Mass suicide

Mass suicide occurs when a group of people commit suicide simultaneously.

Examples

Mass suicide sometimes occurs in religious settings. Defeated groups may resort to mass suicide rather than being captured. Suicide pacts are a form of mass suicide that are sometimes planned or carried out by small groups of maybe depressed or hopeless people. Mass suicides have been used as a form of political protest, which shows that they can also be used as a statement making tool[1]

Historical mass suicides

Religiously motivated suicides

Known suicides

Peoples Temple (1978)

Main article: Jonestown

On November 18, 1978, 918 Americans died in Peoples Temple–related incidents, including 909 members of the Temple, led by Jim Jones, in Jonestown, Guyana.[13] The dead included 276 children. A tape of the Temple's final meeting in a Jonestown pavilion contains repeated discussions of the group committing "revolutionary suicide", including reference to people taking the poison and the vats to be used.[14]

On that tape, Jones tells Temple members that Russia, with whom the Temple had been negotiating a potential exodus for months, would not take them after the Temple had murdered Member of Congress Leo Ryan, NBC reporter Don Harris and three others at a nearby airstrip.[14] When members apparently cried, Jones counseled "Stop this hysterics. This is not the way for people who are Socialists or Communists to die. No way for us to die. We must die with some dignity."[14] At the end of the tape, Jones concludes: "We didn't commit suicide, we committed an act of revolutionary suicide protesting the conditions of an inhumane world."[14]

The people in Jonestown died of an apparent cyanide poisoning, except for Jones (injury consistent with self-inflicted gunshot wound) and his personal nurse.[15] The Temple had spoken of committing "revolutionary suicide" in prior instances, and members had previously drunk what Jones told them was poison at least once before, but the "Flavor Aid" drink they ingested contained no poison.[16] Concurrently, four other members died in the Temple's headquarters in Georgetown. Four months later, Michael Prokes, one of the initial survivors, also committed suicide.[17]

Solar Temple (1994–97)

From 1994 to 1997, the Order of the Solar Temple's members began a series of mass suicides, which led to roughly 74 deaths. Farewell letters were left by members, stating that they believed their deaths would be an escape from the "hypocrisies and oppression of this world." Added to this they felt they were "moving on to Sirius." Records seized by the Quebec police showed that some members had personally donated over $1 million to the group's leader, Joseph Di Mambro.

There was also another attempted mass suicide of the remaining members, which was thwarted in the late 1990s. All the suicide/murders and attempts occurred around the dates of the equinoxes and solstices, which likely held some relation to the beliefs of the group.[18][19][20][21][22]

Heaven's Gate (1997)

On March 27, 1997, 39 followers of Heaven's Gate died in a mass suicide in Rancho Santa Fe, California, which borders San Diego to the north. These people believed, according to the teachings of their group, that through their suicides they were "exiting their human vessels" so that their souls could go on a journey aboard a spaceship they believed to be following comet Hale–Bopp.[23] Some male members of the group underwent voluntary castration in preparation for the genderless life they believed awaited them after the suicide.[24]

On March 30, 1997, Thomas Nichols, younger brother[25] of actress Nichelle Nichols, was discovered dead in his California trailer, with a note nearby that read in part "I'm going to the spaceship with Hale–Bopp to be with those who have gone before me." Using propane gas to end his life, Nichols, like the members of Heaven's Gate, had his head covered by a plastic bag and his upper torso covered with a purple shroud. Nichols' connection with the group is unknown.

In May 1997, two Heaven's Gate members who had not been present for the mass suicide attempted suicide, one succeeding, the other becoming comatose for two days and then recovering.[26] In February 1998, the survivor, Chuck Humphrey, committed suicide.[27]

Disputed religiously motivated suicides

Movement for the Restoration of the Ten Commandments of God (2000)

On March 17, 2000, 778 members of the Movement for the Restoration of the Ten Commandments of God died in Uganda.[28] The theory that all of the members died in a mass suicide was changed to mass murder when decomposing bodies were discovered in pits with signs of strangulation while others had stab wounds.[29] The group had diverged from the Roman Catholic Church in order to emphasize apocalypticism and alleged Marian apparitions.[30] The group had been called an inward-looking movement that wore matching uniforms and restricted their speech to avoid saying anything dishonest or sinful.[31][32] On the suicide itself locals said they held a party at which 70 crates of soft drinks and three bulls were consumed.[33]

This version of events has been criticized, most notably by Irving Hexham,[34] and a Ugandan source states that even today "no one can really explain the whys, hows, whats, where, when, etcetera."[35]

