Twenty-three-year-old students usually need no reason to get drunk, but Michael Bagley, I discover, had been through some tough times. His mother died when he was fourteen, and he and his sister had been brought up by their father, Paul, a philosophy professor at Baltimore’s Loyola University. As a result of injuries sustained in a car accident, Paul Bagley had been paraplegic for the last twelve years. He died in July 2016, four months before his son. This leads me to wonder whether Michael’s death may have been a suicide.
Further investigation reveals that Michael Bagley was so drunk on the night he went missing that he was thrown out of the Waterfront Hotel; he was last seen on the hotel’s security cameras, stumbling around outside and trying to get back in. He almost certainly drowned after falling off the wharf, not an unusual occurrence in Fells Point.
Drinking so you’re barely able to walk, then trying to find your way home on the waterfront in November—couldn’t that be considered suicidal behavior? As far as I can tell, no one had any reason to murder Michael Bagley—but what is suicide, after all, but murder of the self?
* * *
I am at the George Peabody Library, making notes from a book by a writer named Bernard Hamilton, called One World—At a Time, first published in 1927. The book’s title refers to the reply made by Henry David Thoreau when asked whether he was ready for the next world. But the person who used the phrase to Hamilton was not Thoreau, but Hamilton’s close friend and neighbor Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, with whom he shared an interest in theosophy, spiritualism, telepathy, and belief in the Other Side.
When I turn the page, something slips out of the book and flutters to my feet. I reach down to pick it up. It is a cheap paper greeting card, faded a little with age. On the front is a picture of a couple in old-fashioned costume in a twilit forest. The man is down on one knee before the woman. The illustration would be tacky were the card not so old; as it is, its rough-cut edges and sepia tinge make the bland image seem poignant. I open the card. It is unsigned. The printed verse reads as follows:
If I could have
my wish today
I’d like to hear
you laugh and say,
“To you my feelings
now incline.
Yes, I will be
Your Valentine.”
Unlike modern greeting cards, this is simply a piece of paper folded over twice, to make two pages. Carefully, I unfold it. In the bottom right-hand corner, there is a message written in an unsteady cursive. It looks like a child’s hand. It says, “From Alvin & Eva. We hope you will soon get well Miss Cross.”
The Valentine’s card has fallen out from between pages 234 and 235 of One World—At a Time. On this page, Miss Cross—at least, I like to think it was Miss Cross—has drawn a faint pencil line under this passage:
Why should we doubt old thinkers—the old philosophers who have proved themselves as sound as ever, from Solon and Marcus Aurelius? The men of old had time to think. They were not distracted by incessant sensations or by an over-excited existence, induced by newspapers; by motoring; by crowding into “tubes” and omnibuses; by the hundred nerve-wracking hurries of today. They had time to sit down and think about another life; they speculate and weigh evidence.
I return the book to the shelves when I leave—the Peabody is not a lending library—and I walk home imagining Miss Cross as a schoolteacher with spiritual leanings, and spectacles on a silver chain. I’m sure Miss Cross spent a great deal of time thinking seriously about the next life. Perhaps she practiced automatic writing, or table-tapping.
I am so enraptured by my fantasy that it does not occur to me until later that after speculating and weighing evidence of another world, Solon and Marcus Aurelius found that evidence wanting.
* * *
True stories about people who died or went missing mysteriously used to make me feel there was more to the world than I could ever know. What I loved about them was the way they seemed to slip back the skin of things, as in an autopsy, revealing the strange and terrifying disruptions lying just beneath the surface. Now, after more than ten years trying to find out what happened to Rey Rivera, I realize these stories come to our attention only because others care about these people, and want to find out what happened to them.
I wonder whether I’m drawn to such stories because they keep me caught up in reverie, distracting me from the unremarkable deaths that surround me. According to Freddie Howard, the evening concierge, most of the deaths in the Belvedere these days are not suicides, but the result of natural causes. After a while, he says, you might notice that somebody’s mailbox is full or they have not been picking up their newspapers. If they are not on vacation, he will use the spare key and take a look in their apartment. If they are dead, he will just close the door and call the cops.
What makes a death mysterious? What happened to Rey Rivera transpires every day. People die alone; their bodies are undiscovered for days. It happens everywhere. For most people, there are no “Missing” posters on the neighborhood utility poles. Nobody feels compelled to solve the puzzle. There is nothing cryptic about the deaths of those with no job, no friends, no family to speak of. People disappear every day. But you only “go missing” if somebody notices you’ve gone.
Notes
Please note that some of the links referenced throughout this work may no longer be active.
The page numbers for the notes that appeared in the print version of this title are not in your e-book. Please use the search function on your e-reading device to search for the relevant passages documented or discussed.
EPIGRAPH
Epigraph: Trans. Charles S. Singleton (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1990).
