How Ronald Opus Suicided (3 photos)

It happened in the spring of 1994. A young American named Ronald Opus decided to commit suicide. His suicide note stated that he, Ronald, had taken this step due to financial difficulties and his parents' lack of understanding.





After writing this note, Mr. Opus climbed onto the windowsill and jumped from the ninth floor. It's unlikely he would have done so had he known that the window cleaners working in the building that day had installed a safety net at the seventh floor level. So, after falling two stories, Opus would have simply crashed onto the springy mesh fence, his pants wet, but perfectly alive. But then a fantastic stroke of luck intervened. A truly fatal stroke of bad luck!

As Ronald was flying past the eighth-floor window, a pellet fired from a room above him struck his head. While the police were removing the body from the fence and identifying the deceased, whose head had been almost completely blown off by the shot, detectives decided that the shooter should be charged with manslaughter. After all, if he hadn't fired, Ronald Opus would have survived the fall onto the fence.

Further investigation revealed new facts. It turned out that the old man had shot at his wife, but missed, and the pellet had landed in the window. So, it occurred to the detectives, the charge needed to be amended—attempted murder (of his wife) added to manslaughter. It was just that in moments of anger and arguments with his wife, he would always grab an unloaded shotgun from the wall and fire a "control shot"—frightening her with the snap of the trigger. It had become something of a family ritual. According to both spouses, the shotgun always hung on the wall and was never loaded. Therefore, according to American law, the charge of manslaughter now lay with the person who secretly loaded the shotgun.

Who? Having discovered that only the son could freely enter the quarrelsome couple's room, police detectives contacted his friend and learned a number of interesting things. Knowing that his father often threatened his mother with the gun hanging on the wall, the son secretly loaded it, hoping that at the first argument his father would shoot his mother and end up behind bars. However, the couple had lived surprisingly peacefully for the past few weeks, greatly distressing the would-be avenger. Where is he, that bastard?

"Where do you mean?" the old man asked, surprised.

"My son lives upstairs..."

Yes, the son in question turned out to be himself... Ronald Opus! He was the one who loaded the shotgun, and when his revenge failed, he jumped out the window in despair. And was shot with his own shotgun. By his own father, whom he had wanted to put in prison. The suicide occurred, though not quite as Opus intended...



Ronald Opus is a character in an urban legend about a hypothetical suicide of a fictitious person, often presented as a true story. The story was originally invented in 1987 by Don Harper Mills, former president of the American Academy of Forensic Sciences. Mills stated that he created it for entertainment purposes and to illustrate the wide range of legal consequences that can follow each twist and turn in a murder investigation.

The story first appeared online in August 1994 and has since spread widely across web pages, chat rooms, and print publications.



Don Harper Mills, author of the story