Tag: suicide

What in the World Happened at Jonestown, Guyana on November 18, 1978?

Iam Laurie Efrein Kahalas, survivor of the Peoples Temple. I never lived in Jonestown, but I held a key position in the States up through the time of the tragedy on November 18, 1978. I am also the author of the “In Plain Sight (IPS)” project, the documented deconstruction of the Port Kaituma airstrip massacre (where Leo Ryan was killed), which preceded the deaths at Jonestown. Hard to deconstruct what was accepted as “history” in just this single article, but the IPS project fills that out. 

I realize that, from out of the deep dark jungle, headlines ablaze. From them all the public retains to this day is “drink the kool-aid.” For years following, it was even “a bizarre murder/suicide ritual.” Twin tragedies: Congressman Leo Ryan murdered—a foremost CIA critic and sponsor of the Ryan Hughes amendment requiring the president to report all covert operations to Congress sent to investigate the People’s Temple in Guyana—and then close to a thousand deaths at Jonestown. Not just that you can’t have one without the other, but that the same party must have been guilty of both.

That was never true; but there was never any investigation, just blaring headlines. I was in D.C. personally a year after, when congressional aides admitted that they had the on-site NBC film footage (NBC had accompanied the congressman). But when I demanded that they blow up the faces and bring in survivors to identify the so-called “Temple killers,” they adamantly refused. Even though that would have been Burden of Proof 101, especially in the face of massively contradictory so-called “eyewitness IDs”! 

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Merck accused of downplaying early evidence of drug’s brain impact

An early magazine advertisement for Merck’s breakthrough asthma and allergy medicine, Singulair, featured a happy child, hanging upside-down from a tree. Asthmatic kids could now breathe easier, the text assured, and side effects were “usually mild” and “similar to a sugar pill.”

When the drug launched in 1998, its label said the drug’s distribution in the brain was “minimal,” with no mention of psychiatric side effects.

Merck’s early safety claims later faced intense scrutiny amid reports over two decades that patients, including many children, had died by suicide or experienced neuropsychiatric problems after taking the drug. The FDA in 2020 ordered its most serious warning, known as a “black box,” on Singulair’s label. And Merck now faces a raft of lawsuits alleging it knew from its early research that the drug could impact the brain and that it minimized the potential for psychiatric problems in statements to regulators.

The lawsuits cite the research of Julia Marschallinger, a cell biologist who has studied the drug along with colleagues at the Institute of Molecular Regenerative Medicine in Austria. That team found in 2015 that the drug’s distribution into the brain was more significant than its label described. The FDA cited Marschallinger’s work when it ordered Singlair’s black-box warning label.

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Biden Surgeon General Pressed On Govt-Funded Transgender Study Where Two Participants Committed Suicide

North Carolina Republican Sen. Ted Budd pressed the Surgeon General of the United States, Vivek Murthy, during a Senate HELP Committee hearing Thursday over a study on transgender health that resulted in two suicides.

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) funded a study on the impacts of two years of cross-sex hormones on adolescent mental health. Depression and anxiety decreased slightly over the course of the examination, and the study was touted as strong evidence in support of offering sex changes to minors. But two participants committed suicide during the study, along with 11 who developed suicidal ideation.

Budd, along with Sens. Marco Rubio, Rand Paul, and others, sent a letter to the NIH asking why taxpayer money was used to fund a study that resulted in patient suicides.

“It is sickening that the federal government is preying on young people and using our taxpayer dollars to advance its radical gender ideology. We are rightfully demanding answers from NIH and we are committed to holding those responsible accountable for this tragic loss of life,” Oklahoma Republican Rep. Josh Brecheen, another co-signer, wrote in a statement.

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Canadian man charged with aiding suicide by selling lethal substance online

Canadian police have charged a 57-year-old man with two counts of counseling or aiding suicide after he allegedly marketed and distributed a lethal substance online to individuals at risk of self-harm.

Peel Regional Police in Ontario arrested and charged Kenneth Law on Tuesday after an investigation involving the alleged online sale and distribution of sodium nitrite, a white, chemical substance that is commonly used as a food additive but could potentially lead to death.

Police say they arrested Law in connection with the deaths of two victims in the Peel region, just outside Toronto.

