I have been posting on this message board for almost a month now, and I have to ask this question. And I am hoping to get a response from all you guys who post regularly. Do you think Freddie committed suicide or should his death be considered an accident. I have had mixed feeling about this for years, and I still do not know. I have always wanted to believe it was an accident because of his mental state at the time. It disturbs me though of comments that Freddie made to various people around him like not being around by the time I am 30. Also, I wondered if he was sober when he played with his gun in front of others. Drugs defintely change a persons look on life. I know he loved his baby, and would be so proud of the man he is today. Now how could you want to leave your child no mater how bad things are?? Also, I am not really sure what Quaaludes are? I think they are obiviously from Freddie's life a depressant. It is also my understanding that they are not prescribed in the US today because they are extremly dangerous. I have never smoked at almost 40 years old, and I don't really drink either. So I know nothing about drugs. I guess it doesn't matter either way whether it was suicide or accident. It will not bring this person back to us, but I would like to know how other Freddie fans feel!!!

I think it was an accident cause drugs really screw with your mind. You dont know what you are doing so i think if he was sober he wouldnt have done it.

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GET OUT OF MY GARAGE!!!

I agree with you.Most of the stuff I have read he was always high on drugs when he played with his gun.The coment about being dead before he is 30.I think that was his way of shocking people.He always liked to pull pratical jokes.

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hillbilly

Back in the day..Qualuudes was a tranquilizer I believe. I'm not for sure but I think it was pretty muck like what we call Prozac. Correct me if I'm wrong. But, like with any prescribed drug, if you mix alcohol, cocaine and whatever else he was taking..you've got a potentially deadly situation on your hands. I whole-heartedly believe Freddie's death was an accident. I think in his frame of mind he thought he would scare some people and then pull through this with no problem. Drugs can really give you a warped sense of reality.

I agree with you hillbilly - Freddie seemed to get off on giving people that were close to him a big scare with his gun and talking about dieing. I understand he was on cocaine
even before he left New York and that was when he started making those threats. He sounded like a fun-loving kid in his mother's book and loved living and loved making people laugh. The qualudes and other drugs he was taking depressed him and then with all the personal things going on in his life, it got overwhelming. I still feel he didn't realize the gun would go off!!!!!!!!

I hate to admit this in public, but I can understand a little what must have been in Freddie's mind, so I think it was accidental. Not only were the drugs a factor, but if you have been reading the exerpts Tracy has been sharing and the articles Croiter has been posting on his site, you would realize he suffered from undiagnosed clinical depression and could have had a little paranoia mixed in. Since he was never truly sucessfully diagonosed and the drugs may have made that impossible because they magnify these tendencies, no one will know for sure how all of this played into the final outcome. You probably are thinking to yourselves how I can make all these judgements. No I'm a teacher, not a psychologist, but I have suffered from depression and panic disorder since I was a teenager and was suicidal at 16. I was on the 90's equivalents of qualuudes, valium and xanax. These drugs mess with your mind big time. That's why I chose to take myself off of them and try another route. Too bad Freddie never got the chance to explore the option that saved my life! FREDDIE FOREVER!

[This message has been edited by Luckymama58 (edited 05-13-2001).]

I agree with you Luckymama 100%. I think by todays standards that he would most likely had a better chance at a proper diagnisis. But just by the comments made by his psycologist back then it seems as though his doctor was more of a pill pusher than an MD. I mean, the doctor wasn't even concerned that he would do harm to himself...DUH! The man had a gun, talked of suicide all the time and was on a mind altering drug, not to mention street drugs like cocaine. Freddie's world must have been very scarry. The whole thing is just so tragic.

Thank You for being so honest Luckmama!! I too have been on Prozac and Zoluft. Prozac for a while really made me feel wonderful. It cleared up my head and made me think very positive, but at times I still can get very depressed and look at the world thru a very dark cloud. I think the drugs do help for a while, but I do not think they are the only answer. When TVLand ran the CATM marathon back in January, the pilot episode that aired at 6am could have made me very teary eyed because Freddie always made me happy and my life seemed much simpler when I was younger. But I think we all go thru that. I love this message board because it and all you guys out there can cheer me up when I am down. Thank You!!!

