Golden Krust founder Lowell Hawthorne killed himself in the company’s Bronx factory Saturday afternoon.
Court records show that one of Hawthorne’s former employees filed a lawsuit against him for withholding his overtime pay. The 57-year-old also owed $165,000 in city and state taxes. Video shows Hawthorne shooting himself in the head. Before killing himself, employees say he had been talking to himself and behaving in an abnormal manner.
Hawthorne opened his first Golden Krust, renowned for its signature beef patties, in the Bronx in 1989.
He reportedly left a suicide note, which has yet to be publicized.
