On the morning of July 15th, 1974, at around 9:30, American television news reporter Christine Chubbuck shot herself in the head on live television, following a fierce battle with depression; the now notoriously elusive broadcast stunned audiences, making headlines worldwide.
Background
Chubbuck originally worked at WXLT-TV (Channel 40, now WWSB, a small market channel and ABC affiliate in south-west Florida which, up until relatively recently, only served three counties) as an evening news reporter, later moving on to host a morning community affairs talk show titled Suncoast Digest.
In the lead-up to her suicide, Chubbuck (who was known to detest what she referred to as "blood and guts" reporting, i.e., sensationalised violence over legitimate journalism) had volunteered to produce a feature on suicide for the station, during research for which she had asked a police officer how someone would go about taking their own life (the sheriff proceeding to reveal what kind of gun and bullets that he would use if ever put in that situation).
One co-worker has since recalled that around the same time, Chubbuck had said to him (in what he assumed was a joking manner) something to the effect of:
"Wouldn't it be wild if I blew myself away on the air
Unbeknownst to her colleagues, Chubbuck had actually attempted to take her own life several years earlier, by overdosing on pills.
Suicide
July 15th began much like any other day, until Chubbuck (who was noticeably more enthusiastic and cheerful than usual) declared, just before Suncoast Digest was due to go on air, that she needed to read a newscast beforehand, confusing co-workers (as this was something she had never done before).
Oblivious to her real intentions, the audience casually watched her read the newscast for eight minutes, as she covered three national stories. When she got to the fourth story (i.e., that of a shooting at a local restaurant), the reel jammed, prompting her to shrug, nonchalantly turn towards the camera and proclaim:
"In keeping with the... WXLT practice of presenting the most immediate and complete reports of local blood and guts news, TV 40 presents what is believed to be a television first. In living color, exclusive coverage of an attempted suicide."
Chubbuck then drew a revolver that she had hidden in her bag, placed it behind her right ear and fired, immediately slumping forward violently onto her desk, as the technical director scrambled to fade rapidly to black.Many viewers who had witnessed the broadcast proceeded to phone both the police and the station itself, some of the belief that it was nothing more than a morbid joke (several WXLT-TV staff members have even recounted that they too initially doubted the legitimacy of what had happened, on first impression also believing it to be a prank of some kind).
After being rushed to Sarasota Memorial Hospital, it was discovered by WXLT-TV news director Mike Simmons that Chubbuck had left behind both a follow-up news story describing her suicide attempt (in which she accurately predicted that she would be taken to Sarasota Memorial Hospital) and a suicide note (in which she said goodbye to her co-workers and loved ones, also expressing the chilling sentiment that she wanted "everybody" to see the broadcast).
Chubbuck's pre-written newscast script was sent to other networks, the majority of whom presented it verbatim in reporting on her suicide attempt; she was pronounced dead the following day.
Availability
As the broadcast took place in 1974, it's possible - though highly unlikely - that the suicide could've been recorded by a home viewer, as several primitive VCRs had been made commercially available by that time, such as the U-matic, one of the first home video recorders. However, due to the high cost of the unit, it was incredibly rare for a 1974 household to possess one.
Until some form of hard evidence surfaces indicating that an additional copy still exists somewhere (or proof that the originals were not actually destroyed), the video is generally accepted as being impossible to obtain.
Notably, a significant number of people claim to have seen the footage via a number of sources other than the original live broadcast, including early websites, FBI training videos, and mondo films a la Faces of Death, though, given the circumstances, this seems unlikely.
According to an article by Vulture on June 8th, 2016, the video does still exist in the hands of Mollie Nelson, the widow of the former owner of WXLT-TV. Her husband, for reasons he never shared, kept a copy of the tape, and when he died, it passed to her.
However, when this was publicised, she started getting requests to see it, which made her uncomfortable. She says that the tape is now in the hands of a very large law firm for safekeeping, that she has no intention to ever let anyone see it, and that she only held onto the tape to honor her husband.
