Police release Spence Jackson's apparent suicide note

The Jefferson City Police Department yesterday released a note found at Missouri auditor spokesman Spence Jackson’s apartment after his apparent suicide.

Jackson was found dead of a gunshot wound to the head March 27, a month after his boss, Missouri Auditor Tom Schweich, committed suicide in his Clayton home.

Jefferson City Police spokesman Capt. Doug Shoemaker said Jackson’s hand-written note, dated March 27, said: “I’m so sorry. I just can’t take being unemployed again.”

After working for Republican Gov. Matt Blunt's administration - and the governor chose not to seek re-election in 2008 - Jackson worked two years as communications director for the Missouri Department of Economic Development. Then, after being unemployed for over a year, he was named communications director for Springfield’s Jordan Valley Community Health Center in April 2010, a role he held for a year until Schweich took office, according to Jackson's LinkedIn page.

After taking off work last Thursday and working until around lunch Friday, Jackson did not return to the office. Police found his body that night and are investigating the death as a suicide, Shoemaker said.

Jackson, media director for Republican Schweich, had released statements on the auditor and gubernatorial candidate’s Feb. 26 death.

“It is with great sadness that I confirm the passing of Missouri State Auditor Tom Schweich,” Jackson wrote in a Feb. 26 email.

On Feb. 27, Democratic Gov. Jay Nixon appointed his senior adviser, John Watson, as interim auditor.

After the news of Schweich’s death, rumors of a whisper campaign among Missouri legislators concerning his Jewish heritage circulated, but police said they found no evidence he was the target of political bullying.