THE SUICIDE BAG GRANNY

0 Comments | Sunday Mirror, Dec 18, 2005 | by GEORGE CLOGG in VANCOUVER

THIS is the granny who put suicidal Rosemary Toole Gilhooly in touch with the men who helped end her life.

Evelyn Martens peddles over the internet the grisly "Exit Bag" used to kill Rosemary and admits her suicide kits have caused more than 100 deaths.

When the depressed woman, from Dalkey in Co Dublin, rang her, Martens put Rosemary in touch with the Reverend George Exoo and Thomas McGurrin - the pair who are accused of helping her commit suicide.

The nation was shocked when Rosemary, 49, paid the two men to fly to Ireland to help her kill herself three years ago.

Gardai have since sent papers to the FBI demanding Exoo's extradition back to Ireland to face charges of assisting a suicide. The pair deny the charges.

Now 73-year-old Canadian national Martens, founder of Vancouver's Right To Die Society, admits Rosemary phoned her begging for an Exit Bag.

Talking for the first time about her involvement, she said: "She asked for a bag but I felt she needed to get help for her deep depression and told her she should deal with her own problems and get help and advice.

"Rosemary sent me a communication from Ireland saying she wanted the hood and needed help because there wasn't anyone to help her die.

"I realised she was depressed and suggested she should get help for her mental problem."

But despite this claim, Martens put her in contact with Exoo and McGurrin and insists Rosemary was not just depressed.

She alleges that the bank worker's life was made a misery by headaches.

Martens added: "She wasn't only depressed, she told me she'd had excruciating headaches and that she couldn't live with that.

"She couldn't hold a job, she couldn't work. She said her life was in ruins, she'd had enough.

"I tried to talk her out of it a lot of times. And she went to church on Christmas Eve and she was happy about that and I said that's fine, keep going. But the decision was hers."

Gardai first believed Rosemary met right-to-die activist Exoo in an internet chat room.

But the controversial reverend revealed he was put in contact with her by a mutual female friend.

He admitted he met her through "a concrete referral from a woman who was well grounded".

Martens' Exit Bag kills victims with helium - the same gas used to kill Rosemary Toole.

The pensioner, who was found not guilty on two charges of aiding and abetting suicide in Canada, insists her Exit Bags offer the desperate a peaceful way to die.

She said: "It's a plastic bag about 24 inches long. They have velcro, flannel in the collar and then velcro, and we close it up.

"The helium method entails a tube running into the bag and that delivers helium which delivers death in a few seconds."

She even claimed she would stop a person if they tried to take the death bag off.

Martens added: "My Exit Bag brings peace to people who need someone there to hold their hand once the hood is on, to stop them if they tried to take it off.

"I pray for them. There is no pain. Helium tricks the mind into thinking you are breathing oxygen, a method leading to a peaceful end.

"You are dead within five minutes. If you witnessed a method you would understand."

She even advocated a do-it-yourself approach to suicide, encouraging the desperate to buy their own helium tanks - as tragic Rosemary did.

She said: "All these people purchase their own toy balloon tanks or helium from distributors and they can make their own bags very easily."

Martens is now wanted by gardai in connection with Rosemary's death in Dublin on January 26, 2002.

Reverend George Exoo, 62, and his gay lover McGurrin travelled from West Virginia to Ireland after Rosemary agreed to pay them pounds 7,000.

Exoo, who has written a book on suicide called Final Exit, claimed Rosemary had already bought five tanks of helium - enough to kill 20 people.

Exoo said: "We were present when this woman took her life. I gave her instructions but that's what we do. And provided spiritual support for her. I have nothing to hide."

Exoo boasted he has probably attended 100 suicides and claimed most people want him to talk or read to them while they breathe their last.

However, he said Rosemary was more interested in her final cigarette.

Exoo added: "She was more concerned with having a cigarette. The last thing she did before she pulled down the bag was take one last drag on the cigarette.

"I said, 'Ok, Rosemary, time to put down the cigarette if you don't mind'."

The right-to-die activist even claimed Rosemary has sent him a signal from beyond the grave.

He said: "We always ask people to give us a sign when they reach the other side successfully.

"And they come within 24 hours of a person passing. She said her sign would be a bunch of roses.

"The very next night we were walking down the street in Amsterdam and a guy brushed by us carrying four bunches of red roses.

"Some people might not think that's significant but I think that's reasonable evidence."