A fascinating story that sits quietly, waiting to be told

Thanks again to the Internet, I've stumbled upon the existence of a man from the recent past whom I had never heard of.

His name was Michael Brody and, according to a BBC documentary that devoted a few seconds to him, he was a young American millionaire who, in 1970, announced he was going to give all his money away.

The film aired a portion of an interview he granted in which he explained his reasons:

"Money is the least thing I'm giving away right now. What I'm giving away is good feeling to mankind.

Like, if you wanna do anything, I mean, if there are any murderers out there, if you want to stab somebody in the throat, don't stab the person you're stabbing in the throat. Call me and put me in his place. I'll die for you."

The film freezes on a close-up of his face and text appears on the bottom of the screen. It tells us that he later went on to commit suicide.

It was quite a compelling bit of footage and I paused the film to do an immediate web search for this young man. I found very little. But what I did find out was so shocking that I can't believe there's been zero effort to document his life.

After all, a life that includes inheriting a fortune, stints in mental institutions, making threats against Nixon, burning down your (rented) home, an appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show, and a self-inflicted rifle shot to the head at age 24 is a life that is probably worth a closer examination.