Frank Schneider was 62 and working as the assistant manager at the downtown Howard Johnson’s Motor Lodge in New Orleans on January 7, 1973. That day a gunman, later identified as 23-year-old Mark Essex, began a violent assault at the hotel. Responding to reports of a man with a gun, Schneider encountered the shooter on the 11th floor and was shot in the back of the head, killed instantly.

The hotel’s general manager, Walter Sherwood Collins, was also shot that day and later died of his wounds. Essex’s attack extended beyond the motel—he fired on guests and responding officers—and the siege ended when police, using a military helicopter, engaged him on the roof and he was killed by police gunfire. Frank Schneider was among the several people whose lives were taken in the rampage.

If anyone knew Frank Schneider or was at the Howard Johnson’s that day, can you share what you remember?