[Alex Murphy]

If you look at the last picture of him, he looked pretty emaciated. If I didn’t know any better, I would have guessed he either had the Big C, or a bigtime Liver problem.

Not sure if it's the answer for his emaciation, but according to Wikipedia he had contracted herpes simplex in the mid-80s.

[hummingbird]

"herpes simplex"

------------------------->

Shingles? It lives in us all, I think, as long as we have had chickenpox. Then something provokes the shingles.

Had shingles twice and it is painful. A friend of mine had shingles in her eyes - I don't even know how that is possible.

At any rate, she was in great pain, almost lost her vision and was hospitalized for some time just to control the pain.

Great pain can lead to catastrophic decisions. Not saying this is what happened here - just chiming in for the Herpes Simplex crowd, of which I am a member! It feels like endless pain.