[net.suicide] Was It Suicide or Not?

presley (01/08/83)

In the interest of getting something going on this group, the following
interesting tidbit is from "Murder Ink":

There are fashions in the means of suicide; the current vogue is jumping
from high places.

Myopic jumpers invariably remove their eyeglasses and put them in a
pocket before jumping.  The [NYC] Medical Examiner's Office considers
traces of prescription glass in a suicide's face a sure tip-off that it
was a murder.

Similarly, stabbing suicides never stab themselves through their
clothes, and most of them prefer to do their stabbing in the bathroom,
facing the mirror.

Characteristically, a woman will strip to the waist (sometimes leaving
on her bra), then stab herself in the abdomen 25-30 times with a small
knife until she passes out from loss of blood.  Death from
exsanguination follows.

A man, on the other hand, pulls back his shirt, or removes it, then
kills himself with a single thrust to the heart with a long-bladed
knife.

Variations from these two methods will make the medical examiner think
closely about murder rather than suicide.

jfw (01/09/83)

This seems interesting;  from what I can tell of my own phsychological makeup
(subject to the limits of Goedel's Theorem), I could not see myself removing
my glasses before jumping, nor could I see myself removing my shirt before
stabbing myself.  Are there any theories as to why these trends exist?

shinbro (01/29/83)

I can't believe that women would stab themselves many times in the
abdomen until they died from loss of blood.  This sounds like the
description of a particularly unpleasant murder to me.  I am a woman
myself, so I may have perhaps some small claim to know what I am
talking about.