structural:scholar_edition
Circumstances

While Jefferson and some modern historians have generally accepted Lewis's death as a suicide, debate continues. No one reported seeing Lewis shoot himself; three inconsistent, somewhat contemporary accounts are attributed to Mrs. Griner, who left no written account or testimony. Some thus believe her testimony was fabricated, while others point to it as proof of suicide. Mrs. Griner claimed Lewis acted strangely the night before his death: standing and pacing during dinner and talking to himself in the way one would speak to a lawyer, with face flushed as if it had come on him in a fit. She continued to hear him talking to himself after he retired, and then at some point in the night, she heard multiple gunshots, a scuffle, and someone calling for help.