The Oscar-winning "You Light Up My Life" composer, who was awaiting trial for rape while his son faced a murder rap, killed himself Sunday in his upper East Side apartment.
Joseph Brooks, 73, was found dead with a plastic dry-cleaning bag over his head near a hose attached to a tank of helium gas.
Cops said his lunch date found his body slumped over a couch just after noon in his unlocked apartment at 130 E. 63rd St.
Ten days ago, a former friend filed suit to seize the 15th-floor co-op to pay off a $3.2 million debt.
"He was facing serious charges and had nothing to live for. I'd have done the same thing," said neighbor Jack Stone, a 51-year-old artist.
In a rambling, three-page suicide note, Brooks said he would be exonerated of rape but complained about his failing health and a woman who had abused him and taken his money, a law enforcement source said.
In 2009, he sued 22-year-old ex-fiancéeJoaly Gomez, claiming he spent $2 million on her before learning she was already married.
Brooks, who was out on $1.5 million bail, stood to lose his longtime home to formerMorgan Stanley honcho Frederick Whittemore, who said Brooks put up his apartment as collateral for a $2.4 million loan in 2006. In a May10 lawsuit, he threatened to take the apartment.
Brooks had lived there for many years. The apartment was where he lured a string of young actresses with promises of movie roles - and then jumped them, prosecutors said in 2009.
He was awaiting trial on 82 counts of sex crimes.
Neighbors said that until recently they saw a steady stream of call girls at the elderly Brooks' flat. "I'd see beautiful women leaving his apartment and say, 'I'm better looking than him!'" Stone said.
Other neighbors noted that Brooks, who had a stroke in 2008, had begun to look very gaunt.
"He looked very ill. He looked like a depressed man, like a dying man," said Elizabeth Zoch, 75, a psychoanalyst. "Truly, he looked like a dying man."
Jennie Lee, 28, who works at a deli on 62nd St., was among the last to see Brooks alive. He bought orange juice around 11 a.m. and asked for help opening the carton.
"He normally buys papers, but [Sunday] he just bought orange juice. I thought that was unusual," she said.
Brooks' case ends with his suicide. "Hopefully for the women, it's a close for them," Zoch said.
His son's murder trial is unaffected. Nicholas Brooks, 25, is awaiting trial for allegedly strangling his girlfriend, swimsuit designer Sylvie Cachay, at the posh Soho House club last year.
Susan Karten, lawyer for the Cachay family, called it all a "terrible, terrible tragedy."
She said Cachay's family would not oppose the son being let out of Rikers to attend his father's funeral. "Even though he comes from a messed-up family, it's still his biological father," she said.
Brooks' 1977 ballad "You Light Up My Life" was the biggest hit of the 1970s. He never again saw such success.
Evelyn, a neighbor who would not give her last name, said it was hard to square the sweet song with its author. "When you think of the fact that he wrote this beautiful song, it's just tragic. Here's the end of a tragic life," she said.
Joseph Brooks, 73, was found dead with a plastic dry-cleaning bag over his head near a hose attached to a tank of helium gas.
Cops said his lunch date found his body slumped over a couch just after noon in his unlocked apartment at 130 E. 63rd St.
Ten days ago, a former friend filed suit to seize the 15th-floor co-op to pay off a $3.2 million debt.
"He was facing serious charges and had nothing to live for. I'd have done the same thing," said neighbor Jack Stone, a 51-year-old artist.
In a rambling, three-page suicide note, Brooks said he would be exonerated of rape but complained about his failing health and a woman who had abused him and taken his money, a law enforcement source said.
In 2009, he sued 22-year-old ex-fiancéeJoaly Gomez, claiming he spent $2 million on her before learning she was already married.
Brooks, who was out on $1.5 million bail, stood to lose his longtime home to formerMorgan Stanley honcho Frederick Whittemore, who said Brooks put up his apartment as collateral for a $2.4 million loan in 2006. In a May10 lawsuit, he threatened to take the apartment.
Brooks had lived there for many years. The apartment was where he lured a string of young actresses with promises of movie roles - and then jumped them, prosecutors said in 2009.
He was awaiting trial on 82 counts of sex crimes.
Neighbors said that until recently they saw a steady stream of call girls at the elderly Brooks' flat. "I'd see beautiful women leaving his apartment and say, 'I'm better looking than him!'" Stone said.
Other neighbors noted that Brooks, who had a stroke in 2008, had begun to look very gaunt.
"He looked very ill. He looked like a depressed man, like a dying man," said Elizabeth Zoch, 75, a psychoanalyst. "Truly, he looked like a dying man."
Jennie Lee, 28, who works at a deli on 62nd St., was among the last to see Brooks alive. He bought orange juice around 11 a.m. and asked for help opening the carton.
Brooks' case ends with his suicide. "Hopefully for the women, it's a close for them," Zoch said.
His son's murder trial is unaffected. Nicholas Brooks, 25, is awaiting trial for allegedly strangling his girlfriend, swimsuit designer Sylvie Cachay, at the posh Soho House club last year.
Susan Karten, lawyer for the Cachay family, called it all a "terrible, terrible tragedy."
She said Cachay's family would not oppose the son being let out of Rikers to attend his father's funeral. "Even though he comes from a messed-up family, it's still his biological father," she said.
Brooks' 1977 ballad "You Light Up My Life" was the biggest hit of the 1970s. He never again saw such success.
Evelyn, a neighbor who would not give her last name, said it was hard to square the sweet song with its author. "When you think of the fact that he wrote this beautiful song, it's just tragic. Here's the end of a tragic life," she said.
