Malachi Ritscher earned notoriety after he committed suicide by self-immolation on the side of the Kennedy Expressway near downtown Chicago during the morning rush hour of Friday November 3, 2006, apparently as a protest against the Iraq war and more generally “for the mayhem and turmoil caused by my country”. Ritscher’s suicide is one of only nine reported incidents of self-immolation performed as an act of protest in American history.