SPECIAL ISSUE: DECEMBER 2009 / JANUARY 2010 – NO. 37

Paul Williams (1939-1973), one of the founding members and original lead singer of The Temptations, was found in a deserted parking lot in Detroit, Michigan, on the ground near his car, dead from an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head. Though he suffered from depression and had personal and health problems, several pieces didn't add up. Paul had used his right hand to shoot himself in the left side of his head, and a bottle of alcohol was found near his left side, as if he'd dropped it while being shot. The gun had fired two shots, yet he was shot only once. Still, the coroner ruled his death a suicide.

Excerpted from Death Becomes Them:  Unearthing the Suicides of the Brilliant, the Famous, and the Notorious by Alix Strauss. Copyright 2009 by the author and reprinted by permission of HarperCollins.

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AUTHOR BIO: Alix Strauss is a lifestyle trend writer for national talk shows. Her articles have appeared in the New York Times, Marie Claire, Time, Entertainment Weekly, Esquire, and other periodicals. She is the author of an award-winning collection of short stories, The Hoy of Funerals, and an anthology of blind date stories, Have I Got a Guy for You. Alix lives in Manhattan. Buy Alix Strauss's books through Amazon at the LOST Store.