The Dallas Morning News explores the death of Ted Pillsbury, the former Kimbell Museum director and Chairman of Fine Arts at Heritage Auction House:
The Dallas County medical examiner has issued a final ruling confirming that Ted Pillsbury shot himself in the head on the afternoon of Thursday, March 25. The autopsy report sheds no light on why.
The autopsy, conducted the morning after Pillsbury died, didn’t find any prescription or illegal drugs in his system. His blood-alcohol level was 0.04 percent ethanol, which indicates he might have had one or two drinks in the hours before he died. In Texas, the legal limit in DWI cases is a 0.08 percent blood-alcohol level. A visual examination of Pillsbury’s internal organs showed no signs of disease, according to the autopsy report. The bullet that killed him was never recovered, the report said.
Events surrounding his death became muddled after Pillsbury’s family claimed he had died of a heart attack. Heritage Auction Galleries, where Pillsbury worked as chairman of fine arts, issued a news release also listing a heart attack as the cause.
Friends, colleagues remain perplexed by former Kimbell Art Museum director’s suicide (Dallasnews.com)
