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These are the people who chose to leave this world before their time. They were convinced that life had very little to look forward to and decided to put an end to their miseries. However, they did leave behind their last words, addressed to their loved ones, muses, friends and the world in notes, scribbles and letters, penned down in their last hours.
We bring you the extracts of such chilling suicide notes written by some of the famous people around the world who chose to end their own lives. Let’s have a look.
1. Kevin Carter
The man behind the lens of one of the most sepulchral photograph of the century – a Sudanese child, starved almost to death, crouching with her head buried in her tiny hands while a vulture awaits her death so that it could devour the corpse. A jarring image of poverty, destitute and famine, the photograph, fetched Carter the Pulitzer prize in 1994 but he had seen too much by that time.
Carter, chased the vulture away after taking the shot but couldn’t do much to help the girl. After suffering from depression for months, Carter finally committed suicide by carbon monoxide poisoning in 1994. He was only 33 at the time of his death.
His note read: “..I am haunted by the vivid memories of killings and corpses and anger and pain … of starving or wounded children, of trigger-happy madmen, often police, of killer executioners …”
2. Adolf Hitler
Having spent 40 hours inside a bunker with his newly wedded wife, Eva Braun, Hitler realized that there was no escape from the Red Army. He had also come to know of the fall of his friend, Benito Mussolini and how he was cut into pieces and thrown into the gutter by the Italian Partisans.
Adolf Hitler, was too proud to let himself or his wife die in such disgrace and realizing imminent capture, he decided to end his and his wife’s lives. Without any sign of remorse for his deeds as the Führer, Hitler prepared The Last Will that announced the decision of him ending his and his just wedded wife.
His note read: “…I myself and my wife – in order to escape the disgrace of deposition or capitulation – choose death.”
3. Hunter S. Thompson
The man on whose life, the Johnny Depp starrer Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas was made, Hunter S. Thompson was the inventor of what we call today the Gonzo journalism – a style where the reporter becomes a part of the story and often writes in first person narrative. Thompson was in his “Fortified Compound” called Owl Farm, Colorado where he shot himself dead with a gun.
He was on the phone with his wife, Anita, when he cocked the gun and Anita thought that cocking of the gun was just the sound of the typewriter he was using for writing an ESPN column. The typewriter had just one page with a single word written on it – “counselor”. However, an apparent suicide note written by him to Anita was published by Rolling Stone.
His note read: “No More Games. No More Bombs. No More Walking. No More Fun. No More Swimming. 67. That is 17 years past 50. 17 more than I needed or wanted. Boring. I am always bitchy. No Fun — for anybody. 67. You are getting Greedy. Act your (old) age. Relax — This won’t hurt”
4. Per “Dead” Ohlin
The lyricist and front-man of the Norwegian black metal band, Mayhem, Per Ohlin was better known by his stage name, Dead. Melancholic, dark, depressed and strange were the attributes given to him by his band mates. Not only would he wear corpse makeup onstage, he would also bury his clothes and dig them up before gigs to look like a corpse.
Once, after finding a dead crow, he kept it with himself only to take it out onstage and sniff it. He would often cut his wrists and showed suicidal tendencies which actually worked for the band’s image. Finally, on April 8, 1991, Ohlin left for the woods where he shot himself dead after slitting his throat and wrists with a knife.
His note read: “Excuse the blood, but I have slit my wrists and neck. It was the intention that I would die in the woods so that it would take a few days before I was possibly found. I belong in the woods and have always done so. No one will understand the reason for this anyway…”
5. Christine Chubbuck
Christine Chubbuck, an American news reporter shot herself with a gun when she was on air, presenting a live television broadcast. This may not have been ideally a part of the list of suicide notes had she not included the act as a part of the script. Christine had convinced the channel to make a show on suicides and she had also researched on various methods of committing suicide prior to the show.
On the day of the show, Chubbuck covered three national stories followed by shooting news from the previous day. Then, with a few words and a shrug of her shoulder, Christine drew out a revolver and shot herself behind the ear. The broadcast was faded to black but several viewers had already witnessed the incident by then.