I agree with ya that the dr was a pill pusher. From what I read yrs ago he killed himself because his wife divorced him & wouldn't let him see the son. So I think he really meant to kill himself due to the drugs making him feel that way & that the drugs made him more suceptible to being depressed over it & that caused him to not think rationaly & do the unthinkable to deal with his problems. Leaving the suicide note made me think he really did want to do it but the drugs made it so much so more for him. SO I think it was intentional but accidental too. So sad... http://www.sitcomsonline.com/ubb/frown.gif

Bad deprssion can make you doi things you wouldn't ordinarliy do & friend not really notice the signs. I know from experiance as... A friend of min her hubby got heart trouble & had some heart attacks & bypasses. He had to quite working & go out on disability. He kept saying he was so depressed & nothing mattered anymore. He said all he cared about was going bowling. Well my hubby & I thought well he's just depressed & talking that way cuz he feels down. Both hubby & I have diabetes & hubbys legally blind from it so since I'm sort of depressed over us both having gotten the diabetes, I'm sure not like Freddie or my friends hubby. Well recently a couple of weeks or so ago my friend calls me & says hat 2 days earlier her hubby up & left her. While she was at work, he up & left taking all his stuff then later left a message on her anssering machine saying he wants a divorce. He said she has to go thru with it & not try to stop it if she wants him to let her have th house & her truck. She is devasted & we are in shock that a friend would do this. He was our friend too & how he is now, he'll probably never come & see us ever again & we've lost a good friend. It's so sad. We are now like if only we'd known. We look back realize the times he talked about being depressed was the forerunner of this & sadly we didn't even realize. I suspect it may hav been the same with Freddie, He may have given off signals & friend & they thought like us well he's just depressed maybe he'll get over it eventaully he's in a bad situation. Oh if only we'd known to try to get our friends hubby to go for some counseling. So sad...


I suspect it was similar with Freddie. With some friends like Isaac Ruiz (Mando) & Jack & Scatman I think they honestly didn't know how bad off he was & didn't know how to help. But with others like James Komack who he told he wanted to die to I think they should've took him comments more seriously & tried to get him help then. Maybe he'd be here today...

I think Freddie's death was an accident.
drugs can make you feel and do goofy things(even perscription meds I have found from experience.)
It's a real shame the Dr didn't seem to give Freddie a more thourgh exam. He sure seemed like a pill pusher- he should have listened to Kathy when she tried to get the Dr to quot giving Freddie the meds-I mean who besides Kathy and his parents knew Freddie the best.
Having been depressed myself,and now under treatment I can see how a person could think about ending it but I believe that had they taken the pills,and perscriptions away-and maybe if Freddie would have let his mom help him like she said in the book maybe he would have gotten better

hey guys!

Quaaludes are a hypnotic drug. They put you into a trance, so that you are totally out of reality. From watching the E-true hollywood story, Freddie was also had morphine and codeine in his system. But I have to wonder if the latter two drugs were a result of medications that were administered intravenously at the hospital AFTER he shot himself to control pain...

I work for a pharmaceutical company and I will look to in our library to see if we have any information on Quaaludes and post them either here or to my site.

One thing's for certain, any type of drug alters your state of mind and lowers your self-worth...that includes alcohol...

Thanks to everybody who's been so supportive of my website. I've enjoyed all of yours, also

Tony

I learned something today and i got to say i think he would have commited suicide if he was on drugs or not. The reason he did it was cause Kathy would not let him see Freddie Jr he could not go on living without seeing his son. She wouldnt let him see Freddie Jr and he was very sensatitive. I dont know her and dont mean to blame her or anything i just think that her not letting him see his child is what pushed him over the edge.

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GET OUT OF MY GARAGE!!!

