January 27, 2005

A bit of advice to the next idiot in line

alvarez.jpg

Alvarez
I caught the news of yesterday's California train derailment and thought very little of it. I was sorry to hear that people lost their lives and that a lot more were injured, but things like that happen on occasion. I was unaware, however, that the derailment was the conscious effort of one person. It seems that Juan Manuel Alvarez, 25, despondent over his failing marriage wanted to take his own life and the only way the idiot could think to do so was to park his SUV on the train tracks. Of course, then, at the last minute, he changed his mind, jumped out of the SUV and walked off, leaving such in the middle of the tracks where it eventually caused a train wreck and ensuing fatalities. CNN Story, in case you have been away for the last few days.

Now I am hearing that they are going to charge Mr. Juan Manuel Alvarez with 11 counts of murder and are going to seek the death penalty. But for a last minute change of heart, it seems that Mr. Alvarez was set to execute himself. Mr. Dow B. Hover of the State of New York used to be the executioner for Sing Sing prison and was an expert in electrocution. He also knew a way to kill himself without taking a whole lot of innocent people with him:hover.jpg

Dow B Hover
On June 1, 1990, in the middle of the afternoon, Gladys's [sic] son, Jack, stopped by the house to check on him. "Granddad!" he shouted, as he entered the breezeway. No answer. Jack heard the hum of a car's engine. He twisted the handle of the door leading to the garage and discovered that the garage was full of exhaust.

Dow B. Hover sat in the front seat of his Plymouth, the driver's window rolled down, his arms folded across his chest. At first, Jack yanked at the garage door, trying to pull it open, before remembering that he needed to push a button. It was already too late; Hover's skin was cold to the touch. Here, in the same garage where he had once changed his license plates before driving off to Sing Sing, it appears that the state's last executioner ended one more life: his own. - source

The rest of you suicidal idiots take note:

Death from carbon monoxide poisoning is painless and you simply find yourself falling asleep to never awaken again.* No trains or innocent train-riding commuters need be involved.

*It is not my purpose to propose that anyone take their own life, but simply that should it be their choice to do so, they do so sensibly -- without harm to others.

Yada!

Posted by Tiger at January 27, 2005 01:05 PM | TrackBack
Comments

You know what else is really sad about the Alvarez story? He had apparently tried to kill himself before -- once by slashing his wrists and once by stabbing himself. He failed both times, and I'm not sure if it was due to stupidity or if he was using the attempts to get attention. Well, he got attention this time. It's horrific.

Posted by: toni at January 28, 2005 11:20 PM

...What a sick, sad, pathetic man this Alvarez is. As my Mom would say, "There's hundreds of ways one can kill themselves with no chance of failure. To try and fail usually means G-d spared you and should re-think what you're doing, or you're just wanting attention."

If this was his idea of a "cry for help", it was definitely the wrong way to go about it. I'm a pretty understanding person, but I have no scrap of sympathy for this man. He is a murderer, plain and simple.

--TwoDragons

Posted by: Denita TwoDragons at January 29, 2005 08:59 AM

Suicide by electric-chair? or Suicide by lethal-injection?

The terrible thing is that he took eleven innocents with him.

Posted by: Ozguru at February 2, 2005 08:04 PM

Sad indeed. Thanks for sharing this post with me (you left your url on my own post about suicide recently).

Posted by: Jay at February 6, 2005 07:19 AM