European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - November 16, 1987, Darmstadt, Hesse Flog if � a popular place to end it All by John f. Bonfatti associated press he image. Presented in his 1983 poem epiphanies of inc first cold Day haunted Canadian poet Roberl Billings for some time this is my persistent Nightmare " i jump Inlo a shallow River my feel sink in mud to mid Call. Inc lop of my head just Breaks the surface a s Nuoci tiber too soon Lor the ice to preserve me " Ono november Day the s a ars alter recording this foreboding notion. Billings apparently walked Inlo the Niagara River just above the thunderous Horseshoe Falls and was swept Over to his death. The Niagara s ice formed and melted before releasing Billings body in june. Each year millions of people visit Niagara Falls to see one of North America s most imposing natural spectacles in an average year 30 come to end their lives. For suicides Niagara Falls ranks second Only to the Golden Gate Bridge says Daniel Clark director of Niagara county by s hotline and crisis intervention service. There s a Point of no return says capt. Joseph Demarco of the . Niagara Parks police. He notes that the Swift moving rapids above the Falls their 18-Story height and the Force of the water crashing onto the Rock strewn base make the results of any fall Swift and it you Don t want to be rescued he adds there s no Way we can affect a Only one person excluding daredevils in barrels has survived a plunge Over the Falls. Seven year old Roger Woodward was pitched into the River in a 1960 boating Accident and suffered Only minor cuts and bruises after going Over the Falls in a life jacket. One victim was captured on video by a Crew from Buffalo television station Wurz in 1985. Reporter Phil Kavilis and the Crew were shooting a promotion for the station at the Brink of the Falls when a Man entered the River and plunged Over the Falls. The dramatic footage was widely shown. Statistics for Falls suicides Are imprecise Lor several reasons according to Bill Derbyshire chief of Canada s Niagara Parks police violations 14 tiny i since 1983. And in Early october judge Steven Lange of Hennepin county District court sen fenced him to 10 Days in jail for a number of infractions including the rental of apartments to tenants even alter the buildings had been condemned. Tucker who is scheduled to serve his jail time this month insists that his apartment i buildings Are not in such bad shape. Mice he said Roaches who does l have them he believes the favourable publicity resulting from the treehouse crusade led to the housing charges which City Olli Mals deny. For now. The City has posted a Stop work notice on he treehouse effective until Tucker can get a structural Engineer to attest to its safety. Tucker complains thai no other tree houses Here have been put to the lest. And As or its structural stability he notes some 80 people stood in the treehouse at one Lime during the open House and it did t collapse Tucker believes this is one Light he will win. He plans someday to install a microwave oven a stereo set and a television in the treehouse. And Hopes Hal in will eventually be used in television commercials he envisions a pizzeria for example promising to deliver a pie anywhere even to a treehouse. We re la Lomg about the american and Canadian sides he says Noling that the canadians expect 12 to 15 suicides a year american officials put the figure on their Side at about 16 a year. We re talking about people who have been witnessed to go in and Derbyshire says. That s a Nice tidy thing because we know there s no foul play there Are people that go in at night unseen and Are listed As missing persons then there Are the Odd ones that go in and Are never recovered " identifying victims Many of whom have been disfigured by Iho elements can be time consuming most of the bodies Are so badly damaged multiple broken Boris and the like that experts use denial charts to determine the victim s identity Derby Briita says. More Likely however the victim has left something behind such As the 74-year-old housekeeper whose shoes were found near the Brink of the Falls inside the shoes was a note Call this number and Tell them i went for a swim at the a few such As a 46-year-old attorney who filled six pages of Legal paper leave detailed suicide notes this end has been inevitable for some time Only i did t see in coming his note reads. Another note starts with its 29-year-old author saying i can t believe i m writing she continues i love you but i Don t want to waste you time or anybody else s. I m a loser in life. Please find somebody else who is Normal and responsible. I guess this was meant to for most it is not the first attempt at killing themselves. What you have is a progression in suicidal Clark says. They May Start with wrist slashing or Pill taking and Progress to More lethal Means " generally Clark says they Are people going through a loss either in a relationship or a bodily function or a but others have less comprehensible reasons Derbyshire told the Story of a 16-year-old boy who Rode his bicycle into the River because his parents were going to be moving away and he d be losing his friends. Demarco mentions the Case of a Beautiful girl except that she used to have blotches on her face when she got nervous. One Day she left the dermatologist and came right Down and went in. Cosmetic Beauty was All Hal bothered some have second thoughts. Demarco noted the Case of the unemployed Man who Dove Over the rail into the water and he hit that cold Waler in March and he got himself out of there As fast As you could believe " experience has helped Park officers lorm a profile of a Likely suicide candidate alter awhile you gel a sixth says it Arthur Woodhead who patrols the american Side they re silting there on the Bench and they re mumbling to themselves or they re crying or you see them go up to the railing and single people Are particularly suspect Demarco says not Loo Many people visit the Park alone cab Drivers will always Call and Tell us we be just deliverer somebody to the Park bartenders will Alert us. Somebody jus Felt the bar and they were crying police have to be Alert to two other possibilities faked suicides and murders that have been made to look like suicides. Derbyshire remembers the Case of a Leen Ager who d killed his father and tossed the body Inlo the River above the Falls. The body never made in Over the alls however the pathologists and the police have to be very careful when they recover a body to see Hal it has t been a homicide made to look like a suicide or an accidental drowning Derbyshire says. Two years ago on the american Side of the Falls three emergency phones were installed using a