Popular Culture

References

  1. Holology: Mass Suicide
  2. Lucius Annaeus Florus, Epitome 1.38.16–17 and Valerius Maximus, Factorum et Dictorum Memorabilium 6.1.ext.3
  3. Masada and the first Jewish revolt against Rome: Near East Tourist Industry, Steven Langfur 2003
  4. Shaye J.D. Cohen. The significance of Yavneh and other essays in Jewish Hellenism. p. 143.
  5. Zuleika Rodgers, ed. (2007). Making History: Josephus And Historical Method. BRILL. p. 397.
  6. Rajasthan: Monique Choy, Sarina Singh p.231 ISBN 1-74059-363-4, Lonely Planet Publications, Oct 2002
  7. GEDIMINO LAIŠKAI: The Letters of Gediminas, the Great Duke of Lithuania (appr. 1275 – 1341)
  8. Coleman, Loren (2004). The Copycat Effect: How the Media and Popular Culture Trigger the Mayhem in Tomorrow's Headlines. New York: Paraview Pocket-Simon and Schuster. p. 46. ISBN 0-7434-8223-9.
  9. Memorials and Other Papers:Thomas de Quincey, ISBN 0-14-043015-6
  10. "Suicides: Nazis go down to defeat in a wave of selbstmord". Life Magazine, 14 May 1945. Accessed 10 April 2011.
  11. Lakotta, Beate (2005-03-05). "Tief vergraben, nicht dran rühren" (in German). SPON. Retrieved 2010-08-16.
  12. Pringle, Robert (2004). Bali: Indonesia's Hindu Realm; A short history of. Short History of Asia Series. Allen & Unwin. ISBN 1-86508-863-3.
  13. Foreword, The Assassination of Representative Leo J. Ryan and the Jonestown, Guyana Tragedy, excerpt from: Report of a Staff Investigative Group to the Committee on Foreign Affairs, U.S. House of Representatives, May 15, 1979
  14. 1 2 3 4 "Jonestown Audiotape Primary Project." Alternative Considerations of Jonestown and Peoples Temple. San Diego State University.
  15. Guyana Inquest of Cyrill Mootoo & Cecil Roberts
  16. Layton, Deborah. (1998) Seductive Poison. Anchor, 1999. ISBN 0-385-48984-6.
  17. "The Death of Michael Prokes"
  18. THE SOLAR TEMPLE, Religious Tolerance.org, Retrieved 2007-10-13
  19. Sloan, Jennifer (1999). "Order of the Solar Temple". University of Virginia. Archived from the original on 17 October 2007. Retrieved 16 January 2015.
  20. Tragedy Of The Solar Temple Cult Stephen Dafoe & Templar History Magazine, 2002, Retrieved 2007-10-13
  21. Solar Temple: A cult gone wrong, CBC News, Retrieved 2007-10-13
  22. Katherine Ramsland, Death Journey, Crime Library, , Retrieved 2007-10-13
  23. Jonathan Broder, Suicide in San Diego – Were cultists recruited on the Web?, Salon/March 28, 1997
  24. "Some members of suicide cult castrated", CNN, March 28, 1997,but how ever there mass suicide brought new members that reformed the religious group in 2010-present but know one knows where they are located at.
  25. http://www.nndb.com/people/712/000023643/
  26. "Two More Search For Heaven's Gate", The Associated Press, May 6, 1997
  27. "Ex-Heaven's Gate member is found dead", Associated Press, February 21, 1998
  28. Cult in Uganda Poisoned Many, Police Say New York Times July 28, 2000
  29. New Vision, "Kanungu Dead Poisoned", Matthias Mugisha, July 28, 2000.
  30. Logan Nakyanzi, Uganda: Religion That Kills- Why Does Uganda Have So Many Cults?, ABC News, Feb. 14, 2000(?)
  31. Massimo Introvigne, Tragedy in Uganda: the Restoration of the Ten Commandments of God, a Post-Catholic Movement, CESNUR, Retrieved 2007-10-13
  32. Quiet cult's doomsday deaths, BBC News, March 29, 2000
  33. Simon Robinson, Uganda's Faithful Dead, Time, Mar 26, 2000
  34. Irving Hexham, Professor of Religious Studies, University of Calgary, What Really Happened in Uganda? Suicide or Murder, Religion in the News, Vol. 3, No. 2, Summer 2000, pp. 7–9 and 24
  35. Gerald Businge, Seven Years Since the Kanungu Massacre – Are we any wiser?, UG Pulse, March 17, 2007

External links

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