Princeton's Antonio Calvo Kills Himself After Contract Dispute (by stabbing himself to death?)

reply to post by chr0naut


I did not think it would be possible to stab yourself to death until this week. I read a story about a young man at a coffee house who was performing for the crowd. Suddenly he started stabbing himself and the audience did not know if it was part of an act or for real. It was horrifying and he died.

This does feel rather fishy.

I wonder, is it true that colleagues are not even allowed to mention his name?
From his colleague Philip Rothaus ~

Rothaus is alleging that the university is prohibiting faculty and staff from talking about Calvo's case. "Antonio's dear friends, his colleagues in the Spanish and Portuguese Department, have been forbidden from speaking about this to anyone," he wrote. "I am, thankfully, not under subject to the same constraints, and, at this point, am angry enough not to care."

Here is a link~
Not sure if its been posted already..
www.ivygateblog.com...
(seems to take far too long to load). lol

Here is Rothaus's full letter~ (sorry if its been posted)

Below is the full version of Phil Rothaus’ open letter to Princeton:
An Open Letter to Nassau Hall from Philip Rothaus ‘11
By now, most people know that a dear friend and colleague, Antonio Calvo, “passed away” this past Tuesday. What is also clear is that Nassau Hall has been veiling the whole issue in secrecy – nobody seems to know what happened. As a member of the department and a close friend of Antonio’s, there are a lot of things I know that I wish I didn’t, but that it’s time the university community as a whole learns. Antonio’s dear friends, his colleagues in the Spanish and Portuguese Department, have been forbidden from speaking about this to anyone, but I am, thankfully, not under subject to the same constraints, and, at this point, am angry enough not to care.

What we know
1. On Friday, April 8, a representative of the administration, essentially a security guard, entered Antonio’s office (without informing either him or anyone else in the department more than a few minutes beforehand), demanded his keys and told him to leave. He was not “on leave,” and certainly not for “personal” reasons,” as per Nassau Hall’s press release. This is a euphemism for their having cancelled his contract against the wishes of the department.

2. He was under a standard 5-year review, as a result of which the Department’s enthusiastic recommendation was to continue his contract. The reappointment committee, if they performed any sort of investigation whatsoever, never interviewed a single member of the department nor Antonio himself.

3. On the morning of Tuesday, April 12 Antonio Calvo committed suicide at home in New York City. He did not merely “pass away” as per Nassau Hall’s official line.
The whole affair seems nonsensical. Why would the University physically escort a member of our community who had faithfully and enthusiastically served Princeton for a decade out of his office without notice? What purpose could this sort of humiliation serve? Why would they fire him against the wishes of the department and in the apparent absence of any reason whatsoever?

Herein lies the greatest mystery: they must have had some reason – otherwise nothing makes sense – but they continue to suppress it. They haven’t even told the senior faculty of the Spanish and Portuguese Department. There were two weeks left of classes that he was teaching, and of school for students he was advising – was he dangerous? If so, where is the evidence? And why won’t they tell even the department itself?
There is a clear effort to suppress this information – members of the faculty were apparently told they weren’t allowed to talk to Antonio for any reason after he was suspended. What right does the administration have to prevent one from speaking to a friend, even about entirely personal matters, on his own time?
Antonio is dead; the emotional violence the administration perpetrated against him has been done. At this point, the continued strangling of the truth is an act of the worst kind of institutional injustice against the students, faculty and all those who loved Antonio – and there were many. Even if Antonio did something that merited this horrid treatment, something that we, his friends, highly doubt, the student body deserves to know.
To the administration: You are denying us the information we have a right to know about our professor and our beloved friend. You are denying us closure. And you are denying Antonio justice.

Fishy, for sure.
Thanks for the thread my friend!

Suicide by stabbing? Sounds extremely painful and drawn out. I'm willing to bet most people that would contemplate suicide would try to make it somewhat quick and painless. Who ever is doing these "suicides" is getting sloppy or just really doesn't care.

Here's another suicide by stabbing.

www.dailymail.co.uk...

You got my interest. I can't get into all of this now but I will later.

By the way, as far as stabbing yourself to death. Check out this tortured soul's ending. Crazy musician/artist-whatever.

Audience Unknowingly Cheers On As Musician Stabs Himself To Death
perezhilton.com...

Very suspicious if you ask me, an educated man would not end his life in such a fashion, if he was determined to kill himself he would find much quicker and painless methods to do it. This coupled with the strange nature of the security guards ordering him off the campus reeks of something going down

We are dealing with a ruthless, insidious power, who will murder
on a whim and not be held accountable.
Bill clinton leaves a hideous, incriminating death trail behind him
and yet he remains in at large and in a position of authority.
This incident will be forgotten. More's the shame.

At the very least, it sounds like it was a matter of office politics and he was treated very unfairly. That's often the case when office politics are involved: someone just goes away and everyone who remains is silenced.

This man obviously worked very hard to build a successful career, only to have it unfairly snatched away from him. He was probably a sensitive soul who couldn't cope with such a devastating turn of events.

Even if this simple explanation is the case, there should be transparency with respect to Princeton's handling of the whole matter.

