Suicide During Live Broadcast

Christine Chubbuck: Death by Suicide During a Live Broadcast
On July 15, 1974, eight minutes into the broadcast, the depressed reporter said "In keeping with Channel 40’s policy of bringing you the latest in blood and guts, and in living color, you are going to see another first: an attempted suicide." With that, Chubbuck drew up a revolver and shot herself in the head.

Chubbuck spoke to her family at length about her struggles with depression and suicidal tendencies, though she did not inform them of her specific intent beforehand. She had attempted to overdose on medication in 1970 and frequently made reference to the event. She had also been seeing a psychiatrist up until several weeks before her death. Chubbuck's mother chose not to tell station management of her daughter's suicidal tendencies because she feared she would be fired as a result. Her focus on her lack of relationships was generally considered to be the driving force for her depression; her mother later summarized "her suicide was simply because her personal life was not enough." She lamented to co-workers her 30th birthday was approaching and she was still a virgin who had never been on more than two dates with a man. Her brother Greg later recalled several times she had gone out with a man, before moving to Sarasota, but agreed she had trouble connecting socially in the beach resort town. He believed her constant self-deprecation for being "dateless" contributed to her ongoing depression.

She had her right ovary removed in an operation the year before, and had been told if she did not become pregnant within a year, it was unlikely she would ever be able to conceive. Apparently, she had an unrequited crush on co-worker George Peter Ryan. She baked him a cake for his birthday and sought his romantic attention, only to find out he was already involved with sports reporter Andrea Kirby. Kirby had been the co-worker closest to Chubbuck, but she was offered a new job in Baltimore, which had further depressed Chubbuck.

Chubbuck's lack of a romantic partner was considered a tangent of her desperate need to have close friends, though co-workers said she tended to be brusque and defensive whenever they made friendly gestures toward her. She was self-deprecating, criticizing herself constantly and rejecting any compliments she was given. Three weeks before her suicide she had asked the station's news director if she could do a news piece on suicide. After her suggestion was approved, she visited the local sheriff's department to discuss with an officer methods of suicide. In the interview, an officer told her one of the most efficient ways was to use a .38 caliber revolver with wadcutter target bullets, and to shoot oneself in the back of the head rather than in the temple.

A week before her suicide she told Rob Smith, the night news editor, she had bought a gun and joked about killing herself on air. Smith later told the Washington Post he had chided her for the comment. On July 12, 1974, she had an argument with news director Mike Simmons after he cut one of her stories to cover a shoot-out instead. Robert Nelson, the station owner, had tried to convince staff to concentrate on "blood and guts."

Presbyterian minister Thomas Beason delivered the eulogy, stating "We suffer at our sense of loss, we are frightened by her rage, we are guilty in the face of her rejection, we are hurt by her choice of isolation and we are confused by her message."

The Astrology

Christine had a stellium of planets in the sign of Virgo (Sun, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Chiron). With Virgo it is difficult to escape the immediate view of life with it's rituals and routines and there is an intense need for privacy, which can lead her to withdraw from life when she finds human beings intolerable. Christine Chubbuck was a rather "stereotypical" Virgo. Chubbuck was approaching her 30th birthday, still a Virgin. The Myth of Virgo symbolizes 'unmarried' or 'self-possessed'. Virgo's self criticism is another powerful trait of this sign, and she constantly berated herself and had difficulty accepting compliments, unlike the following sign, Libra. Venus the planet of love, relationship  and self worth, was in tight conjunction with Chiron. This conjunction showed wounding to her femininity. Mars (aggression and rage) is conjunct Neptune. Christine opted to act out her anger indirectly by suicide (Neptune).

At the time of her suicide she was under her Saturn Return in Cancer. During Saturn's Return, the clock ticks louder and we are anxious around achievements. Transiting Jupiter was opposite her natal Venus-Chiron conjunction, and she felt wildly enthusiastic (Jupiter) about love (Venus) but her feelings are not always consistent during this period. The most poignant aspect that occurred was Neptune's transition through Sagittarius, forming a square to natal Jupiter in Virgo, indicating self-sacrifice and an overblown act. Christine wanted to cover a story about suicide but it was cut, and she went live with the story. Reading below by Liz Greene.

Both planets resent the limits of mundane reality, although for different reasons, and both disregard these limits in their pursuit of the sublime. Jupiter may cajole Neptune into folly, particularly of a financial kind, through presenting glorious future plans which are not unobtainable, but may fly in the face of obvious material or legal boundaries. Neptune playing the mirror for Jupiter's grandiose schemes, may feel Jupiter's natural propensity for inflation.

The emotional excesses of the hysteric may owe much to Jupiter-Neptune, for it can be intensely Dionyisian in its love of self-abandonment and theatrical display. The aspect may contribute  to the capacity for self-delusion and self-aggrandisement. Generating heartbreaking losses, dissappointments and tragic acts of self-undoing.