Ocean Grove ocean front. Monday, May 16, 2011. 7:21 PM. Photo by Paul Goldfinger
— UPDATED STORY —
An Ocean Grove man hanged himself by a rope from the boardwalk pier early Monday evening, police and witnesses said. They also said that the rope decapitated him and that his head had not yet been found.
Police, firemen and ambulances responded around 6 p.m.
People at the scene said that two young men on bicycles happened along and saw the hanging. One of them went in the water and retrieved the body.
On Tuesday, the Monmouth County Prosecutor’s office identified the victim as John Leatherman, 43. He lived at 98 Main Avenue, was a member of the Ocean Grove Fire Department, and has family in Ocean Grove.
According to a story from the Asbury Park Press archives, Leatherman once won $1,018,861 from an Atlantic City slot machine. It was New Year’s Eve 2001, according to the article, and he was on vacation with his girlfriend at the Trump Taj Mahal. “We came in to go to the dance club,” the article quoted him as saying, “and I saw the machine, stopped, put in a $20 bill and won on the second pull.”
A friend of the family told Blogfinger on Tuesday that family members had seen “no indication of despair” prior to Leatherman’s death.
— Charles Layton and Paul Goldfinger, Editors Blogfinger.net