"Where would you take a $100,000 check that is also a suicide note, to the cops or to the bank?"
In July 2008, John Francis Beech, a retired executive in Denver, sent a check for $100,000 to a local charity, postdated Aug. 1, accompanied by a sealed envelope reading "wait until you hear from coroner" and "everything is OK."The charity's director, Annie Green, opened the envelope anyway on July 21, to find Beech's Last Will and Testament, leaving his entire estate to Green's organization for children with developmental disabilities.
Green's choice: Put everything into the school's safe and await Aug. 1 (but she claimed to have left two voice-mail messages for Beech). On July 29, based on longstanding plans, Beech committed suicide. Source:Westword, 5-14-09
WHAT WOULD YOU DO?
Leave your answer in comments, okay?
Leave your answer in comments, okay?
14 comments:
To me this is quiet simple...go to the police. I sure don't want to get my pretty little behind in trouble!! LOL
I would definitely try to contact the person. But what exactly could the police have done. Planning your suicide is not against the law unless the money was coming from a insurance policy. I'd probably seek legal advice too. In a sense it would be blood money.
No brainer. Check in with the police.
Well, I think if a suicide not is a crying out, then I would act on it and respond the the sender in a compassionate way.
Imagine if the whole project was an attempt to see if people are cynical? If they are, you might as well go.
I am wondering how Green lives with herself.
No, suicide is not unlawful (as far as I know), but it is morally and ethically wrong for many people depending upon their beliefs. I would have tried to contact all sorts of authorities to try and get in touch with the man to see if he could be helped, money be damned.
I would most certainly contact the police or dial 911 -some way to find help. Although I've never had the opportunity to use my degree in counseling, one of the tenets of that field is that you are obligated by law to report anyone in danger -real or perceived -of doing self-harm.
I certainly would have done something other than leave two messages. That is horrible. Perhaps she should be giving a large portion of that money to a suicide prevention group.
I would have taken everything to the authorities. How do I know the person doesn't intend to do harm to others in the taking of his own life?
Even if he didn't intend harm to anyone else, by sending that check and note to someone, Mr Beech makes that person complicit in his suicide. And while I have no moral objection to someone taking his own life, I'm not comfortable with making someone else complicit, even if his last intention was a generous donation to charity.
I would have to contact police and churches and bank and lawyer all I could to see if we could help prevent a senseless suicide
Wow, that's a tough question to answer. I'd try to contact this person, first and then the authorities. So sad...
I would've gone straight to the police. That is very sad. Maybe John Beech's life could've been saved if the authorities had intervened.
I read this in the news and was really disturbed by it. I wouldn't want to benefit from that money.
Yeah, the lady's behavior was strange indeed. However, it could be argued that she had the kids' welfare in mind ;-)
Me, I would have called on the man, and then, if needed, some authority to intervene.
I don't think I'd have put the check in the safe, that's for sure. I would have contacted the police or his friends and family or someone at his company. I don't know what authority the police would have... I'm stunned that someone would just keep the check. Yuck. Her charity is off my list if I win the lottery.
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