Skepticism Over Scott’s Suicide

There’s a considerable amount of, shall we say, skepticism about the medical examiner’s finding of suicide in the death of CPS Board President Michael Scott. In the Chicago Daily Observer Phil Krone writes:

I was devastated this morning to hear of the death of Michael Scott, one of my very favorite people, and a friend of more than 27 years. I last saw him in Copenhagen just over a month ago.

He was dedicated, bright, honest, brash and well grounded and there is no ready explanation for this tragedy. While the news reports indicate that it was a suicide I do hope that an appropriate investigation is done to make sure that it was not a murder masked to look like a suicide. There are many angry people in this world and you never know who might act out. But either way, we have lost a great civic treasure.

John Kass scoffs in the Tribune:

Krone told me later over the phone that he and Scott were to have breakfast next week.

“I don’t believe he would have killed himself,” Krone said. “And I don’t believe he would have done it there. That’s why I wrote it. To raise the question.”

Those of us who’ve had friends kill themselves know that there is nothing rational about suicide.

But I just can’t imagine Scott, the public man, tromping around down there, exploring during the day, running the risk of being seen. And how would he have found such a place at night, alone, by himself?

For a man who for decades maintained a public profile, it was a sad and desperate landscape. There must have been other, easier places.

This was a guy who made a living giving face time to TV news cameras, and it’s difficult thinking of him crawling along that river wall at night. He must have known he’d fall either into the river proper, to wait for March and the long thaw, or onto the shallow bank, to be left for what scuttles around down there.

I have noticed that in the pictures of Mr. Scott that I have been able to locate he is shown wearing his wristwatch on his right hand, suggesting that he was left-handed, consistent with a self-inflicted wound to the left temple. That’s far from proof but it is a little evidence.

I continue to hope that there’s more investigation of this death, particularly something that might reveal a motive. In the absence of motive, note, or more explicit warning and, if there is no further investigation or any investigation reveals nothing more, there will always be niggling suspicions of worse explanations and even darker circumstances.

May he rest in peace.

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