Help How do you hang yourself using a belt?

[I’vehadenough]

You can't tie the belt in knots to the doorknob lol so how are these celebrities successfully hanging themselves with a belt?

 

[letmeseethedeath]

i

You can't tie the belt in knots to the doorknob lol so how are these celebrities successfully hanging themselves with a belt?

i want to know it as well, i need to know it asap

 

[tomz323]

Yeah, I'm also curious.

 

[Return2Dust]

I can't visually picture this...

"The assistant eventually managed to open the door and found Williams clothed, in a seated position and "with a belt secured around his neck, with the other end of the belt wedged between the clothes closet door and the door frame," Boyd said. "His right shoulder area was touching the door, with his body perpendicular to the door and slightly suspended."

 

[MaybeSoon]

I think looped the belt, opened the door, posted the end of the belt through the hinge side gap and then shut the door and seated himself infront of the door.

 

[BPD_LE]

You wedge the other end in the door jamb.

 

[I’vehadenough]

You wedge the other end in the door jamb.

So you just wedge it in the door frame and close the door? I feel like that wouldn't stay

 

[BPD_LE]

Yes. Depends on the door. Hotels often have fire doors. I have fire doors. They are thicker and heavier.

 

[I’vehadenough]

Yes. Depends on the door. Hotels often have fire doors. I have fire doors. They are thicker and heavier.

Thanks. I experimented by tying a belt around my neck and holding the other end in my hand. It seems I can pass out that way because it felt good when I was getting light-headed, so this will be my method if the belt will hold

 

[GinaIsReady]

A carabiner can be used. You would attach the belt to the carabiner then place the carabiner behind the door where the hinge is, then close the door. I think this is how Chris Cornell did it, only he used an elastic exercise band rather than a belt, if memory serves.

 

[Science Is Scary]

See the Summary section at the bottom if you don't want to read everything.


Robin Williams

USA Today describes Robin Williams's belt hanging like this: "He was found dead in his bedroom, clothed, slightly suspended in a seated position with a leather belt around his neck, with one end wedged between a closet door and door frame." In other words, he seemingly closed the door on the belt.

There appears to be a coroner's report of that case circulating online that goes into a ridiculous level of detail. It mentions a towel used to pad the neck against the belt, the height of belt in the door and other details. I'm not sure how to confirm if the coroner's report is real. Also, I'm not sure I can link to it without breaking forum rules; it has a lot of personal information in it. You'll probably find it if you search for it.

One of this forum's MVPs, Gingerplum, provides a picture example of a belt noose in a door in this thread: https://sanctioned-suicide.net/thre...n-partial-suspension-hanging.2674/post-171046. I think the picture is fairly similar to the method used in this case.

Belt Hanging in the Literature

The scientific literature gives us more examples. As usual, if you have trouble finding the full paper, Sci-Hub might have it.

Sexual asphyxia by hanging – a case report and a review of the literature describes an autoerotic asphyxiation death that involved hanging with a belt inside a truck. The belt was looped around to form a noose, possibly similar to Gingerplum's picture. I don't quite understand, but I think the person threaded the arm of a padlock through a belt hole and somehow attached the padlock to a window frame. I'm guessing there was a hole in the window frame to close the padlock around or something. The padlock seemingly solved the problem of not being able to attach the belt to anything.

Suicidal Hanging Within an Automobile reports another hanging inside an automobile. The car window was closed on the belt to secure it in place.

Unintentional strangulation deaths from the "Choking Game" among youths aged 6-19 years – United States, 1995—2007 mentions a case where a girl inadvertently died while playing the choking game. The hanging involved a door, a belt and a shoelace. I'm guessing she threaded the shoelace through a hole in the belt and tied the shoelace to the doorknob, but it's not clear.

I'm sure there's more examples, but I'm having trouble finding more.

Belt Strangulation in the Literature

I came across some cases of belt strangulation while I was searching for belt hangings. While they're not quite the same as belt hangings, I thought it would be good to include them.

