committed suicide by decapitation using a tractor loader to behead himself.

Case Report

The headless body of a 45-year-old man was found by his son, sitting awkwardly on a stair at the foot of a silo, on the victim’s farm. In front of him, a tractor loader was still running, its rear wheels sunk into the ground and the loader still banging against the silo wall (Fig. 1). On the morning of the victim’s death, he and his son woke up early, as usual, for cow milking. That morning, the victim appeared exhausted to his son, as he did for the last few months. A few hours later, the son met with a veterinarian while the victim stayed at home for his daily nap. When he came back from hisa 23-year-old by the name of George Best would probably be lining up against them, as the Ballon d’Or and European Cup winner had been serving a month-long ban when the scouting mission was carried out. It would prove, with the benefit of hindsight, quite the oversight.

Some weeks previously, Best had incurred the wrath of the Football Association for kicking the ball out of referee Jack Taylor’s hands at the end of a League Cup match against Manchester City and been suspended for a month. It was a punishment the mercurial midfielder deemed excessive and attributed to the FA’s disapproval of his playboy lifestyle. He was further peeved by mutterings that during a subsequent five-match unbeaten streak, Manchester United were much improved in his absence.

“While I’ve been suspended