# Four major bankers have committed suicide. Conspiracy…or? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [February 4, 2014, 5:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/four-major-bankers-have-committed-suicide-conspiracy-or/680496 "2014-02-04T17:02:29Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![nevadaexile](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/eb8c5e/32.png) [@nevadaexile](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nevadaexile)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2014, 5:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/four-major-bankers-have-committed-suicide-conspiracy-or/680496/1 "2014-02-04T17:02:29Z")
According to to these news reports, four major bankers around the world have committed suicide in just the last week. Is this a conspiracy…or a coincidence? References: > **[TWO American bankers working in London commit suicide in two days](https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2547684/TWO-senior-American-bankers-working-London-commit-suicide-just-two-days-one-jumped-500ft-death-JP-Morgan-skyscraper.html)** > > Gabriel Magee, a 39-year-old JP Morgan bank executive, died this morning after he threw himself off the top of the bank's European headquarters. On Sunday, former Deutsche Bank senior manager, William 'Bill' Broeksmit, 58, was found hanging in his... > **[Financial world shaken by 4 bankers' apparent suicides in a week](https://www.rt.com/business/russell-investments-chief-economist-dead-564/)** > > The apparent suicide death of the chief economist of a US investment house brings the number of financial workers who have died allegedly by their own hand to four in the last week. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2014, 5:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/four-major-bankers-have-committed-suicide-conspiracy-or/680496/2 "2014-02-04T17:07:23Z")
[One](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karl_Slym) of those four was an automobile company executive, not a banker. ---
**Author:** ![Omar\_Little](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/omar_little/32/269_2.png) [@Omar\_Little](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Omar_Little)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2014, 5:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/four-major-bankers-have-committed-suicide-conspiracy-or/680496/3 "2014-02-04T17:08:34Z")
To call the Tata managing director a “banker” is a stretch. Until someone shows a link between the four suicides…two in London, one in Washington state, and one in Bangkok, I will say coincidence. ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2014, 5:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/four-major-bankers-have-committed-suicide-conspiracy-or/680496/4 "2014-02-04T17:09:16Z")
Compound interest at work? ---
**Author:** ![nevadaexile](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/eb8c5e/32.png) [@nevadaexile](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nevadaexile)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2014, 5:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/four-major-bankers-have-committed-suicide-conspiracy-or/680496/5 "2014-02-04T17:09:17Z")
> [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > [One](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karl_Slym) of those four was an automobile company executive, not a banker. Does that make him any less dead? ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2014, 5:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/four-major-bankers-have-committed-suicide-conspiracy-or/680496/6 "2014-02-04T17:12:13Z")
No, but it shows that the thread title is incorrect. You might as well try to lump in the death of Philip Seymour Hoffman; surely he _played_ a banker in one of his roles. ---
**Author:** ![Gary\_T](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/3ec8ea/32.png) [@Gary\_T](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gary_T)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2014, 5:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/four-major-bankers-have-committed-suicide-conspiracy-or/680496/7 "2014-02-04T17:14:02Z")
> [@nevadaexile](#): > > Does that make him any less dead? No, but it makes it less of a pattern of dead bankers. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2014, 5:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/four-major-bankers-have-committed-suicide-conspiracy-or/680496/8 "2014-02-04T17:24:52Z")
Since this requires speculation, let’s move it to IMHO. Colibri General Questions Moderator ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2014, 5:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/four-major-bankers-have-committed-suicide-conspiracy-or/680496/9 "2014-02-04T17:28:44Z")
Here’s the interesting thing about coincidence. It always has clusters. When people try to imitate a random string they almost always make the same mistake. They try to each each number or letter different. In the real world you’ll get doubles and triples even in seemingly short groupings. This has massive implications for the real world. Take cancer clusters. Because cancers occur by the tens of millions over time, true chance behavior will inevitably place several cancers of any type together in one spot. Unfortunately, so will an outside agent that is causing the clusters. In most cases those cannot be distinguished. People who don’t know statistics and who have powerful motivation to find a _reason_ will insist that something is being overlooked or suppressed. Checking the news reports of the OP’s cases (I’ve read others before these) brings up nothing to connect them except that several use the word banker and several the word suicide, although even those aren’t universally applied. The two London cases involve people of different ages, who worked at different banks, one of whom wasn’t even in the industry any more. They died on different days, and in different ways. Now the press, always ready to make a story bigger, are dragging in falls and non-bankers to juice up the potential headlines. That’s a hallmark of a phony pattern. Everything we know about chance tells us that clusters of similarity will happen. Conspiracy theorists hate this idea, as much as they hate all science, logic, and facts. In a book or movie the underlying connection will inevitably be found, although only the fearless investigator may ever know the secret. Life is not a book or movie. The odds are tremendously in favor of coincidences being coincidences. The odds for conspiracy are non-zero, of course, however small they might be. This keeps conspiracy theorists going and denouncing all the rationalists in the world. I know which way I’d bet, for sure. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2014, 5:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/four-major-bankers-have-committed-suicide-conspiracy-or/680496/10 "2014-02-04T17:40:20Z")
