before there was Benoit, there was Bergen.

[funk51]

He died in 1900 after slitting his throat with a razor. Before his suicide, he murdered his wife and two children with an ax. His problems with mental health were evident years before, as he accused and fought with his teammates, who hoped he would not return to the team after 1899. He had grown paranoid that assassins were trying to kill him and would disappear for days at a time. In a game on October 9th, Bergen had to be pulled when he began dodging his pitcher's pitches because he was avoiding knife thrusts from an invisible assailant trying to attack him. He was prescribed medication to help his condition, but refused to take them, believing them to be poison.

He was the brother of Bill Bergen.

[funk51]

     https://sabr.org/bioproj/person/Marty-Bergen/      full version can be viewed here.

[funk51]

   

   

[Kwon]

After Bergen’s deeds on January 19, 1900, Dr. Goodrum repeatedly made comments that Bergen was “insane” and a “maniac.”

The doctor believed that the situation was out of his control and out of his purview. Finally acknowledging Bergen’s mental illness, the Boston Globe’s Tim Vissy wrote that Bergen “was entitled to the undivided sympathy of the baseball public, as well as players and directors.”

In the wake of the tragedy, North Brookfield made efforts to better educate professionals and the community about mental health issues.

[LurkerNoMore]

He cut his throat because lat machines had not been invented yet.

Side note - Benoit was not stated to have suffered from hallucinations or such.  It's been said that he did suffer from extreme depression with bouts that left him sometimes crying for days.

(Just a theory here) It is quite possible that he just got depressed enough to want to end his life and realized that if he were gone, his wife and son would struggle with living expenses, etc.. so it would be better for them if they were gone too. 

We will never truly know what happened.  Very tragic all around.  He was one of my favorite wrestlers.

[joswift]

He cut his throat because lat machines had not been invented yet.

Side note - Benoit was not stated to have suffered from hallucinations or such.  It's been said that he did suffer from extreme depression with bouts that left him sometimes crying for days.

(Just a theory here) It is quite possible that he just got depressed enough to want to end his life and realized that if he were gone, his wife and son would struggle with living expenses, etc.. so it would be better for them if they were gone too. 

We will never truly know what happened.  Very tragic all around.  He was one of my favorite wrestlers.

very common in suicide
Fathers and mothers often take the kids along for the ride

[LurkerNoMore]

very common in suicide
Fathers and mothers often take the kids along for the ride

Yeah, I don't think it was roid rage. I may be wrong but I think I recall reading that his levels of testosterone were elevated but not to an extreme degree that you normally associate with full cycles.  But more along the lines of a TRT amount.  Other times it was stated to be something like 50:1.  It would be interesting to see the actual levels.

While it has been stated his brain had enough trauma to it that it resembled at 80 year old Alz patient, I think that is a stretch.  I mean, he was still functioning to the point of driving, going to work, performing day to day tasks like working out, grocery shopping, etc..

I think what happened (just a guess here) is that he was having one of his depression spells instigated by Nancy threatening to divorce him again or whatever.  It amplified his emotions and he just decided that it was best if he just checked out.  But being the bread winner would ensure that Nancy and his special needs son would struggle with expenses and lifestyle comforts.  So he took them with him.

[mops]

Yeah, I don't think it was roid rage. I may be wrong but I think I recall reading that his levels of testosterone were elevated but not to an extreme degree that you normally associate with full cycles.  But more along the lines of a TRT amount.  Other times it was stated to be something like 50:1.  It would be interesting to see the actual levels.

While it has been stated his brain had enough trauma to it that it resembled at 80 year old Alz patient, I think that is a stretch.  I mean, he was still functioning to the point of driving, going to work, performing day to day tasks like working out, grocery shopping, etc..

I think what happened (just a guess here) is that he was having one of his depression spells instigated by Nancy threatening to divorce him again or whatever.  It amplified his emotions and he just decided that it was best if he just checked out.  But being the bread winner would ensure that Nancy and his special needs son would struggle with expenses and lifestyle comforts.  So he took them with him.

Always believed the passing of Eddie Guerrero fucked him up pretty badly too.

[joswift]

I think what happened (just a guess here) is that he was having one of his depression spells instigated by Nancy threatening to divorce him again or whatever.  It amplified his emotions and he just decided that it was best if he just checked out.  But being the bread winner would ensure that Nancy and his special needs son would struggle with expenses and lifestyle comforts.  So he took them with him.

Good guess
having had depression I can see exactly where he was coming from...

[funk51]