Christine Chubbuck (partially found on-air suicide footage of television news reporter; 1974)

This article has been tagged as NSFL due to its disturbing subject matter.

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The late Christine Chubbuck hosting an episode of Suncoast Digest.

Status: Audio - Found / Video - Lost

Date found: 09 April 2021 (audio)

Found by: Ataliste (audio)

On the morning of July 15th, 1974, at around 9:30, American television news reporter Christine Chubbuck shot herself in the head on live television, following a fierce battle with depression; the now notoriously elusive broadcast stunned audiences, making headlines worldwide.

Background

Christine Chubbuck posing for a picture.

Chubbuck originally worked at WXLT-TV (Channel 40, now WWSB, a small market channel and ABC affiliate in south-west Florida which, up until relatively recently, only served three counties) as an evening news reporter, later moving on to host a morning community affairs talk show titled Suncoast Digest.

In the lead-up to her suicide, Chubbuck (who was known to detest what she referred to as "blood and guts" reporting, i.e., sensationalised violence over legitimate journalism) had volunteered to produce a feature on suicide for the station, during research for which she had asked a police officer how someone would go about taking their own life (the sheriff proceeding to reveal what kind of gun and bullets that he would use if ever put in that situation).

One co-worker has since recalled that around the same time, Chubbuck had said to him (in what he assumed was a joking manner) something to the effect of:

"Wouldn't it be wild if I blew myself away on the air?"

Unbeknownst to her colleagues, Chubbuck had actually attempted to take her own life several years earlier, by overdosing on pills.

Suicide

The newscast set where Chubbuck committed suicide.

July 15th began much like any other day, until Chubbuck (who was noticeably more enthusiastic and cheerful than usual) declared, just before Suncoast Digest was due to go on air, that she needed to read a newscast beforehand, confusing co-workers (as this was something she had never done before).

Oblivious to her real intentions, the audience casually watched her read the newscast for eight minutes, as she covered three national stories. When she got to the fourth story (i.e., that of a shooting at a local restaurant), the reel jammed, prompting her to shrug, nonchalantly turn towards the camera and proclaim:

"In keeping with the... WXLT practice of presenting the most immediate and complete reports of local blood and guts news, TV 40 presents what is believed to be a television first. In living color, exclusive coverage of an attempted suicide."

Picture of Christine Chubbuck used in newspapers recounting the event.

Chubbuck then drew a revolver that she had hidden in her bag, placed it behind her right ear and fired, immediately slumping forward violently onto her desk, as the technical director scrambled to fade rapidly to black.

Many viewers who had witnessed the broadcast proceeded to phone both the police and the station itself, some of the belief that it was nothing more than a morbid joke (several WXLT-TV staff members have even recounted that they too initially doubted the legitimacy of what had happened, on first impression also believing it to be a prank of some kind).

After being rushed to Sarasota Memorial Hospital, it was discovered by WXLT-TV news director Mike Simmons that Chubbuck had left behind both a follow-up news story describing her suicide attempt (in which she accurately predicted that she would be taken to Sarasota Memorial Hospital) and a suicide note (in which she said goodbye to her co-workers and loved ones, also expressing the chilling sentiment that she wanted "everybody" to see the broadcast).

Chubbuck's pre-written newscast script was sent to other networks, the majority of whom presented it verbatim in reporting on her suicide attempt; she was pronounced dead the following day.

Availability

As the broadcast took place in 1974, it's possible - though highly unlikely - that the suicide could've been recorded by a home viewer, as several primitive VCRs had been made commercially available by that time, such as the U-matic, one of the first home video recorders. However, due to the high cost of the unit, it was incredibly rare for a 1974 household to possess one.

Until some form of hard evidence surfaces indicating that an additional copy still exists somewhere (or proof that the originals were not actually destroyed), the video is generally accepted as being impossible to obtain.

Notably, a significant number of people claim to have seen the footage via a number of sources other than the original live broadcast, including early websites, FBI training videos, and mondo films a la Faces of Death, though, given the circumstances, this seems unlikely.

According to an article by Vulture on June 8th, 2016, the video does still exist in the hands of Mollie Nelson, the widow of the former owner of WXLT-TV. Her husband, for reasons he never shared, kept a copy of the tape, and when he died, it passed to her.

However, when this was publicised, she started getting requests to see it, which made her uncomfortable. She says that the tape is now in the hands of a very large law firm for safekeeping, that she has no intention to ever let anyone see it, and that she only held onto the tape to honor her husband.

Footage

Shortly thereafter, an injunction was brought against Channel 40 (by Chubbuck's family) preventing them from ever releasing the footage of her death; the 2-inch quad master tape, plus a copy (both of which had previously been confiscated by the Sarasota Sheriff's Department as evidence following the incident) were then handed over to the family, who are said to have destroyed them.

A rumored third copy has been speculated to exist in the FCC Archives. However, this claim has never been proven (and was, in fact, denied by the FCC when queried by a Findadeath Forum user). Interestingly, it was by Chubbuck's own will that the event was recorded in the first place: she requested that the episode is taped, something that was not normally done, due to the cost of tapes back then.

Recreation of the Footage

On January 31st, 2017, a video titled "Freaky 5 - Lost Footage" was uploaded by a YouTuber called NationSquid, featuring five pieces of lost media that are considered creepy or disturbing. The Christine Chubbuck story is at number 1 on the list.

At the end of the video, at 8 minutes and 46 seconds, there appears to be footage of the suicide as it happened. It is in black and white, with distorted audio and video. Since then, many users on YouTube have since re-uploaded the so-called "footage".

There was a wide debate on websites like 4Chan, the NationSquid Forums and even the Lost Media Wiki forums about the authenticity of the so-called "footage" from NationSquid. NationSquid himself never replied to any questions about whether the footage was real or fake, and therefore users on the aforementioned websites came up with theories and analyses in attempts to deliver a verdict on whether the footage was genuine or fabricated.

On February 13th, 2017, the footage seen in NationSquid's video was confirmed fake by Gordon Galbraith, who was the news director of the Newswatch program at WXLT-TV (now WWSB-TV) that Christine hosted at the time of her suicide.

Audio from the Newscast

In early 2021, YouTuber Ataliste acquired what is generally accepted as being a legitimate cassette recording of the audio from the incident (via an undisclosed private collector), releasing the portion of the newscast prior to the suicide on their YouTube channel in February of that year (though, choosing not to publish the actual suicide audio out of respect). The audio matches the voice of Christine heard in Kate Plays Christine and also aligns with the news reported on in the Sarasota Herald-Tribune from the day of the incident, leaving little doubt as to its authenticity.

In April of the same year, Ataliste released the audio in its entirety via his YouTube channel. It has since been privated (as has the other video, without her final words and the gunshot).

External Links

• An extensive collection of newspaper articles and documentation on the incident.
• Wikipedia page of Christine Chubbuck.