christine chubbuck video
Christine Chubbuck was a 29-year-old American television news reporter who worked for WXLT-TV in Sarasota, Florida. On July 15, 1974, she shot herself in the head with a revolver on live television during her morning talk show, Suncoast Digest. She died later that day at a hospital. Her suicide was widely reported in the media and sparked debates about journalistic ethics and the role of television in society. ¹
The video footage of her suicide is considered one of the most sought-after and elusive pieces of lost media in history. It has never been officially released or confirmed to exist, although there have been several claims and rumors of its existence over the years. Some of the alleged sources of the footage are:
– A private collector who obtained the tape from the police and uploaded snippets of the audio on YouTube in 2021. The audio clips match the transcript of Chubbuck’s final words and the sound of the gunshot, but the authenticity of the source and the audio is disputed. ²
– A reenactment video that was uploaded on YouTube and Archive.org in 2017, claiming to be the original footage. The video is in black and white, with distorted audio and video quality. The script of the video is based on a newspaper article that reported what Chubbuck said before shooting herself, but it differs from the confirmed audio clips. The video is widely considered to be a hoax or a recreation. ¹³⁴
– A deep web site that claimed to have the footage for sale in 2016, but the site was taken down shortly after. The site also claimed to have other rare and disturbing videos, such as the Budd Dwyer suicide and the Station nightclub fire. The site was never verified and no one reported buying or seeing the footage. ¹
There are also some theories and speculations about why the footage has not been found or released, such as:
– The station owner Robert Nelson kept the tape in his possession and gave it to a law firm for safekeeping after his death in 2009. The law firm has not confirmed or denied having the tape, and has not responded to any requests or inquiries about it. ¹
– The footage was destroyed by the station or the police to prevent any further exploitation or copycat suicides. The station claimed that they had no copies of the tape and that the original was handed over to the police. The police claimed that they had no record of receiving or disposing of the tape. ¹
– The footage was never recorded or broadcasted in the first place, and the witnesses who saw it live were either mistaken or lying. Some people have argued that the technology and equipment at the time were not capable of recording or broadcasting such an event, and that the station would have cut the feed or switched to another program as soon as the incident happened. ¹
As you can see, the Christine Chubbuck video is a mystery that has fascinated and frustrated many people for decades. It is possible that the footage still exists somewhere, but it is also possible that it is gone forever. Either way, it is unlikely that the public will ever see it, and perhaps that is for the best.
(1) Christine Chubbuck Suicide Footage Tape – July 15, 1974. https://archive.org/details/youtube-ph7oHWONq0c.
(2) Christine Chubbuck Suicide Full Audio : r/lostmedia – Reddit. https://www.reddit.com/r/lostmedia/comments/mnbeur/christine_chubbuck_suicide_full_audio/.
(3) Christine Chubbuck “Suicide footage”; 1974 Re-upload (Warning Graphic). https://archive.org/details/youtube-w6_PsGlrPMU.
(4) Christine Chubbuck Suicide Footage Tape – July 15, 1974. – Deep Gore Tube. https://deepgoretube.site/christine-chubbuck-suicide-footage-tape-july-15-1974/.
(5) undefined. https://imgur.com/09WrClP.
(6) undefined. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ph7oHWONq0c.
(7) undefined. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hdhcNaxNzp4.
(8) undefined. https://web.archive.org/web/20210409053827/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hdhcNaxNzp4.