Planned complex suicide: Self-strangulation and plaster ingestion describes a deceased man found in the woods. He had fastened the belt tightly around his neck, with the hook in one of the holes, and strangled himself. He also ate plaster, but that didn't kill him. There's seemingly nothing special about the way the belt was fastened.

Self-Strangulation: An Uncommon but Not Unprecedented Suicide Method describes a man who strangled himself with a 3 cm wide belt. Again, the belt was fastened like normal, but around the neck. The picture suggests the belt isn't the type that fits a prong into a hole. If I'm reading correctly, the belt was tight enough to depress the neck about 6 cm.

Suicide by Ligature Strangulation: Three Case Reports describes a case of the "tourniquet method" involving a 5 cm wide belt made of fabric. The fabric belt was worn around the neck and a wooden bar was placed under the belt. The wooden bar was rotated twice so that the belt tightened around the neck and strangled him. It's not really a great example since the belt seemed to be made of fabric rather than a stiff material.

Personal Note

I have no idea how the reliability of belt hanging or strangulation compares to other methods. As such, I probably wouldn't catch a bus with it.

Summary

Belts with a buckle naturally form a noose when running the end of the belt through the belt buckle.
In some hanging deaths, belt nooses have been secured to a surface by shutting a door or car window on the belt, attaching a padlock or including a shoelace.
Belts have also been used in strangulation deaths where the belt isn't secured to anything.


I hope you enjoyed this post. It took many hours to research and write.

 

[I’vehadenough]

See the Summary section at the bottom if you don't want to read everything.


Robin Williams

USA Today describes Robin Williams's belt hanging like this: "He was found dead in his bedroom, clothed, slightly suspended in a seated position with a leather belt around his neck, with one end wedged between a closet door and door frame." In other words, he seemingly closed the door on the belt.

There appears to be a coroner's report of that case circulating online that goes into a ridiculous level of detail. It mentions a towel used to pad the neck against the belt, the height of belt in the door and other details. I'm not sure how to confirm if the coroner's report is real. Also, I'm not sure I can link to it without breaking forum rules; it has a lot of personal information in it. You'll probably find it if you search for it.

One of this forum's MVPs, Gingerplum, provides a picture example of a belt noose in a door in this thread: https://sanctioned-suicide.net/thre...n-partial-suspension-hanging.2674/post-171046. I think the picture is fairly similar to the method used in this case.

Belt Hanging in the Literature

The scientific literature gives us more examples. As usual, if you have trouble finding the full paper, Sci-Hub might have it.

Sexual asphyxia by hanging – a case report and a review of the literature describes an autoerotic asphyxiation death that involved hanging with a belt inside a truck. The belt was looped around to form a noose, possibly similar to Gingerplum's picture. I don't quite understand, but I think the person threaded the arm of a padlock through a belt hole and somehow attached the padlock to a window frame. I'm guessing there was a hole in the window frame to close the padlock around or something. The padlock seemingly solved the problem of not being able to attach the belt to anything.

Suicidal Hanging Within an Automobile reports another hanging inside an automobile. The car window was closed on the belt to secure it in place.

Unintentional strangulation deaths from the "Choking Game" among youths aged 6-19 years – United States, 1995—2007 mentions a case where a girl inadvertently died while playing the choking game. The hanging involved a door, a belt and a shoelace. I'm guessing she threaded the shoelace through a hole in the belt and tied the shoelace to the doorknob, but it's not clear.

I'm sure there's more examples, but I'm having trouble finding more.

Belt Strangulation in the Literature

I came across some cases of belt strangulation while I was searching for belt hangings. While they're not quite the same as belt hangings, I thought it would be good to include them.

Planned complex suicide: Self-strangulation and plaster ingestion describes a deceased man found in the woods. He had fastened the belt tightly around his neck, with the hook in one of the holes, and strangled himself. He also ate plaster, but that didn't kill him. There's seemingly nothing special about the way the belt was fastened.

