Fred Herko sprong naakt uit het raam van een vijfde verdieping, Mozart op volle sterkte (Sanctus, Krönungsmesse), in Greenwich Village, New York (1964).

Defenestration is the act of throwing someone or something, out of the window, or the condition of being thrown. Although defenestrations can be fatal depending on the height of the window through which a person is thrown or throws oneself or due to lacerations from broken glass, the act of defenestration need not carry the intent of, or result in, death.

Self-defenestration (autodefenestration) is the act of jumping, propelling oneself, or causing oneself to fall, out of a window. In December 1840, Abraham Lincoln and 4 other Illinois legislators jumped out of a window in a political maneuver designed to prevent a quorum on a vote that would have eliminated the Illinois State Bank.

Herko himself left no diaries or letters.