It is now clear why former State Auditor Tom Schweich killed himself: He was emotionally unstable — prone to periods of being “very low” and if not clinically depressed at least subject to bouts of situational depression.
An exhaustive report released late Tuesday by the Clayton, Missouri, police department shows the extent of Schweich’s emotional and physical problems.
In addition to significant emotional dips, Schweich also had a chronic physical condition — Crohn’s disease, an inflammatory bowel disorder that typically causes stomach pain, diarrhea and weight loss.
Crohn’s frequently exacts an emotional toll on sufferers and their families. WedMD says: “Having Crohn’s disease can be stressful. The disease affects every part of your life. Seek support from family and friends to help you cope. Get counseling if you need it.”
I never saw Schweich in person, but in every photo I’ve seen, he never appeared healthy; he looked gaunt and pale…No wonder.
Schweich
Schweich, who was seeking the Republican nomination for governor, shot himself with a .22 caliber pistol the morning of Feb. 26. His wife Kathy was in the same room at the time he shot himself, but she had her back to him and was talking on the phone to a woman with whom Schweich had been speaking before handing the phone to his wife.
In the days leading up to his suicide, Schweich was preoccupied but what he saw as a “whispering campaign” that he was Jewish. He wasn’t Jewish, but he probably thought that if he wasn’t able to stamp out the rumor, it would cost him support and campaign contributions in some quarters.
Schweich wanted to go public and call out Republican Party chairman John Hancock, whom he believed was spreading the unfounded rumors. But all of Schweich’s political advisers, including former U.S. Sen. John C. Danforth, were urging him to hold off.
Schweich was also upset about a radio ad that likened him to the Barney Fife character on the old Andy Griffith TV show.
From Tuesday’s police report, it is easy to deduce that while the whispering campaign and the Barney Fife ad may have caused Schweich significant distress, the underlying factors in his suicide were emotional instability and overall poor health.
Police found more than 20 prescription drugs in Schweich’s home, including prednisone — a steroid that can have uncomfortable side effects — and hydrocodone — a painkiller.
Antidepressants did not appear to be among the drugs.
The strongest evidence that Schweich was not a well man, however, came from police interviews with three people: Schweich’s wife Kathy; Martha Fitz, a woman who is a friend and ally of Danforth and was a friend and adviser to Schweich; and Trish Vincent, Schweich’s chief of staff in the auditor’s office.
Here are excerpts from police interviews with the three women:
Kathy Schweich
“K. Schweich informed me (the interviewing officer) that her husband had talked about killing himself before and had done so while handling his firearms, but that she never thought he would actually act on his statement. She further explained that she knew he would sometimes get depressed…”
(The two lines that immediately follow those words are blacked out in the public version of the police report, so we don’t know what else she might have said about her husband’s depression.)
Martha Fitz
Fitz told an officer that Schweich could “get depressed from time to time” but, like Kathy Schweich, “she never thought he was at the point of suicide.”
Trish Vincent
“Although she (Vincent) does not believe that he suffers from depression, she does know that there are times when he seems ‘very low’…She further informed me that she does not believe that any one person or event caused him to kill himself, but that there was an accumulation of numerous things that added stress…and caused him to kill himself. T. Vincent described T. Schweich as a very anxious person who took everything very personal.”
**
I think the first reaction many people had when they heard about Schweich’s suicide was bafflement at how a veteran politician who was running for governor could get so upset about a false rumor or a below-the-belt radio ad that he would take his own life.
I never bought it. And in a Feb. 27 post, I theorized that clinical depression was the root of Schweich’s problem.
In light of the police report, I believe more than ever that Schweich was clinically depressed. Further, I think he probably avoided seeking a diagnosis or treatment because he knew it would end his chances of becoming governor.
Tom Schweich’s suicide was a terrible tragedy, but, truth be told, he was totally unfit to serve as governor. At least through his suicide he escaped his demons.
JimmyCsays: At the juncture of journalism and daily life in KC 
Shades of The Eagleton Affair…
Good observation, Will. Even though we’re many years after that, the situation is still pretty much the same: Once the depression cat is out of the bag…
Fitz, you keep trying to defend your original story which was in bad taste. You are not a doctor. So you don’t know if it was depression or Crohn’s. And you are not a theologian. You don’t know if he “escaped his demons”! You are gossiping about the dead. To defend yourself, and gin up your following. It’s pathetic reading this, including your rummaging thru his pill bottles, like you are at an estate sale. Can’t you find something else to write about?
Bad taste was the guy who made the comment after Steve Rose dropped out of the Congressional race owing to Crohns that “His heart was in it, but his ass wasn’t” (and possibly me for bringing this up), otherwise I don’t get why this entry is in poor taste.
Depression is a devastating illness that can destroy a person’s self image until suicicde seems to be the only option. John Uhlmann, one of the finest men I’ve ever met, inexplicably took his life as a result of depression. So i’m not seeing how bringing the severity of this disease to the public’s attention and debunking some nonsensical witch hunt against negative campaigning is a bad thing.
Perhaps if we were reminded a little more frequently of the consequences of mental illness people like Schweich and Uhlman would get treatment instead of taking their own lives.
Who was Uhlmann? I never came across him…
Good one, jimmy. There are additional rumors that hint at additional reasons for his depression but Crohn’s is hard on people and the sufferers can become quite unpleasant and depressed. At day’s end your basically right.
Thanks, Gary…If you’re talking about the suggestion that he was bisexual, I’m not buying it. The cops looked into that at some length, and what they turned up seemed to debunk it. The police got into it because some reporter had been making inquiries on a tip he had received. But the reporter hadn’t been able to substantiate the story, either.
Wow, this IS beginning to border on the ghoulish and gossipy. I wonder how your spouses/SO’s/families would like it if people speculated ad nauseum to the general public on the root causes of your suicide. Enough already!
The police investigated the report, and Dave Helling of The Star had it in his story published today. I didn’t put it in my main post, but when Gary brought up the subject of “additional rumors,” it cried out for explanation, and I wasn’t going to pull the comment. Very rarely do I pull a comment. It has to be over the top, which that wasn’t — and neither was my reply…The police investigated every conceivable reason why Schweich might have done what he did. They would have been remiss if they hadn’t. It was an excellent investigation, and Clayton P.D. deserves a lot of credit for not pushing anything under a rock…The ghouls aren’t out for another six months, Gayle.
Of course the police had to do their job — I’m not disputing that. And I wasn’t referring solely to Gary’s comment, but to the whole post. I stand by my initial comment.
The initial response was to (falsely) blame Jeff Roe for his suicide. It would be even more unfair to simply drop the investigation there and wrongly blame Roe for this man’s death. Had there been no assertion impugning someone else’s reputation, I might agree that there should be no further investigation, but because there was, the continuing investigation is justified.
Well, Roe and Hancock. And I don’t like what either of them did, but who in the world could have predicted that their actions would be precipitating elements in the suicide of a man whom few knew was really sick.
As Uhlmann demonstrated, positive, or negative input is irrelevant to the decision of a person with severe depression to take their own life.
Fitz, John Uhlmann was a very prominent member of Kansas City’s Jewish community. He was the epitomy of a gentleman, brilliant, wealthy, loving wife and family (who he adored). By any measure he was blessed beyond human expectation and yet he took his own life owing to depression.
The Pitch did a story on him shortly after his death which was denounced by many in the Jewish community, but it can give you some insight into who he was.