I. Kaufman Arenberg, MD, has lived in Fountain Hills about two years and he is following up his illustrious medical career by writing and lecturing on the enigma that was the life and death of artist Vincent van Gogh.

Dr. Arenberg will present a program based on his book, “Killing Vincent,” at the Fountain Hills Community Center on Thursday, Oct. 6, from 1 to 3 p.m.

Arenberg writes that in late July 1890, van Gogh returned to his room at the Ravoux Inn in Auvers-sur-Oise, France, bleeding from a wound to his abdomen. He died 30 hours later. The common version of van Gogh’s death that prevailed for more than a century is that the artist’s wound was self-inflicted, the “mad” man shot himself in a field after suffering from years of unhappiness and insanity.

Arenberg does not believe that and has devoted a portion of his career to setting the record straight from his perspective as a medical professional. He has studied and written about van Gogh for more than 30 years, and he has never believed the legend of his suicide. He now has put forth his studied version of how the artist died, one supported by new 21st-Century forensic evidence.

In “Killing Vincent,” Arenberg pulls back the myth surrounding van Gogh’s death in an attempt to determine whether the painter killed himself or was murdered.

Arenberg relies on his training and experience as a medical doctor and reading more than 700 of the painter’s letters in which he wrote about how he was feeling and described what he himself called episodes of “vertige.” Arenberg diagnosed van Gogh as suffering from “Meniere’s disease,” an area in which Arenberg is a specialist. It is a devastating recurring condition that includes violent attacks of vertigo, hallucinations of motion, nausea, loss of hearing or ringing noises in the ears.

Arenberg first wrote of his diagnoses of van Gogh with a special communication and cover story for JAMA, a journal on the latest medical research. The JAMA article appeared on the 100th anniversary of van Gogh’s death in 1990. It was a revelation that led to front page news around the world, with Arenberg appearing on “CBS This Morning – Live with Paula Zahn” and “Live with Charles Osgood.”

Arenberg, with the assistance of renowned forensic experts, did the research that shows the artist could not have possibly inflicted the fatal wound himself, leading to the conclusion that he was murdered.

A screenplay in the works for Arenberg’s Killing Vincent Project focuses on a stifled love affair between the artist and a lover who never recovered from her terrible sadness and loneliness after what Arenberg reveals as an honor killing of the artist.

Arenberg was a distinguished ear surgeon and neurologist. He was internationally recognized as an expert and innovator in the field of inner ear surgery and balance disorders. Several medical devices/instruments bear his name, and he has held 12 U.S. and international patents. He also has launched three non-profit organizations including the International Meniere’s Disease Research Institute, the Prosper Meniere Society and the Colorado Otologic Research Center.

Arenberg came to Fountain Hills after visiting Scottsdale and starting to look for a home in the area. He found Fountain Hills much to his liking and found his new home here.