From the observation platform near the base of The High Bridge, St. Paul, MN
Perhaps the oddest suicide associated with the High Bridge occurred in 1979. On August 23, 15-year-old St. Paul resident Eddie Seidel Jr. was despondent over the cancellation of his favorite television program, Battlestar Galactica. He wrote to ABC asking that they reconsider the decision, to no avail.
There were other signs all was not well with the teenager. His father had recently learned that Eddie had been sniffing gas with friends, and sent him to counseling. “The psychiatrist said he was just kind of bored with life, that there was nothing here for him to excel in,” his father later told the Associated Press. “There was no real challenge here on this earth.”
Roughly three weeks after the final rerun of Battlestar Galactica aired, Seidel returned home from his job as a supermarket stock boy and retreated to his room. He scrawled a last will and testament and sped off on his moped toward the High Bridge. Police officers responding to the scene attempted to talk the troubled teenager down, but he couldn’t be dissuaded from his grim mission. Seidel jumped to his death, landing on the ground below. His family arrived at the scene 10 minutes after the fateful leap.
“I hope we never ever see [Battlestar Galactica] on TV again, because it would just crush us,” his mother, Dawn Seidel, said at the time.
