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Suicide note
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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| Parasuicide | Self-harm |
| Suicidal ideation | Suicide note |
A suicide note is a message left by someone who later attempts or commits suicide. It is estimated that 12-20% of suicide victims leave a note[1]. However, incidence rates may depend on race, method of suicide, and cultural differences and may reach rates as high as 50% in certain demographics.[2][3]
Contents |
According to Dr. Lenora Olson, the most common reasons that people contemplating suicide choose to write a suicide note include:
- To ease the pain of survivors by attempting to dissipate guilt
- To increase the pain of survivors by attempting to create guilt
- To set out the reason for suicide
- To gain sympathy or attention
- To give instructions as to disposition of remains
Rarely, those who have committed a crime or other offence will confess their acts in a note.
The most common reasons people contemplating suicide fail to write a note are:
- They are functionally or completely illiterate, or uncomfortable with written language.
- They have nothing to say or nobody to say it to - common with respect to the elderly or those without surviving loved ones.
- They feel they cannot express what they wish to say.
- Their choice to commit suicide was impulsive, or at least hasty enough that there was no time for a suicide note.
- They hope the suicide will be written off as an accident or homicide (common in those who wish to be buried in consecrated ground or who hope their families will be able to collect on insurance, for instance).
- They simply do not wish to write about their choice.
The following people have left famous suicide notes:
- Getulio Vargas - lawyer, politician and Brazilian president (1930-1945; 1950-1954) who used his suicide and specially his suicidal note (the "Carta Testamento") as a political weapon against his enemies.
- Lisandro de la Torre - Argentinian lawyer, politician and senator, who fought against Government's corrupt officers during the "Década Infame" (Infamous Decade), i.d., the 30's, and finally, left alone by his allies and with his struggle sank into oblivion, committed suicide, leaving a note describing the utterly desperated situation he was going through.
- Leandro Alem - Argentinian lawyer, politician and senator who took his own life in 1896 after being betrayed by his fellow Radical-party members, who gave themselves to the fraudulent regime then in power in the country, at least according to his view, leaving a note denouncing them and his own nephew and heir in the leadership of his party, the future president Hipólito Yrigoyen.
- Eduardo Chibás, Cuban politician and radio celebrity, killed himself during the broadcast of his programme making his speech during it a kind of oral suicidal note, to protest for the wide-spread corruption of the reigning regime.
- Roger Angleton - Murderer and brother of famous bookmaker Robert Angleton.
- J. Clifford Baxter - Enron Corporation executive.
- Leslie Cheung - Hong Kong actor and musician who suffered from clinical depression.
- Kurt Cobain - lead singer of Nirvana. The note gives a message to his widow, Courtney Love and his daughter.
- Ida Craddock - Facing prison in 1902 for sending through the U.S. Mail sexually explicit marriage manuals she had authored, Craddock penned a lengthy public suicide note to her readers condemning Anthony Comstock, sponsor of the Comstock Act under which she was convicted.
- Dalida - popular French singer. She wrote: "Life has become unbearable ... forgive me".
- "Dead" - Lead singer of the black metal group Mayhem, whose suicide note famously read, in part: "Excuse all the blood."
- Budd Dwyer - Pennsylvania politician who, on live television, read his suicide note and then shot himself.
- George Eastman, inventor of the 35 mm film and founder of Eastman Kodak. His note simply read: "My work is done. Why wait?"
- Mike Von Erich - Wrestler who committed suicide after thinking that he was not as good as before after a shoulder injury. His brothers Kerry and Chris also committed suicide.
- James Forrestal - Former United States Secretary of Defense and Secretary of the Navy.
- Pete Ham - Leader of the rock group Badfinger. Ham's note blamed the group's manager for his financial ruin, calling him "...a soulless bastard. I will take him with me."
- Tony Hancock - British comedian, who died in 1968. Suicide note included the line "Things just went wrong too many times".
- Phaedra - Character from Greek mythology who fell in love with Hippolytus.
- Freddie Prinze - American actor and comedian, famous for his role on the sitcom "Chico and the Man." Is the father of Freddie Prinze Jr.
- George Sanders - British film actor who ascribed his suicide to boredom.
- Elliott Smith - Singer / Songwriter who suffered from addiction and depression. The note, according to the coroner, read "I'm so sorry - love Elliot. God forgive me". The misspelling of the name is believed to be the fault of the coroner, but it's still unclear whether it was a suicide or not.
- Hunter S. Thompson - creator of gonzo journalism who also ascribed his suicide to boredom and a dissatisfaction with aging.
- Sid Vicious - British punk frontman and musician, who some believe committed suicide (via heroin overdose) after allegedly murdering girlfriend Nancy Spungen. A poem written by Vicious, which may or may not be a suicide note, contains the infamous phrase "And I don't want to live this life" that has inspired many musical compositions.
- Virginia Woolf - English feminist author and poet.
- ^ AIM Report: Critiquing Berman's Report on Foster. Accuracy in Media (2001-06-01).
- ^ The significance of suicide notes in the elderly (2002-05-01).
- ^ Incidence of note-leaving remains constant despite increasing suicide rates. Psychiatry and Clinical Neurosciences (2005-04-01).
- Mark Etkind: ...Or Not to Be: A Collection of Suicide Notes, Riverhead Trade, ISBN 1-573225-80-0
- Lenora M. Olson, The use of suicide notes as an aid for understanding motive in completed suicides, Proquest/UMI, ISBN 0-542162-85-7
- Famous suicide notes - dying words of famous people
- Suicide note
- Sam Paul: Why I Committed Suicide, iUniverse, Inc., ISBN 0-595326-95-1