BALTIMORE (AP) — Retired Judge Robert I.H. Hammerman was a deliberate and meticulous man, whether the matter at hand was the practice of law, his volunteer work or his tennis game. When he decided to kill himself, it was no different.
For 16 months, Hammerman, afraid he was losing his memory, planned every detail of his death. The 76-year-old man bought a gun, got a permit, took two safety classes at a police range, and painstakingly detailed his decision in a handwritten 10-page letter that he mailed to more than 220 friends, family members and colleagues.
Then, on Thursday morning, the retired Baltimore Circuit judge walked out of his Pikesville condominium in suburban Baltimore and shot himself in the chest — not far from the type of nursing home he so desperately wanted to avoid.