Manhattan Suicide

It was 11:45 on a hot, cloudy morning.

Manhattanites were walking more slowly than usual along Fifth Avenue. A man stopped short, peered upward at the elaborate limestone facade of the Gotham Hotel. At once a crowd closed in behind him, followed his horrified gaze. On a narrow window ledge, 17 floors above the street, stood a young man, precariously teetering. He was 26-year-old John William Warde of Southampton, L. I., who had recently been discharged from an insane asylum and with his sister was visiting friends in Manhattan. At a slight reproof from his sister, Warde had rushed to the window, climbed out on the ledge.

Police ordered him in but he threatened to jump if they touched him. "I've got to work this out for myself," he cried. All afternoon, on his twelve-inch-wide perch, he argued with his sister, a priest, a doctor, a minister. He drank a dozen glasses of water, lit countless cigarets, pondered his problem. Should he finish the act the audience of 10,000 was waiting for, or return ignominiously to safety? The afternoon wore on, evening came. Still John Warde had not solved his problem. At 10:38 he heard the rustle of a rope net which police were vainly trying to anchor below him. He nipped his burning cigaret out and down, 17 floors to the street. "I've made up my mind," he cried, and jumped. The crowd shrieked, rushed forward, suddenly retreated in silence.

How could a man stand on a window ledge for eleven hours ignoring the calls of nature, pondering death? The question plagued every Manhattanite last week. Psychiatrists offered a psychiatric answer. Warde had a manic-depressive psychosis (alternating fits of madness and despair), and in a moment of extreme depression he had rushed to the window. But he had not made up his mind to kill himself. In addition to his depression he was suffering from schizophrenia (split personality), and schizophrenics have the power to forget their bodies, to remain for hours in one position, no matter how painful or precarious their plight. Contrasuggestibility (perversity) that also accompanies this disease was aroused by the persistent efforts to get him inside. Finally, his desire to contradict overcame his urge for life.

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