On July 26, 1911, Geidel – 17 years old at the time – robbed and murdered elderly 73-year-old William H. Jackson, a wealthy broker. Jackson was a guest at the Iroquois Hotel on West 44th Street in New York City where Geidel was working as a bellhop. Geidel entered Jackson's room, and suffocated him to death with a rag filled with chloroform.