The final deposition available in this case records the conversation
between Liu and his mother early in the morning of Tuesday, July 26,
1977,
less than 30 minutes before his death. It reads:
Mother:
Mr. Liu:
Mother:
(holding Mr. Liu's nose) Big nose!
(joking) I'm a big nose!
Would you like me to prepar
you some eggs for breakfast?
Mr. Liu:
Mother:
Mr. Liu:
I only want bread.
I'll go buy it.
No.
I'll go myself.
0
Mother:
(gives her son $2 for bread)
Mr. Liu's sister reports that this interchange was quite normal.
Liu normally would not want his hard-working mother to spend time
preparing lunch for him, and he will just take bread. Also, he will
prefer to do such chores as going downstairs to purchase food,
relieving his mother from the chore.
From this deposition, it appears that Mr. Liu's behavior shortly
before his death was normal. There is no indication of depression
or emotional turmoil. His attitude, in fact, was light-hearted
as it usually was.
Thus, there seems to be no evidence for temporary psychosis that
could lead to a suicidal action. Furthermore, the long-term analysis
of character structure reveals no suicidal tendencies in the
personality. Analyzing the environmental conditions (economic,
interpersonal, career) one finds some pressures at work; but otherwise, Mr. Liu's environment was quite positive, and he was
a young man who would fulfill himself in the challenge of a
difficult assignment.
A. Kobler and E. Stotland (The End of Hope, Free Press, 1964)
summarized their extensive investigation of suicides and suicide
attempts by writing:
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Private notes are available after approval.