Nicola Bulley And The Suicide Solution

The police have now confirmed the body found in the River Wyre is that of missing mother Nicola Bulley. Although it will be some time before the coroner returns a verdict, it is clear that if there was no third party involvement this was a case of suicide.

Tragic though it may be, suicide is a surprisingly common cause of death. Celebrities are generally better off financial than the rest of us, and, one would think, lead happy lives. If the following short chronological list is anything to go by, that isn’t the case, at least not all the time.

March 28, 1941: The novelist Virginia Woolf was 59 when she drowned herself in the River Ouse in Sussex. She had a long history of suffering from depression.

July 4, 1952: Doc Strong was a popular American wrestler. Like Roy Buchanan 36 years later, he hanged himself in a police cell after being arrested for public intoxication. He was just 35 years old.

February 11, 1963: The poetess Sylvia Plath was 30 when she gassed herself at her London home. This wasn’t her first suicide attempt.

August 9, 1967: The 41 year old Kenneth Halliwell took a massive overdose after battering his male “lover” Joe Orton over the head nine times with a hammer. Apparently Halliwell died first. Unlike Orton, who was a shameless degenerate, Halliwell was a tortured soul. His father also committed suicide.

August 27, 1967: Brian Epstein was best known as the manager of The Beatles. He was just 32 when he took an overdose at his London home. Although his death was ruled accidental, he was believed by people who knew him to have taken his own life. Unlike his namesake Jeffrey Epstein! See below.

November 19, 1977: Sonny Criss was an accomplished jazz musician. He was 50 when he shot himself, probably because he was suffering from (incurable) stomach cancer.

March 1, 1983: The journalist and author Arthur Koestler was 77 when he committed suicide at his London home along with his wife Cynthia Jefferies. He was suffering from Parkinson’s disease. After his death he was subjected to a campaign of defamation including by a clown named David Cesarani.

January 22, 1987: Budd Dyer was a Republican politician. He had recently been convicted of financial corruption when he made history by shooting himself on live television. He was 47 years old. 

August 14, 1988: The American guitarist Roy Buchanan was 48 years old when he hanged himself in a police cell at Fairfax, Virginia. He had been arrested for being drunk in public.

November 22, 1997: Australian rock musician Michael Hutchence hanged himself in Sydney, the city of his birth. He was 37 years old.

February 17, 1998: Songwriter Bob Merrill was 76 when he committed suicide in California. In view of some of the turkeys he wrote, some people would suggest he should have been executed years before.

June 16, 1999: Screaming Lord Sutch was a musician who went on to found a joke political party. He hanged himself at the home of his late mother. Her death was believed to have been a catalyst for his own.

September 17, 2000: The TV presenter Paula Yates was 41 when she committed suicide at her London home. She was the lover of Michael Hutchence. 

March 9, 2007; The American rock musician Brad Delp gassed himself at his New Hampshire home. He was 55.

April 7, 2008: TV presenter Mark Speight was 42 when he hanged himself in a public place. His girlfriend Natasha Collins had died earlier in the year from a drug overdose and he had been (falsely) accused of murdering her. He killed himself out of grief.

March 11, 2011: The artist known as Smiley Culture stabbed himself through the heart at his South London home in the middle of a police raid. He had been facing a heavy prison sentence for drug trafficking.

February 17, 2013: The beautiful and talented but tragic Mindy McCready (pictured) shot herself dead at her Arkansas home. The previous month, her lover David Wilson had inexplicably committed suicide in the same house.

August 19, 2013: The American actor Lee Thompson Young shot himself dead in Los Angeles. He was just 29 and had been suffering from depression.

August 11, 2014: The actor and acclaimed comedian Robin Williams was 63 when he strangled himself with his belt at his California home. He was suffering from dementia.

March 10/11, 2016: The acclaimed musician and composer Keith Emerson shot himself dead at his Santa Monica home. He was 71 and had suffered nerve damage to his hand.

July 20, 2017: The American rock musician Chester Bennington hanged himself at his California home. He was 41 years old. From this list it appears California is a popular place for celebrity suicides.

June 8, 2018: Celebrity chef Anthony Bourdain was 61 when he hanged himself in France. No cogent motive has ever been given for his suicide.

August 10, 2019: Jeffrey Epstein was a moderately famous individual who became infamous. He was found hanged in his cell in a New York prison. His death was ruled a suicide but few people outside the establishment believe that. He was 66 years old.

February 15, 2020: TV presenter Caroline Flack hanged herself. She had been facing serious criminal charges for wounding her lover while he slept. She was 40 years old.

December 24, 2002: The youngest person on this list and therefore arguably the most tragic, the Indian actress Tunisha Sharma hanged herself on set. She was not quite 21 years old.