Suicide and Reputation Damage

Abstract

Aim: This paper uses the public record to explore the relationship between reputation damage and suicide.

Method: The public record of the last 20 years was examined for examples of individuals without evidence of mental disorder who suffered actual or threatened reputation damage and suicided shortly thereafter.

Results: Fifteen individual cases were identified; 18 additional cases, less comprehensively detailed, were mentioned in reports of The Wood Royal Commission and Operation Auxin. All cases were male. Of the 15 individual cases, the average age was 55 years, with a range of 40 to 76 years. The available details of the 18 additional cases were consistent with these findings.

Conclusion: Middle-aged males without clear evidence of mental disorder, who suffer actual or threatened reputation damage, may be at increased risk of suicide. Naming and shaming needs to be conducted with caution.

Psychological investigations have found mental disorder to be present in greater than 90% of people who suicide[1], [2] and those with suicidal ideation.[3] However, there is a credible body of work indicating that normal human distress is being wrongly classified as a mental disorder.4–9 In 1801, Philip Pinel stated that “the ordinary powerful motives” driving suicide (independent of mental disorder) included “loss of honour and fortune”.[10]

The emotions motivate behaviour and can be divided into two broad categories: the positive/pleasant emotions (e.g. joy and excitement)[11] and the negative/unpleasant emotions (e.g. shame, guilt, grief and anger).[12] Physiological[13] and various neuroimaging studies[14], [15] have revealed that these categories have distinct neurologic features.

Shame and guilt (the ‘moral emotions’[16]) are closely related. Shame is experienced when we evaluate our actions and conclude that we have done wrong. It encompasses the whole of ourselves, we conclude that we are unworthy and prefer to hide or die. In contrast, guilt is experienced when we focus on our behaviour, and conclude that our behaviour has breached standards.[17] Guilt may be remedied by confession or penance.[18] In both, there is the anticipation of adverse reactions from others. While many see these as separate, Nathanson described shame as being at the heart of guilt.[19]

Grief is the unpleasant experience of loss. The term is usually applied when another person has been lost, but it is also reported with unfulfilled wishes[20] and loss of status. Anger needs little introduction, arising from conflict and injustice. It is also a response to rejection[21] and ostracism.[22]

The negative emotions, as distinct from mental disorders, have received relatively little attention as precipitants of suicide. The role of shame in suicide from the psychodynamic perspective has been described.23–25 Studies of suicide notes have indicated the desire to avoid anticipated rejection. A recent study of 42 notes[26] found the commonest theme to be ‘apology/shame’ in 74% cases.[27] A review of classical mythology[28], [29] examined accounts of 36 suicides and found shame, guilt and grief to be the most common psychological features. Clinical experience indicates that grief and anger are common symptoms of those who survive serious suicidal behaviour.

Lester wrote convincingly on the role of shame in suicide, touching on employment status, gender and culture.[30] He gave details from the public record regarding the recent suicides of Captain Ernie Blanchard and Admiral Mike Boorda.

We take as a given that actual or threatened reputation damage causes negative emotions. We explored the public record with a view to extending awareness and knowledge of the role of reputation damage in suicide.

Method

We examined the public record over the last 20 years. We have collected records of suicides that have appeared as newspaper, radio or television statements over this period of time. From these, we selected potential cases and collected any additional information available from the lay press and the web. We sought accounts of individuals with no known history of mental disorder who suffered actual or threatened reputation damage and suicided shortly thereafter. We excluded all cases in which there was a history of psychiatric disorder, including any mention of ‘depression’. We selected cases that were initially reported in leading (as opposed to local) newspapers. This increased the likelihood of readers of this paper having some familiarity with one or more of the cases.

RESULTS

1987: Bud Dwyer, 47 years, had a Master's Degree in education and served as a member of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives. He spent a decade in the Senate, and at the end of his tenure in 1980, he took the post of Treasurer of Pennsylvania. He was convicted in a bribery scandal, and in 1987, the day before his sentencing, he called a press conference to “provide an update on the situation”. He declared his innocence, and while the TV cameras were rolling, pulled a gun out and shot himself in the mouth.

