# 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:** 2
**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, 9:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/four-major-bankers-have-committed-suicide-conspiracy-or/680496/21 "2014-02-04T21:54:42Z")
> [@Simplicio](#): > > 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. You’re almost certainly right, but I’d still put the conspiracy odds higher for Hoffman than for the four financial figures in the OP. YMMV. ---
**Author:** ![Wesley\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wesley_clark/32/20581_2.png) [@Wesley\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wesley_Clark)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2014, 10:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/four-major-bankers-have-committed-suicide-conspiracy-or/680496/22 "2014-02-04T22:02:05Z")
If TPTB wanted to kill people and make it look like a suicide, having them jump from the windows of crowded buildings would draw too much attention. A heart attack at home or a suicide at home would be easier to organize. Plus London has CCTV cameras everywhere in public, if the guy was pushed people would be a risk of being seen by a security camera. Plus whatever security cameras inside the building. I’m not opposed to the concept that people are murdered and it is made to look like an accident, suicide or natural causes (if it is done right nobody would ever know anyway). But this situation doesn’t really fit that from what I can tell. Plus why these guys and why now? ---
**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, 10:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/four-major-bankers-have-committed-suicide-conspiracy-or/680496/23 "2014-02-04T22:16:02Z")
> [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > The odds are tremendously in favor of coincidences being coincidences. Indeed - that’s why we invented a word to describe them. ---
**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, 10:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/four-major-bankers-have-committed-suicide-conspiracy-or/680496/24 "2014-02-04T22:18:40Z")
> [@StusBlues](#): > > You’re almost certainly right, but I’d still put the conspiracy odds higher for Hoffman than for the four financial figures in the OP. YMMV. Who cares if one goofy conspiracy theory is slightly less goofy than another? Anyway Scientology has a long record of _not_ murdering its critics (South Park, the Simpsons, etc. etc. etc.) ---
**Author:** ![Shodan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9f8e36/32.png) [@Shodan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shodan)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2014, 10:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/four-major-bankers-have-committed-suicide-conspiracy-or/680496/25 "2014-02-04T22:19:11Z")
> [@Wesley\_Clark](#): > > If TPTB wanted to kill people and make it look like a suicide, having them jump from the windows of crowded buildings would draw too much attention. Agreed. Crash planes into them instead. > [@](#): > > Plus why these guys and why now? Sure sure - you’re Just Asking Questions, right? Regards, Shodan ---
**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, 10:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/four-major-bankers-have-committed-suicide-conspiracy-or/680496/26 "2014-02-04T22:30:31Z")
> [@Marley23](#): > > Who cares if one goofy conspiracy theory is slightly less goofy than another? Anyway Scientology has a long record of _not_ murdering its critics (South Park, the Simpsons, etc. etc. etc.) [Yet](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Freakout). And there is some utility in lining up conspiracy theories in order of probability. It’s a lot more probable that a group of well-placed American plutocrats approached a US Major General about a coup d’etat, for example, than it is that the same thing happened but with Venusians. It’s a discussion. That’s how discussions work. It’s not like I’m sending the Navy Seals to COS headquarters or anything. ---
**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, 10:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/four-major-bankers-have-committed-suicide-conspiracy-or/680496/27 "2014-02-04T22:36:06Z")
> [@StusBlues](#): > > [Yet](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Freakout). They haven’t got to you either. Yet. ---
**Author:** ![Giraffe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/giraffe/32/129_2.png) [@Giraffe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Giraffe)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2014, 10:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/four-major-bankers-have-committed-suicide-conspiracy-or/680496/28 "2014-02-04T22:42:41Z")
> [@Marley23](#): > > People say dentists have a high suicide rate. What sinister conspiracy is behind those deaths? Have you _looked_ in most people’s mouths? ---
**Author:** ![Telemark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/telemark/32/372_2.png) [@Telemark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telemark)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2014, 11:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/four-major-bankers-have-committed-suicide-conspiracy-or/680496/29 "2014-02-04T23:30:36Z")
> [@Marley23](#): > > People say dentists have a high suicide rate. What sinister conspiracy is behind those deaths? I dunno, they’re always looking down in the mouth, pretty sad lot. ---
**Author:** ![Typo\_Negative](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/typo_negative/32/484_2.png) [@Typo\_Negative](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Typo_Negative)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2014, 11:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/four-major-bankers-have-committed-suicide-conspiracy-or/680496/30 "2014-02-04T23:33:36Z")
> [@Simplicio](#): > > And yet, only four died on that week? Four _that we know about…_ ---
**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, 11:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/four-major-bankers-have-committed-suicide-conspiracy-or/680496/31 "2014-02-04T23:49:16Z")
Too bad Robert Ludlum’s dead. He could have spun these deaths into a bestseller. _The Davos Report_: How a conspiracy to subvert the global banking system was planned during the 2014 World Economic Forum meeting. (Which was just a couple of weeks ago; surely that’s not a coincidence?) ---
