60) Christine Chubbuck

[00:00:01] The Rambler Network

[00:00:03] If you've ever heard that name before and you don't know who she is, then you have no idea where this story is going to go.

[00:00:56] You're probably going to be like, why are you talking about this random person? Well, I'll get there. I'll get there. So, Christine Chubbuck was born in Hudson, Ohio on August 24th, 1944. And she had two brothers, Tim and Greg. I almost said Tim and Eric.

[00:01:26] And when she was in school, she made a club that was kind of like a joke club, I guess. That's what this thing says. It was called the Dateless Wonder Club with other rejected girls who did not have dates.

[00:01:48] When she was 21, she dated a guy in his 30s, which her father did not approve of. So, they broke up. And according to her brother, she didn't date anyone else for the rest of her life. She attended Miami University in Oxford, Ohio. She only did that for a year. She majored in theater arts.

[00:02:15] And then she went to IndyCott College. I haven't... I've never heard that said out loud. In Beverly, Massachusetts. Massachusetts. That's a word I've heard said a million times and I still can't... Massachusetts. I can't say it. She earned a degree in broadcasting at Boston University. Boston is, of course, in the state of... I'm moving on.

[00:02:47] So, she earned a degree in 1965. In 1966, she started working at WVIZ in Cleveland. Which, of course, is a TV station. I say, of course. Like, you know it. I've never heard of it. Except for this. So, like... Of course! It's a TV station. I don't know. It could have been a radio station. So, she worked there for a little bit. Looks like a couple years.

[00:03:17] And she went to... She spent three months at WQED-TV in Pittsburgh. That one's clearly radio. You can tell by the name. Yeah, she worked in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. She was an assistant producer for two local shows. The Women's World and Keys to the City. Those are the names of the show that she produced. Was an assistant producer on. Then, in 1968, she left there.

[00:03:47] And she worked as a hospital computer operator for four years. Which sounds like a very different job from everything else she's done up to that point. She's worked in TV. She was a producer. And then she worked on hospital computers for four years. Then, of course, after those four years working as a computer operator, she moved down to Sarasota, Florida.

[00:04:19] And worked at an ABC affiliate, WXLT-TV. So, the owner of WXLT, his name was Bob Nelson. He hired her as a reporter. But, he gave her a talk show. About... Talking about community affairs and stuff going on in the neighborhood... In the area.

[00:04:47] It ran at 9am. It was called Suncoast Digest. You can actually still find some of these episodes on YouTube. Even though this was back in the 70s. You can still find some of these episodes on YouTube. Not because they're still relevant today. But, because of what ends up happening. It's like, hey, this is Kristen Chubik. This is before the thing happened.

[00:05:14] And, yeah, that's mostly why people go up and like, hey, this is... This is the show that she did before the thing happened. So, her show is described in the local paper as... It will feature local people and local activities. It will give attention, for instance, to the storefront organizations that are concerned with alcoholics, drug users, and other lost segments of the community.

[00:05:44] In 1970, she had attempted to overdose on drugs. And, um... She frequently talked about that. And then, because of that, she was seeing a psychiatrist. Up till the thing happened.

[00:06:10] But, unfortunately, her mother chose not to tell her coworkers or the management about any of this. So, if that... That part of the cause of her depression was lack of intimate relationships. It was known that she... You know, she was... She wanted to be a mother, but she had had one of her ovaries removed. And they were...

[00:06:37] The doctors had told her that she had to give birth within the next couple years. Or she wouldn't be able to. And... Again, she wasn't in a romantic relationship with anybody. So... Yeah, that she... That didn't seem... Like something that was going to happen. Though she wanted it to happen. Um... Her... Friends and family say that...

[00:07:08] Uh... Even though she had a successful career... And... And everything. It just didn't feel like enough for her. Like the... Like everything in her life wasn't enough. She didn't feel... Fulfilled with anything. And... There was a thing I left out. She was volunteering at a hospital. Doing puppet shows for children. So... That's... Another thing... That she had going on.

[00:07:39] She... She kind of didn't have a lot going on. She... I mean, she had the show that she hosted. She was a reporter. And then she had the puppet shows. Which sounds like a lot. But she didn't feel... Like it was enough. So... According to her co-workers... Uh... Christine had... A crush on... One of her co-workers... George Peter Ryan. She'd even... Vicked McCake for his birthday. But...