Self-Strangulation: An Uncommon but Not Unprecedented Suicide Method describes a man who strangled himself with a 3 cm wide belt. Again, the belt was fastened like normal, but around the neck. The picture suggests the belt isn't the type that fits a prong into a hole. If I'm reading correctly, the belt was tight enough to depress the neck about 6 cm.

Suicide by Ligature Strangulation: Three Case Reports describes a case of the "tourniquet method" involving a 5 cm wide belt made of fabric. The fabric belt was worn around the neck and a wooden bar was placed under the belt. The wooden bar was rotated twice so that the belt tightened around the neck and strangled him. It's not really a great example since the belt seemed to be made of fabric rather than a stiff material.

Personal Note

I have no idea how the reliability of belt hanging or strangulation compares to other methods. As such, I probably wouldn't catch a bus with it.

Summary

Belts with a buckle naturally form a noose when running the end of the belt through the belt buckle.
In some hanging deaths, belt nooses have been secured to a surface by shutting a door or car window on the belt, attaching a padlock or including a shoelace.
Belts have also been used in strangulation deaths where the belt isn't secured to anything.


I hope you enjoyed this post. It took many hours to research and write.

Thank you so much! I appreciate the time you took in your research. I will look into all of this and decide if it's the way I wanna go. Why wouldbt you go out this way?

 

[Science Is Scary]

Thank you so much! I appreciate the time you took in your research. I will look into all of this and decide if it's the way I wanna go. Why wouldbt you go out this way?

Mainly, I'm just being cautious. There's some decent evidence that hanging in general has a fairly high lethality:

• 90.4% (but it mixes in strangulation and suffocation) - https://jech.bmj.com/content/57/2/120
• 89.5% (average of pathologist estimates) - https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/8553417
• 83% - https://injuryprevention.bmj.com/content/14/1/39
• 77.53% - https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.2190/K59M-Y0KN-PAKV-JFUV
• 61.4% (but it mixes in suffocation) - https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1446422/

However, I think most hangings are not done with belts. The epidemiology and prevention of suicide by hanging: a systematic review summarizes some of the studies on hanging in Appendix 1 and Table 2. Sadly the sample sizes are quite small. The studies that give a percentage for belt hanging suicides alone are:

• 50% in psychiatric wards in England and Wales (for context, about 10% of suicides occurred in hospitals, prisons and police custody)
• 14% in Manhattan, New York
• 13% for leather belts in King Country, Washington; add up to an additional 11% for soft belts or ties
• 8% in N Ireland
• 6% in Denmark
• 0.99% (1 out of 101) in Calcutta, India

So I don't feel comfortable assuming belt hangings are just as lethal as hangings in general. For example, belt hangings might have much lower lethality than rope hangings but are too uncommon to substantially affect the lethality of hangings in general. Choosing a stiff belt over a flexible rope is more than just a material change; it changes how and where the ligature can be attached.

It's also possible belt hangings are as lethal or better than rope hangings. There might be some evidence out there that belt hangings have high lethality, but I haven't looked too hard or found it yet. Until I see more evidence, I'll be cautious.

 

[I’vehadenough]

Mainly, I'm just being cautious. There's some decent evidence that hanging in general has a fairly high lethality:

• 90.4% (but it mixes in strangulation and suffocation) - https://jech.bmj.com/content/57/2/120
• 89.5% (average of pathologist estimates) - https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/8553417
• 83% - https://injuryprevention.bmj.com/content/14/1/39
• 77.53% - https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.2190/K59M-Y0KN-PAKV-JFUV
• 61.4% (but it mixes in suffocation) - https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1446422/

However, I think most hangings are not done with belts. The epidemiology and prevention of suicide by hanging: a systematic review summarizes some of the studies on hanging in Appendix 1 and Table 2. Sadly the sample sizes are quite small. The studies that give a percentage for belt hanging suicides alone are:

• 50% in psychiatric wards in England and Wales (for context, about 10% of suicides occurred in hospitals, prisons and police custody)
• 14% in Manhattan, New York
• 13% for leather belts in King Country, Washington; add up to an additional 11% for soft belts or ties
• 8% in N Ireland
• 6% in Denmark
• 0.99% (1 out of 101) in Calcutta, India

So I don't feel comfortable assuming belt hangings are just as lethal as hangings in general. For example, belt hangings might have much lower lethality than rope hangings but are too uncommon to substantially affect the lethality of hangings in general. Choosing a stiff belt over a flexible rope is more than just a material change; it changes how and where the ligature can be attached.

