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.