Rackarock. 1909.

Northern Star 12 Oct 1909 http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article72228455

Suicide as an ‘I’ll show all of you’ kind of thing is never going to succeed really, is it? You aren’t going to be around to get any benefit out of your tantrum.

I had never heard of rackarock before and although it was clearly some sort of poisonous substance with a name like that it could have been anything!

Rackarock is a kind of liquid explosive made up of potassium chlorate and mono-nitrobenzene, and should never be kept on the nightstand. Not really the type of nightcap anyone would recommend….

If you hate your job, you should just quit. Extreme measures. 1936.

Albany Advertiser 21 Dec 1936 http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article70259057

What an unusual way to hasten the end. If you hate your job you should really do something a little less drastic about it. I wonder what the pilot was thinking as this guy dove out?

I wonder if it was his own shop or if he had spent ages just dreaming about smashing through the roof onto his surprised boss?

I am sure we have all imagined ways to tell a crappy boss to shove their job, but diving through the roof from 3,500 ft? Really? I think he could have thought that through a little better.

Either way, it would appear he missed the grocery altogether and only managed to ruin a nearby bungalow and nearly take out some innocent bystanders. Those poor women are never going to feel safe indoors again!

Fences and necks. Do not combine.

The North Western Advocate and the Emu Bay Times 1st June 1908 http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article64819033

I found this article and wondered what on earth was going on with this woman. One time could be an accident but to have been found with her head jammed in the same way sometime earlier makes me wonder about her state of mind. Once I read this one it wasn’t hard to find the other article along the same lines. Not sure that a fence is a method may people would take to end their life, and really, I don’t think it would be too reliable a method either. Mostly when newspapers stated that a fence was involved in the death of a person, a gun was also attending the scene. I know that you need to be careful when you pass through a fence with a gun but judging by the volume of articles regarding unexpectedly discharged guns, fences and dead farmers I wonder if anybody else knew?

The Sydney Morning Herald 25th Aug 1916 http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article15696838

In a semi-related story, a woman was found one night recently impaled on the spikes of a fence surrounding St Francis’ church in Melbourne. There were many comments in the media on the terribleness of the spikes and how such things shouldn’t be allowed. The bravery of the woman and how she handled the pain was also noted. What the??!!!

The fence wasn’t at ground level, she didn’t trip and fall on the spikes while on her way to help out at the local soup kitchen. The fence was there to keep people out and, I thought, did quite a good job. She was clearly trespassing, I mean if she had a key she wouldn’t have had to jump a high fence to get in. The thing that annoyed me the most was that they cut a section of the fence away to get her down and trundle her off to hospital. This church was first opened in October 1845, the fence is possibly of the same vintage so damaging it should be a crime itself! When I looked up information about this church I found that it has a claim to fame that most people will not know, it was the place where Ned Kelly’s parents were married.

Strychnine and beer, 1920.

Barrier Miner (Broken Hill) 28th Feb 1920http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article45502852

Yet another to add to the list of unpleasant, self-inflicted, deaths.

I know there are a lot of men out there that would do anything to avoid their financial responsibilities when a relationship breaks down, but this guy was taking it to extremes.

Strychnine poisoning is a fairly horrible way to go, that is why it is often the poison of choice for movie-makers. None of this feeling unwell and going to your room for a quiet lie down, never to return. This one is the big theatrical death of spasming muscles and pain, followed by suffocation. Yuck. Although I don’t agree with the shirking of responsibilities, surely a new identity in a new city would have been preferable to that horrible end.

I suppose there were a lot of foxes that were pretty happy to see him get a dose of his own though.

A Protracted End, 1876.

I read in the news today that the first suicide has occurred from the worlds tallest building, the Burj Khalifa in Dubai.  The poor fellow reportedly jumped from the 147th floor and landed on a terrace of the 108th floor. The building is over 160 floors high so the poor bugger travelled hardly any distance down the building at all but nevertheless still went down 39 floors, quite far enough to achieve his end.

The Burj Khalifa is frighteningly high. I have seen the view from the top on TV and it is like being in low orbit! When I read this article I drew a little scale just to see where this guy jumped from and it made the building seem even higher. Try it. Draw a vertical line and mark the quarters. Then mark between 147 and 108. On a normal building that distance is just between fire escapes! I don’t understand why you would want to kill yourself but this guy clearly wanted to get it done.

Continuing on this theme, I found this article from The Argus on the 22nd November 1876. This guy must have suffered terribly and I am still not quite sure why a woodcutter would swallow molten lead in a suicide bid. Didn’t he own an axe? Surely there would have been less agonizing ends he could have chosen. And molten lead? Geeez…

The Argus 22 nov 1876http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article5910555

Never been that bored!

http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article58843985

     Found this article in The Mail (Adelaide) from 9th May 1931. People will never stop complaining about the shiftlessness of the younger generations, and to me this article proves stupidity is nothing new. What an idiot. I wonder if he survived.