There won't be though. Nothing about the actions of rich and powerful people is ever transparent - that's how they get to where they are in life. Money and power rarely find good people.

reply to post by UberL33t

1) When friends and relatives of a suicide victim are all asking "Why???" --- Red Flag
2) When the death is ruled as a suicide due to self inflicted stab wounds --- Red Flag
3) When the article is suggesting the reason is from a "contract dispute" --- Red Flag


1) I've never heard of the family of a suicide saying "yeah, we pretty much all saw this coming and did nothing." People who kill themselves as a means to end life (not just a cry for attention which they secretly hope to survive) generally aren't the most open communicators.
2) Elliot Smith stabbed himself in the heart. he was depressed and probably mad at himself for something. If a person is full of self-loathing, or angry with themselves, they probably aren't just going to take a handful of pills and fall asleep.
3) A journalist doesn't write a story about a suicide without at least speculating as to why it happened. If no reasons jumped out at the reporter, he-she would probably just toss in the most likely scenario they could decipher.

not to say that you are dead wrong and there is nothing shady, but there's no evidence to support your claims of conspiracy. if the reasons and motives for suicide were so clear cut, black and white, we would probably be able to prevent more people from doing it. I just don't see how a Spanish-Portugese language arts professor is involved in a conspiracy. that being said, this certainly does warrant more investigation, and if i find that this guy had any strange enemies or anyone to benefit from his death, i'll come back and post here.

reply to post by TraptInTheSystem


obviously you've never contemplated suicide. you're assuming that a person who has decided that they no longer wish to live is still thinking rationally. Some people absolutely would try to make it as painless and quick as possible, but people who loathe themselves, think they're inadequate or bad sometimes want to punish themselves for things they think they've done wrong. a suicidal person doesn't think rationally, so it doesn't make sense to think "well, a normal person wouldn't kill themselves like that." suicides aren't thinking "normally."

also, it wouldn't be long, painful or drawn out if you managed to sever a major blood line or put the knife straight through your own heart.

reply to post by UberL33t


I don't have much to say other than Kudos for bringing a new conspiracy theory to the boards like this. And a conspiracy this certainly sounds like.

I'll try and look into this in a bit more detail myself. Thanks for posting!

Nice thread.

There is definitley a conspiracy going on there.

Im looking into it now but I dont want to post things unless I have a clear picture of what I am posting.

It will take some reading. Be back soon I hope

reply to post by RicoMarston


after some reading, it does seem like there are details being concealed by the university.

they're being very careful to take no side, provide no details and stress that campus security isn't involved. I dunno, the whole thing smells a bit fishy.

the "platonic" girl friend who stayed with him just a week or two prior said that he was up on time, dressed and off to work early every morning, in the midst of the controversy about his career future. she said he was upbeat about the whole thing, and aside from being bummed about losing an awesome job which he'd had for a long time, he seemed fine.

stabbing oneself to death is quite a gruesome, dramatic and violent way to go. if this man, from the brief glimpse of him I could piece together, were going to commit suicide, I would think he would take some pills, slash his wrists, something private, more dignified. but alas, we don't know him and never will, so who's to say for sure?

Reply to post by RicoMarston

Funny how alien and UFO threads get attention like no tomorrow, but this one does not.

Come on ATS!

This reminds me of the movie Mystery Men. The Bowler's father died by falling down an elevator shaft … on to some bullets.


Posted Via ATS Mobile: m.abovetopsecret.com

reply to post by RicoMarston


He had wounds to his arms, in most cases, these are defensive wounds. Without having access to the autopsy report it is hard to say if these wounds on his arms were in a position to fit a defensive wound. Just a notion.

reply to post by UberL33t


right. why would you stab yourself in the arm to commit suicide? makes no sense. even if he were doing it with a knife, he's an incredibly intelligent man. even though his area of study was language, I'm sure he knew about arteries and basic biology. clearly he was trying to block the stabbing motion of an assailant.

after things like Virginia Tech shooting, you see this outpouring of anti-gun, pro-safety sentiment from the university or institute. not only has princeton really not come down on either side of the issue, but they are quite cautious to avoid the suicide topic all together.

like the other guy said, why do we jump all over UFO cases with little to no evidence, or pick apart 50 year old FBI docs with REDACTED scrawled across them? and this case goes unnoticed? I guess "conspiracy" to some people has to be paranormal to be important?

Wounds in the arms? Defensive. I'm surprised the story revealed that detail, but maybe the editors are disgusted by what they see as forced cover-up. I'll bet murder. Don't quite know how to "research" it, other than poke around in the web and see what comes up. I can't really pop over to Princeton and ask for interviews and access to files.

reply to post by centralcasting


If it is a cover-up, you can be assured that they "cleaned up". They do this for a living, I mean ATS is good, but "they" have been doing this lonnnng before ATS came along. It's sad really. Here's an idea for "them" stop being corrupt, then you wouldn't have to kill everyone that finds out your dirt.

Of course that's Common Sense...and we all know the answer to that little riddle of life in this day and age.

Just a little notion to anyone that is following this thread. I would like it to gain more attention. I assure it is not due to a hunger for ATS points, Flags, or Stars for that matter. I think I have more than enough of the 3 to shake a stick at.

However, I would like to see this thread get it's just exposure. With that, and to the one's following this, if you are of the same mind and are so inclined, I have a suggestion on how we can do that.

I have 30 people in my friends list, it is common practice on ATS to Mass U2U your friends list when you have posted a thread and would like it to gain exposure. Most people, will be happy to contribute, and in return you can return the favor for one of their threads in the future. Obviously not everyone is going to share your interest on certain subject matter. None the less, I did just this thing and received a comfortable reply from a good number of friends.

So I invite you to do the same if you feel this thread deserves some exposure. I think we have only just scraped the surface of this, and with more exposure, perhaps we can blow the lid sky high off of this thing. We are a huge voice on ATS, we just need to add to the current modulation of our voice on this thread to the world.

Respectfully,
UberL33t

ETA: I also added a link to this thread in my signature, that's another suggestion if you deem it worthy of such placement.

Seems like a few people in Princeton would have motive.
Who exactly fired him ?
just to start.
and what was the reasoning ?