Failed Suicide

When I lectured to my students on multiple methods of suicide I generally finished up by relating the most outstanding case of all, a classic of its kind, which is, unfortunately, not susceptible to confirmation. I might say that it is not one of my cases.

The story is that a highly pessimistic individual had determined to take his life, and wanted to make sure that there would be none of the slip-ups he had read about. He decided that hanging would be an efficient means of self-destruction, and selected a tree with a stout branch overhanging a cliff, the sea being fifty feet below. This, he thought, would make a fitting and spectacular finish. In order to prevent any pain in the hanging process he procured for himself a large dose of opium. Although these arrangements seemed fairly complete, he decided that in order to make certain of a successful result it would be a good idea to shoot himself as well. The noose adjusted, the poison taken, and the revolver cocked, he stepped over the cliff, and as he did so fired. The jerk of the rope altered his aim, and the bullet missed his head but cut partly through the rope. This broke with the jerk of the body, and he fell fifty feet into the sea below. There he swallowed a quantity of salt water, vomited the poison, and swam ashore a better and wiser man.
 

[Morris, 1927]

[A Tulsa youth] was in the Slough of Despond — the whole world had become utter darkness, life was not worth the living — his girl "that was the one thought of his waking moments, the radiant image of all his dreams," had turned him down cold, spurned his one great passion. He would put an end to it all, and perhaps when she looked on his rigid face, she would realize her cruelty. Yes, he would bring the tears to her beautiful eyes. So he procured a bottle of carbolic acid, a rope, a pistol, and some gasoline. He rushed to the Arkansas river, jumped into his canoe — first tying one end of the rope to a stout tree limb, the other end around his neck. He drank the carbolic acid, poured the gasoline over his clothes, set fire to them, and jumped from the canoe, shooting his gun at the same time. The shell, missing his head, cut the rope in two, sousing him into the river, which quenched the flame. He swallowed so much water, in his excitement — up came all of the carbolic acid — and "If I hadn't been a darned good swimmer," he says, "I surely would have drowned." But the best part, his lady love was waiting at the shore, saying, "You big boob, if you want to use this license with me get into some dry clothes. Won't you ever learn that when a woman says 'No,' she means 'Yes' — sometimes?"
 

[Bryson, 1982]

Intent on suicide, Frenchman Jacques Lefevre drove a stake into the ground on the top of a cliff overlooking the sea, then tied one end of a rope around the stake and the other around his neck. Being nothing if thorough, Lefevre then drank a bottle of poison, set his clothes on fire, lowered himself over the cliff, and tried to shoot himself in the head. Unfortunately he missed, the bullet cut the rope in two, dropping the hapless gentleman into the sea, where the salt water put out his flaming clothes and caused him to spew up the poison. A passing fisherman picked Lefevre up and delivered him to a nearby hospital, where at last the weary Frenchman got his wish - and died from the effects of exposure.