Officials say there is no evidence rock band Hell on Earth went through with its promise of an onstage suicide.
By CARRIE JOHNSON
Published October 5, 2003
ST. PETERSBURG - The now infamous "suicide concert" that caused a media stir around the world, prompted the city to pass an emergency ordinance and catapulted an obscure band into instant celebrity, turned out Saturday to be a dud.
If the Hell on Earth band played somewhere in St. Petersburg, it was hard to find. No concert was on the Internet, as had been promised. Also missing was the band's broadcast of the suicide of a terminally ill fan at a separate location.
Hell on Earth's Web site was inaccessible for most of Saturday. Calling it up yielded only a short message: Forbidden.
Shawn Hughes, a technical supporter worker for Candid Hosting, the Tampa company that provides the band's Internet service, said the company closed the site.
Then, about 8:30 p.m., about an hour after the concert was scheduled to begin, the site reappeared. It displayed a short note from the band that said the suicide and the concert would go on, and provided a link to evilnow.com.
Those who went there saw a message saying the performance and suicide would be shown sometime this week.
The band provided no explanations.
David Marshlack, president of Candid Hosting, could not be reached Saturday night. Band members have stayed out of the public eye for more than a week and could not be contacted.
Mayor Rick Baker said police and city officials would continue to monitor the situation. "We still consider the idea of using a suicide as a way of promoting a concert to be a sick concept," Baker said. . . . If someone chooses to break the law in our city, we'll look to aggressively prosecute them."
The Web site claiming to be the new venue for the suicide concert is operated by 34-year-old Chicago resident Shane Bugbee. Bugbee said he met Hell on Earth front man Billy Tourtelot while in St. Petersburg researching a book on Michael Diana, who was jailed for publishing cartoons that were judged obscene.
The controversy over the purported suicide erupted last month with an e-mail sent to local news outlets by Tourtelot, 33.
Tourtelot said the event was meant as a statement in support of physician-assisted suicide, although national organizations associated with the cause have denounced his plan.
The e-mail ignited a media frenzy. News organizations from as far away as Norway and Australia started clamoring for interviews. Rolling Stone magazine ran a story. So did MSNBC and the British Broadcasting Corp.
The concert, which was part of the band's tour to promote their new album, All Things Disturbingly Sassy, was to be held at the State Theatre in St. Petersburg. But State Theatre co-owner David Hundley canceled the performance Sept. 24 over concerns about the crowd's reaction and the potential for copycat suicides.
Tourtelot then said he had shifted the performance to an undisclosed location in St. Petersburg and said it and the suicide would be broadcast over the Internet.
"This show is far more than a typical Hell On Earth performance," Tourtelot said. "This is about standing up for what you believe in and I am a strong supporter of physician-assisted suicide."
On Monday, the City Council met in emergency session to pass an ordinance that makes it illegal to conduct a suicide for commercial or entertainment purposes, or to host, promote or sell tickets for such an event.
Violating the city ordinance could result in a $500 fine and a six-month jail sentence. Assisting a suicide is a second-degree felony, punishable by as many as 15 years in prison.
While the concert did not appear to have materialized, City Council member Bill Foster said Saturday the city's efforts weren't wasted because it now has an ordinance to prevent a similar situation.
