• The most famous, of course, was actress Peg Entwistle, who’d been quite successful on Broadway in the '20s but failed to find more than one film role when she moved to Hollywood. She climbed to the top of the HOLLYWOODLAND sign and jumped off the “H” (we once had a discussion here as to which is the best giant letter to climb and jump from). You gotta give the girl credit for a brilliantly symbolic suicide.
• Then there was a guy about 20 years ago who rented a stateroom on one of the great ocean liners, and one morning, mid-ocean, the steward unlocked his room to find a huge tip to the staff, his lifejacket torn in half, and the window to the room’s balcony open. That guy had class.
I have a vague recollection of a news anchor killing herself (maybe himself, it’s that vague) at the end of a news broadcast. I did a quick google to see if I could find something. No luck, but I found this:
I always thought that inserting small amounts of plastic explosives subcutaneously in a spiral pattern around your body and then detonating them with computer-timed wires would be an interesting way to off oneself. If you started from the limbs and moved inward, you could basically watch yourself being flayed.
Yes, I stayed up one night thinking about this. Fortunately, the drugs help.
Ringing bells for me too, but I couldn’t find it either. Only this news article about the famous on-air L.A. freeway suicide.
(I’m thinking that maybe it wasn’t a news anchor, but a male politician or official who killed himself at a press conference. Not having much luck googling right now though.)
You are thinking of Mr. Bud Dwyer, who was the State Treasurer of Pennsylvania convicted of accepting bribes. He pulled out a gun at a news conference, put it in his mouth and shot himself. Feb. 1998.
Snopes has a list of “on-air”/in-performance deaths, listing both Dwyer and Chubbuck. (It hasn’t yet been updated to include “Dimebag Darrell” from Pantera/Damageplan.)
One rather creative method of suicide: Attatch a net of razor wire to the mains electricity then throw yourself onto it, as the razor wire is electrified your body spasms and you throw yourself around on the razor wire, if they electricity doesn’t kill you the blood loss will.
Find a tall building. As an example, say 100 feet tall.
Tie a loop of very thin piano wire around your neck. Tie the other end to an anchor point on the roof of the building. Distance between anchor and neck loop should be 83 feet.
Don a harness, and tie yourself in to the same anchor point with 85 feet of rope.
Cover your hand with Krazy Glue, and affix it firmly to your head. Wait for this to cure.
Jump.
You will end up hanging from a rope just out of reach, with your severed head in your hand.