Posted on 06/21/2006 5:06:02 AM PDT by Renfield
Philip Merrill, the prominent publisher and former diplomat whose body was found floating in the Chesapeake Bay on Monday, suffered from a heart condition and apparently took his own life, his family said last night.
Merrill, 72, was found with a shotgun wound to the head and a small anchor tied around one or both ankles, according to a source familiar with the investigation.
~~~~snip~~~~
In 1996, former CIA director William E. Colby died from drowning and exposure after falling from a canoe off Charles County.
~~~~snip~~~~~
In 1978, another former high-level CIA employee, John A. Paisley, disappeared while sailing across the Chesapeake Bay. His body was found a week later near Solomons Island with a fatal gunshot wound in an apparent suicide.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
On your profile page you forgot Turkle for turtle. (Slim, the displaced 5 generation Easton resident)
With poor health and declining mental capacity, I could see what would make a formally successful and vibrant man become dismal and forlorn.. The utter depth of ones grief can only be measured by their previously overwhelming achievements.. Pity is, no one, or nothing could have saved him from his despair. Slowly I believe to the victim of this much depression, it becomes a self fulfilling act of bravery..
Certainly. I worded my thoughts pretty poorly in my statement and have gotten some grief for it. When I read the article originally, what struck me was the very odd circumstances. Alone on a boat at sea, anchor rope wrapped around his legs, shot to the head. If someone were facing the emotional circumstances you describe, and I can certainly understand how that could happen and don't judge it negatively, the circumstances of this gentleman's demise strike me as odd. It seems like a hit more than suicide. Then again, if one were to reach such a depressed and forlorn state, who knows how they would really feel? Perhaps he thought he could shoot himself and be drug under the water by the anchor and leave everyone believing he simply drowned in an accident. In any manner of events, it was a tragic way to depart.
If he had an anchor tied around his ankle(s), how did he float?
If he tied the anchor around his ankle(s) first, he sunk and how did he shoot himself?
If he shot himself first, how did he tie an anchor around his ankle(s)?
Make up my mind.
I'd guess somebody is scared poopless about whoever did this and is playing it real safe.
I know what you're thinking, was it one shotgun blast or two?
Frankly in all the excitement I've lost count, myself.
Do you feel lucky, punk? Well, do you?
If this family has money, maybe they can fight the drug company, would be good to see as so many not so monied famiies just try to cope with the terrible grief that comes with suicide from anti-depressants.
*gently clears throat*
When I first went on antidepressants there was a brief period when I was feeling enough better that suicide looked like a viable option. Before the meds, I was quite literally too depressed to kill myself...
Yeah. Been there.
After the seven years it takes to have you declared legally dead. OTOH, the suicide exemption on a life insurance policy expires after you've had the policy for a year...
or dastardly murder...
We all know this kind of stuff only happened in the South!
Yep. "He was befuddled and accidentally OD'd." A much nicer explanation for the family to live with (even if in a corner of their mind they know it wasn't an accident).
(uh, what's BMA?)
You're a BAD man!
Yuck!
Ummmm, tasty critters,,,,,,ummmmm.
Just remember they spread manure over all those crops.
OOPs, remote linking forbidden.
Mo bedda?
What some of the anti depressants do is make one feel good enough to be able to act on one's impulses whatever they may be.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.