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Suicide Note Found Online (Drudge title: Man who killed himself left 1,900-page suicide note...)
The Harvard Crimson ^ | Wednesday, September 22, 2010 | Eric P. Newcomer and Naveen N. Srivatsa

Posted on 09/24/2010 11:46:24 AM PDT by null and void

The man who shot himself on the steps of Memorial Church Saturday morning had published online a 1,905-page document entitled “Suicide Note,” according to his mother.

The death of Mitchell L. Heisman, a 35-year-old Somerville resident, on campus was met with shock, and University officials described the incident as “tragic.”

“It’s really sad, it was horrible, and these kinds of incidents affect all of us really negatively,” Dean of the College Evelynn M. Hammonds said in an interview yesterday. “This campus is situated in an urban context, and we can’t control these kinds of things.”

Born in New York City in 1975, Heisman attended elementary school in Monroe Township, N.J., and graduated with a bachelor’s in psychology from the University of Albany.

While living in a Craigie Street apartment, Heisman wrote “Suicide Note,” a sprawling series of arguments that touch upon historical, religious, and nihilist themes, his mother said.

“He didn’t show me that this was at all what he had in his mind. All I knew was he was finishing his book and he was happy about that,” said his mother Lonni Heisman, 76.

Heisman said she supported publishing her son’s name in The Crimson to let people know of his work “because that’s what he wanted.”

An avid reader interested in mathematics and science, Heisman visited Harvard libraries and may have contacted professors while writing the document, his mother said.

A University spokesman was unable to confirm whether Heisman had reached out to Harvard faculty last night.

The document references Harvard and research done by Harvard faculty—such as Law School professor Alan M. Dershowitz, government professor Harvey C. Mansfield ’53, and psychology professor Steven Pinker—more than half a dozen times.

Heisman discusses death at length in the piece, which is publicly available online.

Heisman committed suicide on the top step of Memorial Church Saturday in front of a tour group of more than 20 people, according to a Cambridge Police Department report.

His death took place during Yom Kippur services that morning and resulted in campus security shutting down the eastern half of Harvard Yard for much of the day.

Jared L. Nathanson, a 37-year-old singer who described himself as Heisman’s acquaintance, said he had had conversations with Heisman about art, music, and movies.

Nathanson received a copy of “Suicide Note” in an e-mail that day.

“From what I understood of him, his book was very important to him,” Nathanson said.

Heisman worked in several bookstores in the area and relied on an inheritance from his father Alvin Heisman—who passed away while Mitchell Heisman was still an adolescent—to support his writing, according to his mother.

But he was reluctant to talk to her about its contents, she said.

“I’m devastated. I just can’t believe it,” she said. “I don’t think I ever will.”

She spoke with Heisman just two days before his death, she said.

“I expected him to come here to help me move, which I am in the process of,” she said. “I expected him to come back in October. He really was non-committal.”

—Staff writer Eric P. Newcomer can be reached at newcomer@fas.harvard.edu. —Staff writer Naveen N. Srivatsa can be reached at srivatsa@fas.harvard.edu.


TOPICS: Culture/Society
KEYWORDS: academicbias; antichristian; atheism; atheistsupremacist; harvard; manifesto; mitchellheisman; mitchelllheisman; nihilism; opus; religiousintolerance; suicide
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To: Scythian

How come there’s no liberal outcry over this? Don’t they mourn at the death of one of their own? I mean he went down and tried taking Christianity down with him.


61 posted on 09/25/2010 9:15:36 AM PDT by Amerikan_Samurai
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To: ShadowAce

You would have thought that as much content this magnum opus was that he would’ve thought of something much more profound then titling it “Suicide Note”. lol


62 posted on 09/25/2010 9:24:00 AM PDT by Amerikan_Samurai
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To: Polybius; Dem Guard; Slings and Arrows

“If my hypothesis is correct, this work will be repressed.”

So, he killed himself over an incorrect hypothesis?
***That’s a great synopsis of this guy’s opus, serving as a great Cliff note version as well as a sling ping.


63 posted on 09/26/2010 2:34:53 PM PDT by Kevmo (So America gets what America deserves - the destruction of its Constitution. ~Leo Donofrio, 6/1/09)
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To: Kevmo; MeekOneGOP; Conspiracy Guy; DocRock; King Prout; Darksheare; OSHA; martin_fierro; ...
A literal magnum opus.


