Suicide note

"Suicide Note" redirects here. For the Pantera song, see Suicide Note (song).

A suicide note or death note is a message left behind by a person who intends to commit suicide. Occasionally, it is faked by someone wanting to start a new life or avoid prison, or for other reasons.

It is estimated that 25–30% of suicides are accompanied by a note. According to Gelder, Mayou and Geddes (2005) one in six leaves 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 message can be a written note, an audio message, or a video.

Reasons

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

According to Olsen (2005), 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 for disposal of the remains.
• Occasionally, to confess acts of murder or some other offence.

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

Faked notes

Author Ken Kesey faked his suicide in 1965, leaving a note in his truck and fleeing to Mexico after having been arrested for possession of marijuana. When he returned to the United States, he was sentenced to six months in jail.

Hedge fund manager Samuel Israel III left the message, "Suicide is Painless", in the dust on the hood of his abandoned SUV in an attempt to avoid a twenty year sentence for fraud.

People who left 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.
• José Manuel Balmaceda - Chilean president.
• 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".
• Richard Brautigan— Poet and Writer. His suicide note simply read: "Messy, isn't it?"
• 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, Florida) 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.
• 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.
• Adam Czerniaków-head of the Judenrat in the Warsaw Ghetto. He refused to help round up Jews and committed suicide on July 23, 1942 by swallowing a cyanide pill, a day after the commencement of mass extermination of Jews known as the Grossaktion Warsaw. He left his wife a note that read: "They are demanding that I kill the children of my people with my own hands. There is nothing for me to do but to die." His other note to one to his fellow members of the Judenrat, explained: "I can no longer bear all this. My act will prove to everyone what is the right thing to do."
• Dalida—popular French singer. She wrote, "Life has become unbearable ... forgive me."
• Brad Delp—Lead vocalist of the rock band Boston who left the following note: "Mr. Brad Delp. "J'ai une ame solitaire". I am a lonely soul."
• 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, "To my friends: 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."
• Justin Fashanu—Gay English soccer player, charged with sexual assault in Maryland. His suicide note denied the charges, stating that the sex was consensual, and that he had fled to England because he felt he could not get a fair trial because of his homosexuality, and it added "I realised that I had already been presumed guilty. I do not want to give any more embarrassment to my friends and family."
• 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—35 year old who held a bachelor's degree in psychology from Albany University. His suicide note was notable due to its unconventional format; at 1,905 pages, spanning topics concerning (and not limited to) human nature, society, religion, technology and science, the suicide "note" was more akin to a grand philosophical tome. Heisman published his book, Suicide Note, online for free download within a day of finally shooting himself on the Harvard University Campus.
• 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."
• Jerzy Kosinski, Polish-American novelist. He wrote, "I am going to put myself to sleep now for a bit longer than usual. Call it Eternity."
• 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. He 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
• Getúlio 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 died by suicide after thinking that he was not as good as he had been prior to a shoulder injury. His brothers Kerry and Chris also died by suicide.
• Bob Welch—Fleetwood Mac guitarist/vocalist from 1971 to 1974
• 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
• Last words

External links

• A collection of suicide notes and letters
• Famous suicide notes—dying words of famous people
• 13 Page Suicide Note