I'm getting ready to leave the country for a while, and I thought it prudent to put a note up here for anybody who might read this to say that my interest in suicide here is purely writerly and academic. There is no cause for alarm. Frankly, these guillotine suicides just stuck with me as I encountered them. The first one I read about was the David Moore thing a couple of years ago, and it really got me going.
So if you happen to see this and wonder if good old Steve is having some kind of problem, rest assured that this is just a writing project. Frankly, I am happier than I have ever been in my life.
Saturday, June 28, 2008
Thursday, June 26, 2008
Thoughts on Organization
- Intro/Opening
- Premeditation Index
- Invention of the Guillotine
- 1876: A Pair of Guillotine hotel room suicides
- A British Outbreak
- David Moore
- Close To Home: Allen Park
- Conclusion
Wednesday, June 25, 2008
Opening
I want to open this essay with a passage about premeditation. The Pierce Suicide Intent Scale has what I want to say about the Guillotines. The premeditation index in this scale is
(0) Impulsive
(1) Considered <1 hour
(2) Considered <1 day
(3) Considered >1 day
There is also the Beck Scale for Suicide Ideation. Not sure if that would help. Essentially, I want to begin with the observation that the Guillotine is almost the greatest amount of premeditation possible. It would be impossible, for example, to plan, gather materials for, and construct a workable Guillotine in less than 24 hours. Nearly all reports of actual Guillotine suicides describe apparent weeks of planning and construction.
(0) Impulsive
(1) Considered <1 hour
(2) Considered <1 day
(3) Considered >1 day
There is also the Beck Scale for Suicide Ideation. Not sure if that would help. Essentially, I want to begin with the observation that the Guillotine is almost the greatest amount of premeditation possible. It would be impossible, for example, to plan, gather materials for, and construct a workable Guillotine in less than 24 hours. Nearly all reports of actual Guillotine suicides describe apparent weeks of planning and construction.
Ethical Quandry
Because it is close, I could do some investigative reporting on the Allen Park suicide. I imagine that I could file a FOIA request for the police file. Would that be wrong?
Update: I spoke with our chief of police last night, and he assures me that FOIA for crime files is routine in every police department. He says that he's certain the file I want has been provided to the public before. So I am going to send a FOIA request.
Update: I spoke with our chief of police last night, and he assures me that FOIA for crime files is routine in every police department. He says that he's certain the file I want has been provided to the public before. So I am going to send a FOIA request.
Start a Blog
We need particularly a Society for the Assistance of Suicides. Such a society would build a commodious asylum--or rather station house--from which persons could take their departure from life. We can fancy such a house fitted up with a score of self-acting guillotines, ready for the use of all applicants. The suicide, on entering the house, would be supplied with pen, ink, and paper, with which to write his farewell letter. He would then be required to register his name, birthplace, age, and, if he so desired, the cause of his weariness of life, and he would be shown to the operating-room, where he would be provided with ether and assigned to a comfortable guillotine.
New York Times
April 21, 1880
Just what I need, another blog. Well, this one will be the work pages for my non-fiction article "The Guillotine Suicides." This is where I will keep and organize the information and get help from folks.
A Partial List
- Francois August Chere [London, 1876]
- James A. Moon [Indiana, 1876]
- April 188o [NYT OpEd--fascinating!]
- Drainpipe guy
- Boyd Taylor [Northumberland, 2003]
- Allen Park, MI [2007]
- David Moore [Belmont, NH, 2006] this one is really sad
American Journal of Forensics
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