Florida Keys News - Key West Citizen
Wednesday, November 14, 2012
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Local businessman found dead at home Nov. 8

A Key West businessman who for years gave to AIDS Help and other charities may have taken his own life after a bout of depression over a struggling business and the recent election results, his partner said Tuesday.

A police detective found 64-year-old Henry Smith Hamilton Jr., owner of Duval Square Tropical Tan, dead at 11:55 a.m. Thursday in his La Brisa condominium on South Roosevelt Boulevard.

Officers found him on his back in the middle of his bed, his left arm flung across his face.

Found on his bathroom sink was a copy of his living will on which was handwritten, "Do not revive! F--- Obama!" according to police reports.

Hamilton had been distressed about his business and "very upset" with the outcome of the Nov. 6 presidential election, his partner told police.

"If Barack gets re-elected, I'm not going to be around," Hamilton had said, according to his partner of 11 years, Michael Cossey, who spoke to police.

A detective found three prescription bottles in the dining room: one empty bottle for 1 milligram Alprazolams, one empty bottle for 150 milligram Seroquels and another bottle for 50-milligram Seroquels that still had pills inside, reports say.

Alprazolam is also known as Xanax. Seroquel is used to treat insomnia and bipolar disorder, according to drugs.com.

Those medications, however, were prescribed to Cossey, Hamilton's roommate and partner of 11 years.

On Tuesday, Cossey said he did not believe Hamilton ingested those pills, but that he may have taken other pills and drunk alcohol.

The cause of death is pending the autopsy by the medical examiner. There was no suspicious activity noted nor signs of trauma to Hamilton's body listed in the incident reports.

Cossey, 31, said Hamilton had been worried as of late over the tanning business, his other investments and how Obama's re-election would affect his financial holdings.

Hamilton was also a former La Brisa Condominiums Association president, Cossey said.

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Why am i not

Why am i not surprised...Florida is filed with nut jobs...SMH

What a tragedy

This is the result of the far right hate and misinformation. Actually convincing people that one presidential term will "destroy the country". News flash people, it will not. Neither would have Romney. That is why we have a system of divided government sharing power between three branches and elections every few years. Sadly, there are millions of people who share this poor mans view (spend some time in the south and you will have no trouble meeting them). How much more blood will be on Limbough and Fox News hands before they tone down down the rhetoric and make it about policy and ideas, rather then fear mongering about "the end of our country as we know it." Yesterday they were just idiots, today they are murderers.

Sadly, what you're saying is true.

The more uneducated and the desperate who already had run their businesses into the ground drank the Faux News koolaid and see what happens?

And yes, having spend time in the South growing up, I can attest to the hate and racism and fear mongering that is on the streets in that area, every single day. It's passed down from one generation to the next. I've been gone for many, many years and am always shocked when I'm forced to go back for something like a funeral, when I hear the way people talk openly, and hear the crazy beliefs they have.

Go Start Your Own Business....

You're not going to know what this man felt until you face the pressures he did. The guy chose to blame his business problems on the President. Even Republicans (moderates ones, that is) know that's a crock of crap. It's as unreasonable as your comment. By the way, do you have a hand gun? Recommend you unload it less you hurt yourself, too.

I have

I have started several businesses and a couple failed. I blamed myself, not the president at the time. I am not bashing this poor man, but rather the hate mongering fools who are inciting violence and fear for their own political gain and control.

Dumb Comment

That's the dumbest thing I've ever heard. Only an idiot would blame the right for this man's death. You just can't handle the fact that not all gays support Obama and that your messiah has destroyed the economy. This man saw the writing on the wall. Stop blaming everyone except Obama for the misery in this country.

I can't quite figure out what you're saying. It doesn't seem

you've read between the lines because what you say has nothing to do with 'gays supporting Obama'. The truth is, this guy is the cause of his own death. He chose fear. He chose to take the coward's way out of a situation that was clearly his own making. And he chose to blame someone who hadn't a thing to do with it. Pretty sad.

Gay Exit Polls

"Exit polls showed that 76 percent of voters who identified as gay supported Mr. Obama last week, and that 22 percent supported Mr. Romney. Among straight voters, each candidate received 49 percent of the vote." [Credit New York Times]

Are you serious?

If you think electing Obama is a reason to kill yourself, you need help. I hope you get the support and help you need. Please see a doctor as soon as you can. Thankfully, under our presidents plan, you might even be covered.

Kick the FOX diet

Stop calling names. And the dumbest thing printed in the paper today is the idea that Obama destroyed the economy. As far as the hand writing on the wall... it is an Old Testament reference to an actual hand -- writing on the wall. The hand wrote "Mene, mene tekel upharsin." Suicide is defined as an act of insanity. If the deceased saw a hand writing on the wall, he should have sought counseling. It was an unfortunate tragedy that highlights the need for depression to be taken seriously.

Thank you for the intelligence.

This guy chose his path. He chose to buy a tanning business in the Southernmost city in the US, where we have 350 days of sunshine a year. He made his own business decisions, and obviously many were poor decisions. He chose to blame someone else for his problems, and then he believed a lot of fear mongering and then chose his own drastic path. To blame on someone else just shows how insane he was.

We're seeing a lot of that behavior, y'know? Moguls who run junk food businesses are choosing to blame and punish their employees for their own poor business planning, and are blaming Obama's affordable health care act. These are very sad individuals and show themselves for the bottom feeders they are. And who's there to report the whole false mess? Faux News, of course.

I'm surprised he hasn't bought a shave-ice cart and

installed it in Anchorage, Alaska. It would be very Palin-esque.

So It's Okay

For the first commenter to call the Right murderers but if I point out he's an idiot then I should stop name-calling? Typical Liberal. Do as I say not as I do.
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