Plus, even if there is a connection, it’s not necessarily the one you think it is. As an example that _could_ come up in a case like this (but probably didn’t): These guys move in the same social circles, and know many of the same people. Maybe one of them was having an affair with the other’s wife. Things went sour, and both guys end up driven to suicide over the affair. That would be a connection, but it wouldn’t imply anything funny going on in the banking industry per se. ---
**Author:** ![friedo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8edcca/32.png) [@friedo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/friedo)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2014, 5:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/four-major-bankers-have-committed-suicide-conspiracy-or/680496/11 "2014-02-04T17:56:10Z")
> [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > No, but it shows that the thread title is incorrect. You might as well try to lump in the death of Philip Seymour Hoffman; surely he _played_ a banker in one of his roles. He [sure did](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Owning_Mahowny). One of his overlooked masterpieces. ---
**Author:** ![Smeghead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f1d935/32.png) [@Smeghead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smeghead)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2014, 6:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/four-major-bankers-have-committed-suicide-conspiracy-or/680496/12 "2014-02-04T18:12:23Z")
How many people die in the world every day? How many professions are there? Someone go do the math for me. I’ve got a meeting with the NSA to attend. ---
**Author:** ![Simplicio](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c37758/32.png) [@Simplicio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Simplicio)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2014, 6:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/four-major-bankers-have-committed-suicide-conspiracy-or/680496/13 "2014-02-04T18:42:14Z")
I’m not sure the last guy really counts as a “major banker” either. They just say he was an employee at JP Morgan. I imagine if he were a dept. head or something they would’ve given his title. And one of the other guys was retired. So one actual major banker, one retired banker, one lower level bank employee and a car company executive all died in the same week. I imagine you could write basically the same story _every_ week, with different names. ---
**Author:** ![Simplicio](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c37758/32.png) [@Simplicio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Simplicio)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2014, 6:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/four-major-bankers-have-committed-suicide-conspiracy-or/680496/14 "2014-02-04T18:49:40Z")
Or put another way, wiki says there are 6 million employees in the US financial/insurance sector. The suicide rate is 14/100,000/yr. So on a given week, 15 finance workers just in the US should off themselves. Around the world, with finance workers defined as loosely as the OP does, the number must be more then 100/week. And yet, only four died on that week? Is there some sort of insidious conspiracy keeping bankers from killing themselves that week? Have they found the ancient secret of turning money into happiness? Is the gov’t just covering up their suicides? There must be some sort of conspiracy. ---
**Author:** ![StusBlues](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/dc4da7/32.png) [@StusBlues](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/StusBlues)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2014, 8:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/four-major-bankers-have-committed-suicide-conspiracy-or/680496/15 "2014-02-04T20:16:32Z")
I’m much le **s** s likely to **c** all consp **i** racy sh **en** anigans on **t** hese deaths than I am **o** n Phi **l** ip Seym **o** ur Hoffman’s demise. That **g** u **y** ’s death just seems to invite speculation, but maybe it’s just me. ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2014, 8:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/four-major-bankers-have-committed-suicide-conspiracy-or/680496/16 "2014-02-04T20:17:33Z")
The conspiracy we’d all LIKE to see: Top-level regulators and law-enforcement officials, world over, get their heads and acts together and prosecute the living shit out of banks and their top officers who need it. THEN I’d bet we’d see a few more suicides. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2014, 8:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/four-major-bankers-have-committed-suicide-conspiracy-or/680496/17 "2014-02-04T20:26:22Z")
Oddly, all four were both in Dallas in November 1963 **and** at the opening of King Tut’s tomb. ---
**Author:** ![Simplicio](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c37758/32.png) [@Simplicio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Simplicio)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2014, 8:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/four-major-bankers-have-committed-suicide-conspiracy-or/680496/18 "2014-02-04T20:31:30Z")
> [@StusBlues](#): > > I’m much le **s** s likely to **c** all consp **i** racy sh **en** anigans on **t** hese deaths than I am **o** n Phi **l** ip Seym **o** ur Hoffman’s demise. That **g** u **y** ’s death just seems to invite speculation, but maybe it’s just me. Meh, Scientologists efforts to get back at those they perceive as enemies have generally been pretty amateurish, and haven’t involved violence. I’m pretty sceptical they’d actually try and kill someone, and I seriously doubt they’d do anything but make a hash of it if they tried. Hoffman was a known drug addict, who was using the class of drugs most commonly associated with the risk of overdose. There isn’t much of a mystery to solve there. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2014, 9:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/four-major-bankers-have-committed-suicide-conspiracy-or/680496/19 "2014-02-04T21:01:29Z")
People say dentists have a high suicide rate. What sinister conspiracy is behind those deaths? ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2014, 9:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/four-major-bankers-have-committed-suicide-conspiracy-or/680496/20 "2014-02-04T21:21:25Z")
> [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > Everything we know about chance tells us that clusters of similarity will happen. Conspiracy theorists hate this idea, as much as they hate all science, logic, and facts. In a book or movie the underlying connection will inevitably be found, although only the fearless investigator may ever know the secret. Life is not a book or movie. The odds are tremendously in favor of coincidences being coincidences. :applause: [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/four-major-bankers-have-committed-suicide-conspiracy-or/680496.md?page=2)