How did basquiat kill himself?

Answer 1

Jean-MIchel Basquiat did not kill himself. He died in bed of accidental overdose on extremely hot August New York City temperatures early on Friday, August 12th, 1987, after a night out in which he was using drugs.

The Chief Medical Examiner's eventual autopsy report gave the cause of death as "acute mixed drug intoxication (opiates-cocaine)."

Basquiat had been depressed in his final years, and a user of different drugs, and apparently addicted to heroin. However, he had a positively received comeback show in New York in April, 1987. In June 1987 he flew to Hawaii where he stopped using heroin, in an attempt to quit the drug for good ( "There's no heroin there," he said, "and it's so beautiful you don't even think about it.") He had plans to travel to Africa with a friend later in the year.

However, when he returned to the U.S. he still seemed physically and emotionally unwell, and started using the drugs again.

According to one biography: " Basquiat was ironically in a vulnerable state because of his attempt to kick off the habit." He had built up a tolerance to heroin and had been increasing the doses he used. After going without, that tolerance was lessened. "It is a common mistake for drug users who have relapsed after a period of abstinence to go back to the level they had been using at their peak, only to find out that the dose is now too much-often enough to cause an overdose."

He was out clubbing in New York late on Thursday night (August 11th), and looked "remote," according to a friend. It had been exceptionally hot and humid for weeks, and that night was 95 degrees. He made it home to his un-air-conditioned loft early Friday morning, and in the late afternoon was found by his girlfriend unconscious by the floor next to his bed, by his girlfriend in the late afternoon. An ambulance was called, but Jean-Michel was pronounced dead on arrival at the Cabrini Medical Center that day.

Fretz, Eric. Jean-Michel Basquiat: A Biography. Greenwood Press, 2010.