February 7, 2013

"Fashionista jumps to her death from George Washington Bridge — leaving Louis Vuitton bag containing 'suicide diary' naming five girls banned from funeral."

Headline at the Daily Mail.

53 comments:

Eric the Fruit Bat said...

I find it hard to believe anyone so fabulous could have any personal problems.

Seeing Red said...

Medication- including Adderall


What were the shooters on again?

rhhardin said...

She's trying to make a splash.

sakredkow said...

That's just a sad little story that seems pointless to run in a mass media publication.

Emil Blatz said...

She was getting long in the tooth.

Actually, when you think of an industry, there is probably no other business with such a collection of psychiatric disorders, since models are selected, often at a very young age, for their physical characteristics. And maybe their ability to walk back and forth on a runway,

Big Mike said...

The average IQ of New Yorkers just went up 4 points.

Known Unknown said...

That's just a sad little story that seems pointless to run in a mass media publication

Now you understand the entirety of the media machine. They are cretins.

Shouting Thomas said...

Hey, if you can't live the Sex in the City dream, jumping off the GWB sure beats getting married, having a family and living with your extended family in Jersey, right?

Nonapod said...

I always assumed my funeral would have a doorman with a clipboard, a DJ, a VIP section, and an open bar. And everyone would get a sweet gift bag.

rhhardin said...

The photograph of the bridge is a nice touch.

sakredkow said...

Now you understand the entirety of the media machine. They are cretins.

You and I think exactly alike on this.

furious_a said...

That's just a sad little story that seems pointless to run in a mass media publication.

Did you not see the sidebar on the Daily Mail page? Brits eat this stuff UP, their celebs and ours.

What a shame, the young lady seemed to have some talent, and Vuitton bags like that aren't cheap.

Publius said...


Dead Models in Fashion Ads

furious_a said...

if you can't live the Sex in the City dream...

Which was...Miranda's ambivalent motherhood and marriage? Charlotte having to settle for puppies? Samantha's cartoonish nymphomania? Carrie's...I don't know WTF was wrong with Carrie but something sure-as-hell was.

Jeebus, I'd jump, too.

Ann Althouse said...

"Did you not see the sidebar on the Daily Mail page? Brits eat this stuff UP, their celebs and ours."

That website is designed to grab Americans, and it's about the most popular news page on the web.

I think there should be more social pressure against suicide, less somber empathy, which is why I posted.

Naming people that aren't allowed at your funeral.... Incredibly childish thinking from someone making her last bad decision.

She jumps on the bridge. Evidence from bridge-jumping survivors is that every single jumper regrets it on the way down.

madAsHell said...

Was she self-medicating??

Larry J said...

It sounds like her life was shallow but the river was deep. That, and the bridge was high.

Like we used to say in the Airborne, you can fall for miles without getting hurt. It's the sudden stop at the end that kills you.

Astro said...

I find myself wondering why so many of the odd stories about events here in the U.S. come to us via the online version of the U.K.'s Daily Mail.

Are there no online U.S. newspapers that cover these stories, or are they inaccessible due to a paywall? Does The Mail just do a better job of finding these stories and making them interesting? Is it because we enjoy reading about our culture through the eyes of someone outside it?

edutcher said...

Her parents named her Ashley Anne Riggitano?

I don't doubt she was confused.

And, uh, how exactly did she intend to make sure the banned were barred?

Ann Althouse said...

I think there should be more social pressure against suicide

It's a mortal sin in the Catholic Church and I'm sure Protestants, Jews, and, yes, even Moslems don't approve, either, but what do they know?

All the "brights" are so much smarter.

rhhardin said...

Evidence from bridge-jumping survivors is that every single jumper regrets it on the way down.

It might be a snap sort of regret, not the lingering regular kind.


sakredkow said...

I think there should be more social pressure against suicide

Seems to me social pressure is often the unintended cause of suicide, not the solution.

Anonymous said...

Bridges kill people. Let's ban them...

or at least ensure that they are neither more than 70 feet long, nor more than 7 feet off the water.

PS: and the water must be 10 feet deep or no more than 2 inches (people drown in tubs all the time you know :)

PPS: and signs posted warning of bridge jumping

PPPS: and....

rhhardin said...

Lots of philosophical and literary suicide theories and analogies in Blanchot The Space of Literature.

furious_a said...

That website is designed to grab Americans, and it's about the most popular news page on the web.

The Brits have a thriving celebrity-tabloid industry with plenty of home-grown content (Royals, Becks, dissolute supermodels and pop stars, "The Page 3 Girl", etc.). They're ecumencial in their "news" consumption.

While we're stuck in the checkout line looking at UFOs, bikini flubber and fully-clothes Kardashians, the Brits get this:

Starting with Kate Middleton's cousin, Katrina Darling - a tattooed burlesque dancer who just loves getting her kit off.

Anonymous said...


Larry J said...
Like we used to say in the Airborne, you can fall for miles without getting hurt. It's the sudden stop at the end that kills you.


Sung to the Battle Hymn of the Republic:


He counted long, he counted loud, he waited for the shock,
He felt the wind, he felt the cold, he felt the awful drop,
The silk from his reserve spilled out and wrapped around his legs,
And he ain't gonna jump no more.

