I was ultimately convinced that his death was suicide or at least a bumbled self-willed accident, not because of letters or autopsy reports or a homicide cop, but because of something I heard in Moscow. It was the most persuasive, most Russian account of how Dean Reed died and why.
After Dean died, Xenia Golubovich, the young woman in Moscow who kept a poster of Dean on her wall, said, "Dean's death was not a surprise for me. It was not a shock for me. And I think he committed suicide because that's what a hero must do. In a way, Dean represents this very strange idea. When a human really wants to become something, he does. And it demands enormous strength. Dean died having absolutely ruined himself. Dean, in his very minor way according to his strength, became what he wanted."