1993-1997 jumpers

09.08.95: jumper
Joseph Harold Landfried, 41, male, died

09.09.95, © St. Petersburg Times, Cabbie describes blind man's final ride
Joseph Harold Landfried always had a good story to tell. On Friday morning, he told one of his better ones.
Having called for a taxi, the 41-year-old persuaded the driver to take him to the top of the Sunshine Skyway. He even paid him $20 toward the fare.
Along the way, Landfried said he was a former Pittsburgh police officer who spent the last 18 years as a blind man after a bullet struck his teargas canister. All he really wanted now was a chance to hear the water, to feel the gulf breeze.
"It didn't seem like an unreasonable request for a blind man," said Gary Robinson, the driver for Clearwater Yellow Cab. "I let him talk me into it."
Within moments of Landfried stepping outside the taxi near the highest part of the Skyway, Robinson said he looked over his right shoulder to see him "topple" over the side railing.
The Coast Guard later found his body in the Gulf of Mexico about 4 miles west of the bridge. Whether he meant to commit suicide or whether he simply fell remains under investigation.
"This man has suffered his entire life," said his younger brother, Mark Landfried, of Ambridge, Pa. "If you only knew everything, you would be sitting here like me saying he's dead and he's in a better place."
At 13, relatives say, Landfried was blinded after a teargas canister exploded within inches of his face. Although the relatives would not discuss the accident, they did say Landfried never had been a police officer in Pittsburgh.
Instead, Landfried spent most of his adult life living here and there. He stayed awhile in Jacksonville, awhile in Daytona Beach. He had been in St. Petersburg maybe only a month. But he always rode in cabs.
About 3:45 a.m. Friday, Yellow Cab was called to the Playmates lounge on Central Avenue in St. Petersburg. Landfried was wearing sunglasses and talking to a dancer from the club when the taxi drove up.
Robinson, the driver, later told investigators that he was supposed to take his passenger to Treasure Island. But Landfried wanted to make a detour, to the Sunshine Skyway.
Knowing the fare would be close $60 by the time they reached Treasure Island, Robinson insisted on receiving part of the money up front. So Landfried gave him $20.
The two men talked during the drive. Landfried told him about being a former officer, about his plans for the future, about studying psychology in the past.
Robinson described the Skyway to his passenger - how the lights reflected from the center span, how the lightning strikes could be seen in the distance on such a clear night.
Robinson said he didn't want to stop the cab, but he agreed when Landfried insisted. When they reached the top of the Skyway, the meter showed a fare of $55.10.
Stopping on the bridge is against the law. "When I said get in," Robinson recalled, "he was supposed to hop back in the cab."
Landfried stepped out of the car, and there was just enough room between the cab and the concrete barrier for him. Landfried fell about 195 feet into the main channel of Tampa Bay, leaving a wooden stick where he had been standing.
In the back of the taxi, investigators also found a plastic garbage bag containing a bottle of medication, a single suit of clothes and identification cards.
For five hours Friday, 70-year-old Elizabeth Landfried waited at her home in New Smyrna Beach for investigators to determine whether it was indeed her son who had jumped. "The young man had a hard enough life," she said.
Mark, her other son, said Landfried never regained his sight, despite several operations. His pain was never relieved, either, so he took pills to help.
"As a family member, he was always positive and learned to accept his fate," Mark Landfried said.
He certainly loved to talk, but his brother was not surprised to hear about what Landfried had told the cabdriver on what would be his last ride. "Joe always had a zeal for sensationalizing."