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Wednesday, November 11, 2026Nov 11

Coroner: Threat letter part of snack heir suicide

By KENDAL WEAVER

Associated Press Writer

MONTGOMERY, Ala. – Days after Major Bashinsky disappeared from his law office earlier this month, a letter turned up in his abandoned car that angrily accused his prosperous family of mistreating workers at the snack food company it founded.

When his body was later found in a Birmingham golf course pond, it had all the markings of a sinister slaying: The 63-year-old father and husband had been shot in the head and bound loosely with a rope. The label from a Golden Flake chips bag was stuffed in his mouth like a cruel joke.

But this was no abduction and murder.