Piece Of Art

From my book, The Copycat Effect (Simon and Schuster, 2004): "...highly publicized celebrity deaths, such as Freddie Prinze, who at 22, died by shooting himself in his head on January 28, 1977, produced higher rates among individuals who were about the same age, ethnicity, and gender as the famed suicides. After Prinze’s death, several young Latino males took their own lives using guns. These suicidological studies indicated that suicide stories were not and are not precipitating suicides that would have occurred anyway, but are actually creating additional suicides that would not have happened without the media accounts."

Tracking the news that there have been "more copycat hangings" is not an easy task, as some articles are declaring a low number, forgetting about some past incidents, but at least one article in the Malaysian media talked on January 9th about "almost a dozen" (without backing this up with complete data). In that context, I've search some more and here are more details on a new copycat in Turkey, and multiple copycats in Yemen. In Turkey, 12-year-old Alisen Akti hanged himself on Wednesday, January 10, 2007, from a bunk bed after watching TV footage of the Saddam hanging videos. His father, Esat Akti, told a newspaper in the southeastern province of Mus that his son had been affected by the televised images, according to Associated Press writer Anna Johnson. "After watching Saddam's execution he was constantly asking 'How was Saddam killed?' and 'Did he suffer?'" Akti was quoted as saying. "These television images are responsib

The Malaysia Sun on January 9, 2007, claims that "more copycat hangings" have occurred numbering "almost a dozen." In an article entitled "New video of Saddam's body emerges, more copycat hangings," in one section, it mentions the two incidents not detailed before: International condemnation followed the videotaping of the execution and events leading up to it. A tragic side-effect is that almost a dozen children have now died around the world in attempting to work out how the execution was done. The latest incidents include a 12-year-old boy in Saudi Arabia who reportedly watched the execution on television and then tried to simulate the event. In Algeria a group of schoolchidren accidently hanged a 12 year-old Algerian boy in the western village of Oued Rihou. In describing the tragedy, local government radio said, "U.S. policy in Iraq has made an innocent victim in Algeria." Days earlier a young woman hanged herself in her parents apartmen

There has been at least eight hanging deaths of young people who have copycatted the Saddam execution videos. Reporters Aqeel Hussein in Baghdad and Damien McElroy in the UK, on January 9, 2007, have noted via The Telegraph that a dramatic increase has occurred in Shia hostages being hanged in the streets of Iraq in revenge for Saddam's execution. It is an awful trend, with over hundred hostages being hanged throughout Iraq, some 200 hostages taken. Their article is mostly concerned with those events. Additionally, at the very end of their article they write: Seven children are reported to have died worldwide after seeing video footage of the execution of Saddam, many in "play" hangings. In the latest incident a boy of 12 hanged himself in north-east Saudi Arabia on Sunday, the Al-Hayat newspaper reported. His death followed similar hangings in Yemen, India, Algeria and America. The reporters and Al-Hayat probably are unaware of the reported copycat death of Bobby Mar

The Arab News is reporting on Tuesday, 9, January, 2007 (20, Dhul Hijjah, 1427) of another Saddam execution video copycat hanging. This appears to be the fifth one revealed in various local and international media. Please note in the article posted below, this newly reported incident is said to be the "fourth." But the source appears to be unaware of what we posted here today, of the fourth copycat, last January 3, 2007, in Harborcreek, Pennsylvania, when Bobby Martin, 16 years old, died by hanging who may have been watching the video during a New Year's Day party, (see Saddam Copycat #4 ). 12-Year-Old Saudi Boy in Copycat Hanging Arab News Hafr Al-Batin — A 12-year-old Saudi boy hanged himself on Sunday re-enacting the widely publicized execution of former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein. His brother found the boy, Sultan Abdullah Al-Shammari, hanging from a rope that he had fixed on an iron door in their home in Hafr Al-Batin, a small town 400 kilometers north of Riy

Another young person has died by hanging, in possible imitation of the Saddam execution video. This occurred on Wednesday, January 3, 2007, in Harborcreek (a section of Erie), Pennsylvania, when a 16 year old died by hanging when he stepped off a loft (apparently with a rope around his nexk). The young person's standard death notice was published in the Erie Times-News from January 4, 2007 and January 5, 2007. It reads, in part: Robert Joseph “Bobby” Martin, 16 of Erie, died Wednesday, January 03, 2007. He was born in Erie, September 28, 1990, a son of Thomas O. and Wendy Mangan Martin. Bobby was a 10th grade student at Harborcreek High School where he played on its Jr. and Varsity football team as both running back and line backer. He also was the assistant on the girls varsity basketball team. He was a member of St. Peter Cathedral, enjoyed the outdoors, school and his many friends. According to one local resident who left a comment here, Bobby Martin was a popular football play

The Saddam execution video was shown so often on television and made so available on the internet, that it became a graphic model of behavior for young people to attempt to copycat. Telling in the following stories - and the one posted earlier - are the indications that direct copying of the videotape occurred. The ages of the young people - 9, 10, and 15 - are close enough to have been reflective of the modeling taking place. Furthermore, in the non-American incidents, the behavior contagion was even repeated in the copying of the use of ceiling fans. The copycat effect has been a factor, at least during this short window of contagion. Little restraint seems to have been taken by even the mainstream media who played most of the "official" and "cellphone" footage of Saddam's hanging, over and over, for days. (Note: I expanded my comments here thanks to a blog by Dave LaMorte . His remarks reminded me that I wanted to come back and be a little more reflec

January 1, 2007 opens with the news of the death of a nine-year-old who died by hanging, as he attempted to imitate the widely broadcast Saddam Hussein execution video. This press account, "Boy hangs himself 'like Saddam'" , includes the details of the young person's death and the realizations from some media critics that the video being shown is graphic: Multan - A young boy who tried to copy hanging scenes from the execution video of Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein died in central Pakistan, said police on Monday. Mubashar Ali, 9, hanged himself, while re-enacting Hussein's hanging with the help of elder sister, 10, after tying a rope to a ceiling fan and his neck in his home in Rahim Yar Khan district on Sunday, said a local police official. The father of the deceased boy said that his children had been watching the video of Saddam Hussein's execution on television and attempted to imitate the hanging as other family members thought they were playing in a