Plaquemines Parish John Doe was a teenager who died by suicide by hanging himself from a persimmon tree in Naomi near Belle Chasse, Louisiana. The police found a lengthy suicide note addressed to his parents found in a sealed glass jar resting against the tree's trunk. Few details of this case are available.
Case[]
On February 14, 1975, a couple driving through the woods on a road between Highway 23 and Mississippi River found a teenage male hanging from a persimmon tree. He had hung himself with a bedsheet tied into a slipknot.
Against the tree was a jar full of note paper, which contained a lengthy suicide note addressed to his parents:
"Mom and Dad,
You have provided be excellent advantages and privileges and experiences. I am extremely grateful for all of your sacrifices, time and support. I am now repaying you with an arrogant act. In this light, I do see it as criminal. I can only hope that you see that it was me who caused it. I never did develop into a real person and I cannot tolerate the false and empty existence I have created. It is best if I cease to live, quietly, than risk that later I will break and shatter by violence or linger years under care. I implore you to see a psychiatrist in order that you might understand my death and my life. Ask thoroughly about what I was and you will see that it is not tragic that I am gone but more natural than if I continued. I was born with a definite pervasive melancholy. What frustrated me most in the last year was that I had built no ties to family or friends. There was nothing of lasting worth and value. I led a detached existence and I was a parody of a person-literally and figuratively. I didn't tell jokes-I was a joke. I am a bomb of frustration and should never marry or have children. It is safest to defuse the bomb harmlessly now. I do not want to bother with being a "reformed and cured" person limping through life. I am this self-centered.
I have wanted to do this for over a year. I am not sad or see this as tragic. I feel a release. This is the only way I know to attain harmony. I was a withdrawn baby who became an unpleasant, withdrawn person. I have convinced myself and others that I am not capable of being an asset to society. I am no longer interested in the world and know that it is not interested in me. When you stop growing you are dead. I stopped growing long ago."
Only known excerpt of his suicide note
He also cited the writing of philosopher and psychologist Emile Durkheim, then added a note for authorities:
"You are bound to preserve domestic peace and order. If you pursue who I was (and spend hundreds of dollars) you will accomplish little. There are no legal consequences of my death or any kind of entanglements. All that can happen is that you will shatter the domestic peace and order of two innocent lives. Do not deprive them of the hope that their "missing" son will return. Let me be, let it be as if I wasn't ever here. Simply cremate me as John Doe."
There are no surviving reports/records from the Plaquemines Parish Sheriff's Office or Coroner's Office. He was buried in an unmarked grave at a cemetery in Gretna.
Characteristics[]
- Short brown hair.
- Brown eyes.
- Slightly protruding front teeth.
Clothing and accessories[]
- Maroon and yellow long-sleeved Puritan knit shirt.
- Blue Arrow pants with a brown belt.
- Mismatched socks - one gray and one dark blue.
- No shoes.