The Case of Jacob Biederman

Jacob Beiderman died from a shotgun wound to the head. He planned to commit suicide by jumping off a twenty story building. He had left a note pinned to his bag on the top of the building. As he fell past the 19th floor, however, his fall was interrupted by a shotgun blast passing through a window – which killed him instantly.

Jacob Biederman, nor the shooter, was aware that a safety net had been installed just below the 18th floor to protect the building workers from falling to their death. Jacob Biederman would not have been able to commit suicide as he had planned, as the net would have saved him.

The medical examiner during the autopsy said that although Mr. Biederman died during his suicide he felt that he was dealing with a homicide due to the presence of the shotgun – and since Biederman would have lived through the attempt had he not been shot.

The room on the 19th floor – where the shotgun blast came from – was occupied by an elderly couple, William and Maude. They stated to police that they had been in the middle of an exasperating argument and William was wielding his shotgun at his wife threateningly. William was so angry that when he pulled the trigger, it completely missed his wife and went out the window, striking Mr. Biederman.

William and Maude were both charged with murder, but the couple was adamant that they were under the impression that the shotgun was unloaded. William said that it was his long-standing habit to threaten his wife with the unloaded shotgun when they argued. He never had any intention of actually killing her and therefore Mr. Biederman’s murder was an accident because the gun was accidentally loaded.

The investigation continued; the neighbor across the hall, Mrs. Lovington, said that she had seen the couple’s son in the apartment a month earlier loading the shotgun. They had even had a conversation over tea after he finished.

As it turns out, Maude had cut off her son’s financial support and since her son knew how angry his father could get and how he loved to use the shotgun threateningly, he loaded the gun with the expectation that his mother would get shot during their next argument. This means that the son will be charged with the murder of Jacob Biederman.

Further investigation revealed that their son was, in fact, Jacob Biederman. He had become increasingly depressed over his failure to kill his mother and his diminishing financial situation which led him to attempt suicide off the twenty story building – only to be killed by the shotgun blast through the 19th floor window from the shotgun that he had loaded himself. His suicide had, after all, been successful.