[00:08:07] She found out that he was already involved... With a sports reporter... At the studio... Named... Uh... Andrea Kirby. She had actually been... Close... Um... With... Christine. But... She got offered a new job in Baltimore. Which... You know... Depressed... Christine even more. So... There was... Uh... An incident at one point... Where...

[00:08:36] She brought... A gun into the studio... And told... Night News editor... Rob Smith... That... Um... No... She... Showed him the gun... Like, hey, I've got this gun... And then she joked... About killing herself... And... Uh... He later said that... He didn't... Respond to what he thought was a... Sick joke... And he changed the subject... She'd gotten the gun...

[00:09:05] Because he'd done a report... On... She had told... The... Local police... That she was working on a story... And wanted to... Uh... Wanted to know more information on guns... And... And was talking... Was uh... There was... A report she said she was working on... About... Suicides... And wanted to know... What... What...

[00:09:34] Who normally do it... For her report... And... Like, what... Gun they tend to use... And... The... The officer told her... That... Well... I don't want to say... Because... I don't want to give people ideas... But... He told her the gun that people used... And... She went out... And bought that gun... That exact model... And everything that the... That the cop had told her... And then on the morning of... July 15th... 1974...

[00:10:04] She... She asked to read... Uh... She asked to read the... The newscasts... On... You know... The... The news... Which... Apparently she had never done before... And so... Like they let her... During the eight minutes... During the first eight minutes of the program...

[00:10:33] She covered three national news stories... And then a shooting for the previous day... At a local restaurant... There were supposed to play a segment... About... That shooting... But the reel got jammed... And so... Christine shrugged it off... And said on camera... In keeping with the... WXLT practice... Of presenting the most immediate... And complete reports... Of local blood and guts news...

[00:11:02] TV40 presents... What is believed to be... A television first... In living color... And exclusive coverage... Of an attempted suicide... She then drew the gun... From under the table... And shot herself... Behind the right ear... She fell forward... And then the station cut to black... The station director came out... And thought... And after the station cut to black... The...

[00:11:31] Station manager... Came onto the... The... The news floor... To scold her... Because he thought he was... That she was joking... Playing a sick joke... But then like... He says... In an interview... I saw the interview... He says that... He... Like... Her... Her body like... Fell onto the floor... And he saw the blood... And he knew it wasn't a joke... She was pronounced dead... 14 hours... Later...

[00:12:00] She was cremated... And... Her ashes were scattered... Into the Gulf of Mexico... There was about... 120 people who attended her funeral... And... This included... A lot of the people who had been on her show... The Suncoast Digest... In... 2016... There was a movie... That was made... Actually there was two movies that was made... But...

[00:12:30] I think only one of them really counts... As like an official movie... Um... The first one... The one that I saw... Is called Christine... And it stars Rebecca Hall... As Christine Shabek... And... Michael C. Hall... As George Peter Ryan... And... I... I really liked it... I watched... I've seen it twice... I saw it... Uh... When it first came out...

[00:13:00] I had already heard of the story... Like... Forever ago... And then I heard they made a movie about it... And I was like... Oh cool... And I watched it... I'm like... Wow... That's a nice movie... And then... Getting ready to do this... I was... I watched it again... And... Yeah... It was really good... And the second movie... Uh... Is kind of a mockumentary... It's called Kate Plays Christine... And... It... It... It's basically... Uh... An actress... Getting ready to play...

[00:13:29] Christine Shabek... In a hypothetical film... But it's not an actual... Like... Like... Biopic... Of her life... It's just like... An actress... Preparing to play her... In a movie that... It... They didn't actually make... Because it's a hypothetical film... It's a... It's more of a mockumentary... It's described as a documentary... But... That sounds like a mockumentary to me... Heh... Unfortunately... Christine is not... Streaming...

[00:14:00] Anywhere... Like... Normal... Like... Peacock or anything... It's on Canopy... Which is a library app... And that's where I watched it... You can also... Watch it for free on Vudu... And Pluto TV... And Plex... But... Those all have ads... So... Canopy is the way to watch it... Ad free... There...

[00:14:29] There is rumors... That the audio... That the video... Of... Of... The... On Air Suicide... Leaked... Online... And... There's... Fakes... What they normally do... With them... If you see it... It's... It's fake... And what they did... Was they took... The clip from... The one with Rebecca Hall... Put kind of a... Old TV filter on it... And... Made it look like the real thing...