II
“a large fresh peaceful hostelry”: Henry James, The American Scene (London: Harper & Brothers, 1907), p. 308.
The Belvedere struggled financially: “Receivers named for the Belvedere,” Baltimore Sun, August 24, 1933.
the opening of Fort Meade: Baltimore Sun, December 29, 1935, and December 14, 1953.
the former Blanche Hardy Hecht: Tom Siebert, “Secrets of the Belvedere,” Baltimore Magazine, December 1, 2003. Archived at http://www.baltimoremagazine.net/2003/12/1/secrets-of-the-belvedere. Accessed August 13, 2016. “Consolvo Weds Italian Army Major New York,” Daily Southerner (Tarboro, NC), May 18, 1922.
“Never felt such oven heat”: Letter to Hildegarde Watson (1933–1964), University of Rochester Library Bulletin, vol. xxix, Summer 1976, no. 2, edited by Cyrus Hoy, http://rbscp.lib.rochester.edu/3572.
“an idiotic affair”: Cited in Elaine Showalter, Inventing Herself: Claiming a Feminist Intellectual Heritage (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2001), p. 186.
“hotel for suicides”: “Hotel for Suicides,” Washington Post, May 26, 1912.
a department store in Pittsburgh: “Count Says Pittsburgh Men Have Wrong Shape,” Pittsburgh Gazette Times, November 2, 1913.
the reanimation of the dead: “Danish Nobleman Plans Attempt to Resuscitate Capt. Scott with Pulmotor,” Washington Herald, April 17, 1913.
“have grown heartily sick”: Robert Louis Stevenson, “The Suicide Club,” in The New Arabian Nights (London: Chatto & Windus, 1920), p. 10.
According to a 2006 study: P. Zarkowski and D. Avery, “Hotel Room Suicide,” Suicide and Life-Threatening Behavior, vol. 36 (2006), pp. 578–81.
“How to Properly Respond”: William, Frye, PhD, CHE, “How to Properly Respond to a Guest Death in Your Hotel,” The Rooms Chronicle, vol. 17, no. 1, published by the College of Hospitality and Tourism Management, Niagara University.
hotel and motel chains: http://www.crimescenecleaners.com/index.html.
After Las Vegas: Cited in Valerie Neff Newitt, “Taking Steps to Help Prevent Suicides in Hotels,” Lodging Magazine, July 21, 2004, http://lodgingmagazine.com/taking-steps-to-help-pr
event-suicides-in-hotels/. Accessed September 20, 2016.
“Tales from the Front Desk”: https://www.reddit.com/r/TalesFromTheFrontDesk/comments/2lyawn/hotel_suicide/. Accessed November 29, 2016. Story #1 by Dodkrieg, November 11, 2016; story #2 by Lord Goran, November 20, 2015; story #3 by Khaominer, November 11, 2014; story #4 by cxtx3, November 11, 2014; story #2 by ObviouslyaMasochist, February 23, 2015.
“they stuff up the cracks”: Edmund Wilson, “The Jumping-Off Place,” New Republic, December 23, 1931, pp. 156–58.
III
“love of all that is bizarre”: Arthur Conan Doyle, “The Red Headed League,” 54 Great Sherlock Holmes Stories (Dover Publications, 1992), p. 20.
riots protesting the dissection of human corpses: See Julia Bess Frank, “Body Snatching—A Grave Medical Problem,” Yale Journal of Biology and Medicine, vol. 49 (1976), pp. 399–410.
IV
According to NAMI: Cited in Scott Anderson, “The Urge to End It All,” New York Times Magazine, July 6, 2008.
large Japanese cities: Mark Saldaña, “Tokyo’s ‘Human Accidents’: Jinshin Jiko and the Social Meaning of Train Suicide” (2011), Anthropology Honors Projects, Paper 10, Macalester College. Online at http://digitalcommons.macalester.edu/anth_honors/10. Accessed May 17, 2017.
A 1947 article: Orville Richardson and Herbert S. Breyfogle, “Problems of Proof in Distinguishing Suicide from Accident,” Yale Law Journal, vol. 56, no. 3 (February 1947), pp. 482–508.
suicide rates worldwide: Jong-Min Woo, Olaoluwa Okusaga, and Teodor T. Postolache, “Seasonality of Suicidal Behavior,” International Journal of Research in Public Health, vol. 9, no. 2 (February 2012), pp. 531–47.
“The bright day”: William Shakespeare, Julius Caesar, act II, scene 1, line 15.
On this particular night: See Jane Cadzow, “What Happened to Jacky Sutton?” Sydney Morning Herald, November 28, 2015.
“An act like this is prepared”: Albert Camus, The Myth of Sisyphus, Justin O’Brien, trans. (New York: Knopf, 1955), p. 4.
