Free Republic

A senior CIA official has died in an apparent suicide this week from injuries sustained after jumping off a building in northern Virginia, according to sources close to the CIA. Sen. Diane Feinstein (D., Calif.), chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, has said the CIA has blocked efforts by the committee to investigate harsh interrogation of terrorists. Committee staff members working at a CIA facility in Northern Virginia to investigate agency interrogation practices also have charged that the CIA covertly searched the agency’s computers that were being used in the investigation. The agency subsequently reported that several Senate...

A senior CIA official has died in an apparent suicide this week from injuries sustained after jumping off a building in northern Virginia, according to sources close to the CIA. CIA spokesman Christopher White confirmed the death and said the incident did not take place at CIA headquarters in McLean, Va. “We can confirm that there was an individual fatally injured at a facility where agency work is done,” White told the Washington Free Beacon.

Having changed her Facebook profile picture to a "V...for Vendetta" face mask, the widow of former Zurich Insurance CFO Pierre Wauthier said she and her family cannot accept Zurich’s claim that his death wasn’t brought on by undue stress. As Bloomberg reports, Switzerland’s biggest insurer said in November that no “undue pressure” was put on Wauthier, who said in a suicide note that then-Chairman Josef Ackermann had created an unbearable working environment. But, his wife is demanding to know why her husband's former boss resigned if he had not accepted blame for the death, and why details of tensions at...

HOT SPRINGS, Ark. - Harry Hubbard Johnson, who recently left the employ of trainer Steve Asmussen at Oaklawn Park in Hot Springs, Ark., committed suicide Friday in Kentucky. Johnson was Asmussen’s shed foreman, a position that ranks a level below assistant trainer. He died two days following his 27th birthday. “He was a kind soul and a pleasure to be around,” Asmussen said Saturday. “I feel horrible for the whole Johnson family.” Johnson’s death comes a little more than a week after People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) released controversial video and audio footage recorded undercover in the...

I was out earlier tonight and heard Mick Jagger over a store loudspeaker singing "Under My Thumb." Given the very tragic suicide of his lover of 13 years, fashion designer and stylist L'Wren Scott, who was buried earlier this week amid rumors that Mick's unfaithfulness was one contributory factor, I hope he never, ever performs that song again...

Lt. Col. (Ret.) Dar Place was two feet away when his friend and fellow soldier took his own life during the Gulf War. Two decades later, like so many other veterans, Place is still haunted by the plague of suicide in the military. “I personally saw my driver after Desert Storm in his tank put a gun underneath his mouth and pull the trigger, while I was no further away from him than I am from you right now,” Place told the Washington Free Beacon at the National Mall in Washington, D.C., on Thursday. He was one of the...

The dismal list of financial executive deaths has recently increased to 11 in the last few months. Speculation has surrounded many of these deaths (and suicides) as to the reasoning; none more than the first - William Broeksmit, an executive who worked in Deutsche Bank's risk function and advised senior leadership who hanged himself in his South Kensington home in late January. However, as the WSJ reports, we now know why this poor man felt compelled to take his own life: he was "anxious about various authorities investigating areas of the bank where he worked" (and yes, we are well...

Florida shooting: Alex Hollinghurst was killed by evil druggie boyfriend Brandon Goode says her family Mar 24, 2014 20:20 By Paul Byrne Oldham born Alexandria Hollinghurst and Brandon Goode killed a police officer then seemingly turned guns on themselves but her family says he killed her What happened? Alex as a little girl and with her family, and before she died A British teenager who was gunned down in an apparent murder-suicide had been living the ‘American Dream’. But when Alexandria Hollinghurst, 17, known as Alex, fell for drug addict Brandon Goode, her life spiralled out of control. And last...

A rash of eight financial-industry suicides so far in 2014 has mental-health professionals trying to understand what’s behind it. In late winter many people suffer from depression, but for bankers this is usually offset by finding out how large their bonuses will be. However, compensation across the entire financial sector is down from years past as large firms deal with new rules pinching their bottom lines. The other, more pressing matter for mental health pros is: Why are such a large proportion of these self- murders public affairs? While there are no definitive theories on suicide location, many in the...

William Melchert-Dinkel, center, leaves the Rice County Courthouse with his attorney Terry Watkins, right, and wife, Joyce Melchert-Dinkel, in 2011. Associated Press Encouraging someone to commit suicide is not a crime, Minnesota’s high court ruled Wednesday, reversing the conviction of a nurse who urged people to hang themselves and let him watch via webcam. William F. Melchert-Dinkel had been found guilty under a law that made it illegal to “advise, encourage, or assist” in a suicide. The Minnesota Supreme Court concluded that advising or encouraging suicide was speech protected by the First Amendment and carved the words from the statute....