[00:14:59] Um... That is... That is not real... That is fake... And... The reason is... After... After that happened... The police... Confiscated... The video... Tape... Of... The... The event... They did an investigation... And after the investigation... They gave the video... Uh... They gave the original tape... To her family... Who...

[00:15:27] Still have it to this day... They say they are not... They're never gonna release it... And... I don't blame them... The... Somehow... The audio... Leaked... The... The... That... That has been confirmed to be the real audio... Of... Her saying... What I said... She said... The... In keeping with the station's... Love of blood and guts... Yeah... And then you hear... You hear like... Um... Like a bang...

[00:15:57] And then a thud... And... It's... It's kind of disturbing... Hey... It's me... Coming... Here... Through... Uh... Editing... I decided... After I finished recording the episode... That... I am going to... Include the audio... Of... Uh... Of what... I just described... So... Uh... If you don't want to hear it... Skip ahead about 30 seconds...

[00:16:29] In keeping with the... WXLT practice... Of presenting the most... Immediate and complete reports... Of local... Blood and Guts news... TV40 presents... What is believed to be... A television first... In living color... Exclusive coverage... Of an attempted suicide... But... Yeah... I don't know how that leaked... But...

[00:16:59] Not the video itself... The... Uh... The family has... Confirmed that that's real... That... The audio... And so... Sometimes... When you see a video... Of it... And they had the Rebecca Hall clip... They'll put the original audio... Over the clip of Rebecca Hall... But... It doesn't match up... Because... The movie... Doesn't just do one take... Of her... I think they knew people would... Probably do that...

[00:17:28] So they... They cut it off... They didn't just... Show it in like one... Single take... During the actual shot... Uh... Like the... Whenever she actually pulls the gun out... And shoots herself... They... They cut to... The... Um... Like the... I wanna say the newsroom or something... Where you can see... The set... From there... And... It's like a wider shot... Of the new set... You still see her do it... And like... When she pulls... In the movie...

[00:17:57] Like she pulls... The trigger and like... Blood spray... Blood sprays... On the wall... And... In the actual... Clip... In like... In the real clip... It wouldn't have been... That wide angle... Yeah... So... Yeah... It... In order to... To get the... Um... The fake... Clip with Rebecca Hall... And the real audio... They basically had to loop... The same...

[00:18:27] Clip... Of her... Like... How she would have appeared on TV... Because they did show... In the movie... Like... Kind of like that angle... But like... You can... I think... They... What they try to do... Is they put like... The 70's effect... So you can't really tell... The mouth isn't moving in time... With the thing... And when it gets to the shot... Obviously they can't... Mimic that... Because it's a different angle... They cut to black... Like... Oh... It's too graphic to show...

[00:18:56] It's like... Eh... No... No... It's... It's not even the real thing... But... Yeah... That's the story of Christine Trebek... The... As far as I can tell... The first live on-air suicide... There have been others... Uh... Some of them... Uh... Are on... YouTube... I...

[00:19:25] I did see one... Because no one... Someone... Okay... They're like... Hey... Watch this... Watch this clip of this politician... From the 80's... I think it was the 80's... Let's see... Wait... Where's my phone? Right here! And then... I don't even remember the guy's name... I watched the clip... He was... Apparently he was being accused of... Something... And he was about... He was about to announce his resignation... Because... You know... He was in trouble...

[00:19:54] And so... Uh... He's handed a... A paper bag... Which I later... I did research... Like why did they hand him the bag... If they knew what was in it... They didn't know what was in it... He was told... He told his assistant... Or whatever... To hand him this bag... So he gets handed the bag... He opens it... There's a... There's a pistol... And then... He puts the gun in his mouth... Pulls the trigger... And... I... My friend... Sent that to me... And was like... Hey watch this video... It's just hilarious...

[00:20:24] All politicians should like... Do like this... And also... Like... I thought... Oh he's... He's resigning... And then... Oh wow... No... He is more than resigning... Wait... You are a horrible person... For saying... That all politicians should do this... Why is this on YouTube? And... Uh... I was gonna say Bill Burr... But that's an actor... That's a comedian... He's still alive... Uh... It's a short name like that... I don't remember the name...

[00:20:54] Hi... Me and editing again... His name was Bud Dwyer... And he did that on the... January 22nd... 1987... But yeah... That's the... That's the story... Of... Uh... Christine Trabik... Uh... Heh... But I digress...

[00:21:16] The Rambler Network...