She was what we used to call a suicide blonde – dyed by her own hand. Saul Bellow
But if there be an hereafter,
And that there is, conscience, uninfluenc’d
And suffer’d to speak out, tells every man,
Then must it be an awful thing to die;
More horrid yet to die by one’s own hand. Robert Blair, The Grave
Our time is fixed, and all our days are number’d;
How long, how short, we know not: — this we know,
Duty requires we calmly wait the summons,
Nor dare to stir till Heaven shall give permission. ibid.
If suicide be supposed a crime, it is only cowardice can impel us to it. If it be no crime, both prudence and courage should engage us to rid ourselves at once of existence when it becomes a burden. It is the only way that we can then be useful to society, by setting an example which, if imitated, would preserve every one his chance for happiness in life, and would effectually free him from all danger or misery. David Hume, Essay on Suicide, 1755
In 1998 the CIA released a 400-page report that acknowledged the Agency associated with members of the Contra movement who engaged in drug trafficking. Consumed with the President Clinton/Monica Lewinsky scandal, the national media largely ignored the report. Gary Webb was never able to earn a living as a journalist again. In 2004, seven years to the day he resigned from the San Jose Mercury News, Webb was found dead in his apartment, shot twice in the head. His death was ruled a suicide. Kill the Messenger 2014 starring Jeremy Renner & Rosemarie DeWitt & Ray Liotta & Tim Blake Nelson & Barry Pepper & Oliver Platt & Michael Sheen & Paz Vega & Michael Kenneth Williams & Mary Elizabeth Winstead Andy Garcia & Josh Close et al, director Michael Cuesta, captions
He also saw that a very great number – in fact, the majority of the people – lived on the verge of want; and that a smaller and still very large number lived lives of semi-starvation from the cradle to the grave; while a yet smaller but still very great number actually died of hunger, or, maddened by privation, killed themselves and their children in order to put a period to their misery. Robert Tressell, The Raged Trousered Philanthropist
Surely it was wiser and better and kinder to send them all to sleep, than to let them continue to suffer. ibid.
He had been working like a slave all his life and there was nothing to show for it – there was never anything to show for it. He thought of the man who had killed his wife and children. The jury had returned the usual verdict, ‘Temporary Insanity’. It never occurred to these people that the truth was that to continue to suffer hopelessly like this was evidence of permanent insanity. ibid.
I can live no longer in a world rushing headlong to annihilation. Mark of the Phoenix 1957 starring Anton Diffring & Eric Pohlmann & George Margo & Michael Peake & Martin Miller & Bernard Rebel & Roger Delgado & Jennifer Jayne et al, director Maclean Roberts, doctor’s suicide note
The only opposition which the individual can make against the mischances of existence is to take his life. No other act can end the sea of troubles. No other act can improve the condition of the world or the condition of its victims. Philip Edwards, The Tragic Balance in Hamlet
Greece: a country on the brink of going bust. I want to find out why some have been driven to the point of suicide. Stacey Dooley Investigates: Coming Here Soon: Greece, W 2017
I can’t look if they jump. ibid.
The government says there are around three hundred deaths from overwork a year; some unions say the true figure runs into the thousands. Stacey Dooley Investigates: Coming Here Soon: Japan, W 2017
One night everything changed. I came home to find the man I loved, the father of our two boys, had taken his own life. Since that day I’ve been learning what it means to lose someone you love to suicide, and why it’s a very different kind of grief to any other. Life After Suicide, Angela Samata, BBC 2017
There’s around 6,000 suicides a year in the UK. ibid.
‘The grief is unbelievable.’ ibid. relative
One of the questions that haunts you after suicide is Why? ibid.
One of the biggest problems is how you explain what’s happened to your children. ibid.
