Zappos founder Tony Hsieh was experimenting on body, obsessed with fire prior to death: report
Former Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh, who died after a house fire in Connecticut late November, was growing more erratic, becoming obsessed with fire and performing experiments on his body before the tragic blaze, according to the Wall Street Journal.
Close friends told the Journal that after Hsieh, 46, retired from Zappos in August, he began consuming copious amounts of alcohol, ecstasy and mushrooms.
“Things were falling apart for him,” friend Philip Plastina said. Other friends reported he had previously dropped under 100 pounds while starving himself, other times he stopped urinating for as long as possible and frequently tried to drop his blood-oxygen levels, all in order to see what his body could survive without consuming. The recording artist Jewel, a longtime friend, reportedly warned Hsieh about his lifestyle.
“I am going to be blunt,” Jewel reportedly wrote in a letter to Hsieh. “I need to tell you that I don’t think you are well and in your right mind. I think you are taking too many drugs that cause you to disassociate.”
While his substance abuse and obsession with fire were becoming more of a concern among those close to him, Hsieh was allegedly aware he needed help. Friends told the Journal that Hsieh was planning to check into a rehab facility in Hawaii before the Connecticut fire.
