Rattlesnakes Help Dejected Collector Take His Own Life

RIVERSIDE — A man who collected rattlesnakes as a hobby committed suicide by allowing one of the snakes to bite him several times in the hand, authorities said Monday.

Mark W. Johnson, 38, of Idyllwild, apparently had been depressed after separating from his girlfriend about a month ago and decided to kill himself Saturday, said Kenneth Nugent, a coroner’s investigator.

One of Johnson’s neighbors called authorities that afternoon, but Johnson suffered a heart attack shortly after paramedics reached his home in the San Jacinto Mountains community.

He was taken to Hemet Valley Hospital, where doctors gave him an antivenin. But Johnson, who had been bitten many times before and had developed an allergic reaction to the serum, died Saturday night. Nugent said the rattlesnake bit Johnson five or six times on the right hand.

Johnson kept at least eight poisonous snakes in containers at his house, Sheriff’s Lt. Larry Grotefend said. Authorities were sent to the house Sunday to round up the snakes, but were able to locate only six of them. Johnson may have let the others go, the lieutenant said.