**Author:** ![The\_Second\_Stone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bbe5ce/32.png) [@The\_Second\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Second_Stone)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2014, 2:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/four-major-bankers-have-committed-suicide-conspiracy-or/680496/32 "2014-02-05T02:47:38Z")
> [@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. 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. Statistical bunching up is the chief way to hide conspiracies by changing the name “conspiracy” to “coincidence”. Cancers can in fact be coincidence. Or they could be the result of a cancer causing agent, say asbestos. Conspiracy, or coincidence? Depends on who is making the filter of your respirator. People named Kennedy running for president or occupying the office of President who die. Turns out it is coincidence breaking out all over the place, not assassins’ bullets. In America you are considered a conspiracy nut to think it was conspiracy that the Kennedys were both assassinated, whereas in the rest of the world it is widely recognized that politics is like that, resulting in entirely coincidental death of reformer politicians who are brothers. See. [Gracchi brothers - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gracchi) History is replete with the coincidental killings of reforming political figures, and it is just bunching up, pure statistics, not sniper fire. As Americans, we are sophisticated enough to know that physicist with hundreds of dead cats isn’t crazy, he just lives near an animal shelter. These “bankers” could have had some kind of disease, let’s say, a break out of conscience series of coincidences, and offed themselves. Only a conspiracy theorist would point out truthfully than “hey wait a minute, bankers don’t have consciences” this must be a statistical cluster of perfectly natural violent deaths caused by knowing too much. Duh. ---
**Author:** ![njtt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ecd19e/32.png) [@njtt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/njtt)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2014, 2:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/four-major-bankers-have-committed-suicide-conspiracy-or/680496/33 "2014-02-05T02:54:09Z")
So, how many more to go? ---
**Author:** ![Telemark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/telemark/32/372_2.png) [@Telemark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telemark)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2014, 4:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/four-major-bankers-have-committed-suicide-conspiracy-or/680496/34 "2014-02-05T04:21:12Z")
> [@njtt](#): > > So, how many more to go? It’s taking longer than we thought. ---
**Author:** ![Zebra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/c0e974/32.png) [@Zebra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zebra)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2014, 5:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/four-major-bankers-have-committed-suicide-conspiracy-or/680496/35 "2014-02-05T05:34:03Z")
> [@Typo\_Negative](#): > > Four _that we know about…_ Four that you’ve discovered. Four major bankers dead? I’d call that a good start. ---
**Author:** ![Accidental\_Martyr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ce7236/32.png) [@Accidental\_Martyr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Accidental_Martyr)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2014, 10:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/four-major-bankers-have-committed-suicide-conspiracy-or/680496/36 "2014-02-05T10:24:48Z")
> [@StusBlues](#): > > You’re almost certainly right, but I’d still put the conspiracy odds higher for Hoffman than for the four financial figures in the OP. YMMV. _The Master_ was partially inspired by, but not explicitly about $cientology. Plus, if they were that upset about it, wouldn’t they go after P.T. Anderson instead of Hoffman? ---
**Author:** ![don\_t\_ask](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e68b1a/32.png) [@don\_t\_ask](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/don_t_ask)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2014, 1:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/four-major-bankers-have-committed-suicide-conspiracy-or/680496/37 "2014-02-05T13:05:49Z")
Seriously guys if you are looking for a death that screams conspiracy, it’s Nelson Mandela. Where were the producers of _Mandela: Long Walk To Freedom_ when he conveniently died providing their movie with much free publicity? In fact where was Idris Elba? It’s not like they found 50 bags of heroin in Mandela’s room. Or a needle in his arm. ---
**Author:** ![aesop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5f8ce5/32.png) [@aesop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aesop)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2014, 9:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/four-major-bankers-have-committed-suicide-conspiracy-or/680496/38 "2014-02-05T21:40:57Z")
> [@Simplicio](#): > > 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. The JPM employee was not a “major banker” - he was a VP in technology, not especially senior and not even close to the front office. > [@Zebra](#): > > Four that you’ve discovered. > Four major bankers dead? I’d call that a good start. Very funny. Probably not quite as funny to anyone who saw the shattered body of one of their colleagues outside their window. ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2014, 10:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/four-major-bankers-have-committed-suicide-conspiracy-or/680496/39 "2014-02-05T22:07:47Z")
> [@The\_Second\_Stone](#): > > Statistical bunching up is the chief way to hide conspiracies by changing the name “conspiracy” to “coincidence”. Cancers can in fact be coincidence. Or they could be the result of a cancer causing agent, say asbestos. Conspiracy, or coincidence? Depends on who is making the filter of your respirator. Or maybe it depends on the mathematics of stochastic processes. And it isn’t particularly abstruse stuff; lots of upper-level undergrad math students take courses in it. ---
**Author:** ![Smeghead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f1d935/32.png) [@Smeghead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smeghead)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2014, 12:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/four-major-bankers-have-committed-suicide-conspiracy-or/680496/40 "2014-02-06T00:19:57Z")
> [@aesop](#): > > Very funny. Probably not quite as funny to anyone who saw the shattered body of one of their colleagues outside their window. Well, obviously. That’s why jokes are being cracked here, on an anonymous internet message board, and not at the guy’s funeral. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/four-major-bankers-have-committed-suicide-conspiracy-or/680496.md?page=1)