Last Words Written By Famous People In Their Suicide Notes By Notable Quotables [16 more lists]

For one reason or another, these famous people opted to end their lives by committing suicide and their famous last words were left in these suicide notes. Just as they were notable in life, these celebrities were notable in their deaths, which came as a shock to their adoring fans, family members and loved ones.

Just like the last words spoken by criminals before their executions, these words will be the last thing remembered by these celebrities. Some spoke to their family members, such as grunge rocker Kurt Cobain and Mexican actress Lupe Velez, while others focused more on themselves, such as in the notes left by author Hunter S. Thompson and poet Sara Teasdale. Other suicide notes or famous last words said very little, such as the simple goodbye uttered by poet Hart Crane before he jumped to his (presumed) death.

Whatever the case, these famous people left more questions than they did answers when they chose to take their own lives.

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Rank Name

1

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."
2

Wendy O. Williams

"The act of taking my own life is not something I am doing without a lot of thought. I don't believe that people should take their own lives without deep and thoughtful reflection over a considerable period of time. I do believe strongly, however, that the right to do so is one of the most fundamental rights that anyone in a free society should have. For me much of the world makes no sense, but my feelings about what I am doing ring loud and clear to an inner ear and a place where there is no self, only calm. Love always, Wendy."
3

James Whale

"The f*ture is just old age and illness and pain.... I must have peace and this is the only way."
4

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."
5

Hunter S. Thompson

""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 S. Thompson left the note, titled ""Football Season is Over,"" for his wife, Anita. He shot himself four days later at his home in Aspen, Colorado, after weeks of pain from a host of physical problems that included a broken leg and a hip replacement. The two were on the telephone at the time.
6

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."
7

Sara Teasdale

"When I am dead, and over me bright April
Shakes out her rain drenched hair,
Tho you should lean above me broken hearted,
I shall not care.
For I shall have peace.
As leafey trees are peaceful
When rain bends down the bough.
And I shall be more silent and cold hearted
Than you are now."
8

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."
9

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."
10

Vachel Lindsay

"They tried to get me - I got them first!"
11

Vincent van Gogh

"La tristesse durera toujours."

Translation: "The sadness will last forever."
12

Terry Kath

"Don't worry, it's not loaded."

Terry Kath died playing Russian roulette.
13

Christine 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."

Christine Chubbuck shot herself during a broadcast.
14

Robert E. Howard

"All fled--all done, so lift me on the pyre;
The feast is over, and the lamps expire."
15

Jon-Erik Hexum

"Lets see if this will do it."

Jon-Erik Hexum died from an 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.
16

Charlotte Perkins Gilman

"When all usefulness is over, when one is assured of an unavoidable and imminent death, it is the simplest of human rights to choose a quick and easy death in place of a slow and horrible one."
17

Sergei Esenin

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."

This note was written in his own blood, and given to a friend the day before Sergei Esenin hanged himself.
18

George Eastman

"To my friends: My work is done. Why wait?"
19

Hart Crane

"Goodbye, everybody!"

These were the last words of Hart Crane as he jumped off the cruise ship "Orizaba." His body was never found.
20

Nicolas-Sebastien Chamfort

"Moi, Sebastien-Roch Nicolas de Chamfort, déclare avoir voulu mourir en homme libre plutôt que d'être reconduit en esclave dans une maison d'arrêt"

Translation: "I, Sebastien-Roch Nicolas de Chamfort, hereby declare my wish to die a free man rather than to continue to live as a slave in a prison"

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Lupe Velez

Sergei Esenin

Nicolas-Sebastien Chamfort