Art Bell cause of death
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Standingstones
Celestial
The report did not give any quantities of the four drugs in question. Quite possibly it was suicide.
nivek
As Above So Below
The shadow
The shadow knows!
while that is a possibility I am more in favor of his drugs creating a deadly stew in his system. plus if he was addicted to them it would be the catalyst for his demise.
The lack of a note and the fact he had a wife and kids brings the possibly of suicide to a minor possibility. Bell also had to the best of my knowledge no history of depression.
But then so did Robin Williams
humanoidlord
ce3 researcher
the more i think about it, the more this seems plausible, din't bell say after him closed his radio shows that he was being harrased?
nivek
As Above So Below
In public Williams seemed fine but he must have been going through a psychological hell in his personal life to take it...
...
Standingstones
Celestial
Bell had high blood pressure and cardiac problems. He had to have known all those opioids in his system could be the end for him. I'm guessing he had taken more than one pill each of those four drugs. He was heading down a road he couldn't turn back on.
The shadow
The shadow knows!
I say agree with you on this
No, that's not how this stuff works. Opioids are incredibly dangerous because they're both addictive, and deadly - they sneak up on you, which is why prescription drugs are now the leading killer above and beyond street drugs. Between his chronic back pain (the result of a major injury as a line pole electrician) and the muscle relaxants and the Valium, he was on a potentially deadly cocktail of prescription drugs...and probably didn't even know it.
One of the incredibly sinister effects of these kinds of drugs is their impact on memory and prudence. He probably took an extra pill or two, unaware of how many he already had in his system, thinking he'd get a good night's sleep free of pain. Instead, they stopped his heart. It happens all the time.
He loved his family. This wasn't suicide; this was a modern medical tragedy that plays out all over this country every day.
Rest in peace, Art - you made the world a better and a weirder place, and that's the best that any of us can hope to accomplish in a fleeting handful of decades here.
The shadow
The shadow knows!
Bell claimed he stopped because he received death threats. He claimed he saw ppl outside his home.
He claimed someone shot at him.
Police found him hiding in a culvert
Now what I say now is my opinion.
Bell did "Dark matters and "midnight "
to stick it to Snorry. But he had no real motivation.
Bell found am excuse to bail ASAP.
the 2nd time he took his pal Hogland with him.
I don't have enough data to speculate about his final departure from radio, but I do know that Hoagland stuck it out for awhile after Heather took over MitD. Hoagland was the worst radio show host I've ever heard - in fact he was so bad that we used to listen to his show while chatting on BellGab to have fun with just how awful he was: a host who walks all over his own guests because he thinks it's all about him, is the absolute worst. In Hoagland's case, it was downright comical. Anyway, there was no link between Art's final farewell, and Hoagland's ultimate self-implosion - Richard seemed to think that he was going to be the next Art Bell after Art retired for good the last time, haha, but his show was awful and unlistenable. I still get PTSD flashbacks when somebody mentions "hyperdimensional geometry" or "17.5 degrees" - that dude is loonier than a toon =D
Standingstones
Celestial
Sorry Thomas, you are so far off base. I know from the experience of 3 spine operations with fusion done and a rod and screws in my spine. There is no such thing as a 'good night's sleep' in my experience. I sit in a recliner chair to help alleviate some of the pain.
Taking pain meds amounts to a poor man's band-aid. Bell may have loved his family but the pain may have been too much. You never know such things unless you are in that position and I hope you will never find yourself in that place.
Taking pain meds amounts to a poor man's band-aid. Bell may have loved his family but the pain may have been too much. You never know such things unless you are in that position and I hope you will never find yourself in that place.
I'm sorry to hear about your chronic back pain; I have a ruptured disc so I know a little bit about it anyway. Art Bell had managed through 30-40 years or more following his back injury, and it never stopped him from doing his show or enjoying his family. I believe that it was ruled accidental, because it was accidental - it's way too easy to check out by accident with that cocktail of pain killers and muscle relaxants. Heath Ledger died from a very similar combination of drugs, and he was only 28. 'Nuff said.
Standingstones
Celestial
Actually, Art Bell retired due to his back pain problems around 2002. On this subject we will have to agree to disagree.
michael59
Celestial
His sexual libido was quite high, apparently. That's why I think he didn't commit suicide but was practicing autoerotic asphyxiation. I think someone wanted that covered up.
Just my opinion.
michael59
Celestial
I was thinking the exact same way, Thomas R. Morrison.
I know that's the reason that he gave at the time, but later on it changed to "family issues," and I remember that he finally told the real story (I think it was on his SiriusXM show, but I'm not sure - it could've been on MitD). It had something to do with the contract negotiations after ClearChannel purchased his parent company Premiere Radio, and his anger about the way they had treated him during the ordeal with his son and the psychopath who had kidnapped him (his son's teacher at school, iirc).
I can't keep track of all the details of his myriad retirements, so I tried to go to Bell Gab to ask the Art Bell aficionados there, but they've shut down the forums there. I've got an archive of all those old shows so I'll see if I can find it. He did suffer from that old back injury, but I don't think it was as severe as what you're talking about - for him it seemed to come and go. And if it was that bad then he wouldn't have come back to do his nightly SiriusXM show, and then his Midnight in the Desert show - for him it was a manageable condition. I don't recall him ever talking about fused vertebrae or surgical pins in his back, and I don't see any indication that this was a suicide. The coroner's report probably took so long because they needed to analyses the blood level concentrations to determine if it was an accident or not, and they determined that it was an accident. So I think it's irresponsible and disrespectful to start a rumor that it was a suicide when there's no evidence to support that, and a coroner's report that refutes it.
Double Nought Spy
Celestial
Didn't something like that get Tom Petty? Accidental overdose of powerful meds? We surely do have a pill problem in this country. The way that shit is pushed by the Medical Industrial Complex is criminal. Anybody over forty or so has lots of stories.