 Viewers watched live via internet as teen fulfilled threat to kill himself. 
When nineteen year old Abraham Biggs, Jr. announced over the website Justin.tv that he planned to commit suicide, viewers assumed it was an idle threat. That probably explains why few alarms were raised when Biggs took a fatal dose of pills, reclined on a bed, and died with his webcam recording the entire episode.
During the hours it took for Biggs to sink into coma and death, viewers watched and cracked jokes in a group chat room. An autopsy concluded Biggs died from a combination of opiates and benzodiazepine, which was prescribed for a bipolar disorder. The Florida teen is not the first to commit suicide in front of an audience, but the slow developing nature of the incident caused authorities to question whether something could have been done to stop him.
The users who witnessed the suicide told police investigators they did not take Biggs seriously because he had threatened suicide on the site before. Prosecutors reluctantly agreed there is no legal recourse against those who watched and didn’t alert police, even though witnesses claim Biggs was pushed or dared by some users to act on his threat.
Authorities had, however, explored the possibility of charging the website owners with negligence. But yesterday a lawyer close to the case said there isn’t much chance of charges being filed. While there could be liability if website operators knew about the incident, had the ability to intervene and didn’t take action, it did not appear as if that were true. Michael Seifert, chief executive of Justin.tv, offered condolences to the Biggs family.
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The headlines that mattered yesteryear.
1939—Batman Debuts
In Detective Comics #27, DC Comics publishes its second major superhero, Batman, who becomes one of the most popular comic book characters of all time, and then a popular camp television series starring Adam West, and lastly a multi-million dollar movie franchise starring Michael Keaton, then George Clooney, and finally Christian Bale. 1953—Crick and Watson Publish DNA Results
British scientists James D Watson and Francis Crick publish an article detailing their discovery of the existence and structure of deoxyribonucleic acid, or DNA, in Nature magazine. Their findings answer one of the oldest and most fundamental questions of biology, that of how living things reproduce themselves. 1967—First Space Program Casualty Occurs
Soviet cosmonaut Vladimir Komarov dies in Soyuz 1 when, during re-entry into Earth's atmosphere after more than ten successful orbits, the capsule's main parachute fails to deploy properly, and the backup chute becomes entangled in the first. The capsule's descent is slowed, but it still hits the ground at about 90 mph, at which point it bursts into flames. Komarov is the first human to die during a space mission. 1986—Otto Preminger Dies
Austro–Hungarian film director Otto Preminger, who directed such eternal classics as Laura, Anatomy of a Murder, Carmen Jones, The Man with the Golden Arm, and Stalag 17, and for his efforts earned a star on Hollywood's Walk of Fame, dies in New York City, aged 80, from cancer and Alzheimer's disease. 1998—James Earl Ray Dies
The convicted assassin of American civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr., petty criminal James Earl Ray, dies in prison of hepatitis aged 70, protesting his innocence as he had for decades. Members of the King family who supported Ray's fight to clear his name believed the U.S. Government had been involved in Dr. King's killing, but with Ray's death such questions became moot.
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