List of heads of state and government who committed suicide

A number of heads of state and heads of government have died by suicide, either while in office or after leaving office. National leaders who die by suicide while in office generally do so because their leadership is somehow threatened – for instance, by a coup or an invading army.

Heads of state

Name	State	Year	In office	Method	Probable motive	Ref.
Zhou	Shang dynasty	1046 BC	Yes	Immolation	Impending defeat by rebels under Jiang Ziya
Zimri	Israel	885 BC?	Yes	Immolation	Impending defeat by rebels under Omri	[1]
Cheng	Chu	626 BC	Yes	Hanging	Palace coup by Prince Shangchen
Ling	Chu	529 BC	Yes		Palace coup by Duke Qiji of Cai
Psamtik III	Egypt	525 BC	No	Poisoning	Defeated and deposed by the Achaemenid king Cambyses II
Qin Er Shi	Qin dynasty	207 BC	Yes		Palace coup by Zhao Gao
Cleopatra VII Philopator	Ptolemaic Kingdom	30 BC	Yes	Poisoning	Death of Mark Antony and impending defeat by Octavian
Otho	Roman Empire	69	Yes	Stabbing	Impending defeat by Vitellius
Gordian I	Roman Empire	238	Yes	Hanging	Death of son and co-emperor Gordian II at the Battle of Carthage	[2]
Bongsang	Goguryeo	300	Yes		Palace coup owing to popular unrest
Maximian	Roman Empire	310	No	Hanging	Failure of rebellion against Constantine I
Huigang	Silla	838	Yes		Impending defeat by rebels under Kim Myeong	[3]
Li Congke	Tang dynasty	937	Yes	Immolation	Impending defeat by Emperor Taizong of Liao	[4]
Aizong	Jin dynasty	1234	Yes	Hanging	Mongol conquest of the Jin dynasty	[5]
Chongzhen Emperor	Ming dynasty	1644	Yes	Hanging or suffocation (disputed)	Impending defeat by rebels under Li Zicheng	[6]
Henri Christophe	Haiti	1820	Yes	Gunshot	Poor health, impending overthrow	[7]
Juan Larrea	Argentina	1847	No		Business failure	[8]
Anson Jones	Texas	1858	No	Gunshot	Political failure	[9]
Tewodros II	Ethiopia	1868	Yes	Gunshot	Defeated by the British Expedition to Abyssinia	[10]
Fridolin Anderwert	Switzerland	1880	Yes		Adverse press coverage, depression, exhaustion	[11]
José Manuel Balmaceda	Chile	1891	No	Gunshot	Defeat in the Chilean Civil War of 1891	[12]
Nikolay Chkheidze	Georgia	1926	No		Depression over the Bolsheviks' conquest of Georgia	[13]
Germán Busch	Bolivia	1939	Yes	Gunshot	Political frustration	[14]
Otto Strandman	Estonia	1941	No	Gunshot	Ordered to report to the NKVD	[15]
Bolesław Wieniawa-Długoszowski	Poland	1942	No	Jumped off a building (disputed)		[16]
Adolf Hitler	Germany	1945	Yes	Gunshot	Pending defeat in the European theatre of World War II	[17]
Omer Nishani (disputed whether suicide)	Albania	1954	No	Gunshot	Poor health, political failure	[18][19]
Getúlio Vargas	Brazil	1954	Yes	Gunshot	Opposition from the military	[20]
Salvador Allende	Chile	1973	Yes	Gunshot (disputed)	Military coup	[21][22][23]
Chivu Stoica	Romania	1975	No	Gunshot	Out of favour with leadership of the Romanian Communist Party	[24]
Carlos Prío Socarrás (disputed whether suicide)	Cuba	1977	No	Gunshot (disputed)	Faced questioning by the House Select Committee on Assassinations	[25][26]
Antonio Guzmán Fernández	Dominican Republic	1982	Yes	Gunshot	Corruption allegations	[27][28]
Osvaldo Dorticós Torrado	Cuba	1983	No	Gunshot	Poor health, bereavement	[29]
Lazarus Salii	Palau	1988	Yes	Gunshot	Corruption allegations	[30]
Zviad Gamsakhurdia (disputed whether suicide)	Georgia	1993	No	Gunshot	Defeat in the Georgian Civil War	[31][32]
Dipendra	Nepal	2001	Yes	Gunshot	Unknown: had just killed nine family members	[33]
Carlos Roberto Reina	Honduras	2003	No	Gunshot	Ill-health	[34]
Milan Babić	Serbian Krajina	2006	No	Hanging	Imprisonment over war crimes	[35]
Roh Moo-hyun	South Korea	2009	No	Jumped off a cliff	Corruption allegations	[36]
Alan García Pérez	Peru	2019	No	Gunshot	Allegations of corruption	[37]
Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi	Islamic State	2019	Yes	Explosives	Defeat of the ISIL caliphate

Heads of government

Name	Country	Year	In office	Method	Probable motive	Reference
Hurshid Pasha	Ottoman Empire	1822	Yes	Poison	Defeat in the Greek War of Independence and execution threat	[38]
Bhimsen Thapa	Nepal	1839	No	Slit throat with a kukri	Disgrace of third wife	[39]
Iosif Adamovich	Belarus	1937	No	Gunshot	Being taken to Moscow under arrest	[40]
Walery Sławek	Poland	1939	No	Gunshot	Political failure	[41][42]
Pál Teleki	Hungary	1941	Yes	Gunshot	Distress over entry of German troops into Hungary	[43][44]
Alexandros Koryzis	Greece	1941	Yes	Gunshot	German invasion of Greece	[45]
Joseph Goebbels	Germany	1945	No	Gunshot or cyanide	Defeat in European theatre of World War II	[46][47]
Fumimaro Konoe	Japan	1945	No	Cyanide	Accused of war crimes	[48]
Johannes Vares (disputed whether suicide)	Estonia	1946	No	Gunshot	Disillusion with Soviet system	[49][50]
Tawfik Abu Al-Huda	Jordan	1956	No	Hanging		[51][52]
John McEwen	Australia	1980	No	Starvation (refused food)	Ill-health	[53][54]
Mehmet Shehu (disputed whether suicide)	Albania	1981	Yes	Gunshot (disputed)	Nervous breakdown	[55][56]
Hailu Yimenu	Ethiopia	1991 or 1993	No		Avoiding capture by the EPRDF	[57][58]
Pierre Bérégovoy	France	1993	No	Gunshot	Depression and being investigated	[59]
Mahmoud Zuabi	Syria	2000	No	Gunshot	Allegations of corruption	[60]
Alan García Pérez	Peru	2019	No	Gunshot	Allegations of corruption	[61]

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