Can a person purposefully shoot himself, die - and yet not be considered a suicide?

That seems to be what’s suggested in “Meriwether Lewis” by two independent historians, Thomas C. Danisi of St. Louis and John C. Jackson of Washington state. 

Retired history professor, author and longtime book reviewer Myron A. Marty reviewed “Meriwether Lewis” for the Post-Dispatch Sunday. He found the book important and compelling, yet not totally convincing.

Lewis’ death has generally been considered suicide, although murder has also been suggested. Lewis family descendants have sought permission to exhume his remains to try to settle the question. (The closest relatives are descendants of Meriwether’s sister. See solvethemystery.org).  Most people seem to believe accounts that have him shooting himself Oct. 11, 1809, at Grinder’s Stand in Tennessee.

Danisi will discuss his book tonight at 7 p.m. at the Katherine Linnemann library branch, 2323 Elm Street in St. Charles. When I talked to Danisi a few weeks ago, he told me that yes, Lewis shot himself. But it was because he suffered from malaria. It was likely an attempt to stop the pain - not necessarily an attempt to kill himself.

That seemed, well, odd if not ridiculous. But in this day of CT scans and MRIs we’ve forgotten that for hundreds of years people treated their ailments using methods like bloodletting and lobotomy that now seem ridiculous. Although other scholars seem to accept that Lewis was simply depressed, even Wikipedia has a long entry on “trepanation,” “antiquated medical intervention” in which a hole is drilled in the skull to treat diseases. And of course Lewis’ mind may have been diseased from malaria, in addition to any mood disorder. Treatment for malaria wasn’t readily available in North American until years after Lewis’ death.

Here is how the death is discussed in “Meriwether Lewis”: 

“There are several theories that attempt to find why Lewis killed himself. It is impossible to recover what Meriwether Lewis thought in those last tortured moments. Our evidence points to what he did to alleviate his suffering from malaria, like what other victims were sometimes driven to do. He tried to end the suffering and in that last treatment accidentally ended his life.

“It was the failure of his body, not his mind, nor his dedication, that cut him down. Lewis was simply unable to continue treating a lifelong, incurable illness. His death cannot be attributed, as many have tried to do, to personal weakness or to the failure to rise to a challenge. It was the result of unforgiving nature, the work of an impartial centuries-old protozoa as indifferent and final as a bullet.”

Of course Danisi will be able to give more information tonight - not just about Lewis’ death, but his remarkable life.