- Sports statistician Martin Manley prepared a comprehensive website about his life and death that would go live on the day of his suicide.
- Yahoo decided to remove the website citing its TOS, but Bizarrepedia will host the mirror so his legacy would live forever.
Martin Manley, a sports statistician and former Kansas City sports blogger, shot himself in front of the Overland Park police station on his 60th birthday. Before taking his life, he prepared a website about his life and death and outlined the reasons doing so. The site was ready to go live just after his suicide.
Manley wrote that he was making a conscious choice to die, not because he was depressed, sick, or in legal or financial trouble. He was beginning to suffer from dementia and was tired of forgetting to close the garage door behind or the names of his best friends. To the picture of Manley above, he gave a title: “OMG: I look 60!”. The site also contained a “how-to page”, in which he explained the details of his plan including discussing various methods of suicide and instructions he gave to police officers such as not to contact his family until they reach the station first. Also, his wish for his organs to be donated afterwards.
In addition to the suicide note, he also listed an odd pair of GPS coordinates, which made many believe they would lead to a hidden stash of gold coins, that Manley had discussed having in the other section of his website. The instructions started a treasure hunt.
The Legacy of Martin Manley
Under the section “Suicide Preface,” Manley wrote that he has prepaid Yahoo to host the site for the next five years. He added, “Whether it gets extended beyond that is up to others.” But Yahoo decided to pull the page citing its TOS. Since then, numerous mirror archives have appeared only to be taken down again. I made a decision to host the site on Bizarrepedia so the legacy of Martin Manley will live forever.
Here is the mirror of MartinManleyLifeAndDeath.com for morbidly curious.
"COOL FACTOID: Amazingly, I was never drunk a single time in my life. I thought about getting drunk in early August, 2013, just to see what it was like, but decided I would rather have this cool factoid."
– Martin Manley
