In a dramatic, never-before-seen photo, the moment directly before the so-called “Protest Shooting” is captured on film.

In 1924, failed author and WWI veteran Ernest Hemingway agreed to accompany several friends on a yacht trip across Lake Superior. When the boat was thirty miles out from shore, Hemingway produced a Lüger and proceeded to shoot and kill the yacht’s other passengers and then himself.

A suicide note found in Hemingway’s remote cabin expressed a violent rage at “the moneyed class” who had “drunk themselves insensible on Champagne while fine boys died in the mud”. The haunted veteran made it clear that he wanted to die, but would make sure to “take a few of the bastards with me”.

While tragic, the Protest Shooting led to a re-examination of the mental states of combat veterans, and further research into the crippling mental disorder shell shock.

1. ensign-whats-his-face liked this
2. persistence-burning liked this
3. allhandsabandonship liked this
4. marky1944 reblogged this from the-alt-historian
5. villiany liked this
6. solarfortis reblogged this from the-alt-historian
7. atlasfishard reblogged this from the-alt-historian
8. neodecker liked this
9. xenophone liked this
10. taylormccutchan liked this
11. the-alt-historian posted this