According to his former business partner, the former owner of the infamous Studio 54 nightclub in New York City committed suicide with medical assistance.
The Independent and BBC News were informed by Daniel Fitzgerald, who owned the Century Club alongside Mark Fleishchman, that the 82-year-old committed suicide at a clinic in Switzerland.
Since 2016, Fleishchman has been confined to a wheelchair due to an unidentified degenerative condition.
He previously admitted to spending $15,000 to book a first-class, one-way travel to Zurich, the location of the renowned Dignitas suicide clinic.
Fleischman has been suffering an ailment for the past two years that physicians have been unable to diagnose, but which he claims has left him unable to move without assistance. Once there, he will swallow a lethal dose of barbiturates to end his life.
‘I can’t walk, my speech is f**ked up and I can’t do anything for myself,’ Fleischman, told the Post. ‘My wife helps me get into bed and I can’t dress or put on my shoes. I am taking a gentle way out. It is the easiest way out for me.’
Fleischman ran Studio 54 when it was one of the biggest clubs on the planet, known for spending time with the likes of the Rolling Stones, Robin Williams, Rick James and John Belushi.
During that time, he remembers ample drug use, threesomes and boozing it up with the stars as part of what they called the ‘Dawn Patrol.’
Mark, who is a stepdad to wife Mimi’s two children from a prior relationship, says he’s been ill since 2016 when he felt his left leg start to drag at his home in California.
His wife of 27 years says that it’s worse than being paralyzed.
‘It is worse than not being able to walk. Mark doesn’t have balance. He drops things and does not know where his body is in space,’ Mimi Fleischman said. ‘Doctors originally thought he had a form of Parkinson’s. But it is not that. Nobody knows what he has.’
Mark Fleischman says he’s been considering taking his own life in this manner for the past two years.
‘I came to the decision slowly,’ he said. ‘Two years ago, I decided that it wasn’t worth living. I took a lot of Xanax and ended up in the hospital.’
He said that he settled on his choice shortly after that when he read a book about the process.
‘I read in there that the easiest way is to suffocate. But I did not want the pain. I was going to buy a gun. But my wife interceded. We started looking into a place where it would be legal to find someone to do it with.’
Mimi initially tried to stop him but has chosen to let him go the way of his choosing.
‘It’s going to be horrible,’ she said. ‘He is my partner and we are devoted to each other. So it is the end of a part of me as well. I have to honor what he wants. [But] he is not giving me a choice. He wants to end his life and this is a dignified way to do it.’
Mimi was able to locate Dignitas, a group that helps people with terminal illnesses end their lives since 1998. The nonprofit had conversations and a psychological test with Fleischman before he made the call.
‘They want to be certain that I am making the decision for myself,’ he said. ‘After reading my material, they asked me some questions to make sure I was serious. I had to provide a notarized affidavit, stating that I want to die. I had to go to a psychiatrist and he confirmed that I am of sound mind. I provided all that and they said they want me over there.’
For what he claims is roughly $15,000, Dignitas gives Fleischman the drug that would kill him before caring for the body, cremating it, and returning the ashes to his wife.
On July 8, five days prior to his anticipated passing, they will embark on a trip to Zurich where they may take in some of the city’s attractions with Mimi, who will be by his side when he passes away on July 13.
The world’s first super club, Studio 54, which is located in Manhattan’s Hell’s Kitchen, debuted in 1977 after being transformed into that form by co-founders Steve Rubbell and Ian Schrager from a former Broadway theatre.
It quickly became the hottest party location on the planet for A-list celebrities. One evening, Bianca Jagger famously rode a white horse into the club.
The stage act featured a crescent moon sniffing cocaine from a spoon, and open drug use and sex were commonplace.
When Drew Barrymore was nine years old, her mother took her to Studio 54, where she was encouraged to use drugs and dance with male superstars.
When Rubbell bragged in 1978 that “only the Mafia” had earned more money than the $7 million the club had made in its first year, IRS agents took notice.
Later, after admitting to evading taxes by $2.5 million, Rubbell and Schrager received a three-and-a-half-year sentence.
The two received a serenade from Liza Minelli and Diana Ross on what was widely thought to be Studio 54’s final night.
Ryan O’Neal, Farrah Fawcett, Richard Gere, Jack Nicholson, Sylvester Stallone, and Jocelyn Wildenstein were among the other celebrities there that night.
While Rubbell passed away from AIDS in 1989, Schrager received a presidential pardon from former President Barack Obama in January 2017.
Schrager purchased the club in 1981, but it had lost its lustre. The Saint, an even glitzier super club, debuted in New York City’s East Village the previous summer, largely taking Studio 54’s spotlight.
Those who frequented both establishments began dying from an awful unknown disease that was subsequently known as AIDS, and those who survived were frequently too afraid to continue living hedonistic lifestyles.
Studio 54 struggled on without its star sheen until 1986, while The Saint closed two years later, with both venues’ clienteles destroyed by the horrific new illness, which at the time meant an agonisingly horrible death.