Gory, gory, what a hell of a way to die,
Gory, gory, what a hell of a way to die,
Gory, gory, what a hell of a way to die,
And he ain't gonna jump no more!

Dust Bunny Queen said...

I really like the zombie photo of the two girls on the couch. You can just see that they are slavering for some 'brains'. Too bad they didn't find any.

virgil xenophon said...

@DBQ/

Ah, the tough-luv milk of human kindness.. :)

(PS: Add to the Darwin File under "proved right yet again..")

furious_a said...

That's just a sad little story that seems pointless to run in a mass media publication.

Gawking is hard-wired into human DNA -- who here *hasn't* slowed down to take in an accident scene? The way our hunter-gatherer ancestors clustered at a safe distance post-ambush to watch the leopard's ancestors devour one of their tribe-mates.

sakredkow said...

Gawking is hard-wired into human DNA -- who here *hasn't* slowed down to take in an accident scene?

You're right. When you're right, you're right. Though I think it's good for at least a few people to make an appeal to the better angels and all.

edutcher said...

furious_a said...

While we're stuck in the checkout line looking at UFOs, bikini flubber and fully-clothes Kardashians, the Brits get this:

Starting with Kate Middleton's cousin, Katrina Darling - a tattooed burlesque dancer who just loves getting her kit off.


The Middletons are Darling, but Camilla's niece proves the old saying in the African Community, "Beauty may be only skin deep, but ugly goes clear to the bone".

bagoh20 said...

Youth is a minefield, and today they have unrealistic expectations, especially in Manhattan. It's a wonder that bridge doesn't have a waiting line.

Michael said...

http://www.newyorker.com/archive/2003/10/13/031013fa_fact
The lonked article,in the New Yorker is about Golden Gate Bridge jumpers and each and every one who survived and is interviewed said that the second their hands left the bridge they regretted it.

furious_a said...

Youth is a minefield, and today they have unrealistic expectations, especially in Manhattan.

...or especially on American Idol -- those kids who can't carry a tune in a bucket are the most surprised to learn they aren't going to Hollywood.

Michael said...

http://www.newyorker.com/archive/2003/10/13/031013fa_fact
The lonked article,in the New Yorker is about Golden Gate Bridge jumpers and each and every one who survived and is interviewed said that the second their hands left the bridge they regretted it.

William said...

Frankly she was a little overdressed for the occasion. A Coach bag expresses more spontaneity and has an outdoor kind of vibe which complements the brige jumping theme. The Vuitton bag is better suited for sleeping pills and for more formal indoor deaths. Sadly her last act was a fashion faux pas.

Nomennovum said...

The first picture of her looks to be the most recent, and, based on it, I'd say she's got crazy-woman's hair. Usually, this type of hair is developed later in life. A significant minority of women eventually develope it.

Note and beware.

kentuckyliz said...

She is pioneering the wet look.

No longer a fashionista.

Now a suicidista.

kentuckyliz said...

She is pioneering the wet look.

No longer a fashionista.

Now a suicidista.

sakredkow said...

She is pioneering the wet look.

More social pressure against suicide, less somber empathy.

furious_a said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Crunchy Frog said...

Don't try suicide
Nobody's worth it
Don't try suicide
Nobody cares
Don't try suicide
You're just gonna hate it
Don't try suicide
Nobody gives a damn

furious_a said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
furious_a said...

Though I think it's good for at least a few people to make an appeal to the better angels and all.

Except that, assuming gawking is hard-wired, it must be for an evolutionary reason:

"Don't be THAT guy."

Larry J said...

The Drill SGT said...

Ah, Blood on the Risers! A timeless classic.

Is everybody happy? cried the Sergeant looking up,
Our hero feably answered yes and then they stood him up.
He had to listen to those awful engines roar.
You ain't gonna jump no more.

Petunia said...

How sad. Some of her comments on her web pages, and her "banned list", make her sound shallow and vapid. But OTOH her jewelry company was raising money to help a little boy with cancer. Too bad she didn't get past whatever problems led to her decision to kill herself.

shirley elizabeth said...

Hm. A bunch of the pictures are copyright Facebook.

Methadras said...

Hawt. What a waste.

Clyde said...

"It's My Party and I'll Die If I Want To..."

And you five bitches are SO not invited!

:eyeroll:

Clyde said...

Also, it's sad that she had that condition where she couldn't hold her head straight. No doubt that tilted world-view contributed to her suicidal thoughts.

Sydney said...

She was 22?

Anonymous said...

I've never experienced such a group of people that think it is funny to make jokes about a young girl that chose such a violent way to die. Has anyone thought about how much pain a person has to be in to commit suicide. Ashley was a daugther, a friend a HUMAN BEING. It is people just like yourselves, who've never learned what the word empathy means. What it means to step out of your world, so small, so small, so small. You actually have time to make fun of a dead girl. Shame on you. I was there, I saw her jump. I don't know her, but I will honor her feelings. Who are you to judge? You nothing about how she used her prescribed medication, for pete's sake,I know a hundred people or more on that same medication and they are AOK, some are even brilliant.

Dman said...

So does this mean that the girl who told her to kill herself wins the argument? Or does she lose points for suggesting a Xanax OD rather than jumping off the George?

Dman said...
This comment has been removed by the author.