Man with suicide victim's heart kills himself

[Blasted]

 

HILTON HEAD ISLAND, S.C. - A man who received a heart transplant 12 years ago and later married the donor's widow died the same way the donor did, authorities said: of a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

No foul play was suspected in 69-year-old Sonny Graham's death at his Vidalia, Ga., home, investigators said. He was found Tuesday in a utility building in his backyard with a single shotgun wound to the throat, said Greg Harvey, a special agent with the Georgia Bureau of Investigation.

Graham, who was director of the Heritage golf tournament at Sea Pines from 1979 to 1983, was on the verge of congestive heart failure in 1995 when he got a call that a heart was available in Charleston.

That heart was from Terry Cottle, 33, who had shot himself, Berkeley County Coroner Glenn Rhoad said.

Grateful for his new heart, Graham began writing letters to the donor's family to thank them. In January 1997, Graham met his donor's widow, Cheryl Cottle, then 28, in Charleston.

"I felt like I had known her for years," Graham told The (Hilton Head) Island Packet for a story in 2006. "I couldn't keep my eyes off her. I just stared."

In 2001, Graham bought a home for Cottle and her four children in Vidalia. Three years later, they were married after Graham retired from his job as a plant manager for Hargray Communications in Hilton Head.

From their previous marriages, the couple had six children and six grandchildren scattered across South Carolina and Georgia.

Cheryl Graham, now 39, has worked at several hospices in Vidalia. A telephone message left Sunday at a listing for Cheryl and Sonny Graham in Vidalia was not immediately returned.

Sonny Graham's friends said he would be remembered for his willingness to help people.

"Any time someone had a problem, the first reaction was, 'Call Sonny Graham,' " said Bill Carson, Graham's friend for more than 40 years. "It didn't matter whether you had a flat tire on the side of the road or your washing machine didn't work. He didn't even have to know you to help you."

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23984857/


I wonder if it is possible to somehow "inherit" personality traits and such from body transplants.

['andersom']

Eerie in a way.

Loving the same woman, and then killing himself the same way. Poor wife btw.

Now I am curious if his preferences for food etc. also became matching to the donor's preferences and habits.

Makes me wonder indeed.

Where are the scientists?

[Adam]

i doubt you can inherit personality traits from a heart

i have no evidence to support this though, and i'm shit at science 

receiving a donor from someone is likely to affect how you feel for their family. and even more so the other way round. so that would explain why he ended up with the wife.

the suicide i dunno. you'd have to look at what was actually going on in his life. i'm sure it can be explained though.

i just can't see the heart transplant having an effect in that way

['andersom']

I think it is intriguing enough to do some research.

There are all kinds of myths circling about people changing their diet or their personality after getting a donororgan.

Would be intriguing to see if there is more in that than just sensational fictional made up stories to tell in the dark.

[Parts]

Wife drove him to it

[Callaway]

 

There was a woman, Barbara Stager, who was convicted of shooting her second husband and trying to make it look like an accident after her first husband supposedly killed himself almost exactly the same way.  They think she killed her first husband too.

[earthboundmisfit]

Wife drove him to it

Yup. She is the common denominator in both of the deaths.

[Icequeen]

Wife drove him to it

Yup. She is the common denominator in both of the deaths.

I was thinking the same thing. 

Wonder how long she was married to her first husband?

[TheoK]

Wife drove him to it

 

[El]

Don't recycle a broken heart?

[earthboundmisfit]

Don't recycle a broken heart?

Heart was fine, brain was fucked.

[Lemon Aguilera]

the wife killed them, look what she got? a fucking house. the first hubby prolly gave her shit too

[Frolic_Fun]

I'm willing to test this, my current heart's not too great. It beats twice as fast as the average rate, which isn't healthy in the long run. Anyone suicidal enough to donate?

[ProfessorFarnsworth]

No, but I'm homicidal, so what type of donor do you need? 

[El]

Hmm... I don't have to try to marry a wealthy old guy to get his money... wealthy and depressed is enough, if I get to know him well enough to push the right buttons.