John Spenkelink

Capital punishment: them without the capital get the punishment.

Executed in electric chair, Florida.

John Spenkelink May 25, 1979

Carl Panzram

Hurry it up you Hoosier bastard! I could hang a dozen men while you're screwing around.

Executed by hanging Leavenworth, Kansas.

Carl Panzram, September 5, 1930

Harry Harbord "Breaker" Morant

Shoot straight you bastards and don't make a mess of it!

Executed by firing squad.

Harry Harbord "Breaker" Morant 1902

Marie Antoinette, Queen of France

Farewell, my children, forever. I go to your Father.

Executed by guillotine.

Monsieur, I beg your pardon.

Spoken to the executioner, after she stepped on his foot.

Marie Antoinette, Queen of France October 16, 1793

Louis XVI of France

I die innocent of all the crimes laid to my charge; I Pardon those who have occasioned my death; and I pray to God that the blood you are going to shed may never be visited on France.

Executed by guillotine

Louis XVI of France January 21, 1793

Mary

Dear Mother & Dad,

Please forgive me. I have tried to be good to you both. I love you both very much and wanted to get along with you both. I have tried.

I have wanted to go out with you and Dad but I was always afraid to ask for I always felt that the answer would be no.

And about Bud, I want to dismiss every idea about him. I don't like him any more than a companion, for a while I thought I did but no more, in fact, I am quite tired of him, as you know, I get tired of everyone after a while.

And mother, I wish that you hadn't called me a liar, and said I was just like Hap. as I'm not. It is just that I am afraid of you both at times, but I love you both very much.

So Long

Your loving daughter

that will always

love you

Mary

P.S. Please forgive me. I want you to, and don't think for one minute that I haven't appreciate everything you've done.

suicide note

Mary, 16

Saddam Hussein

There is no God but Allah and Muhammad is God's messenger.

Executed by hanging, at Camp Justice in the Baghdad suburb of Khadimiya

Saddam Hussein December 30, 2006

Jose Rizal

Consummatum Est (it is finished)

This last words were those of Jesus Christ before he got shot at Bagumbayan

Jose Rizal, December 30, 1896

Nathan Hale

I only regret that I have but one life to lose for my country.

Shot as a spy

Nathan Hale, 1776

Anonymous 4

Jimmy!

Remember what I told you and always respect, protect and obey your mother and always remember that I love you so much. I am going to leave you forever because I am too sick to go on. God bless you my Son and when your time comes to go to Heaven you will find your ole Pappy waiting for you.

Daddy

suicide note

Anonymous 4, 40

Bill

I know what I am doing. Annette found out. Ask Cara. I love you all.

suicide note

Bill, 13

Robert Alton Harris

You can be a king or a street sweeper, but everyone dances with the Grim Reaper.

Executed in California's gas chamber.

Robert Alton Harris April 21, 1992

Jimmy Glass

I'd rather be fishing.

Executed in electric chair, Louisiana.

Jimmy Glass June 12, 1987

James French

How about this for a headline for tomorrow's paper? French fries.

Executed in electric chair in Oklahoma.

James French 1966

Anonymous 3

When a "man" doesn't know where to take his wife -- then she isn't a wife any more --

I hope you will be "free" to take anyone any place and I'm sure you will not have any trouble as to places --

Please don't tell my mother the truth -- your whole tribe is partly responsible for this -- from your mother on down -- hope they are satisfied.

suicide note

Anonymous 3, 50

Died for Love

A poem that got stuck to my head since childhood:

I sit in the park where I dwell
For this boy I love so well
He took my heart away from me
Now he wants to set me free
I see a girl on his lap
He says things to her he never said to me
I ran home to cry on my bed
Not a word to mother was said
Father came home late that night
He looked at me from left to right
He saw me hanging from a rope
He took his knife to cut me down
And on my dress a note was found:

Dig my grave, dig it deep
Put pebbles from head to feet
And on the top place a dove
To show the world, I died for love…

W.S.

What is a few short years to live in hell. That is all I get around here.

No more I will pay the bills.

No more I will drive the car.

No more I will wash, iron & mend any clothes.

No more I will have to eat the leftover articles that was cooked the day before.

This is no way to live.

Either is it any way to die.

Her grub I can not eat.

At night I can not sleep.

I married the wrong nag-nag-nag and I lost my life.

W.S.

to the undertaker

We have got plenty money to give me a decent burial. Don't let my wife kid you by saying she has not got any money.

Give this note to the cops.

top

Give me liberty or give me death.

suicide note

W.S. 74

Anonymous 2

You cops will want to know why I did it, well, just let us say that I lived 61 years too many.

People have always put obstacles in my way. One of the great ones is leaving this world when you want to and have nothing to live for.

I am not insane. My mind was never more clear. It has been a long day. The motor got so hot it would not run so I just had to sit here and wait. The breaks were against me to the last.

The sun is leaving the hill now so hope nothing else happens.

suicide note

Anonymous 2, 61

Robert Drew

Remember, the death penalty is murder.

