An elderly resident at an upscale Manhattan hotel for women that once housed notable tenants including Grace Kelly and Liza Minelli was strangled to death in her luxury suite \u2014 and her chilling demise remains unsolved 50 years later.<\/p>\n
When Ruth Harding\u2019s body was found on Aug. 15, 1975, the iconic Barbizon Hotel at 63rd Street and Lexington Avenue \u2014 a gilded refuge for ambitious unmarried women chasing big-city dreams, celebrated authors and Hollywood\u2019s elite that opened in 1927 \u2014 had lost its charm and glitz.<\/p>\n
\u201cI wouldn\u2019t say it was a lavish hotel by then, that\u2019s for sure,\u201d historian Paulina Bren, who authored \u201cThe Barbizon: The Hotel That Set Women Free\u201d in 2021<\/a>, told The Post.<\/p>\n The Barbizon Hotel, including its lobby, a typical bedroom, swimming pool and main dining room, in its heyday as a womens\u2019 residence. ZUMAPRESS.com<\/p>\n \u201cReally, the heyday of the Barbizon was the \u201940s and \u201950s. In the \u201960s, it already started to somewhat deteriorate, and by the \u201970s, much like New York itself, it was very much sort of rundown of its grandeur.\u201d<\/p>\n The 23-story hotel \u2014 boasting 700 guest rooms \u2014 had fallen into disrepair, with a gaping hole in the lobby ceiling, grim rumors of women plunging from the roof and Harding, a reclusive and lonely resident, becoming its only recorded murder victim.<\/p>\n However, her vicious slaying has remained cold \u2014 and largely forgotten by city authorities and prosecutors \u2014 since she was found on the bathroom floor of her posh 11th-floor room with abrasions on her throat.\u00a0<\/p>\n While the NYPD did not answer multiple requests for comment \u2014 only asking why The Post was writing about Harding\u2019s case \u2014 police in 1975 said they had \u201cno clues\u201d after her murder.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThere were abrasions on her throat, but we have nothing else, no next of kin, no clues,\u201d Detective Sgt. James Stewart told the New York Times after her body was discovered.\u00a0<\/p>\n The extent of the investigation remains unclear, including whether there was ever a suspect \u2014 or if the case had been revisited over the years with advancements in DNA forensics.\u00a0<\/p>\n Law enforcement sources \u2014 including former officers and members of the city\u2019s Cold Case Squad at the time of Harding\u2019s murder \u2014 told The Post they had no memory of her case and didn\u2019t know of anyone who worked on it.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cIt is never too late to pursue justice for New Yorkers, and our Cold Case Unit welcomes information from the public about this tragic matter, and any other unsolved homicide,\u201d the Manhattan District Attorney\u2019s Office said Thursday<\/p>\n \u2018A place for young women\u2019<\/p>\n