It's also possible belt hangings are as lethal or better than rope hangings. There might be some evidence out there that belt hangings have high lethality, but I haven't looked too hard or found it yet. Until I see more evidence, I'll be cautious.

You're right. I think as long as the ligerature will stay around your neck even after strangulation, then it is probably okay to use. I tried a bathrobe belt and that worked well in terms of feeling faint fast too

 

[LonelyLight]

See the Summary section at the bottom if you don't want to read everything.


Robin Williams

USA Today describes Robin Williams's belt hanging like this: "He was found dead in his bedroom, clothed, slightly suspended in a seated position with a leather belt around his neck, with one end wedged between a closet door and door frame." In other words, he seemingly closed the door on the belt.

There appears to be a coroner's report of that case circulating online that goes into a ridiculous level of detail. It mentions a towel used to pad the neck against the belt, the height of belt in the door and other details. I'm not sure how to confirm if the coroner's report is real. Also, I'm not sure I can link to it without breaking forum rules; it has a lot of personal information in it. You'll probably find it if you search for it.

One of this forum's MVPs, Gingerplum, provides a picture example of a belt noose in a door in this thread: https://sanctioned-suicide.net/thre...n-partial-suspension-hanging.2674/post-171046. I think the picture is fairly similar to the method used in this case.

Belt Hanging in the Literature

The scientific literature gives us more examples. As usual, if you have trouble finding the full paper, Sci-Hub might have it.

Sexual asphyxia by hanging – a case report and a review of the literature describes an autoerotic asphyxiation death that involved hanging with a belt inside a truck. The belt was looped around to form a noose, possibly similar to Gingerplum's picture. I don't quite understand, but I think the person threaded the arm of a padlock through a belt hole and somehow attached the padlock to a window frame. I'm guessing there was a hole in the window frame to close the padlock around or something. The padlock seemingly solved the problem of not being able to attach the belt to anything.

Suicidal Hanging Within an Automobile reports another hanging inside an automobile. The car window was closed on the belt to secure it in place.

Unintentional strangulation deaths from the "Choking Game" among youths aged 6-19 years – United States, 1995—2007 mentions a case where a girl inadvertently died while playing the choking game. The hanging involved a door, a belt and a shoelace. I'm guessing she threaded the shoelace through a hole in the belt and tied the shoelace to the doorknob, but it's not clear.

I'm sure there's more examples, but I'm having trouble finding more.

Belt Strangulation in the Literature

I came across some cases of belt strangulation while I was searching for belt hangings. While they're not quite the same as belt hangings, I thought it would be good to include them.

Planned complex suicide: Self-strangulation and plaster ingestion describes a deceased man found in the woods. He had fastened the belt tightly around his neck, with the hook in one of the holes, and strangled himself. He also ate plaster, but that didn't kill him. There's seemingly nothing special about the way the belt was fastened.

Self-Strangulation: An Uncommon but Not Unprecedented Suicide Method describes a man who strangled himself with a 3 cm wide belt. Again, the belt was fastened like normal, but around the neck. The picture suggests the belt isn't the type that fits a prong into a hole. If I'm reading correctly, the belt was tight enough to depress the neck about 6 cm.

Suicide by Ligature Strangulation: Three Case Reports describes a case of the "tourniquet method" involving a 5 cm wide belt made of fabric. The fabric belt was worn around the neck and a wooden bar was placed under the belt. The wooden bar was rotated twice so that the belt tightened around the neck and strangled him. It's not really a great example since the belt seemed to be made of fabric rather than a stiff material.