Her last words on camera: “In keeping with Channel 40’s policy of bringing you the latest in ‘blood and guts’, and in living color, you are going to see another first — attempted suicide.”
6. Kurt Cobain
Front-man of American grunge rock legends, Nirvana, Kurt Cobain was found dead at his residence on April 8, 1994. According to Forensic reports, 27 year old Kurt had blown his head off with a shotgun. Cobain was said to have suicidal tendencies long before he shot to fame and during the 1991 European tour of Nirvana, Cobain suffered from acute stomach pains regarding which he later accounted, “This [heroin] is the only thing that’s saving me from blowing my head off right now.”
One of the most famous members of the 27 Club, Cobain’s death was a tragedy to millions of fans all over the world, many of whom still don’t believe it was a suicide.
His note read: “…I don’t have the passion anymore, and so remember, it’s better to burn out than to fade away.”
7. Virginia Woolf
It might be a little morbid and inhuman to consider a suicide note as a piece of literature but Virginia Woolf’s last letter was no less than one. One of England’s most gifted author, Virginia Woolf was quite artistic in the way she died as well. On March 28, 1941, Woolf filled the pockets of her overcoat with stones and drowned herself in River Ouse.
Her body was found on April 18. She was 59 years old and the relapse of her clinical depression was too much for her to take this time. The beginning of the Second World War, the burning down of her house during the Blitz and the cold receptions to the biography that she had written for friend Roger Fry worsened her mental health.
Her note to husband, Leonard read: “Dearest, I feel certain that I am going mad again. I feel we can’t go through another of those terrible times. And I shan’t recover this time…. Everything has gone from me but the certainty of your goodness. I can’t go on spoiling your life any longer”
8. Jiah Khan
Jiah Khan was quite promising an actress who made her debut in Bollywood with Ram Gopal Verma’s Nishabd in 2007. Jiah’s career was moving fine with two of her films, Ghajini and Housefull making it into the 100 Crore grosser Club. However, her relationship with Bollywood actor Sooraj Pancholi didn’t end well which prompted her to end her life.
Jiah Khan was found hanging from a ceiling fan at her Juhu residence in Mumbai in 2013. Four days after she committed suicide, a six page suicide letter was discovered by her sister which mentioned her plans to end her life and also a recent abortion.
Her note to Sooraj Pancholi read: “..I don’t know why destiny brought us together. After all the pain, the rape, the abuse, the torture I have seen previously I didn’t deserve this.”
9. George Sanders
Author, singer-songwriter, music composer and television actor, George Sander’s suicide note, though tragic, was perhaps the most bad-ass suicide note ever to be written by a celebrity. Sanders, in bis later years, suffered from dementia and is health was worsened fast.
He was deeply saddened by the fact that he needed someone else’s help to carry out simple day to day activities. The man behind the voice of Sher Khan from Disney’s Jungle Book, Sanders checked into a hotel on April 23, 1972, drank five full bottles of barbiturate Nembutal, and was found dead two days later.
One his three suicide notes read: “Dear World, I am leaving because I am bored. I feel I have lived long enough. I am leaving you with your worries in this sweet cesspool. Good luck.”
10. Sid Vicious
Sid  Vicious was a prominent member of one of the most notorious and followed punk rock bands in history, Sex Pistols. Sid was slowly recovering from a prolonged period of substance abuse but got hold of some heroin at a party handed over to him by his photographer friend, Peter Kodick.
Sid apparently took enormous amounts of heroin and died in his sleep that very night. Sid’s girlfriend, Nancy Spungen had died the previous year and Sid was suspected to have murdered her. Apparently, Sid and Nancy had a suicide pact which was validated by the suicide letter found by his mother after his death.
His note read: “We had a death pact, and I have to keep my half of the bargain. Please bury me next to my baby. Bury me in my leather jacket, jeans and motorcycle boots Goodbye.”
Sad yet fascinating!
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