Jumpers -A Suicide Thread

(Newser) - Unable to bear the prospect of prison time, the so-called DC Madam hanged herself, officials in Florida said today. Deborah Jeane Palfrey, whose body was found Thursday, left behind suicide notes in which she referred to "this 'modern day lynching'" and said she saw "no way out i.e. 'exit strategy' for me other than the one I have chosen," the Tampa Tribune reports. More »

(Newser) - The so-called “DC Madam” hanged herself in Florida, police said today, committing suicide two weeks after her conviction for money laundering and racketeering. Officials say her mother found Deborah Jeane Palfrey, 52, hanging in a storage shed this morning, along with suicide notes whose details they did not divulge. Police said Blanche Palfrey had no indication her daughter was contemplating suicide. More »

(Newser) - Depression among physicians sparks 300 to 400 suicides a year, the highest rate of any profession, Newsweek reports. While male suicides outnumber female 4 to 1 in the general population, the rate among male and female doctors is about the same. "Undiagnosed and untreated depression is the culprit here," said a psychiatry professor. More »

(Newser) - One bridge over China’s Yangtze River sees hundreds of suicides as the country's rate rises—though fewer since a Nanjing man started spending weekends there saving lives. With 280,000 killing themselves ever year—twice the US total—Chen Si has so far stopped 144 suicides, the Los Angeles Times reports. “All people really need is one person willing to lend a hand,” Chen says. More »

(Newser) - A Democratic senator is calling for the resignation of the Veterans Administration mental health chief, accusing him of deliberately hiding the truth about suicide attempts among US veterans, the Dallas Morning News reports. A secret agency email put the number of suicide attempts at 12,000 a year—not the 790 the VA officially reported, according to court documents released in a lawsuit by two veterans groups. More »

(Newser) - Veterans Affairs hasn’t done enough to stem the “rising tide” of suicides and mental health problems, according to a class action lawsuit going to trial this week. Roughly 20% of deployed US troops are suffering from mental illness, a recent study shows, and an average of 18 kill themselves each day. “The VA has simply not devoted enough resources,” said one plaintiff lawyer. “They don’t have enough psychiatrists.” More »

(Newser) - A suicide bomber blew himself up in the middle of a funeral in northern Iraq today, killing 49 mourners. The bomber detonated a vest stuffed with explosives in a village along the border of Diyala and Salahuddin provinces, not far from the site of Tuesday's bomb attack that killed 40. Although nobody has claimed responsibility for the blast, Al Qaeda militants have a history of attacking funerals, Reuters writes. More »

(Newser) - Critics in cyberspace can stay incognito, which makes them especially nasty. Radar lists the 10 most-scorned players on the web: Lori Drew: Her comments on a MySpace account drove a 13-year-old girl to suicide. John Fitzgerald Page: An online dater whose cruel remarks got world-wide coverage. Julia Allison: A sassy sex columnist who worked the web for a 6-figure gig. More »

(Newser) - A British TV celebrity's body was left hanging in London's Paddington station for six days, the London Times reports, in an apparent suicide. Mark Speight, 42, had been missing for a week and police are probing why it took so long for his body to be discovered. Speight was said to have been devast