AN evening of revelry was beginning across Hong Kong when Howard Baron went to a friend's nondescript office in Star House, Tsim Sha Tsui, for the last time.
It was Sunday, New Year's Eve, 1972. The clatter of mahjong tiles vied with the cheerful din from neon-lit bars like Bottoms Up in Tsim Sha Tsui where the American businessman's girlfriend, topless hostess Liz Pau, worked.
Baron, 59, a hotel consultant who had connections with Hollywood and Hong Kong business leaders and was well known in film and theatre circles, entered Room 1603, the sparsely-furnished office rented by his friend, Tokyo-based film producer Steve Parker, husband of American actress Shirley MacLaine.
By the time police arrived at the office shortly after 9 pm, Baron's body was almost cold. He had been shot at point-blank range through the heart with a .38 bullet.
A chair was overturned, but there were no other signs of a struggle, according to evidence at the inquest into his death in February 1973. There were no known witnesses. No firm suspects. No weapon was found. No known motive. No strong leads, it seemed, for the head of the homicide squad, Superintendent Ernest 'Taffy' Hunt.
In the weeks, months and years since his death, Baron's killing has been linked to a bodyguard and hitman working for the disgraced Philippines president Ferdinand Marcos, to a plot by disgruntled CIA operatives, to a failed scam selling Philippines pesos and to other similarly sensational theories. His relationship with Ms Pau, which conjured up images of a Suzie Wong-type affair, his showbusiness contacts, the lifestyle he led from his suite and office in the plush Peninsula Court, annex of the Peninsula Hotel, and his constant travel while wheeling and dealing in politically-troubled Asian countries, made good copy for the South China Morning Post that New Year.