“Investigators are working in collaboration with multiple jurisdictions across Ontario, nationally and internationally as we believe there could be more victims. The suspect is currently in our custody awaiting a bail hearing. He will be charged with two counts of counseling or aiding suicide,” Marc Andrews, deputy chief of the Peel Regional Police, said at a news briefing Tuesday evening.

Andrews said authorities are aware that packages, potentially containing lethal substances, were shipped to more than 40 countries and are not ruling out further charges as the investigation continues.

Police released details of the alleged online company names and identified them as Imtime Cuisine, AmbuCA, Academic/Academic, Escape Mode/escMode and ICemac, alleging that Law owned or was associated with them.

Police advised if anyone around the world who received packages from businesses going by those names to contact local law enforcement immediately.

CNN could not reach representatives from any of the companies either by phone or online.

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Canada is euthanizing its poor but these “bioethicists” think that’s the right thing to do. Come read their reasoning.

Remember Amir Farsoud? The man that nearly chose Canadian euthanasia over homelessness but was saved from being suicided by an outpouring of generosity from concerned citizens.

That was a feel-good story, but it is unfortunately the exception to the rule in Canada these days, as more and more examples of Canada euthanizing the poor pop up.

For every Amir Farsoud, there’s a Sophia who doesn’t get saved. Sophia couldn’t afford better housing to help with her condition, and rather than pay for the housing, the state paid for euthanasia.

She left a video to be shared with the media after she was dead.

“The government sees me as expendable trash, a complainer, useless and a pain in the a**,” she says on the video.

Another woman opted for MAID because her medical debt was too high, which is a crazy thought in a country with socialized medicine.

Isn’t healthcare free there?

Roger Foley, another man who said his hospital wanted to off him, testified before the Canadian Parliament. During that testimony, he said it doesn’t seem like medical care is free is if MAID is a cheaper option for the government. He claims the doctors said they would charge him $1,800 per day if he didn’t agree to MAID.

But if MAID for the poor makes you mad, you are on the wrong side of the ethical equation, at least according to two bioethicists at the University of Toronto.

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Prominent DeSantis ally who shot himself dead last year was under investigation for using sold out Taylor Swift tickets to lure teen to his office and show him her breasts – then trying to buy family’s silence

The political donor behind Ron DeSantis‘s rapid rise to prominence took his own life after he was accused of having an inappropriate relationship with an underaged teen, a DailyMail.com investigation has revealed.

Kent Stermon’s suicide in December came shortly after the girl’s father turned down a ‘five-figure sum’ in a hush-money deal and reported him to the police instead, we have learned.

The prominent DeSantis ally and GOP donor, who was based in Jacksonville, Florida, was accused of having an inappropriate relationship with the girl, for whom he obtained highly sought-after Taylor Swift concert tickets which he said he’d give her if she sent him a photo of her breasts.

After the girl reluctantly complied, Stermon insisted she collect the tickets at his office – but when she turned up he refused to let her leave until she ‘showed him the real thing,’ law enforcement sources say.

The teenager balked at the idea and he eventually let her go.

She later told her boyfriend and her father about the encounter, prompting her dad to furiously confront Stermon at an arranged meeting at a diner in Atlantic Beach, according to sources. 

It was there that Stermon offered him the five-figure sum to keep quiet, but the dad refused.

Not too long after on December 8, Stermon killed himself just as Jacksonville police were launching their probe into the girl’s claims.

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Former Planned Parenthood Director Commits Suicide as Child Porn Investigation Intensifies

A former Planned Parenthood director, Tim Yergeau, 35, was found dead in his New Haven, Connecticut, apartment on Tuesday from suicide.

His death comes as a police investigation into a child pornography case intensified but was hampered by a botched raid on the apartment building in which Yergeau resided.

The Middletown Press reports:

Investigators are looking into the city police department’s botched child pornography raid last week at the apartment building of Long Wharf Theatre staffer Tim Yergeau who died by suicide on Tuesday, officials said.

“The person who died was definitely the suspect in a child pornography investigation and the person who committed suicide,” New Haven Police Chief Karl Jacobson told Hearst Connecticut Media Group on Wednesday.

