Suicides by hanging

[primavera]

I know I should be listening to those nagging doubts which are telling me that I'm just inviting a flame fest here, but I've been squirming with curiosity regarding some recent Mississippi events so want to ask about it with the strongest possible preface that I am not trying to bash southerners.

The deal is, my parents retired to Natches recently and they've been reading in the local papers about a whole series of suicides by African-Americans who, according to police investigations, evidently decided to kill themselves by hanging themselves from trees. With the shrub in office, I don't doubt that suicides would be up, but my mother and I fell to talking about it and we imagined that it would probably be fairly difficult to hang ones self from a tree. It just seems like there would have to be easier ways of committing suicide if that was ones intention.

Now, this is where I know I'm going to get into trouble, but, let's be honest here, it wasn't all that long ago that African-Americans were hung from trees and nobody believed for an instant that they were suicides and, I'm sorry, but many of those hangings took place in places like Mississippi. Now I'm not suggesting in any way, shape, or form that a majority of Mississippians, or even any statistically significant minority, are Klan members. But given Mississippi's history and the fact that there still is a tiny splinter of the population that does in fact belong to the KKK and support its views and methods, doesn't it kind of make one just a wee bit curious when a whole series of dead African-Americans are found dangling from trees?

I honestly don't know, maybe they were suicides, it just seemed odd to me and I was wondering whether anyone from Mississippi also found it odd. I don't know enough about Mississippi to have an answer, but maybe DUers who live there can share with me their thoughts. Is it conceivable that some of those suicides weren't in fact suicides? Or is that just paranoid conspiracy theory?

[rachelbirds]

1. It's not at all

difficult to hang yourself from a tree, a beam, a roof or even a closet door. I'm a psychiatrist with Miami PD and see these alot. You'd be amazed at all the different ways people come up with to end their lives. I don't know much about the legal or detective part. I know that here we investigate all suicides as homicides first to rule it out. Hope that helps.

[RoeBear]

2. To add credibiity to your position

I think it would be good to add a link to stories about the hanging suicides.

[primavera]

4. Yeah, you're right, but it's been a few months

and I don't have the links, I'm sorry. I first heard about it on a visit this past August and the local newspaper was reporting on one such incident. I was simply informed second-hand by my mother that she'd read about "four or five" other identical incidents taking place within the preceeding few months. Recently, I was down for Christmas, and read or saw on local news, I can't remember which, yet another story about another African-American committing suicide by hanging. So that's what... six or seven total within say, the last year, assuming my mother is remembering correctly (and I'm inclined to give her the benefit of the doubt, her memory's still pretty good). Again, it may all be just coincidence, it just seemed strange to me.

[primavera]

6. Okay, found some links

Here are a couple of stories I turned up on a quick google search...

Ex-Washington man found hanging in tree
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

WOODVILLE, Miss. -- Family members say a man found yesterday hanging from a tree in rural Mississippi had returned home to fight for his family's land.

The body of 55-year-old Roy Veal, originally from Washington state, was discovered in Wilkinson County, relatives said.

Warren Strain, spokesman for the Mississippi Department of Public Safety, said the body was discovered about midday in a wooded area of the county near Woodville.

Authorities declined to identify the man pending notification of relatives.

But Doris Gordon, a Woodville native now living in San Francisco, said the victim was her brother, Roy Veal of Washington state. Thelma Veal, the man's mother, also confirmed the identity.

"They found my brother hanging from a tree with a hood over his head and some papers burned at his feet," Gordon said in a telephone interview with The Associated Press from San Francisco. "It's awful. We don't know who did it."

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/170518_bodyfound24.html

***************************************

Hanging awakens ghosts of past
A black man's death has split Belle Glade along racial lines. While an inquest ruled it suicide, many contend he was lynched.
By MARCUS FRANKLIN, Times Staff Writer
© St. Petersburg Times
published August 28, 2003


BELLE GLADE - The tale bears elements of another era: a black man's death by hanging, rumors of intimacy between him and a white woman, and palpable racial tension and distrust.

But the setting is not Jim Crow Mississippi. It's this modern-day Everglades farming town of 15,000 on the southern shore of Lake Okeechobee in western Palm Beach County.

The first spark flared one rainy morning in May when Bernice Golden found her 32-year-old son hanging from a schefflera tree in the expansive yard outside his grandparents' home.

http://www.sptimes.com/2003/08/28/State/Hanging_awakens_ghost.shtml

****************************************
This is too dated to have much bearing, but I thought it was interesting and apropos...

Death Should Be A Cry For Justice
by Deborah Mathis

WASHINGTON -- At his first full-fledged White House news conference in March 1993, President Clinton was asked what he might do about a suspicious rash of hangings in the Magnolia State. Since 1987, there had been 47 deaths attributed to "suicide by hanging" in Mississippi jails -- most of them young black people.

Responding to the prospect of a federal investigation, Sen. Trent Lott, R-Miss., gave the idea a half-hearted welcome. "I have no problem with it," he said, "as long as it's not done in such a way to try to once again infer that there's something sinister going on with regard to Mississippi."

I wonder if Lott, who implied that there is nothing particularly afoul in Mississippi, might now have reason to infer that sinister forces are, in fact, at work. Wonder if the way Raynard Johnson died isn't cause for alarm.

http://www.commondreams.org/views/071200-102.htm

[UL_Approved]

3. Post some evidence or other links

I want this stuff for my archives.

And, BTW, the symbolism and setting is uncanny. This is where one must ask about how this happens. As far as I know, suicide is a private thing, and is done where the fewest people will find you. Hangings in jail cells happen because of the opportunity and necessity. This whole series of events does hint at a dark and tainted past of the South.

[primavera]

5. The out in the open bit bothered me too

I also tend to think of suicide as something one does in the privacy of one's home, where no one can see you and potentially interfere with what you're doing. As I mentioned in post 4, I'm afraid I don't have any links to offer, so my knowledge of the factual particulars is admittedly very weak. But at least one incident I read about indicated in the newspaper article that it took place out of doors. Maybe I should email my mother and see if she can dig up some specific citations. Or has anyone else here stumbled across similar stories?

[merh]

7. The one incident you refer to the fellow was outdoors, hanging from

a tree with a pillow case over his head and papers burned at his feet. The fellow was from Washington state and had returned to Woodville MS to handle some land matters. Apparently the family land was in dispute and others were trying to obtain title to it. Oil has been found in this area of Mississippi and is being produce.

http://listserv.naspa.org/read/messages?id=4085
http://www.aaregistry.com/african_american_history/2592/Racism_remains_Black_man_lynched_in_Mississippi

An inmate was found hanging in his cell in Gulfport MS.
http://www.ledger-enquirer.com/mld/ledgerenquirer/8420961.htm
http://www.sunherald.com/mld/sunherald/news/local/8417678.htm

Another man found hanging from a fence after a manhunt. (???)
http://www.tallahassee.com/mld/sunherald/news/8380936.htm


Yes, it happens - coincidence or do old habits linger?