the killer, and the killer herself.

Singer Elton John said that he would perform in a cancer research fundraiser in Stein's honor.

On April 24, 2009, which would have been Linda Stein's 64th birthday, Mandy Stein's film Burning Down the House: The Rise and Fall of CBGB - dedicated to her mother - premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival.