4OO historic suicides
Those who trade blows with the entire world achieve dignity but pay a very high price because they are sure to be defeated. - Primo Levi
'Depressing' isn't a word I would use to describe my music ... there is some sadness in it - there has to be so that the happiness in it will matter. - Elliott Smith
key:
* = altruistic (whose goal was the public good. see durkheim and weil)
+ = inspirational (influenced illustrious work)
sardanapalus (a.k.a. thonos connolerous, assyrian king, under siege, by fire) - 3215 b.c.
aegeus (namesake of aegean sea, father of theseus, at false report of son's death) - c. 1234 b.c.
ajax (a.k.a. aias, in grief at death of achilles) - c. 1150 b.c.
* samson (also, simultaneously, tyrranicide) - c.1090 b.c.
* codrus (to fulfill oracle's prediction of athenian victory) - c.1050 b.c.
saul (paranoid king of israel, self-defense) - 1013 b.c
zeno (age 98, after breaking his toe on a turtle) - 764 b.c.
aristodemus (on daughter's grave, having offered her life for an oracular guarantee to hold off the spartans) - 714 b.c.
* cherondas (lawgiver, for accidently breaking his own law) - 550 b.c.
* lucretia (to protest her rape) - 509 b.c.
cleomenes (in a fit of insanity) - 490 b.c.
* socrates (in furtherance of the rule of law - he refused offers of escape) - 399 b.c.
isocrates (age 98, starved) - autumn 338 b.c.
demosthenes (self-defense, against alexander's successor antipater) - 322 b.c.
decius (inspiring roman victory by charging enemy ranks, also attributed to both his father and son) - 295 b.c.
* hegesias (advocate of suicide) - c. 283 b.c.
cleanthes (stoic, starved age 99) - 232 b.c.
sophonisba (self-defense against scipio) - 203 b.c.
hannibal (self-defense against rome) - 183 b.c.
mithradates (persian antagonist of rome, immune to poison, so slain by a loyal guard) - 63 b.c.
ptolemy (married sister cleopatra, self-defense against caesar, in the nile) - 47 b.c.
* cato uticensis "the younger" (self-defense, against caesar, in defense of a free state) - 46 b.c.
cassius (self-defense, against antony & octavian) - 42 b.c.
marc antony (self-defense, against octavian, whose sister he'd dumped for cleopatra) - august, 30 b.c.
cleopatra (grief at the death of antony and loss of egypt, and self-defense against octavian) - august, 30 b.c.
gavius apicius (author of earliest extant cookbook, in despair at decline of his food budget) - circa 25 a.d.
* jesus (borges [c.1950] contends donne [c.1620] though in a veiled way, strenuously maintained jesus was a suicide. so did early church fathers tertullian and origen) - 27 a.d.
judas iscariot - 27 a.d.
pontius pilate - 37 a.d.
arria (to set an example to her condemned husband paetus) - 42 a.d.
trung sisters (viet military generals, self-defense vs. china) - 43 a.d.
lucan (poet, historian, thinker, nero ex-favorite, self-defense, failed tyrannicide) - 65 a.d.
seneca & paulina (he in self-defense, against nero) - 65 a.d.
petronius (self-defense, elegantly, against nero) - 66 a.d.
nero (having lost all, to spite his opponents, like hitler) - june, 68 a.d.
eleazar ben jair (and 960 others at masada, self-defense) - april, 73 a.d.
peregrinus (cynic, in olympic games flames) - 165 a.d.
minamoto no yoshitsune - april 1189
yom tob (plus 500 other jews, self-defense, in york, england) - march 1190
kusunoki masashige - july, 1336
* joan of arc (jeanne d'arc, jeanneton d'arc - burned 5/30/31, it was murder, but you know she could have submitted) - 1431
mrs. beringer of basle (jumps off roof, is buried in churchyard, it rains for a week straight, is dug up and thrown in the rhine) - june, 1439
girolamo cardano (astrologer who predicted his date of death) - 1576
francesco bassano the younger (jumped from window) - 1592
andre pujon (anagramming his name to "pendu a rion", he travelled to the town of rion to commit murder, so as to be hanged) - 16??
robert burton - 1640
pietro testa (roman engraver & painter of the bizarre, "the suicide of cato") -1650
francesco borromini (revolutionary architect) - august 1667
vatel (chef, on "ruining" louis XIV's dinner) - 1671
henry tilson (artist, for unrequited love) - 1695
forty-seven ronin - february 1703
jeremiah clarke (composer) - december 1707
* richard smith & wife (to protest poverty) 1732
john robeck (defender of suicide, see alvarez) - 1735
thomas chatterton - august 1770
edward dayes (english artist) - may 1804
+ henry floris schopenhauer (arthur's father) - 1805
meriwether lewis - october 1809
heinrich kleist (german romantic playwright, despaired of reason, with henriette vogel, at her request) - november 1811
jan potocki ("manuscript found in saragossa") - december -1815
harriet shelley (percy's wife, pregnant) - december -1816
+ samuel romilly (roget's uncle, in his arms) - 1818
henri christophe (king of haiti, with silver bullet) - october, 1820
+ nicolas galois (evarisre's father) - 1821?
john polidori (byron's doctor, author of lord ruthven, first vampire story) - 1821
letitia landon (poet, see london review of books 9/00 diary) - october 1838
+ laman blanchard (essayist, friend of douglas jerrold) - february, 1845
benjamin robert haydon (after failed exhibit) - june 1846
horace wells (anesthesiologist) - january 1848
thomas beddoes - january 1849
gerard de nerval (at being refused entry to a flop-house) - january 1855
+ elizabeth siddal (painter, poet, model, wife of dante gabriel rossetti) - february 1862
edmond ruffin (agricultural reformer, passionate confederate) - 1865
+ daniel lewis gibbens (wm. james' father-in-law) - december 1865
+ malcolm melville (herman's teenage son) - september1867
emperor theodore of ethiopia - april 1868
lautreamont (possibly murdered by the police) - november 1870
adam gordon (australian athlete poet) - june 1870
philipp mainlander (or batz, see borges) -1876
saigo takamori - september 1877
ann lohman (aka madame restell, birth control provider, self defense vs. harassment) - april 1878
* grigori goldenberg (revolutionary) - july 1880
+ e.p. kadmina (inspired turgenev's "clara milich" - november 1881
ottilia assing (douglass' german mistress, on his marriage) - 1884
clover adams (henry's wife) - december 1885
+ paul ree (friend of rilke, nietsche, andreas-salome) - 1886
louis lingg (framed for haymarket riot - self-defense vs execution) - november 1887
* mihail grachevski (by fire) - 1887
victoria benedictsson - 1888
amy levy (british novelist) - 1889
rudolf habsburg (austrian crown prince) & mary vetsera - january 1889
+ day bierce (ambrose' teenage son) - july 1889
vincent van gogh - july 1890
lieutenant takeyoshi - 1891
barcroft boake (australian poet of the outback) - may 1892
+ constance fenimore woolson (henry james' friend) - january 1894
+ walter mccormack (ellen glasgow's brother-in-law, see 4/09) - june 1894
viscount drumlanrig (bosie's brother, to save his prime minister lover from his father) - 1895
+ otto mahler (gustav's brother) - february 1895
+ mary richardson (dorothy's mother, while dorothy was out walking) - november 1895
angel gavinet (spanish writer) - '98
eleanor marx (karl's daughter, translated madame bovary, died as emma did) - march 1898
stephen crane - june 1900
+ carlos casagemas (picasso's friend) - february '01
+ hans wittgenstein (ludwig's brother) - april '02
+ olga soloviev (blok's friend) - january '03
arthur shrewsbury (cricketeer) - may '03
otto weininger (philosopher of male supremacy and decline) - october '03
yevgeny shauman (tyrannicide) - '04
+ (anna kavan's father) - '04?
+ rudolf wittgenstein (ludwig's brother) - may '04
+ lily texier (debussy's wife) - october '04
+ (stanley kunitz' father) - '05
+ ludwig boltzmann (physicist, wittgenstein mentor) - september '06
john davidson (british philosophical poet, "first of the moderns") - march '09
+ frank glasgow (ellen's brother) - april '09
+ dermot chevenix trench (model for joyce's haines) - june '09
+ romeo ureta (mistral's love) - '09
yegor sazonov (tyrannicide) and mikhailov (cf. payne) - november '10
laura marx (karl's daughter) & paul lafargue (by cyanide injection) - november '11
+ philip hichborn (eleanor wylie's husband) - '12
+ edmund wheelwright (poet john's father) - august '12
general (hirohito's tutor) & countess nogi - september '12
j.a. wayland (crusading editor) - november '12
+ vsevolod kniazev (kuzmin's lover, friend of blok, akhmatova) - '13
etta duryea johnson (jack's wife) - september '13
georg trakl - november '14
a.e. stoddart (cricketeer) - april '15
* clara haber (to protest husband fritz' - jewish nobelist, also invented zyklon-B - development and use of chlorine gas at flanders) - may '15
ota benga (of the congo, after being exhibited at the bronx zoo 10 years) - march '16
+ margarethe trakl (georg's sister) - november '17
+ kurt wittgenstein (ludwig's brother) - october '18
wilhelm lehmbruck (artist) - march '19
geza csath - '19
victor segalen (possibly accident) - '19
+ jeanne hebuterne (modigliani's muse, on his infidelity & death - see october '43) - january '20
+ alastair grahame (kenneth's son, by train) - may '20
donald evans (poet) - 1921
+ tom hepburn (katherine's brother, possibly accident) - april '21
anastasia sologub - september '21
frederick kerry (john's grandfather) - november '21
+ renee monchaty (on bonnard's marriage) - 1924
frank brandegee (president pro tem of u.s. senate) october '24
+ (poet david schubert's mother) - '25
sergei esenin - december '25
gertrude bell - july '26
paul kammerer - september '26
ryunosuke akutagawa - july '27
adolf joffe (to protest stalin's rise) - november '27
charlotte mew - march '28
+ clarence hemingway (ernest's dad) - december '28
jules pascin ("prince of montparnasse", bulgarian jewish artist "of the lower strata") - june '30
vladimir mayakovsky - april '30
+ shimeko tanabe (dazai's lover) - november '30
peter warlock (a.k.a. philip heseltine, british composer, d.h.lawrence enemy) - december '30
ralph barton (caricaturist) - may '31
vachel lindsay - december '31
george eastman - march '32
hart crane - april '32
violet sharpe (the lindberghs' maid) - june '32
paul bern (jean harlow's husband) - september '32
peg entwistle (actress, jumped from "hollywood" sign) - september '32
alter levine (a.k.a. asaf halevy, palestinian leader & poet) - '33
dora carrington - '33
raymond roussel - '33
meiko ukei (initiating 1000 suicides on mt. mihara) - january '33
sara teasdale - january '33
mykola khylovy (ukrainian writer, self-defense vs. stalin) - may '33
mykola skrypnik (ukrainian leader, self-defense vs. stalin) - july '33
paul ehrenfest (physicist) - september '33
george w. hill (film director) - august '34
charlotte perkins gilman (self-defense, from breast cancer) - august '35
robert e. howard - june '36
billy papke (light heavyweight champ) - november '36
attila jozsef (hungarian poet) - december '37
ernst ludwig kirchner (german expressionist, after nazis destroyed 639 of his works) - june '38
+ dorothy hale (subject of kahlo painting) - october '38
florence lawrence (silent film star, inventor of turn signal) - december '38
ernst toller (german playwright) - may '39
mark gertler (polish artist) - june '39
stanislaw witkiewicz - september '39
moral (victor klemperer's friend) - october '39
william t. richards (musician, chemist, novelist) - january '40
(150 amsterdam jews, on eve of nazi invasion, self-defense) - may '40
walter benjamin (self-defense, possibly murdered) - september '40
virginia woolf - march '41
pal teleki (hungarian prime minister, at nazi invasion) - april '41
marina tsvetayeva - august '41
stefan zweig & his wife - february '42
* szmul zygielbojm (chronicler of einzatzgruppen, to protest allies' passive acceptance of holocaust) - '43
* simone weil - august '43
franz jagerstatter (executed for refusing nazi draft) - august '43
+ beatrice hastings (modigliani's mistress, see january '20) - october '43
+ kurt vonnegut's mother - may '44
+ jean tatlock (robert oppenheimer's lover) - july '44
lupe velez - december '44
(thousands of suicides on okinawa, induced by japanese propaganda) - march '45
+ kurt gerstein (ss officer, holocaust witness, model for hochuth, in despair of allies' inaction) - july '45
takeshi mori (general, having urged surrender) - august '45
korechika anami (minister of war) - august '45
takijiro onishi (founder of kamakazes) - august '45
shimizu toru - may '47
osamu dazai & tomie yamazaki (novelist & mistress) - june '48
arshile gorky - june '48
carole landis (actress - over rex harrison) - july '48
frederic rutland (RAF hero, japanese spy) - '49
rachel bespaloff (scholar of homer) - april '49
james forrestal - may '49
klaus mann (thomas' son) - may '49
f.o. mattheissen (critic) - march '50
john gould fletcher (arkansas poet) - may '50
cesare pavese - august '50
tadeusz borowski (holocaust novelist) - july '51
abraham feller (diplomat, accused as communist) - november '52
+ reeves mccullers (carson's husband) - november '53
+ lester hunt (wyoming senator, mccarthy foe, when gop threatened to out his son, inspired drury's advise & consent) - june '54
alan turing (computer inventor, in wake of conviction for homosexuality) - june '54
+ don hollenbeck (murrow protege, mccarthy victim) - june '54
nicolas de stael - march '55
phillip loeb (blacklisted actor) - september '55
+ natalie jackson (in remorse for helping boyfriend neal cassidy steal from his wife, by window) - november '55
aleksandr fadeev - may '56
herbert norman (cf. carolyn kizer poem) - april '57
james whale (director - frankenstein) - may '57
alexei larionov (khrushchev commissar, at missing agricultural quota) - '58
jack cole (comics artist - plasticman) - august '58
+ bente heeris (richard wright friend) - december '58
johnny ace - december '58
+ cecil connor (graham parsons' dad) - december '58
george reeves (actor - superman - possibly murder) - june '59
+ margaret sullavan (wife of henry fonda, mother of brooke and bridget hayward) - january '60
+ bridget hayward - october '60
peter llewelen-davis (model for peter pan, possible victim of barrie, after exclusion from barrie's will) - '60
ernest hemingway - july '61
david pratt (attempted tyrannicide, possibly self-defense) - october '61
otakar svec (prague stalin sculptor) - '62?
elise cowen (beat poet) - february '62
clara blandick (prolific actress, "auntie em", self-defense vs old age) - april '62
marilyn monroe (possibly murder or accident) - august '62
diana churchill (winston's daughter) - '63
+ phil graham (katherine's husband) - '63
kay sage tanguy (artist, yves' wife) - january '63
sylvia plath - february '63
* thich quang duc (first of a spate of buddhist monks, by fire, to protest vietnam war) - june '63
* huyhn van lee (to protest war) - august '63
+ elaine goffman (erving's wife) - '64
digby bamford (13, self-defense vs. rupert murdoch) - march '64
alan ladd - november '64
+ (june jordan's mother) - '65
* alice herz (82, by fire, to protest war) - march '65
nina dyer (model, courtesan) - july '65
freddie mills (light heavyweight champ) - july '65
dorothy dandridge - september '65
randall jarrell (possibly accident) - october '65
* (viet monk on 2nd anniversary of diem assassination, by fire) - november '65
* norman morrison (32, by fire, to protest war) - november '65
* roger laporte (21, by fire, to protest war) - november '65
* thich nu thanh quang, ho thi thieu, thich quang thien (and eight more, mostly young buddhist monks and nuns, over the following week, to protest u.s. war - may '66
randy turpin (middleweight champ) - may '66
+ evelyne lanzmann (claude's sister, actress - as evelyne rey, on rejection by sartre) - november '66
victor kravchenko - '66
+ elizabeth gray (spalding's mother) - '67
+ pegeen guggenheim (surrealist ralph rumney's wife, peggy's daughter) - '67
+ violeta parra (musician, nicanor's sister) - february '67
+ christiana morgan (mumford friend) - march '67
* pham thi mai (33, by fire, to protest war) - may '67
brian epstein (possibly accident) - august '67
* hiroko hayaski (36, by fire, to protest war) - october '67
* florence beaumont (55, by fire, to protest war) - october '67
* erik thoen (27, by fire, to protest war) - december '67
* ronald brazee (16, by fire, to protest war) - april '68
+ anja spiegelman (art's mom, self-defense vs. holocaust) - may '68
albert dekker (actor, politician, mccarthy foe, possibly accident or murder) - may '68
tony hancock (british comic) - june '68
andrew bihaly (hungarian memoirist) - september '68
* ryszard siwiec (by fire, pole protesting invasion of czech) - september '68
* steve sexton (musician, to protest war) - october '68
robin douglas-home - october '68
captain charles mcvay (skipper, uss independence) - november '68
* d.a. levy (underground poet) - november '68
* jan palach (by fire, to protest soviet invasion) - january '69
* josef hlavaty (by fire, to protest soviet invasion) - january '69
* jan zajic (18, by fire, to protest soviet invasion) - february '69
+ assia wevill (ted's hughes mistress, who also gassed their 4-year-old daughter shura) - march '69
john kennedy toole - march '69
* evzeh plocek (39, by fire, to protest soviet invasion) - april '69
don drummond (skatalites) - may '69
marek hlasko (polish novelist) - june '69
judy garland - june '69
* joan fox & craig badiali (teenagers, to protest war) - october '69
marshall bloom (25, founder of liberation news service) - november '69
+ alfred haskell conrad (adrienne rich's husband) - '70
bernd zimmerman (german composer) - '70
mark rothko - february '70
hiawatha hardison (see s.l.a. marshall bringing up the rear) - february '70
paul celan - april '70
george winne (23, by fire, to protest war) - may '70
adam lindsay gordon (poet) - june '70
* kostas georgakis (by fire, to protest greek junta) - september '70
alan "blind owl" wilson (canned heat) - september '70
* yukio mishima - november '70
samantha macalpine (15, self-defense vs rupert murdoch) - '71
* denise richter (protest war, see werder in kayak magazine #26) - january '71 (?)
diane arbus - april '71
libby holman (jazz singer) - june '71
alfred chester (critic, pornographer - possibly accidental o.d.) - august '71
pete duel (comedian) - december '71
peter szondi (critic, celan friend) - '71
yasunari kawabata - april '72
george sanders - april '72
* romas kalanta (to protest ussr occupation, in kaunas) - may '72
john berryman - july '72
henry de montherlant - september '72
rory storm (the hurricanes, ringo's band before the beatles) & his mother - september '72
guido morselli (novelist) - '73
william inge - june '73
pablito picasso (picasso's grandson) - july '73
+ elizaveta voronyanskaya (actually murder: in the wake of divulging whereabouts of cigarette-paper "gulag" under kgb torture) - august '73
paul williams (temptations) - august '73
b.s. johnson (british novelist) - november '73
salvador allende (self-defense, probably murder) - november '73
clayton perkins (carl's brother) - december '73
pamela courson (jim morrison widow) - april '74
graham bond (founder of british blues) may '74
anne sexton - october '74
nick drake (br. folkie) - november '74
+ henry (theologian) & elizabeth van dusen (advocates of rational suicide, self-defense vs illness) - january '75
lucy russell (bertrand's granddaughter, by fire) - april '75
+ danny firestone (shulamith's brother) - '75
pete ham (badfinger) april '75
phil ochs - april '76
elmyr de hory (art forger) '76
toni oppenheimer (robert's daughter) - '77
yuri soloviev (kirov dancer) - january '77
freddie prinze - january '77
marie-therese walter (mother of picasso's children) - october '77
kurt godel (by starvation, paranoid of poisoning) - january '78
terry kath (of the band chicago) - january '78
* thomas zalay (by fire, in shame at abuse by priest) - april '78
marie-jo simenon (georges' daughter) - may '78
frank stanford (poet) - june '78
barry brown (actor) - june '78
charles boyer - august '78
tom forcade (founder of high times) - october '78
gig young (also murdering his wife kim schmidt) october '78
jean amery - october '78
frank rosolino (kenton trombonist) - november '78
+ yang ye (yang xianye's son, self-defense vs china) - '79
linda kuehl (billie holiday archivist, possibly murder) - january '79
donny hathaway - january '79
sid vicious - february '79
* jo roman (artist, suicide advocate, in public, on tv) - june '79
+ burle cobain (kurt's great uncle) - july '79
jean seberg (self-defense against j. edgar hoover) - august '79
evald iljenkov (philosopher) - '79
+ jay becker (phillip lopate's friend) - october '79
rob martinson (anti-rehab theorist) - '80
larry williams (dizzy miss lizzy, boney maroney) - january '80
janet vogel (doo-wop singer) - february '80
ian curtis (joy division) - may '80
+ bruce bechdel (alison's dad, possibly accident) - july '80
rachel roberts (actress, wife of rex harrison) - november '80
darby crash (the germs) - december '80
romain gary - december '80
francesca woodman (photographer) - january '81
* bobby sands (IRA 66-day hunger strike, then 9 more, to august 20th) - may '81
hubert johnson (songwriter: do you love me) - july '81
chuck wagon (the dickies) - '81
tom evans (badfinger) - november '83
katsuhira sosetsu (zen teacher) - november '83
arthur (self-defense against cancer) & cynthia koestler - march '83
barney bubbles (jacket designer) - november '83
+ kenneth cobain (kurt's great uncle) - '84
shauna grant (porn actress) - march '84
leanita mcclain (journalist) - may '84
john mccollum (black sabbath fan) - october '84
richard braughtigan - october '84
+ sappho durrell (lawrence' daughter, possibly SD vs. incest) - january '85
jeanine deckers (the singing nun) & annie pecher - march '85
danny rapp (rocker: at the hop) - april '85
larry chin (cia double agent) - february '86
richard manuel (the band) - april '86
john east (us senator) - june '86
jacqueline picasso (pablo's widow) - october '86
david savoy, jr. (husker du) - february '87
primo levi (conceivably murder or accident) - april '87
elizabeth hartman (actress, "a patch of blue") - june '87
dalida (fr/it singer) - may '87
yogi horton (franklin, vandross drummer) - june '87
edgar rosenberg (joan rivers' husband) - august '87
+ roop kanwar (18, by fire, following husband's death: the rite of sati - led to criminalization of same) - september '87
john spence (founder, no doubt) - december '87
+ bret stafford (william's son, kim's brother) - 1988
roy buchanan - august '88
sandor marai (hungarian memoirist) - february '89
* cheng nan-jung (by fire, to protest his arrest for publishing a draft-constitution for taiwan) - april '89
abbie hoffman (possibly murdered) - april '89
fred halstad (seminal director - l.a. plays itself) - may '89
dickie goodman (novelty songwriter, pioneered snippets) - november '89
del shannon (family sued prozac) - february '90
capucine (actress, chanteuse) - march '90
janet adkins (self-defense vs alzheimer's, aided by dr. kevorkian) - june '90
megan leigh (porn actress) - june '90
marian shelton (MIA wife, see Susan Keating, Prisoners of Hope) - october '90
+ ronnie polkingharn (eminem's uncle) - '91
jerzy kosinski - may '91
jesse bernstein - october '91
reinaldo arenas (cuban novelist, memoirist) - december '91
* crystal bullitt (to protest neo-nazi murder of bob buchanan) - november '92
charles crumb (brother of robert) - '93
brad troxel (son of grandparents denied visitation by u.s. supreme court) - '93
vincent foster - july '93
joey coyle (found $1.2 million in south philly in '81) - august '93
douglas hopkins (gin blossoms) - december '93
kurt cobain - march '94
shannon wilsey (porn actress) - july '94
tommy boyce (monkees songwriter) - november '94
guy debord - november '94
roger stephane (journalist) - december '94
* ray johnson (as performance art) - january '95
phyllis hyman (blues singer) - june '95
* sabine kratze (by fire, to protest viet repression of buddhists) - august '95
doug stegmeyer (billy joel's bass player) - august '95
dawn befano (memoirist, see kay jamison night falls fast) - october '95
terri jewel (black lesbian writer) - november '95
donald cammell (creator of "performance") - april '96
monika danneman (after losing libel case that claimed she let hendrix die) - april '96
jeremy boorda (navy chief - after falsely wearing "valor" medals) - may '96
ann beverly (sid vicious' mom) - september '96
+ charley aurthur (son of suicidologist jonathan) - november '96
eugene izzi (novelist, possibly accident or murder) - december '96
faron young (c & w star: hello walls) - december '96
billy mackenzie (singer) - january '97
brian keith (actor) - june '97
carl maxey (crusading spokane lawyer) - july '97
sinisa savija (swede - first reality show ejectee) - july '97
richard gilkey (painter, self-defense against cancer) - october '97
michael hutchence (INXS) - november '97
jim wheeler (artist, 19, harassed for being gay) - november '97
david bairstow (cricketer) - january '98
sarah kane (dark playwright) - february '99
wendy o. williams - april '98
carlos vega (james taylor drummer) - april '98
sarah kane (28, playwright) - february '99
dana plato (actress) - may '99
lord sutch - june '99
randy burckhardt (photographer) - august '99
(first of dozens of young women in Batman, Turkey) - january '00
wolfgang huellen (kohl's treasurer) - january '00
guy waterman (wilderness advocate) - february '00
p.j. brent (in remorse that her leaking breast implants has disabled her breast-fed daughters) - may '00
josephine, catherine, frances, ruth-briget mulrooney (irish sisters, by starvation) - june '00
justin pierce ("kids") - july '00
* bharat rao (by fire, to protest corruption in india) - august '00
richard farnsworth - october '00
kate zuma (jacob's wife, possibly murder) - december '00
* (15 turkish inmates, by fire, to protest prison conditions) - december '00
* (46 turkish inmates, by starvation, to protest prison conditions) - '01-'02
* liu chunling (falun gong woman in tiananmen square, by fire) - january '01
julio meade (track star) - february '01
susannah mccorkle (jazz singer) - may '01
* (ten falun gong women - self-defense, possibly murder) - july '01
barry levin (menendez lawyer, self-defense vs. cancer) - july '01
* ho tan anh (by fire, to protest viet repression of buddhists) - september '01
stuart adamson (musician, big country) - december '01
t.l. lange (artist) - january '02
jack henry abbott (possibly murder) - january '02
joan and chester (admiral) nimitz (self-defense vs. many ailments) - january '02
irinel liciu (romanian ballerina, wife of poet doinas, the day after his death) - may '02
jimmie lee robinson (bluesman, self-defense vs. cancer, gentrification) - july '02
louis owens (indian novelist) - july '02
(6 victims of priests' sexual abuse) - february through june '03
jared stait (suicide prevention activist) - february '03
* zdenek adamec (by fire, to protest iraq war, followed by 3 more over the next month) - march '03
leslie cheung (singer, actor - played suicidal characters) - april '03
robert long (pennsylvania mine rescue hero, criticised for selling story) - june '03
fred sandback (founder of minimalist art) - june '03
* sedighieh mohageri and neda hassani (by fire, to protest french arrest of iranian exiles, in paris and london) - june '03
ian macdonald (shostakovich scholar) - august '03
* kyung hae lee and park dong ho (korean farmers, to protest wto farm policies, by fire) - september '03
carolyn heilbrun (77, feminist theorist, a.k.a. mystery writer amanda cross, apparently serene) - october '03
elliott smith - october '03
qadri gul (20, afghan woman, by fire, to protest/escape domestic violence) - december '03
(100 women of herat, afghanistan, by fire, over the year, to protest marital slavery) - '03
spalding gray (writer, actor, monologist - after disabling injury from drunk driver) - january '04
patrick mcsorley (29, lead witness to priest molesters) - february '04
tooker gomberg (canadian environmentalist) - march '04
homa safi (afghan journalist, to protest her arranged marriage) - march '04
david reimer (botched transsexual) - may '04
robert quine (guitarist for r. hell, l. reed, nephew of w.v.) - june '04
(9 japanese in internet pact) - october '04
aurore (frenchwoman fearing man who'd knowingly infected her with aids would be freed) - november '04
gary webb (reporter who exposed cia complicity in the crack epidemic) - december '04
hunter s. thompson - february '05
najai turpin (boxer) - february '05
humbert balsan (producer for women directors) - february '05
brandenn bremmer (14, child prodigy, composer, grad student in anesthesiology, by gunshot) - march, '05
tristan egolf (novelist) - may '05
william rodgers (a.k.a. avalon, ELF activist) - december '05
andrew martinez (naked activist) - may '06
* malachi ritscher (by fire, in chicago, to protest iraq war) - november '06
andre waters (brain-damaged football star) - november '06
1200 cotton farmers in northern india (self-defense against monsoons & us/eu susidies) - '06
yoo na (korean singer, at net rumors) - "07
rollo banks (tattoo artist) - april '07
toshikatsu matsuoka (japanese agriculture minister) - may '07
david ritcheson (18, victim of devastating hate-crime) - june '07
theresa duncan & jeremy blake (filmmaker/critic, 40 & artist, 35, partners, a week apart) - july '07
edouard leve (conceptual photographer) - october '07
[eleven debt-ridden farmers] (in uttar pradesh, by drinking hair-dye, leading to a ban) - jan-march '08
vicki van meter (ex-child aviator) - march '08
anna mikhalchuk (russian artist, putin critic, possibly murder) - march '08
angus fairhurst (british artist, 41) - march '08
choi jin-sil (korean actress, at net rumors) - october '08
john costelloe (actor) - december '08
+(tibetan monk, in sichuan, by fire, to protest china) - february '09
nicholas hughes (ted & sylvia's son) - march '09
ali al-fakheri (linked iraq to alqaida under torture, possibly murder) - may '09
rodger mcfarlane (AIDS activism pioneer, 54, self-defense vs. heart & back trouble) - may '09
roh moo-hyun (s. korean president, self-defense vs. right-wing attacks) - may '09
ronald takaki (activist/scholar of ethnicity, self-defense vs. MS) - may '09
vic chesnutt (possibly accident) - december '09
andrew lange (astro-physicist) - january '10
aaron swartz (26, public domain hacker, self-defense vs. prosecutors) - january '13
intentionally omitted from this list are cases that have involved the involuntary deaths of others (eg., the 2200+ kamakazes in World War II) - the main exception being that of samson, with a link to tyrannicides, a special subspecies of altruistic suicide
an attempt has been made to note within entries those cases that may actually be murders, or that blur the difference (see jesus). not that all suicides aren't in some sense murder-suicides.
need dates or names:
lars gorling (novelist)
+ frost's son
+ fanny (godwin? mary shelley's 1/2 sister, possibly percy's lover)
andre pujon - 16??
+ schopenhauer's father - 1805
+ john polidori (percy's friend, author of lord ruthven) 1821?
drumlanrig - 1895
+ kavan's father - 1904
shauman - 1904
+ kniazev - '13
+ kunitz' father
+ grahame '20
donald evans - '21
+ renee monchaty - '24
+ david schubert's mother - '25
raymond roussel - '33
dora carrington - '33
+ kurt vonnegut's mother - '44
frederic rutland - '49
james whale '57
+ jack cole - '58
peter llewelyn-davis - '60
+ elaine goffman - '64
+ june jordan's mother - '65
+ pegeen guggenheim (rumney's wife) - '67
conrad, zimmerman - 70
peter szondi - '71
oppenheimer - '77
yang ye '79
+ stafford - '88
+ polkingharn - '91
crumb - '93
troxel - '93
+ gray '67
in the same year:
13 - '03
11 - '69, '78
10 - '68, '70, '00
9 - '65, '67, '79, '04
8 - '33, '80, '87
7 - '71, '73, '96, '97, '01, '09
6 - '63, '95, '99, '08
5 - '32, '45, '58, '72, '75, '84, '89, '90, '93, '94, '02, '05, '07
4 - 1904, 1909, '12, '21, '30, '39, '43, '49, '62, '74, '77, '81, '83, '86, '91, '06
3 - 1889, 1895, 1903, '19, '38, '40, '41, '44, '48, '50, '54, '55, '60, '64, '66, '85, '98
( since 1950 ) -
2 - '57, '61, '76, '88
1 - '51, '52, '53, '56, '59, '92
(since 1900) -
0 - '07, '08, '22, '23, '29, '46, '82
worst decades:
'63-'73 ..... 79 (lbj, nixon)
'99-'09 ..... 75 (bush II)
'77-'87 ..... 60 (carter, reagan)
by month:
november - 44
may - 43
june - 41
january - 40
april - 36
october - 34
march, august, december - 31
february, july - 28
september - 25
(408)
in the same month:
september '32 - bern, entwistle
august '43 - weil, jagerstatter
june '48 - dazai, gorky
december '58 - heeris, connor
june '54 - hunt, turing
july '65 - dyer, mills
may '66 - quang, turpin
october '67 - hayaski, beaumont
may '68 - spiegelman, dekker
september '68 - bihaly, siwiec
october '68 - douglas-home, sexton
november '68 - mcvay, levy
june '69 - hlasko, garland
february '70 - rothko, hardison
september '70 - wilson, georgakis
april '72 - kawabata, sanders
september '72 - montherlant, storm
august '73 - voronyanskaya, williams
november '73 - allende, johnson
january '78 - godel, kath
june '78 - stanford, brown
october '78 - amery, young, forcade
january '79 - kuehl, hathaway
december '80 - crash, gary
november '83 - sosetsu, evans
october '84 - mccollum, braughtigan
november '94 - boyce, debord
august '95 - kratze, stegmeyer
december '96 - izzi, young
april '96 - cammell, danneman
july '97 maxey, savija
april '98 - vega, williams
july '01 - levin, falun gong
january '02 - lange, abbott, nimitz
june '03 - long, sandback
february '05 - thompson, turpin, balsan
march '08 - van meter, fairhurst, mikhalchuk
may '09 - mcfarlane, moo-hyun, al-fakheri, takaki
maybe:
sappho c. 550 b.c., lord byron 4/1824, ambrose bierce 1/14, jack london 11/16, malcolm lowry 6/57
blatantly put themselves in harm's way (in suicidologist edwin schneidman's terminology, sub-intentional death):
thomas more 7/1535, gandhi 1/48, jan masaryk 3/48, jackson pollock 8/56, medgar evers 6/63, jfk 11/63, malcolm x 2/65, m.l. king 4/68, rfk 6/68, lennon 12/80
definite suicidal elements:
dylan thomas 11/53, dinah washington 12/63, lenny bruce 8/66, brian jones 7/69, hendrix 9/70, joplin 10/70, morrison 7/71, john belushi '83
mass:
960 masada '73
500 yom tob 1190
1000 japanese women 1930's
150 amsterdam jews 5/40
30 viet monks '63
600+ (+300 children) peoples temple (possibly murder) 11/78
78 (+17 children) branch davidians (possibly murder) 4/93
48 (+5 children) solar temple 10/94
39 heaven's gate 3/97
bibliography:
the savage god - a. alvarez
on suicide - jean amery
the angel and the dragon - jonathan aurthur
other inquisitions - jorge luis borges
suicide - emile durkheim
www.bannedbooks.com - william edelen
...or not to be - marc etkind
encyclopedia of suicide - evans & faberow
oxford classical dictionary - hammond & scullard, eds.
on suicide - john miller, ed.
history of suicide - minois
the terrorists - robert payne
lectures on philosophy - simone weil
who spoke up - zaroulis & sullivan
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category%3AScientists_who_committed_suicide
famous 50:
samson 1090 b.c.
zeno 764
socrates 399
demosthenes 322
hannibal 183
antony & cleopatra 30
judas 27 a.d.
jesus 27
pilate 37
nero 68
masada 73
47 ronin 1703
chatterton 1770
meriwether lewis 1809
van gogh 1890
stephen crane 1900
esenin '25
mayakovsky '30
vachel lindsay '31
hart crane '32
walter benjamin '40
virginia woolf '41
marina tsvetayeva '41
simone weil '43
arshile gorky '48
nicholas de stael '55
hemingway '61
marilyn monroe '62
sylvia plath '63
alan ladd '64
judy garland '69
mark rothko '70
paul celan '70
yukio mishima '70
diane arbus '71
yasunari kawabata '72
salvador allende '73
anne sexton '74
phil ochs '76
charles boyer '78
sid vicious '79
jean seberg '79
romain gary '80
bobby sands '81
arthur koestler '83
richard braughtigan '84
primo levi '87
abbie hoffman '89
jerzy kosinski '91
kurt cobain '94
alvah bessie's blacklist & mccarthy suicides ( * = on my list):
philip loeb *
frances young
madelyn dmytryk
lawrence duggan (state dept.)
herbert norman *
abe feller (UN) *
ray kaplan (VOA)
francis mattheison (harvard)
walt smith (justice dept.)
morton kent (state dept.)
john winant (amb. to UK)
william sherwood (stanford)