What A Way To Go

Suicide

 

Leslie Cheung Kwok-wing, 46, the pop singer and actor famous for playing a gay opera singer who commits suicide in the oscar-nominated film Farewell My Concubine, died after leaping from the 24th floor of the Mandarin Oriental Hotel in Hong Kong on 31 March. A note on his body said he was plagued by "emotional problems". Melbourne Age, 03 April 2003

 

The Body of Robert Dean Eaton, 60, was found naked and chained to a large oak tree on a rural game trail off Coyote Lane, near Happy Valley, California, on 23 March. He had been missing since 25 January. A police spokesman said Eaton had a history of mental illness and has chained himself to trees before. Foul play was not suspected. Redding (CA) Record Searchlight - 24 March 2002.

 

A Buddhist monk and two nuns died on 29 September 2002 when they filled bath tubs with 60 litres (13 gallons) of petrol, sat in them and set them alight at the wat thmar sar pagoda in Cambodia's eastern province of Prey Veng. They left suicide notes expressing their belief that ritual suicide was the only way to achieve true nirvana. Three other monks who tried to commit suicide by stabbing themselves in the chest were saved by nearby residents. The mother - herself a nun - of the one monk who died was seen kneeling down and worshipping in front of her blazing son, saying "god bless you". Provincial authorities were seeking to arrest a senior monk who led the group in its suicide bid, but failed to go through with the act himself and fled the temple. Reuters, 1 Oct 2002.

 

Jenny Grahn, 30, principal soprano at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, was found hanged at her home in Hornsey, north London, on 25 May. The evening before, she had performed in Tchaikovsky's Queen of Spades, in which a compulsive gambler loses everything and then shoots himself. The reasons for the apparent suicide of the Swedish singer, who was born in Velhelmina near the Arctic Circle in 1970. were not known. Evening Standard - 1 June; Sunday Times - 3 June

 

While cleaning animal pens at his family home in Romania, Florin Pirliceanu misplaced his Nokia 3310 cell phone. He hanged himself after leaving a suicide note that read "I have lost my phone so I have no alternative but to take my own life." This Week - 6 July 2001.

 

A driver decapitated himself by tying a long rope from his neck to a lamp-post and accelerating away. A passer-by found his head on the pavement in the Lancashire Hill area of Stockport, Greater Manchester, on 10 October.

Police found the headless torso at the wheel of a Citroen Saxo which had crashed through a fence a short distance away. At the time of the report, the man had not been formally identified. The Sun - 11 October 2001.

 

The body of Amarsinh Mavji, 40, was found in a temple in Gadhula village in the Bhavnagar district of Rajkot. The police claimed he was a victim of 'Kamal puja,' in which a person's head is chopped off to appease the goddess. Members of the Vaghri community had allegedly gathered at the temple to seek forgiveness of sins committed during the past year. As part of the ritual, Amarsinh chopped off his own head with a sword. Exactly how he managed to do this is not explained. Times of India - 10 Mar 2000

 

A cheerful man killed himself so that he could avoid losing his feelings of happiness. Syrian police said Najib Saddi, 35, the boss of a fish firm, left a suicide note saying he was "perfectly happy" but was afraid of "future unhappiness". Daily Express - 29 April 2000

 

A Romanian man who wanted to kill himself had a heart attack before being able to hang himself from a rope he had tied to the ceiling. Iosif Capota wrote farewell notes, then locked himself in a Calimanesti hotel room. The rope was hanging nearby. Evening Standard - 13 September 2000.

 

Michael Sunday Ejume, 26, a native of Cameroon and an experienced skydiver, apparently shot himself to death as he parachuted from 14,000ft (4,267m) near Rome, Georgia, on 20 February. His body was found in woods with a gunshot wound to the chest. A receipt for a 9mm handgun, bought the day before the jump, was found in Ejume's appartment. The gun was not located: "From that altitude, it would probably go a foot deep in the ground," said Detective Danny Logan. Associated Press - 24 February 1999

 

Harry Cogram. 84, a veteran of the Normandy invasion, who lived in sheltered accommodation in Peckham, south London, hanged himself after his council threatened him with eviction over rent arrears of three-pence. The coroner, recording a verdict of suicide, added that Mr Cogram "did indeed give his all for us." Daily Telegraph - 25 February 1999

 

Andrew Blyth, a 12-year-old boy scout from Berkshire, hanged himself on 28 May with a rope he had been given to practise tying knots. After his pet mouse had died, he told a friend that his life was not worth living. Daily Telegraph - 18 June 1999

 

A middle-aged man in Sri Lanka comitted suicide after arranging his own funeral. A day before he shot himself, Piyasena Kumarpeli, 49, bought a coffin, a tent, 50 chairs and 96 bottles of cold drinks, said a police official A Sareth. Eastern Evening News - 28 July 1999

 

Three Japanese men in their fifties, all from the same company, hanged themselves in separate rooms in the same Tokyo hotel on 26 February. Each was wearing an identical white shirt when found hanging from identical white ropes. Reuters - 27 Feb 1998

 

Lift engineer James Raynor, 61, of Netherhall, Leicester, tied a noose to the top of an elevator shaft, stood on the lift roof and waited patiently in the dark for it to go down. He was killed when the lift was called to a lower floor. He was depressed after losing his licence for drink-driving. The Mirror - 12 March 1998