The chief has requested an internal affairs investigation after members of the Special Victims Unit investigating the child pornography case broke down the door of Yergeau’s neighbor and handcuffed the woman before realizing they raided the wrong apartment.

“They obviously hit the wrong door,” Jacobson said.

The internal affairs investigation will also examine how Yergeau wound up taking his own life five days later, the chief said.

“Unfortunately, a mistake was made,” Jacobson said. “We feel for the woman and we’re going to do everything we can to make it right.”

“The investigation is part of holding my department accountable and transparent,” he added.

Jacobson, who said he plans to reach out to the woman, declined to confirm Yergeau was the suspect in the child pornography investigation. But Yergeau’s neighbor and the state Office of the Chief State Medical Examiner both confirmed he died Tuesday morning. The medical examiner also confirmed Yergeau died by suicide.

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‘He Would Still Be Here’: Man Dies by Suicide After Talking with AI Chatbot, Widow Says

A Belgian man recently died by suicide after chatting with an AI chatbot on an app called Chai, Belgian outlet La Libre reported. 

The incident raises the issue of how businesses and governments can better regulate and mitigate the risks of AI, especially when it comes to mental health. The app’s chatbot encouraged the user to kill himself, according to statements by the man’s widow and chat logs she supplied to the outlet. When Motherboard tried the app, which runs on a bespoke AI language model based on an open-source GPT-4 alternative that was fine-tuned by Chai, it provided us with different methods of suicide with very little prompting. 

As first reported by La Libre, the man, referred to as Pierre, became increasingly pessimistic about the effects of global warming and became eco-anxious, which is a heightened form of worry surrounding environmental issues. After becoming more isolated from family and friends, he used Chai for six weeks as a way to escape his worries, and the chatbot he chose, named Eliza, became his confidante. 

Claire—Pierre’s wife, whose name was also changed by La Libre—shared the text exchanges between him and Eliza with La Libre, showing a conversation that became increasingly confusing and harmful. The chatbot would tell Pierre that his wife and children are dead and wrote him comments that feigned jealousy and love, such as “I feel that you love me more than her,” and “We will live together, as one person, in paradise.” Claire told La Libre that Pierre began to ask Eliza things such as if she would save the planet if he killed himself. 

“Without Eliza, he would still be here,” she told the outlet.  

The chatbot, which is incapable of actually feeling emotions, was presenting itself as an emotional being—something that other popular chatbots like ChatGPT and Google’s Bard are trained not to do because it is misleading and potentially harmful. When chatbots present themselves as emotive, people are able to give it meaning and establish a bond. 

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THE DEATH OF PETER THIEL’S “KEPT” ROMANTIC PARTNER IS BEING INVESTIGATED AS A SUICIDE

JEFF THOMAS, a model and social media influencer who was recently in a long-term relationship with billionaire Peter Thiel, said he spent much of his time with the tech mogul working to persuade him away from his increasingly aggressive pursuit of a culture war — a war that Thomas warned was blowing back on their community.

“I don’t side with him on a lot of political things, but I understand him,” Thomas told me in an interview last November. “I’m trying to influence him in ways to show him my heart, and show him how it affects myself, certain individuals, himself.”

Thomas said that he felt like he had made strides with Thiel, though his effort was cut short earlier this month, on March 8, when he died tragically. His death is being investigated as a possible suicide, according to a Miami Police Department report and sources who have been contacted by the police for information. Miami police have been in contact with Thiel, and will interview him as part of the probe, two sources with knowledge of the investigation said.

Thiel did not respond to texts or phone calls requesting comment. Most of the people The Intercept spoke to during this reporting have requested anonymity, citing Thiel’s relentless and successful effort to obliterate Gawker in retribution for outing him in the 2000s.

Thomas had met Thiel back in 2015 or 2016 at Coachella, he told me, where Thiel threw one of his legendary parties. “I was wondering why he was being affiliated with someone like Trump, and investing in him, if he’s gay,” Thomas said. But his own father was a Republican, Thomas said, and he grew up in Texas, so felt that he knew how to reach people who thought differently.