Circa 1996: The Wood Royal Commission inquired into corruption in the New South Wales (Australia) Police Force. It sat from 1994 to 1997. Toward the end, it investigated protection of paedophiles.[31] In 2007, The Sydney Morning Herald (SMH) summarized the outcomes.[32] It named eight people who had been, or were about to be, called before the commission, who had suicided. A retired Judge appeared before the Commission and made an admission of illegal acts, including sex with boys in public toilets, and 5 days later he gassed himself in his car. Others included two Police Detectives and a Police Inspector. The SMH stated that four further people who had been ‘enmeshed’ had also suicided.

1996: Jeremy ‘Mike’ Boorda, 56 years, was an Admiral in the US Navy. He joined the Navy when he was 16 years of age, and was the first person to rise through the enlisted ranks to become the Chief of Naval Operations. He served in Vietnam. In 1996 two Newsweek magazine journalists made an appointment to question him about a small brass V which he had worn on the ribbon of one of his medals.[33] There had been rumours that he was not entitled to wear this ‘Combat V’. Boorda shot himself in the chest, where he wore his decorations, hours before the appointment.

1998: Takayuki Kamoshida, 58 years, was the Manager of the Bank of Japan. He hanged himself. His death was attributed to the bank's poor performance and his loss of face. Suicide by businessmen is not uncommon in Japan, particularly in difficult economic times.

1999: Mervyn Jenkins, 48 years, formerly an army lieutenant colonel (electronic warfare expert), described in the newspapers as a'“top Australian spy”, was stationed in Washington. He was interviewed by security officers about “breaches of information handling matters” and a few days later he hung himself in his luxury home. Sources stated the ‘breaches’ had not been ‘substantial’ and represented no threat to Australia's national security, but that Jenkins had been distressed by the process.

2000: William Lucan-Roberts, 61 years, was a classics teacher and cricket coach at a prestigious Sydney high school. He was facing 67 child sex charges, and was dreading his picture appearing in the newspaper. He was described as a pleasant but ‘vain’ man. He left a suicide note, “… I felt it was better I go …” and drowned himself in a private swimming pool.

2000: Wolfgang Huellen, 49 years, was a married father of two, who had been Chief Financial Officer of the Christian Democratic Union of Germany for 18 years. Party funds were discovered to be missing. The police began investigating and found evidence of embezzlement. Huellen hanged himself, leaving a suicide note which confessed to the crime.

2002: Vlajko Stojiljkovic, 65 years, was a law graduate from the University of Belgrade who became Vice-Prime Minister and Minister of the Interior of Serbia in 1997. Charges of crimes against humanity were laid against him, arising from the 1998–1999 crackdown by Serb forces on ethnic Albanians. In 2002, when the Yugoslav parliament approved his extradition to face the UN war crimes tribunal, he walked out of the federal parliament building, and shot himself in the head. His suicide note was designed for public release, and stated, “… patriots will know how to avenge me”.

2003: David Kelly, 59 years, was a British-based expert in biological warfare and a UN weapons inspector. He received his PhD from Oxford and had held many important positions in the UK Ministry of Defence. He had been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize. He was uncomfortable with part of a dossier regarding Iraq military capabilities. Rightly or wrongly, he was identified as the source of a leak, which led to a political scandal. On July 15, Kelly appeared before the Foreign Affairs Select Committee, and the next day he appeared before the Intelligence and Security Committee. One or both of these were televised. The following day (17 July) he died of a self-inflicted overdose and blood loss from wrist cutting.

2004: Operation Auxin was an Australia-wide police investigation into internet child pornography, which commenced in September 2004. Almost 200 people were charged, including policemen, soldiers, teachers and ministers of religion. In November 2004, TIME reported that six people had suicided after being charged or questioned about their involvement in child pornography.[34] One of these was a Queensland policeman and another was a Victorian prison officer.[35]

2004: William Brown, 52 years, had once worked in the Australian Embassy in Jakarta. However, “his overt homosexuality had led to his dismissal as a diplomat” in 1984. He then worked as an English teacher in a tourism school in Bali. In 2004, he was imprisoned for 13 years in Bali for having sex with two adolescent males. Within days he hanged himself.