64 posted on 09/26/2010 6:49:36 PM PDT by Slings and Arrows (You can't have IngSoc without an Emmanuel Goldstein.)
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To: null and void; Lady Jag; Slings and Arrows

65 posted on 09/26/2010 7:04:53 PM PDT by martin_fierro (< |:)~)
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To: Slings and Arrows

Barging in on G-d is not a good idea. Throwing your life back in His face is a serious mistake. Things may be miserable, but you have to wait for His time for you. After all, you may not yet have fulfilled the task He assigned to you when He created you.

Suicide is ‘way too permanent. Tomorrow is another day.


66 posted on 09/26/2010 7:09:09 PM PDT by TheOldLady (Pablo is very wily.)
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To: DannyTN

Good thing I lost my babble fish!!!

B^)


67 posted on 09/26/2010 8:03:04 PM PDT by The SISU kid (I feel really homesick all the time & so do all the other aliens.....)
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To: Slings and Arrows
I have two magnums in my desk.

One is a .44, it's loaded.

The other is Markers Mark, it keeps me loaded.

68 posted on 09/26/2010 8:07:37 PM PDT by Harmless Teddy Bear (The Doctrine of Nachofication: The belief that everything tastes better with melted cheese.)
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To: martin_fierro

Pretty much says it all. Wonder if ED will list him as “an hero?”


69 posted on 09/26/2010 8:10:10 PM PDT by Slings and Arrows (You can't have IngSoc without an Emmanuel Goldstein.)
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To: null and void

1900 page suicide note? That’s too bad, he could have had an amazing career as a politician.


70 posted on 09/26/2010 8:12:06 PM PDT by upsdriver (The revolution begins on Nov. 2 to take back our country. The American people vs the ruling elite.)
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To: Harmless Teddy Bear

Calvin and Hobbes FTW!


71 posted on 09/26/2010 8:12:51 PM PDT by Slings and Arrows (You can't have IngSoc without an Emmanuel Goldstein.)
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To: Responsibility2nd

Sounds like he suffered from Pocari Sweat syndrome.


72 posted on 09/26/2010 8:16:47 PM PDT by usmcobra (.Islam: providing Live Targets for United States Marines since 1786!)
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To: null and void

Heaven forbid that the trust fund baby go volunteer in the Appalachians to help people in need.

Oh no...

He’s so “oppressed” by the Man that he’s got to turn himself into worm food.

Oh well. World’s better off without such mental midgets.


73 posted on 09/26/2010 8:17:21 PM PDT by Southack (Media Bias means that Castro won't be punished for Cuban war crimes against Black Angolans in Africa)
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To: TheOldLady

IMO, this guy had some mental problems. A 1900-page suicide note is pretty strong evidence in that direction.


74 posted on 09/26/2010 8:18:35 PM PDT by Slings and Arrows (You can't have IngSoc without an Emmanuel Goldstein.)
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To: Slings and Arrows

Agreed.


75 posted on 09/26/2010 8:21:09 PM PDT by TheOldLady (Pablo is very wily.)
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To: Southack
Heaven forbid that the trust fund baby go volunteer in the Appalachians to help people in need.

What did the people of Appalachia do to you that you would wish this person on them?

76 posted on 09/26/2010 8:29:23 PM PDT by Harmless Teddy Bear (The Doctrine of Nachofication: The belief that everything tastes better with melted cheese.)
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To: Kartographer; Slings and Arrows; JoeProBono

“...And of course, the Squirrels.”


77 posted on 09/27/2010 7:21:27 AM PDT by a fool in paradise (Ask yourself,where does Saudi Arabia fit on a scale of "passive" to "moderate" to "extremist" Islam?)
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To: GonzoGOP; Slings and Arrows; Revolting cat!
So the reason he killed himself was that he didn't know how to write a memo? I mean The Complete History of World War II was only around 1000 pages. And that had maps. Nobody has that much interesting to say. Well OK perhaps the Dos Equis guy.

Reminds me of what self-help author Dr. Luther Waxling (Dennis Hopper) said in "Search and Destroy" - "Just because it happened to you does not make it interesting."

78 posted on 09/27/2010 7:28:42 AM PDT by a fool in paradise (Ask yourself,where does Saudi Arabia fit on a scale of "passive" to "moderate" to "extremist" Islam?)
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To: null and void
It should not be unexpected that these arguments will not be given a fair hearing.

Passive voice in the second sentence. Double, is it triple, negative. Ugh.

79 posted on 09/27/2010 11:24:51 AM PDT by Revolting cat! (Let us prey!)
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