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We wondered yesterday who'd be the third famous media figure to go this week — because these things always come in threes — and we're afraid this is it: Insane parking-garage magnate Abe Hirschfeld, who owned the New York Post for about two weeks in 1993, died yesterday.

A perennial also-ran political candidate, the founder of a short-lived afternoon newspaper, a failed Broadway producer, and the man who both offered Paula Jones $1 million to settle her sex-harassment suit against Bill Clinton and, later, went to jail for conspiring to have a business partner killed, Hirschfeld was best known for his brief Post tenure. That's when he bought the paper from bankruptcy, fired Pete Hamill as editor, was ordered by a judge to reinstate Hamill, and prompted the paper's outraged staff to devote virtually an entire issue to attacking the new owner.

He was 85, he was a New York character, and we can't imagine Jennings and Johnson are thrilled he's their third.

Abe Hirschfeld, a Millionaire and an Eccentric, Dies at 85 [NYT]
Earlier: If Media Stars Die in Threes, Our Money's on Andy Rooney