2005: Arthur Teele, 59 years, was a decorated Vietnam War veteran and held a position on the Miami City Commission. He was charged with 26 counts of fraud, to the order of US$20 million, and money laundering. He stated he was not being fairly treated by The Miami Herald. Teele walked into the foyer of that newspaper's office, and shot himself in the head in front of a security guard.

2006: Wolfgang Priklopil, 44 years, was a communications technician with a good work history. He owned his own house (which he inherited from his grandfather) and a luxury car. He abducted 10-year-old school-girl, Natasha Kampusch, near Vienna, in 1998. He kept her prisoner in the basement of his house for 8 years. When Natasha escaped and the police were alerted, Priklopil suicided by placing himself in the path of a train.

2007: Shinichi Yamazaki, 76 years, was the former head of Japan Green Resources Agency. He had been linked to a vote rigging scandal. Police had raided his apartment and interrogated him several times. Hours before he was to be interrogated again, he jumped from the window of his sixth floor apartment. Toshikatsu Matsuoka, 62 years, a graduate of Tottori University Faculty of Agriculture was Japan's Minister for agriculture. He hanged himself the day after Yamazaki died, hours before he was to be questioned in parliament. These men were believed to have been in collaboration.

2007: JD ‘Roy’ Atchison, 53 years, was an assistant United States prosecutor in Florida. He was married with three children. He was a volunteer coach of girls’ softball and basketball teams. He was charged with travelling from Florida to Michigan to have sex with a 5-year-old girl. He pleaded guilty and less than 3 weeks later, and before sentence was passed, he hanged himself in a Michigan gaol.

2008: Rudolph Zurick, 40 years, was a prison guard at the Union County Jail, New Jersey, USA. He had been continuously employed at the jail for 15 years. He was married, had a 4-year-old daughter and owned his own home in central New Jersey. He had an excellent work record and no forensic history. He enjoyed weightlifting and was described by neighbours as quiet but friendly. On 15 December 2007, two prisoners escaped from the Union County Jail by digging through a concrete wall. During the process, they kept their hole covered with pictures of bikini clad females. Their methodology was reminiscent of a motion picture, The Shawshank Redemption, and the event attracted considerable media attention. Making the escape even more newsworthy was that the prisoners left a note apparently thanking Zurick for his assistance. Their motives, whether ‘harmless fun’ or malicious, are unknown and unimportant. A neighbour stated that Zurick had been distraught about the escape and the stinging publicity. Less than 3 weeks later in his home, a few hours before he was to be interviewed as part of the investigation into the escape, Zurick shot himself in the head. The investigation exonerated him.

RESULTS AND SUMMARY

From the public record of the last two decades, details were located of 15 people who appeared to have no psychiatric disorder who had suicided following actual or threatened reputation damage (Table 1). All were male, the average age was 55 years (range 40–76 years).

Table 1

Details of 15 people who suicided following actual or threatened reputation damage.

	Sex	Age	Occupation	Means
Dwyer	Male	47	Public Servant	Shooting
Boorda	Male	56	Admiral	Shooting
Kamoshida	Male	58	Banker	Hanging
Jenkins	Male	48	Public Servant	Hanging
Lucan-Roberts	Male	61	Teacher	Drowning
Huellen	Male	49	Accountant	Hanging
Stojiljkovic	Male	65	Politician	Shooting
Kelly	Male	59	Public Servant	OD & cutting
Teele	Male	59	Politician	Shooting
Priklopil	Male	44	Technician	Train
Matsuoka	Male	62	Politician	Hanging
Yamazaki	Male	76	Executive	Jumping
Brown	Male	52	Former Diplomat	Hanging
Atchison	Male	53	Public Servant	Hanging
Zurick	Male	40	Prison Officer	Shooting

Less comprehensive details are available for 18 additional people who died in association with the Wood Royal Commission and Operation Auxin. Where gender was known (n = 12), all were male. Where occupations were known (n = 8), three were police officers; others were a prison officer, a plumber, an electrician, a former alderman and a retired judge. Where means were known (n = 4), two died by car exhaust, one by jumping and one by shooting.

