Done In...By Themselves! Trivia Quiz

Answer: Ernest Hemingway

Ernest's wife Mary claimed that he was cleaning the weapon, and it accidentally discharged. That's hard to believe, though, seeing as Hemingway was said to have been a hunter and a gun expert. He was judged to be mentally incompetent at the time of his suicide, so he was allowed a Christian burial in Ketchum, Idaho. According to Wikipedia, Hemingway may have purchased the shotgun at Abercrombie & Fitch, which used to be an outdoor sports store.

The last part of the question was a reference to one of Hemingway's most famous novels, "The Sun Also Rises".

Answer: Jim Jones

Jones poisoned the grape Flavor Aid with cyanide and sedatives and everyone drank it. Some of the reasons Jim Jones gave to his followers were that men with parachutes were going to assault them and torture their children and elders. Jones's final recorded words were "We didn't commit suicide, we committed an act of revolutionary suicide protesting the conditions of an inhumane world." Personally, I fail to see the logic behind that statement, but apparently there were more than 900 people who did.

Answer: Marilyn Monroe

Norma Jeane Baker, a.k.a. Marilyn Monroe, was found dead in her bed by her housekeeper on August 5, 1962 with enough drugs in her system to kill 10 people. Many conspiracy theorists believe that she was murdered and the evidence was planted to cover it up. Evidence they provide includes the absence of any sort of fluid to wash down the pills, which is odd seeing as Marilyn had always had trouble swallowing them.

In 1973, Elton John composed the song "Candle in the Wind" as a tribute to Norma Jeane, stating that her "candle burned out long before her legend ever did".

Answer: Adolf Hitler

Hitler could not bear Germany's defeat and chose to end his own life. At around 3:30 PM, Hitler ended his life. He was cremated outside the bunker, and buried in a bomb crater, but his body was later moved to Magdeburg along with the Goebbels family. In 1970 the ashes were scattered on the Elbe and the grave was destroyed, because there were worries that it would become a shrine for Neo-Nazis.

They always say what goes around comes around, but Hitler still got off easy.

Answer: Kurt Gödel

Gödel is famous for his incompleteness theorems that state essentially that a set of axioms can never prove its consistency, and that there will always be unprovable statements. As he grew older, he became incredibly paranoid, refusing to leave the house and refusing to eat until his wife had tasted the food. Unfortunately for Kurt, his wife fell seriously ill in 1977 and had to be hospitalized. Rather than eat untasted food, Kurt Gödel just didn't eat, and died on January 14, 1978 while weighing a mere 65 pounds.

Answer: Kurt Cobain

With the suicide of any celebrity, you always have the group of people claiming it was murder. This was no different. Cobain's wife, Courtney Love, hired a private detective (Tom Grant) to do some investigating. Grant claims that with the amount of heroin in Cobain's system he never would have been able to aim and pull the trigger of a shotgun. Narcotics experts have stated, though, that a longtime addict could have built up enough tolerance to be able to function. Grant also claims that the suicide note (or a part of it) was forged. Overall, though, the evidence for its being a real suicide is pretty conclusive.

Answer: Virginia Woolf

Virginia Woolf became depressed around the beginning of WWII, and the destruction of her house didn't help. In her suicide note, she states that she was hearing voices and that she wanted to end it before her disease ruined her and her husband's lives more than it had already. Virginia's body wasn't found for three weeks - I can't imagine what it must have looked like - but when it was, her corpse was cremated and the ashes spread around a tree in her backyard. Of all the ways to go, I think she picked one of the worst.

Answer: Vincent van Gogh

How could you get shot in the chest with a revolver and think you were fine?! While he was alive, van Gogh was one of the finest impressionist painters in the world. Some of his best works include 'The Starry Night' and 'The Cafe Terrace'. His depression was no secret, though.

His painting 'At Eternity's Gate' reflected his state of mind as he sank deeper and deeper into depression. Van Gogh is buried in the Auvers-sur-Oise cemetery.

Answer: Sigmund Freud

As many people know, Freud was also a heavy cocaine user, but this had nothing to do with his death. It was actually all the cigars he smoked that did it. Suffering from oral cancer, he asked his doctor Max Schur to finish the job, and Max agreed. Freud died on September 23, 1939, just three weeks after the outbreak of WWII, leaving behind an enormous advancement of psychoanalytic research, including insight into the id, ego and superego (hence the "egomaniac" reference in the question).

Answer: Cleopatra

When Octavian declared war on Egypt, Cleopatra and Marc Antony attempted to fight back; however, their troops abandoned them to fight for the Romans. Cleopatra locked herself away and sent word to Antony that she was dead, upon which Antony stabbed himself to death, though not before seeing her once more.

After Antony's death, Cleopatra allowed herself to be bitten by an asp, because allegedly it was the most painless way to die.