Was Vincent van Gogh murdered? The traditional tale of a tortured artist who took his own life was questioned in 2011 when new research emerged from Pulitzer Prize-winning biographers Steven Naifeh and Gregory White Smith. Now the authors have a fresh voice backing their theory that someone in the French town of Auvers could have shot the artist.

"He had placed a large order for more paints only a few days before a bullet put a hole in his abdomen," write the authors of van Gogh's demise in Vanity Fair. "Because the missile missed his vital organs, it took 29 agonizing hours to kill him."

Leading handgun forensics expert Dr. Vincent Di Maio, a testifier in the trial of George Zimmerman who fatally shot teenager Trayvon Martin in 2012, was consulted by the authors about the evidence.

The expert's verdict? Van Gogh "did not shoot himself."