I think it was both accidental and intentional--I mean, he spoke of doing himself in on numerous occasions, (even going so far as to physically act it out in front of others-like a rehearsal), he had a self-destructive pattern going on that was getting worse and worse, and he even wrote out a suicide note! But I agree that he did not mean to do it right then and there, especially if he had been in his right mind and not on mind-altering drugs. It is so sad that so many people saw what was going on--Freddie was crying out for help loud and clear, yet no one could save him. He needed some "tough love" at that point; someone to take the gun and the drugs away from him; no matter how pi$$ed it would have made him. It breaks my heart to think of how he died...

I believe Freddie had some type of chemical imbalance in his brain. Something was definitly wrong. I also believe he was a very depressed child who grew up to be a very depressed adult. He seemed very hyper and then taking drugs on top of that had him a nervous wreck. When he came to Hollywood drugs were all over the place. A perfect place to be treated like a king (Prince). For some reason he wanted to be numb of all the hurt & pain his mind was feeling. His Stupid, Incompetant doctor prescribed Qualuudes & Freddies drugs of choice Cocaine, Alcohol just made his imbalance go haywire. He waved that gun around scaring everyone but, at the end "High and numb from mental pain" He left a suicide note & pulled the trigger The note said "It's no ones fault". The fault I believe was the chemical imbalance fueled by drugs and like Ed said Kathy's ultamatum! That just pushed him over the edge. Sad http://www.sitcomsonline.com/ubb/biggrin.gif

That smily face should not have been there! You can tell I need a rest....... Until tomorrow everyone! http://www.sitcomsonline.com/ubb/frown.gif This is what I meant to put http://www.sitcomsonline.com/ubb/frown.gif

I agree with Ed Brown cuz I read some where many yrs ago that he commited suicide cuz Kathy wouldn't let him see the baby & that & the divorce broke his heart.

I think he was a very sensitive person & stuff hurt him easily. In a CATM episode where Ed Brown thinks he's not a good mechanic & wants to give up. When he tells Chico this inspirational story that he thinks Chico was supposed to tell him, Chico starts to cry. He breaks down & starts bawling his eyes out. I noticed he really had tears in his eyes. So I'm wondering if his problems made it easier for him to cry in that scene even tho it was an earlier episode. His tears sure looked real. It looked like he had no trouble crying in that scene. Even tho it was supposed to be funny & is still is, it makes me sad to see him cry like that. Poor thing I just want to comfort him. If only he were here today he would see how many friends he had on this message board...



[This message has been edited by Cheryl Harrell (edited 05-14-2001).]

It's hard to say if it was truly an accident or intentional. There are cases to be made for both sides. All the signs point to him crying out for help. There must have been a reason for him to have started taking drugs early on before he became famous. As his wife, Kathy should have looked for another doctor immediately for Freddie if the one he was seeing was hurting him. If the doctor wasn't listening, don't continue to see him! Get another opinion!

From the University of Michigan Medical Dept website:

"Quaalude is a brand name for the depressant methaqualone (me-THA-kwa-lone) and is no longer manufactured commercially. The drug is a central nervous system depressant similar to barbituates. The effect on the body is a reduction in the heart and breathing rate and blood pressure. Small doses create a feeling of euphoria. Larger doses can bring about depression, irrational behavior, poor reflexes and slurred speech. Those who use quaaludes frequently develop tolerance rather quickly. This is dangerous in many ways because users then have to increase their dosage to achieve a high. An overdose can be fatal. Mixing alcohol and quaaludes can also be deadly because of the combined depressant effect on the heart and lungs. Withdrawal from quaaludes is said to be sometimes more intense than withdrawal from heroin. Users should never try to quit "cold turkey," and should only attempt a slow, gradual withdrawal under the supervision of a doctor."

Kathy

I tried to respond to this days ago, but it was so painful and I went on too long. I wil try to be concise here. I believe in my heart that it was a horrible accident. Yes, he was depressed, but I feel that the drugs and alcohol only magnified this and he felt hopeless and just wanted to end the pain. I just wish everyday since this tragedy that someone, somehow, could have stopped him and gotten him the help he needed. I just do not believe that if he had been sober, he would have chosen to end his life. Thanks to all of you for educating me on Quaaludes. l I had tried to find out more about these since Freddie's death. But no one was any help. FREDDIE FOREVER.