“The most unlikely people”: Douglas J. A. Kerr, Forensic Medicine (Adam & Charles Black, 4th edition, 1946), note 23 at 92.
British “gas suicide study”: See Ronald V. Clarke and Pat Mayhew, “The British Gas Suicide Story and Its Criminological Implications,” Crime and Justice, vol. 10 (1988), pp. 79–116. Bryan v. Aetna Life Ins. Co., 25 Tenn.A. 469, 160 S.W.(2d) 423 (1941), s.c. 174 Tenn. 602, 130 S.W.(2d) 85 (1939).
“To the mouse”: J.B.S. Haldane, “On Being the Right Size” (1928), archived at http://irl.cs.ucla.edu/papers/right-size.html. Accessed October 17, 2016.
“Very common is the impulse”: G. Stanley Hall, “A Synthetic Genetic Study of Fear,” American Journal of Psychology, vol. 25, no. 3 (July 1914), p. 323. Ed. Karl M. Dallenbach, Madison Bentley, Edwin Garrigues Boring, and Margaret Floy Washburn.
according to physicist and philosopher: See http://www.science20.com/alpha_meme/suicide_life_ends_six_meters_above_ground-78133. Accessed December 4, 2016.
“each victim of suicide”: Emile Durkheim, Suicide: A Study in Sociology, trans. by John A. Spaulding and George Simpson (New York: Free Press, 1930, p. 315.
“the proper question”: http://xroads.virginia.edu/∼hyper/poe/m_roget.html. Accessed September 30, 2016.
V
An engineering study: Stephen Janis, “Mystery Still Surrounds Belvedere Death Scene,” Washington Examiner, May 17, 2007, http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/mystery-still-surrounds-belvedere-death-scene/article/52752. Accessed September 27, 2016.
The verdict in this case: Obituary, “Lee Miltz Marlow,” Independent Record (Helena, MT), May 27, 1929.
Of the 4,323 bodies: 2006 Annual Report of the Chief Medical Officer of the State of Maryland. See http://dhmh.maryland.gov/ocme/docs/2006AnnualReport.pdf.
“The fact that the”: When I interviewed Janis, he worked for the Real News TV Network. When he covered the Rivera case, he worked for the Baltimore Examiner. He has also worked for WBFF (Fox 45) and the Washington Examiner, and he founded the Investigative Voice website.
“a piece of paper”: Letterhead Memorandum Summary prepared by the FBI Behavioral Analysis Unit on behalf of the FBI National Center for the Analysis of Violent Crime “regarding the suspicious death of Rey Rivera,” dated 08/25/2006. Obtained by the author via FOIA, April 19, 2016, p. 3.
“the strangest and most unique things”: Arthur Conan Doyle, “The Red Headed League,” Six Great Sherlock Holmes Stories (Dover Thrift Publications, 1992), p. 21.
The word “apophenia”: Klaus Conrad, Die beginnende Schizophrenie (Stuttgart: Thieme Verlag, 1958). Cited in Aaron L. Mishara, “Klaus Conrad (1905–1961): Delusional Mood, Psychosis, and Beginning Schizophrenia,” Schizophrenia Bulletin, vol. 36, no. 1 (January 2010), pp. 9–13.
VI
In an 1811 lecture: “On the Pleasures of the Mind” by the famous Philadelphia surgeon Dr. Benjamin Rush.
The retired police detective Vernon Geberth: Vernon J. Geberth, Practical Homicide Investigation, 4th edition (CRC Press, 2006), p. 859.
“I’ve had the opportunity”: Bill Buchalter, “Promising Water Polo Players Being Groomed,” Orlando Sentinel, January 13, 1991.
In only their second year: Jack Horton, telephone conversation, April 12, 2014.
Poe’s Dupin also prefers to remain invisible: Edgar Allan Poe, “The Murders in the Rue Morgue,” in J. Gerald Kennedy, ed., The Portable Edgar Allan Poe (New York: Penguin, 2006), p. 241.
VII
After high school: Porter Stansberry, “Why College Is a Huge Waste of Time and Money,” The Crux, January 6, 2015, http://thecrux.com/porter-stansberry-why-college-is-a-waste-of-time-and-money/. Accessed February 27, 2018.
At college, he demonstrated: Adam Liptak, “Email Stock Tip Tests Limits of Securities Laws,” New York Times, August 3, 2003.
In 2015, as a guest: Porter Stansberry, “Self Made Man” (Podcast), interviewed by Mike Dillard, 2015, http://mikedillard.com/episode-1-porter-stansberry-from-the-boston-slums-to-150000000-per-year-here-are-the-values-that-lead-to-lasting-success/. Accessed July 8, 2015.
