Christine Chubbuck (August 24, 1944 - July 15, 1974) was an American television news reporter who committed suicide during a live broadcast on July 15, 1974. At 9:38 AM, 8 minutes into her talk show, Suncoast Digest , on WXLT-TV in Sarasota, Florida, she drew out a .38 caliber revolver and shot herself in the head. She died in a hospital 14 hours later.

According to her co-workers working the day of her suicide she took the unusual step of excusing herself to write her script for the newscast. She normally opened her show with an interview and conducted an informal half hour and she never once opened her show with a newscast. She also placed under her desk a bag of puppets that she had occasionally used during a broadcast. Hidden in the bag was the revolver. Before her newscast she told the producer that she wanted them to get ready a film of a shooting that happened the weekend before and then she took her seat. After three pieces of news, she led into the shooting piece but without the film because it wouldn't run correctly. It was here that she delivered her last words:

"In keeping with Channel 40's policy of bringing you the latest in blood and guts in living color, we bring you another first, an attempted suicide."

She then shot herself. The "script" she went to write was actually the story of her own suicide attempt, detailing how she'd be taken to the hospital and declared to be in critical condition. She was the first person to ever commit suicide on live television.

Three weeks before her suicide she had asked the station's news director if she could do a news piece on suicide. After getting her pitch approved she called the local police department to discuss with an officer methods of suicide. In the interview he told her that one of the most efficient ways was to use a .38 caliber revolver and with hollow point bullets, which would disintegrate on impact. A week before her suicide she told a co-worker that she bought a gun and joked about killing herself on air. Her mother, in an interview granted the day of the suicide, said Christine was very depressed and had few friends or romantic interests.

References

Source: Quinn, Sally (Aug. 4, 1974). "Christine Chubbuck: 29, Good-Looking, Educated. A Television Personality. Dead. Live and in Color" . Washington Post

External links

• PDF file of The Washington Post article