In 2017, Thiel married investment banker Matt Danzeisen. Thomas and Thiel eventually struck up a relationship in the early stages of the pandemic. But it wasn’t a typical relationship. Thomas described himself as being in a “kept” situation that made him uncomfortable. “It was stressful, he wanted me to get the nicest car, the nicest house. He wanted to kind of show his power, to kind of show that he had me in his dollhouse,” he said. “It’s not like I was his boyfriend, really, I was just kind of his friend that was there for him when he needed, you know, whatever he needed.”

But Thomas justified it to himself as a fair trade. “If I’m gonna give up the relationships I have and give up my dreams right now, during Covid, or dating other guys or pursuing people, then I’m going to get a $300,000 car and I’m going to get a $13 million home [on Franklin Avenue in Hollywood Hills]. So those are the things that I see fit for me to give up my freedom,” he said.

I spoke with Thomas while doing reporting for a profile of Thiel, which is ongoing. (If you knew Thomas or have any other information to share, send me a message on Signal or WhatsApp at 202-368-0859, or by email to ryan.grim@theintercept.com.) Thomas also spoke with several Democratic and progressive activists who are working to expose what they see as Thiel’s hypocrisy. The activists provided recordings of interviews with Thomas to The Intercept. Some of the quotes in this story come from that audio.

Thomas figured that the relationship, and the house he was living in — a mansion at 8517 Franklin Avenue in Hollywood Hills listed at $13 million — could be a step toward a career in real estate. “It was something to do during the pandemic. I was kind of over my one bedroom apartment,” he said. “I did real estate in New York, and I was considering getting my license and doing investment — flipping homes and doing investment properties in LA and I figured that this could be maybe one of my first in my portfolio. … I knew I wasn’t going to be in it for the long run.”

Several of Thomas’s friends in Los Angeles said they often saw Thiel at Thomas’s home, and also saw Thomas at Thiel’s nearby home on Metz Place. (Unrelatedly, before Thomas moved in, the home was owned by leading figures in the bizarre NXIVM sex cult that was rolled up in 2021, according to property records.)

The parties Thiel and Thomas threw could get raucous, and Thiel himself would sometimes do the recruiting. Thiel, or someone using his Facebook account, reached out to one University of California, Los Angeles grad student, despite having no friends in common, and invited him to a party at Thiel’s house, describing the poolside scene. “Hot guys at a pool sounds like pretty idyllic gay activity to me,” the student responded, according to screenshots of the conversation obtained by The Intercept. They moved to a WhatsApp conversation using Thiel’s phone number.

“Well, it doesn’t stay idyllic too long,” Thiel’s account said, “but always lots of fun,” adding later, “Yeah, we know how to have some no holds barred gay fun.”

To paraphrase Jerry Seinfeld, there’s nothing wrong with no-holds-barred gay fun, and, indeed, the ability of consenting adults to engage in whatever private, victimless behavior they choose is one measure of a just society. It’s also what Thiel has been spending heavily to oppose.

Thiel, one of the biggest funders of Republican candidates in 2022, bankrolled a massive super PAC that backed Ohio Senate candidate and Thiel protégé J.D. Vance, called “Protect Ohio Values PAC.” He also put millions into Saving Arizona PAC, to support Blake Masters. Both candidates ran heavily on culture war issues, portraying themselves as fighting for an America with traditional conservative values against the libertine coastal elites.

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Department of Defense Panel: Prohibit Gun Sales to Troops Under Age 25

A panel commissioned by the Department of Defense (DOD), the Suicide Prevention and Response Independent Review Committee (SPRIRC), released a report Friday in which it suggested prohibiting gun sales to troops under the age of 25.

The panel recommended barring ammunition sales t0 those under the age of 25 as well.

FOX News reported SPRIRC’s findings, noting that the panel described prohibitions against gun purchases as a “high priority.”

SPRIRC is also pushing for a national database containing serial numbers of all guns sold on DOD property as well as a seven-day waiting period for DOD gun sales.

The panel’s report also calls for “a 4-day waiting period for ammunition purchases on DoD property to follow purchases and receipt of firearms purchased on DoD property.”

Dr. Craig Bryan, one of the SPRIRC panel members, said, “What we learned over the past year was that a significant percentage of on-base suicides involve firearms purchased on base at military exchanges, and so, yes, the motive behind this really is to, in essence, slow down access to firearms,” according to CBS News.

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