Personal Note

I have no idea how the reliability of belt hanging or strangulation compares to other methods. As such, I probably wouldn't catch a bus with it.

Summary

Belts with a buckle naturally form a noose when running the end of the belt through the belt buckle.
In some hanging deaths, belt nooses have been secured to a surface by shutting a door or car window on the belt, attaching a padlock or including a shoelace.
Belts have also been used in strangulation deaths where the belt isn't secured to anything.


I hope you enjoyed this post. It took many hours to research and write.

Thank you for this info. I am going to go with this method using a belt

 

[gingerplum]

You can't tie the belt in knots to the doorknob lol so how are these celebrities successfully hanging themselves with a belt?

You can't tie the belt in knots to the doorknob lol so how are these celebrities successfully hanging themselves with a belt?

 

[netcafe]

Is there a padlock at the end? I'm dumb.

 

[gingerplum]

Is there a padlock at the end? I'm dumb.

No padlock. Just an unmodified belt.

 

[TheGoodGuy]

No padlock. Just an unmodified belt.

I don´t get it wouldn´t the belt just slide down when you put weight onto it? Also have you tied a knot on the other side of the door but still I can´t see how it wouldn´t slide down, wouldn´t it be better to put it over the top of the door with a knot on the other site (obviously hard to do with a belt because of lack of lengths)

 

[Hotsackage]

I wonder the same. These celebs are getting right, so y cant we. It will just be trial and error until you get it right
Theres people using scarfs and shoelaces. Theres no way that we cant succeed and they do

 

[drake4871]

Did they hang themselves or just tie the belt around their neck and tighten it? (I wouldn't take media literally lol). I doubt most belts would handle 100+ lbs of force so partial suspensions my best guess

 

[TimeToBiteTheDust]

Michael Hutchence. Robin Williams.

 

[Pan]

Forget the belt; it is bogus...rope is what does it...I am fortunate in that I own my home; the cellar and waterpipe beckons.. robin williams, in my humble opinion, was one of the lucky ones. Full suspension if where it's at. Two-three minutes it is all over. You cruise to death over 20 minutes of time. You have approximately thirty minutes before they find your body. You are free.
Good photos to check out are "hanging of the Lincoln conspirators". By civil war photographer Alexander Gardner...they died quickly.

 

[Pan]

You can't tie the belt in knots to the doorknob lol so how are these celebrities successfully hanging themselves with a belt?

You don't. Williams was the exception, for whatever reason. No more prevaricating; let's get down with it, as in rope, a support and death.

 

[Reaper Occult]

So I tried other night. I took a army dufflebag made the whole bigger belt to go through. Filled duffle bag up closed it. I taped metal middle that keeps the belt tight. So when the bag went over got tight. I chicken out but um I ate a bag of castor bean seeds.

 

[Pan]

Eating castor bean is potentially desdly, but there is a higher rate of survival with permanent brain damage. No thanx; it's full suspension for me in the spring.

 

[EricSmith2000]

Thanks. I experimented by tying a belt around my neck and holding the other end in my hand. It seems I can pass out that way because it felt good when I was getting light-headed, so this will be my method if the belt will hold

Ive noticed the same. It cuts blood off to the brain beore it stops breathing. Even though Im not doing it just the lightheadedness is peaceful.

 

[TimeToBiteTheDust]

I tried the belt but it feels like my head is going to explode. Think I'm doing sth wrong..

You don't. Williams was the exception, for whatever reason. No more prevaricating; let's get down with it, as in rope, a support and death.

If Williams could, anyone can.

 

[Lupgevif]

Williams having done it is anedoctal. All pictures I see of people using the same thing I want to use as ligature is anedoctal. We can't say "just because I saw someone else doing it, odds are in my favor". All we can do follow instructions as strictly as possible...

 

[Callie Arcale]

I didn't know this thread existed. I am very glad to have found it, as it answered a few questions I had about this method. This forum has a few really nice gems.