Bruno Johnson spreads the two-page note on the bar at his Palm Tavern in Bay View and stares at the worn paper, folded and refolded countless times, passed from hand to hand, friend to friend.
Johnson stares at the words, instructions about bank accounts, credit cards, computer passwords, next of kin, a giant collection of jazz recordings and a neon-purple 1997 Plymouth with 107,000 miles parked north of Grand Ave. in Chicago. And that final chilling sentence, the one that still gets to Johnson: "sorry about the mental-illness thing, it's not something I would have chosen for myself."
http://tinyurl.com/ye6vos
Ritscher, a maintenance engineer at the University of Chicago, became something of a fixture on the Chicago jazz scene. For years, he set up microphones and recorded gigs in smoky bars, Johnson says. If bands wanted the master, Ritscher gave it to them at no charge.
Johnson, who runs a small record label named Okka Disk, distributed some of the works.
Ritscher, who changed his first name from Mark to Malachi in 1981, lived a life filled with highs and lows, according to his self-written obituary, titled "out of time." A marriage ended in divorce. He was estranged from his son. He battled alcoholism but was sober for 16 years.
He explained his opposition to the war in a rambling "mission statement" in which he implored the reader to "judge me by my actions."
Malachi Ritscher holds up a sign during an antiwar protest in Chicago in this photo from April 2003. On Nov. 3, 2006, Ritscher set up a video camera, doused himself with gasoline and lit himself on fire on expressway off-ramp in downtown Chicago. War protesters are hailing him as a martyr. (AP Photo/Joeff Davis)
Why nobody noticed was due to camouflage. He might as well have jumped off a building onto a red painted sidewalk.
Ignorant, mentally deranged know-nothing. But he wants to tell us how the world should be run. Loser would've fit right in in Hollywood. We're better off without him.
Yet more proof that moonbat leftism is a mental disease.
Gee, now that he's dead he can vote multiple times in Cook County.
Funny how these guys don't immolate themselves over millions of innocent people killed by Muslim leaders like Saddam, Khomeini, or Arafat, or who will be killed in the future by Ahimenutjob in Iran.
Yes, only the evil Bush and Rumsfeld must be vilified.
Well, lefties in Chitown can build a new monument--one to this guy's warped sense of right and wrong and his utter stupiditiy.
Failing to call AP and ask for a cameraman to be
at the bridge at 6:30 AM to film "a newsworthy event".
Worth another Pulitzer...at least.
Set a man on fire, you warm him for the rest of his life....