Those courageous whistleblowers who stepped forward with key information exposing what’s really happening in the corridors of power soon end up dead in an apparent suicide. The Corbett Report, Requiem for the Suicided: Dr David Kelly, James Corbett online May 2017
‘The last week of Dr Kelly’s life saw him at the centre of press attention, caught in the middle of the row between the government and the BBC over the dossiers on Iraq’s weapons’. ibid. BBC online article
There’s also a discrepancy between the official narrative of the way and the manner in which he committed suicide and the details as we know them and as they’ve been testified to by various sources. ibid.
His daughter was due to get married in a couple of months. ibid.
‘Mystery of the helicopter that landed at scene of Dr Kelly’s death after his body was found’. ibid. Mail online article 14th May 2011
It was in 1988 that Webb came to join the San Jose Mercury News as a staff writer. The Corbett Report: Requiem for the Suicided: Garry Webb, James Corbett online
Gary’s investigation linked the CIA’s cocaine operation to the crack epidemic that was rampant in Los Angeles ghettos. ibid.
‘The cocaine that was being sold in those neighbourhoods was coming from mainly one source, and this one source was being used to finance a guerrilla war in Central America.’ ibid. Webb
Was Gary Webb Suicided To Kill New Book? … ‘I spoke to Gary and in the conversation he indicated he had a lot of evidence that did not appear in his writings. I cautioned him that the CIA might contrive to ‘suicide’ him, and he indicated that if he died it would not be suicide’. ibid. Rense online article Charlene Fassa April 2012
Original Associated Press reports stated that Webb had died of gunshot wounds (plural) to the face. ibid. news report
The many deaths of prominent political figures linked to Bill Clinton’s scandals in the 90s and how their obvious murders were always ruled as ‘accident’ or ‘suicide’ became known as ‘Arkancide’ because Clinton’s favourite Coroner Fahmy Malak helped him cover up every case’. ibid. Prison Planet online report
Terrance Yeakey had everything to live for in the Spring of 1996. The Corbett Report: Requiem for the Suicided: Terrance Yeakey, James Corbett online
Awards, accolades and honours for his work in the aftermath of the Oklahoma City bombing … dragging eight people from the building that day. ibid.
And yet he was under intense persecution from the Oklahoma City police department itself for his refusal to confirm the official story of the Oklahoma bombing. ibid.
The bombing did not happen the way the public had been told had happened … He never had the chance to tell his side of the story. ibid.
‘Kenny Trentadue was driving a 1986 Chevy pickup when he was pulled over at the Mexican border on his way home to San Diego on June 10 1995 … Trentadue was shipped on August 18th to a prison in Oklahoma City … The [prison] move placed Kenny in close proximity to the most famous federal prisoner in America’. The Corbett Report: Requiem for the Suicided: Kenneth Trentadue, James Corbett online, James Ridgeway online article July/August 2007
As the documents uncovered by Jesse Trentadue show … there was a lot more going on that the public can ever imagine … It all starts with the death of Kenneth Trentadue. ibid.
There was torture and murder … ‘He had been beaten head to toe, his skull was split in three places, his throat had been cut, even the soles of his feet had been beaten, and the government said it was a suicidal hanging.’ ibid. Jesse interview April 2011
‘Case of mistaken identity … It was an interrogation that went wrong.’ ibid. anonymous call to Jesse
‘The largest manhunt in American history was for John Doe II … dragon tattoo left forearm … They had mistaken my brother … [for] Richard Lee Guthrie.’ ibid. Jesse
The phenomenon of the Clinton Body Count … a list that originated online over a decade ago now … a list of names of people … associated with the Clintons … who ended up meeting untimely demises. The Corbett Report: Requiem for the Suicided: Vince Foster, James Corbett online
The case of Kevin Ives and Don Henry: ‘Seventeen year old boys who apparently saw something related to drugs in Mena by accident late at night. Officially ruled an accidental death on the train tracks, but evidence shows they died before being placed on the tracks – one of a crushed skull and the other of a knife in the back’. ibid. Snopes online report
Foster: The Deputy White House Counsel during the first six months of the Bill Clinton White House administration, until that is he was found dead. ibid.