Bellando, a former investment bank analyst at JPMorgan, is the son of John Bellando, chief operating officer and chief financial officer at Condé Nast. His brother, John, a top chief investment officer with JPMorgan, works on risk exposure valuations. Several John Bellando emails were cited during testimony at the Senate Finance Committee’s inquiry into the bank’s losses during the infamous London Whale trade fiasco. Kenneth Bellando — who grew up in Rockville Center, LI, and was a Georgetown graduate — worked as a summer analyst at JPMorgan while in school. Upon graduation in 2007, he was hired as an investment...

A 28-year old Manhattan investment banker has died after an apparent suicide, police sources said. Kenneth Bellando, who worked at Levy Capital since January, was found dead on the sidewalk outside his East Side building on March 12, after allegedly jumping from the sixth-story roof, sources said. Bellando, a former investment bank analyst at JPMorgan, is the son of John Bellando, chief operating officer and chief financial officer at Condé Nast. His brother, John, a top Chief Investment Officer with JPMorgan, works on risk exposure valuations.

Fashion designer L'Wren Scott was found dead today in her Manhattan apartment of an apparent suicide, according to New York police. She was 47 years old. According to authorities, police were called to her Chelsea apartment at 10:05 a.m. and found her body. A medical examiner will determine the cause of death. Scott was a renowned stylist and fashion designer whose clothes have been worn by A-listers including Nicole Kidman, Angelina Jolie and Penelope Cruz. In February, she announced that she had canceled her London Fashion Week show.

Last year Connecticut state senator Ed Meyer introduced a bill to create “physician-assisted suicide.” It failed, but this year he and state representative Elizabeth Ritter are trying again. H.B. 5326 would permit a competent person who is suffering from a terminal illness to “request aid in dying” through administration of prescribed medication. The bill is an affront to human life generally, but especially to elder or infirm adults and disabled individuals. For Connecticut citizens who respect life, it is unconscionable. The bill’s proponents say that assisted suicide is the compassionate answer. But an article in The New York Times summarized...

The son of former New Jersey Gov. Jon Corzine killed himself in a Mexico City hotel this week. Jeffrey Corzine, 31, was the youngest of Corzine’s three children with ex-wife and childhood sweetheart Joanne Corzine. The exact cause of death was not released, but sources told The Post Jeffrey suffered from depression. Steven Goldberg, a spokesman for the devastated Jon Corzine, confirmed in a statement: “The sad fact is that Jeffrey Corzine had been suffering from severe depression for several years and recently had been receiving treatment for what is a very painful and debilitating physical and mental ailment.”

Jeffrey Corzine, the youngest son of former New Jersey governor Jon Corzine, has died of an apparent suicide. He was 31 years old. The former governor's son was found dead in a Mexico City hotel room a few days ago; he was reportedly found after failing to respond to messages from friends. Corzine, who lived in California and worked as a drug counselor, had a history of substance abuse and depression. "The sad fact is that Jeffrey Corzine had been suffering from severe depression for several years and recently had been receiving treatment for what is a very painful and...

A Manhattan trader was killed Tuesday morning by a speeding Long Island Rail Road commuter train, marking at least the seventh suicide of a financial professional this year. Edmund (Eddie) Reilly, 47, a trader at Midtown’s Vertical Group, jumped in front of an LIRR train at 6 a.m. near the Syosset train station. He was declared dead at the scene. Reilly’s identity was confirmed by Salvatore Arena, an LIRR spokesperson, who said an investigation into the incident was continuing. Passengers on the west-bound express train told MTA investigators they saw a man standing by the tracks before he jumped in...

"Third, we find that, to the extent that we can explain the rise in youth suicide over time, the most important aggregate variable explaining this change seems to be the increased share of youths living in homes with a divorced parent." Before liberals were for marriage and family, they were strongly against them. They have been undermining God's plan for human family relationship no doubt all along in one way or another, but since the 1950's they've especially made progress. The article linked to from the National Bureau of Economic Research discusses the little talked about link between divorce and...

A whopping 41% of people who are transgender or gender-nonconforming have attempted suicide sometime in their lives, nearly nine times the national average, according to a sweeping survey released three years ago. In a new study released Tuesday, researchers dug deeper into that number, analyzing the results of the National Transgender Discrimination Survey to examine what puts transgender people at such "exceptionally high" risk. Researchers from the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention and the Williams Institute at UCLA School of Law found that the risk of attempting suicide was especially severe for transgender or gender nonconforming people who had suffered...

Louisiana state police are investigating the death Victor White, III, 22, who allegedly shot and killed himself while handcuffed in the back of a patrol car, reports The Advocate. White was allegedly involved in an altercation and when deputies responded to the call they claim to have found illegal drugs on him which lead to his arrest. White was in handcuffs with his hands behind his back when he was killed, allegedly by his own gun — which conveniently wasn’t found during the search that led to his arrest. Read more below from The Advocate: Once at the sheriff’s office,...