Chile Orders Exhumation to Settle How President Allende Died

[Carsten Wiethoff]

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2011/07/...ss&emc=rss

British ballistics expert David Prayer said Allende died of two shots fired from an assault rifle that was held between his legs and under his chin and was set to fire automatically. The bullets blew out the top of his head and killed him instantly.

This was the second autopsy performed on Allende's cadaver. The first was done secretly and in irregular fashion by the military that night, before the body was quickly buried in a relative's crypt. Allende was eventually reburied with honors in Santiago, and his daughter Isabel, now a senator, had refused for years to allow another autopsy.
Now, however, she said it is a relief to know that science supports what the family has always believed.
"President Allende, on Sept. 11, 1973, faced with the extreme circumstances that he was living through, took the decision to end his life, rather than be humiliated," Allende said.