Suicide note

"Suicide Note" redirects here. For the Pantera song, see Suicide Note Pt. I.

A suicide note or death note is a message that states the author has died by (or plans to die by) suicide, and left to be discovered and read in anticipation of suicide.

It is estimated that 12–20% of suicides are accompanied by a note. According to Gelder, Mayou and Geddes (2005) one in six leave a suicide note. The content can be a plea for absolution or blaming family and friends for life's failings. However, incidence rates may depend on ethnicity, method of suicide, and cultural differences, and may reach rates as high as 50% in certain demographics. A suicide note can be in written, audio, or video form.

Reasons

Some fields of study such as sociology, psychiatry and graphology, have investigated the reasons why suicide leave a note.

According to Dr. Lenora Olson, the most common reasons that people contemplating suicide choose to write a suicide note include one or more of the following:

• To ease the pain of those known to the victim by attempting to dissipate guilt.
• To increase the pain of survivors by attempting to create guilt.
• To set out the reason(s) for suicide.
• To express thoughts and feelings that the person felt unable to express in life.
• To give instructions as to disposal of remains.
• Occasionally, those who have committed murder or some other offence will confess their acts in a note.

The most common reasons people contemplating suicide fail to write a note are:

• They are so focused on the practicalities of what they are about to do (e.g. loading a pistol or tying a noose, etc.) that the idea of leaving a note does not occur to them.
• Their choice to commit suicide was impulsive, or at least hasty enough that there was no time to compose a suicide note.
• They have nothing to say and/or nobody to say it to — common for those without surviving loved ones or other social relationships, such as the elderly.
• They feel that they cannot express what they wish to say.
• They simply do not wish to write about their choice, or cannot see any point in doing so.
• They are functionally or completely illiterate, or uncomfortable with written language.
• They hope the suicide will be considered to be an accident or homicide. This is common in those who wish to be buried in consecrated ground or hope their families will be able to collect on insurance.

Sometimes there is also a message in the case of murder–suicide, explaining the reason(s) for the murder(s), see e.g. Marc Lépine's suicide statement and videotaped statements of the 7 July 2005 London bombers.

Forgeries

According to forensic linguist John Olsson, forged suicide notes often contain negative social projections about people who die by suicide. A forged note might contain words like "cowardly," which rarely occur in genuine suicide notes.

Famous suicide notes

The following people have left famous suicide notes:

• 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. He left a note denouncing them and his own nephew and heir to the leadership of his party, the future president Hipólito Yrigoyen.
• Korechika Anami - "I - with my death - humbly apologize to the Emperor for the great crime." Historians are divided as to what crime he was referring to. It is possibly a reference to his part in the aborted coup against the Emperor Hirohito in the hours following Japan's decision to surrender at the end of World War II
• Roger Angleton - murderer and brother of famous bookmaker Robert Angleton.
• J. Clifford Baxter - Enron Corporation executive.
• Clara Blandick - U.S. film actress, most famous for playing Auntie Em in the 1939 film The Wizard of Oz. Her note stated, "I am now about to make the great adventure".
• Eustace Budgell, English writer: "What Cato did, and Addison approved, cannot be wrong."
• Leslie Cheung - Hong Kong actor and musician who suffered from clinical depression.
• 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, protesting against the widespread corruption of the reigning regime.
• Christine Chubbuck - WXLT TV (Sarasota, FL) anchor who committed suicide during a newscast.
• Kurt Cobain - lead singer of Nirvana. The note is addressed to his childhood imaginary friend, and gives his reasons for leaving Nirvana, followed by a message to his wife, Courtney Love, and to his daughter, Frances Bean Cobain. The note made reference to Freddie Mercury and famously quoted "Hey Hey, My My" from Neil Young's album Rust Never Sleeps.
  

  

  Cobain's alleged suicide note. Notice the difference in handwriting styles between the first and last four lines, and the body of the note.

The legitimacy of the first line and the last four lines of the alleged suicide note has been questioned by handwriting experts, notably on episode 290 of Unsolved Mysteries. Tom Grant, a private investigator hired by Courtney Love to track down Cobain days before he was found dead on April 8, 1994, has been following the case ever since.

• 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."
• Budd Dwyer - Pennsylvania politician who, during a recorded televised news conference, read a prepared statement and then shot himself.
• George Eastman - Inventor of 35 mm film and founder of Eastman Kodak. His note simply read, "My work is done. Why wait?"
• Lee Eun-ju - She left a suicide note scrawled in blood, in which she wrote, "Mom, I am sorry and I love you." A separate note said, "I wanted to do too much. Even though I live, I'm not really alive. I don't want anyone to be disappointed. It's nice having money... I wanted to make money."
• James Forrestal - Former United States Secretary of Defense and Secretary of the Navy.
• Misao Fujimura - high school student studying philosophy who wrote the suicide note on a tree; the suicide resulted in many copycat suicides (see Werther effect).
• Romain Gary - He wrote a suicide note explaining the reasons of his suicide and then shot himself in the mouth. Apart from his suicide note, he had stated: "I really had fun. Goodbye and thank you."
• 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".
• Mitchell Heisman was a 35 year old man from Massachusetts who published a 1,905 page book entitled Suicide Note and then committed suicide on the steps of Memorial Church of Harvard University in September 2010.
• Rudolf Hess, Nazi War criminal who committed suicide in Spandau Prison. "Thanks to the directors for addressing this message to my home. Written several minutes before my death."
• Yukio Mishima, Japanese writer. His suicide note explained his reasons for attempting to incite mutiny amongst the Japanese self-defense forces.
• Roh Moo-hyun, former South Korean President. The note expressed his remorse to the people, claiming to be a "burden for others".
• Per Yngve "Dead" Ohlin - Lead singer of the black metal group Mayhem, whose suicide note famously read, in part, "Excuse all the blood" and included an apology for the loud gunshot.
  

  

  The German poet Heinrich von Kleist's suicide note from 1811 is a farewell letter to his sister Ulrike.

• Freddie Prinze - U.S. actor and comedian, famous for his role on the sitcom Chico and the Man. Is the father of Freddie Prinze Jr.
• George Sanders - Academy Award-winning British actor. His note stated only: "Dear World, I am leaving because I am bored. I feel I have lived long enough. I am leaving you with your worries in this sweet cesspool. Good luck."
• Lisandro de la Torre - Argentinian lawyer, politician and senator who fought against his government's corrupt officers during the "Década Infame" (Infamous Decade) of the 1930s. Finally, abandoned by his allies and believing his struggle to be lost, he committed suicide, leaving a note describing the desperate situation he was in.
• 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 is still unclear whether it was a suicide or not.
• Hunter S. Thompson - Creator of gonzo journalism
• Getulio Vargas - lawyer, politician and Brazilian president (1930–1945; 1950–1954) who used his suicide and suicide note (the "Carta Testamento") as a political weapon against his enemies.
• Mike Von Erich - Wrestler who committed suicide after thinking that he was not as good as he had been prior to a shoulder injury. His brothers Kerry and Chris also committed suicide.
• Wendy O. Williams - Lead singer of American Punk band Plasmatics who left the following suicide note: "I don't believe that people should take their own lives without deep and thoughtful reflection over a considerable period of time."
• Virginia Woolf - English feminist author and poet. Her suicide note iterated that she feared she was on the brink of what would have been the latest in a series of breakdowns, and that she would rather die than endure another such episode. Her note concluded with a message to her husband telling him that she loved him and thanking him for the time they had together.

See also

• Death poem

External links

• Famous suicide notes - dying words of famous people