Executed by injection, Texas.

Robert Drew August 2, 1994

Francis "Two Gun" Crowley

You sons of bitches. Give my love to Mother.

Executed in electric chair.

Francis "Two Gun" Crowley, 1931

Erskine Childers

Take a step forward, lads. It will be easier that way.

Executed by firing squad.

Erskine Childers November 24, 1922

George Appel

Well, gentlemen, you are about to see a baked Appel.

Executed in electric chair in New York.

George Appel 1928

Virginia Woolf

I feel certain that I'm going mad again. I feel we can't go thru another of those terrible times. And I shan't recover this time. I begin to hear voices

Suicide note

Virginia Woolf March 28, 1941

Lupe Velez

To Harald, may God forgive you and forgive me too but I prefer to take my life away and our baby's before I bring him with shame or killing him, Lupe.

Suicide note.

Lupe Velez December 13, 1944

Hunter S. Thompson

"Football Season Is Over."
No More Games. No More Bombs. No More Walking. No More Fun. No More Swimming. 67. That is 17 years past 50. 17 more than I needed or wanted. Boring. I am always bitchy. No Fun for anybody. 67. You are getting Greedy. Act your old age. Relax This won't hurt.

Hunter left the note for his wife, Anita. He shot himself four days later at his home in Aspen, Colo., after weeks of pain from a host of physical problems that included a broken leg and a hip replacement.

The writer's ashes were blown into the sky in Woody Creek, Colo., amid fireworks on Aug. 20.

Hunter S. Thompson, February, 2005

Ben

Sunday 4:45 PM. Here goes

To who it may concern

Though I am about to kick the bucket I am as happy as ever. I am tired of this life so am going over to see the other side.

Good luck to all.

suicide note

Ben, 51

Anonymous 1

My dearest Andrew,

It seems as if I have been spending all my life apologizing to you for things that happened whether they were my fault or not.

I am enclosing your pin because I want you to think of what you took from me every time you see it.

I don't want you to think I would kill myself over you because you're not worth any emotion at all. It is what you cost me that hurts and nothing can replace it.

suicide note

Girl, 21

Gloomy Sunday

This is one of my favorite songs:

Sunday is gloomy,
My hours are slumberless
Dearest the shadows
I live with are numberless
Little white flowers
Will never awaken you
Not where the black coaches
Sorrow has taken you
Angels have no thoughts
Of ever returning you
Wouldnt they be angry
If I thought of joining you?

Gloomy sunday

Gloomy is sunday,
With shadows I spend it all
My heart and i
Have decided to end it all
Soon therell be candles
And prayers that are said I know
But let them not weep
Let them know that Im glad to go
Death is no dream
For in death Im caressin you
With the last breath of my soul
Ill be blessin you

Gloomy sunday

Dreaming, I was only dreaming
I wake and I find you asleep
In the deep of my heart here
Darling I hope
That my dream never haunted you
My heart is tellin you
How much I wanted you
Gloomy sunday

George Sanders

Dear World, I am leaving you because I am bored. I feel I have lived long enough. I am leaving you with your worries in this sweet cesspool - good luck.

Suicide note.

George Sanders April 25, 1972

Freddie Prinze

I must end it. There's no hope left. I'll be at peace. No one had anything to do with this. My decision totally.

Suicide note.

Freddie Prinze January 29, 1977

Terry Kath

Don't worry, it's not loaded.

Suicide playing Russian roulette.

Terry Kath January 23, 1978

Michael Jackson

I'm better off dead. I'm done

How Michael Jackson predicted his death six months ago

Michael Jackson June 2009

Chris Chubbuck

And now, in keeping with Channel 40's policy of always bringing you the latest in blood and guts, in living color, you're about to see another first - an attempted suicide.

Shot herself during broadcast.

Chris Chubbuck July 15, 1974

Robert E. Howard

All fled--all done, so lift me on the pyre;
The feast is over, and the lamps expire.

Suicide note.

Robert E. Howard June 11, 1936

Jon Erik Hexum October 18, 1984

Lets see if this will do it.

Accidental suicide as he shot himself with a blank-loaded pistol on the set of TV spy show "Cover Up." The concussion forced a chunk of his skull into his brain; he died six days later.

Jon Erik Hexum October 18, 1984

Sergei Esenin Dec. 28, 1925

Goodbye, my friend, goodbye
My love, you are in my heart.
It was preordained we should part
And be reunited by and by.
Goodbye: no handshake to endure.
Let's have no sadness -- furrowed brow.
There's nothing new in dying now
Though living is no newer.

Written in his own blood, and given to a friend the day before he hanged himself.

Sergei Esenin Dec. 28, 1925

George Eastman

To my friends: My work is done. Why wait?

Suicide note.

George Eastman March 14, 1932

Kurt Cobain

"Frances and Courtney, I'll be at your altar. Please keep going Courtney, for Frances for her life will be so much happier without me. I LOVE YOU. I LOVE YOU."

Kurt Cobain, musician, d. April 8, 1994