MO MO - Dr. Marshall Saper, 52, Kansas City, 3 Nov 1991

I did a search before posting this and there has apparently never been any thread about the mysterious death of this popular talk show host. Here is a link to an article in the Chicago Tribune at the time.

http://articles.chicagotribune.com/1991-11-05/news/9104090612_1_psychologist-suicide-talk

I was a dedicated listener to his show, aired mornings on KCMO radio from the early 80's until his death. Dr Saper had a droll wit and made psychology entertaining. His suicide was shocking and there are still folks in the KC area who will tell you things were not as they appeared.

In some of my research I ran across a reference to his gunshot wounds being in his chest, very unusual for a suicide, also to there being two wounds. He always had such an upbeat attitude and more than once talked to callers contemplating ending their life and getting them help.

What makes this sort of questionable in my mind is my knowledge of the enemies he made. He was overtly anti-religous, often tangling on air with fundementalists. I think he also counted neo Nazis among his enemies. I can try to dig up more on this is there is any interest.

More than one gunshot wound in a suicide is pretty strange, especially to the chest. The article does say that Saper's wife found a suicide note though. I wonder if that note was investigated more.

It's now been over 30 years and still no answers...

davehead21 said:

More than one gunshot wound in a suicide is pretty strange, especially to the chest. The article does say that Saper's wife found a suicide note though. I wonder if that note was investigated more.

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The two gunshots do sound suspicious at first, but he shot himself with a .22 caliber handgun. If it was a semi-automatic, the two gunshots do not raise much suspicion to me. I owed a semi-auto .22 that would double-shoot often. I got rid of it because of this. .22 rounds are rim-fire cartridges and unlike a center-fire cartridge, the action of the bolt sliding back and chambering another round after firing the first round can cause the next round to fire immediately. This can happen especially if it is a cheaper-made gun and it is not cleaned well. Also, in one of his books, he said suicide under the right circumstances is a rational act. I believe Saper killed himself.