Daniel V. Jones (lost final videotape of Los Angeles suicide victim; 1998)
Daniel V. Jones, shortly before commiting suicide.
Status: Lost
This article has been tagged as NSFL due to its discussion of a real-life suicide.
On April 30th, 1998, Daniel Victor Jones, a 40 year-old maintenance worker from Long Beach, California, drove his pickup truck to a Los Angeles freeway, along with his pet dog Gladdis. He then proceeded to get the attention of the police using a loaded shotgun. The freeway was closed and several news helicopters began covering the incident, which was being broadcast live. At one point, Jones set his truck on fire with a Molotov cocktail and then grabbed his shotgun and committed suicide, all of which was caught on camera. His dog Gladdis died inside the flaming pickup truck.
Jones had been suffering from both HIV and cancer and claimed to have been mistreated by health maintenance organizations (HMOs). His live suicide was meant as a protest against HMOs. Moments before taking his life, Jones unfurled a banner on the freeway that read: "HMO's are in it for the money!! Live free, love safe or die."
Videotape
Shortly before his suicide, Jones threw a satchel containing a videotape over the freeway wall. Authorities recovered the videotape, which was a suicide note recorded by Jones in the previous day. The contents of the tape were shared in the news days after Jones' suicide.[1][2] Ever since then, the tape hasn't been made public and it's whereabouts are unknown.