“a subscription-based publisher”: http://stansberryresearch.com/about-sa/. Accessed December 27, 2016.
“Every murderer”: Agatha Christie, The Mysterious Affair at Styles (London: Pan, 1974), p. 95.
“See how this works”: Footnote 5, United States Securities and Exchange Commission VS Pirate Investor, LLC; Frank Porter Stansberry. Opinion Part 1, page 6. Argued December 2, 2008, decided December 15, 2009, No. 08-1037 (1:03-cv-01042-MJG), United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit.
“frequently found themselves”: Diana B. Henriques, “An Oasis Rich in Shady Operators,” New York Times, October 4, 1992.
“If I do not receive your application”: William Gruber, “‘Royal Society’ Draws State Probe,” Chicago Tribune, December 4, 1987. The tape can be heard on SoundCloud, at https://soundcloud.com/zachary-leven/the-royal. Accessed July 17, 2017.
One of the businesses: See the website of Bill Bonner’s coauthor turned enemy, Lila Rajivo: http://mindbodypolitic.com/2009/04/10/turning-beach-sand-into-gold-the-goldcor-swindle.
“The sands that are removed”: Ibid.
It was, of course: Rick Tonyan, “Daytona Police Say Goldcor Executive’s Death Looks Like Murder,” Orlando Sentinel, August 21, 1991.
His death was: Ibid.
Rey’s friend B. tells me that: Phone interview, April 12, 2014.
VIII
If you were not looking carefully: Name changed on January 1, 2017 to “The Agora.”
“Cancer risks are statistically zero”: See http://www.theagora.com. Accessed January 5, 2017.
“The infinite energy secret”: See http://www.drmicozzi.com and http://www.drpescatore.com, both accessed October 5, 2016.
in a 2014 interview: Stansberry Radio: Independent Financial Advice with Porter Stansberry, Episode 172, “Bill Bonner: The Most Valuable Secret You’ll Ever Hear,” July 31, 2014. Available at https://itu
nes.apple.com/us/podcast/stansberry-radio-edgy-source/id481026239?mt=2. Accessed October 8, 2016.
“Essentially critics of the”: Judgment of Appeal, http://www.ca4.uscourts.gov/opinions/published/081037.pdf, pp. 1212, 1215–16.
B. remembers visiting him in Baltimore: Personal communication, April 13, 2010.
IX
Rey “made a big difference”: “Water Polo Preps for ECACS,” Johns Hopkins Newsletter, September 22, 2005, http://www.jhunewsletter.com/2005/09/22/water-polo-preps-for-ecacs-49824/. Accessed October 7, 2016.
“He was a big Latin guy”: See Stephen Janis, “Land of the Unsolved—The Last Days of Rey Rivera,” August 10, 2009, https://www.facebook.com/BaltimoreTrueCrime/posts/516703798389176. Accessed July 9, 2016.
“He’s a happy guy”: Nicole Fuller, “Family, Police Seek Man Missing for a Week,” Baltimore Sun, May 23, 2006.
In a podcast interview: Stansberry Radio Podcast, Episode 172, “Bill Bonner—The Most Valuable Secret You’ll Ever Hear,” at 21:12–21:25.
“It happened at a time”: “Fake News? It’s All Fake!” Bill Bonner’s Diary, https://bonnerandpartners.com/fake-news-its-all-fake/. Accessed October 4, 2017.
X
The Court of Appeals disagrees: Associated Press, “Supreme Court Won’t Hear Appeal of Financial Newsletter Prosecution on Securities Fraud.” Fox News, http://www.foxnews.com/us/2010/06/28/supreme-court-wont-hear-appeal-finacial-newsletter-prosecution-securities.html. Accessed October 21, 2014.
various amicus briefs: Brief Amici Curiae of the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press and Media Organizations in Support of Petitioners (U.S., April 29, 2010), Pirate Investor LLC v. United States SEC; Brief of Society of Professional Journalists as Amicus Curiae in Support of Petitioners (U.S., April 29, 2010), Pirate Investor LLC v. United States Securities and Exchange Commission; Brief of Investorplace Media, LLC; ALM Media, LLC; CNBC, Inc.; The E.W. Scripps Company; Eagle Publishing, Inc.; The Financial Publishers Association; Forbes LLC; Gannett Company, Inc.; The Hearst Corporation; Landmark Media Enterprises, LLC; Lee Ent erprises, Inc.; The McClatchy Company; Media General, Inc.; The New York Times Company; The Newspaper Association of America; and WP Company LLC as Amici Curiae in Support of Petitioners (U.S., April 29, 2010), Pirate Investor LLC v. United States Securities and Exchange Commission. All documents accessed at https://stansberrysecfraud.com/legal-documents/index.html, December 23, 2017.
An Unexplained Death Page 24