Editing John Kennedy Toole (section)

==Death==

When Toole was unable to resume his position at Dominican in January 1969, the school had to hire another professor.<ref name="NH166"/> This upset his mother and on January 19, 1969, they had an argument.<ref name="NH167">Nevils and Hardy. pg. 167</ref> He stopped by the house the next day to pick up some things and spoke only to his father, as Thelma was out at the grocery store. He left home for the final time and withdrew $1,500 (equivalent to $12,500 in 2022) from his savings account.<ref name="NH167"/> After a week she called the police, but, without any evidence as to his whereabouts, they took a report and waited for him to surface.<ref name="NH168">Nevils and Hardy. pg. 168</ref> Thelma became convinced that Toole's friends the Rickels knew where he was and called them repeatedly, even though they denied knowing where he had gone.<ref name="NH168"/>

[[File:Flannery-O'Connor 1947.jpg|thumb|185px|Toole was a lifelong admirer of Southern Gothic fiction writer [[Flannery O'Connor]], and the novel ''[[The Neon Bible]]'' he wrote in high school is said to resemble her writings. Shortly before his suicide, Toole attempted to visit the home of the deceased writer.]]
Items found in Toole's car show that he drove to California where he visited [[Hearst Castle]] and then to [[Milledgeville, Georgia]].<ref name="NH174">Nevils and Hardy. pg. 174</ref><ref name="FL389"/> Here he most likely attempted to visit [[Andalusia (Milledgeville, Georgia)|Andalusia]], the home of deceased writer [[Flannery O'Connor]], although her house was not open to the public.<ref name="NH174"/><ref name="FL389">Fletcher. pgs. 38–9</ref> This was succeeded by a drive toward New Orleans. It was during this trip that he stopped outside [[Biloxi, Mississippi]], and died by suicide by running a garden hose from the exhaust pipe in through the window of his car on March 26, 1969.<ref name="NH1689">Nevils and Hardy. pgs. 168–9</ref> His car and person were clean, and the police officers who found him reported that his face showed no signs of distress.<ref name="NH1697">Nevils and Hardy. 169–170</ref> An envelope discovered in the car was marked "to my parents".<!----Some dispute over this will look at it again later--> The suicide note inside the envelope was destroyed by his mother, who later gave varying vague accounts of its details.<ref>Fletcher. pg. 39</ref> In one instance she said it expressed his "concerned feeling for her" and later she told a ''[[The Times-Picayune|Times-Picayune]]'' interviewer that the letter was "bizarre and preposterous. Violent. Ill-fated. Nothing. Insane ravings."<ref>Nevils and Hardy. pg. 175</ref> He was buried at [[Greenwood Cemetery, New Orleans|Greenwood Cemetery]] in New Orleans.<ref>Fletcher. pg. 181</ref> A few years earlier, Toole had driven his army buddy David Kubach to the exact spot where he would later die by suicide. As the location was unremarkable, Kubach did not understand why Toole had taken him there.<ref>Fletcher. pg.34</ref> He left his parents a $2,000 life-insurance policy (equivalent to ${{inflation|US|2000|1969|r=-2|fmt=c}} in {{inflation/year|US}}),<!----This is in the source, but does life insurance pay when you kill yourself? Yes, if you have lived long enough after taking the policy out.--> several thousand dollars in savings, and his car.<ref name="NH174"/> Toole's funeral service was private and attended only by his parents and his childhood nursemaid Beulah Matthews.<ref name="Fl78">Fletcher. pg.78</ref> The students and faculty at Dominican College were grief-stricken over Toole's death, and the school held a memorial service for him in the college courtyard. The head of Dominican<!----would change this to dean to differentiate from the source but not sure what the "Head of Dominican's" actual title was--> gave a brief eulogy which, because of the institution's religious beliefs, did not mention the suicide.<ref>Nevils and Hardy. pg. 178</ref>