Thus, there is evidence indicating that actual or threatened reputation damage may lead to suicide in middle-aged males.

DISCUSSION

We looked for individuals who had suicided following actual or threatened reputation damage. We make no claim regarding the degree to which actual or threatened reputation damage increases risk of suicide. Nevertheless, the presented data suggest that actual or threatened reputation damage may be accompanied by increased suicide risk.

We used the public record. Criticism can be made of this source of data, in that it lacks the precision of the psychological autopsy and evidence of mental disorder may be overlooked. The contrary view is that journalists are trained to report the facts and are quick to highlight any suggestion of ‘mental disorder’ (along with a perceived public duty to reveal any evidence of professional negligence). Supporting the use of lay data is evidence which suggests recent undue medicalization of human distress and behaviour.4–9, [36]

We excluded all cases where reports indicated a past or present mental disorder, including those with any mention of ‘depression’. In general, these were successful people, making a past history of severe mental disorder unlikely.

We agree that the public record provides insufficient details to categorically state that the selected individuals were totally free of mental disorder. However, the reporting journalists, who look for such things, and talk to family and any involved professionals, found no such evidence.

We excluded mental disorder (as best we could) as this would have complicated matters. We found evidence indicating that reputation damage increases the risk of suicide. This is consistent with the view of Pinel[10] who observed that, in the absence of mental disorder, suicide may follow “loss of honour and fortune”.

Suicidal intent in the absence of mental disorder raises clinical and legal difficulties. We have dealt with such cases on our ward, when high profile local identities have been investigated by police for serious matters. Mental Health Acts provide legitimate authority to retain people who are a danger to themselves in a safe environment, but these instruments require the presence of a mental disorder. As Horwitz and Wakefield[9] demonstrate, non-disordered normal loss responses are usually characterized by ‘symptoms’ which are the same as those of ‘major depressive disorder’ and, when taken out of context, this normal response may be diagnosed as disordered. Thus, to keep people safe, a mental disorder can be claimed. The appropriateness of this course of action is highly doubtful, but in this era of litigation and blame, clinicians may have the need to protect themselves as well as their patients.

The individuals reported here, and their circumstances, are not representative of the man in the street. There are many factors which determine whether a suicide will be reported on the public record, including public prominence (such as ‘Lord’ Such) or dramatic means, such as a bullet to the head in a public place (as in the cases of Dwyer, Stojiljkovic and Teele). However, ‘local’ public records (e.g. local newspapers) frequently carry reports of less prominent people taking their lives using unspectacular means, as a consequence of reputation damage. Highly ‘newsworthy’ examples are given in this article in the hope that readers may have some familiarity with one or more cases.

It has been argued that the three Japanese deaths do not belong in this sample, as they are of a different culture, one in which there is a long history of reputation damage (‘loss of face’) leading to ritualized suicide (harakiri). However, there has only been one performance of harakiri reported in the last half century (Yukio Mishima, in 1970), and in current Japanese culture, suicide, particularly ritualized suicide, is strongly discouraged.[37] If preferred, these three deaths could be withdrawn, but this would not alter our main thrust. Minor changes would be the lowering of the upper end of the age range from 76 to 65 years, and the lowering of the average age from 55 to 53 years. The finding that reputation damage may lead to suicide is not negated by belonging to a culture which has condoned, or condones, such practice.

We take as a given that actual or threatened reputation damage causes the negative emotions of shame, guilt, grief and anger. We have presented evidence suggesting that reputation damage may increase the risk of suicide in the absence of mental disorder. Some of the listed people were facing custodial sentences. It could be argued, therefore, that in these cases, suicide was the result of the negative emotions triggered by the prospect of penalty rather than reputation damage. We would not dispute this interpretation. However, it is probable that the prospect of penalty compounded rather than replaced the pain of reputation damage.

These data have relevance to what has become known as the ‘name and shame’ punishment. It is impossible to quantify the impact being publicly ‘named’ will have on an individual, and it is likely to differ from one individual to another. This paper suggests that loss of reputation increases the risk of suicide. Thus, ‘naming and shaming’ needs to be conducted with great caution.

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