Fun
FAQs & Helpful Hints
Playing
Cards With Death
Ever
hear the one about the prisoner who commited suicide with a deck
of playing cards? I know, it sounded like an urban legend to me
too, but this one actually happened. Try this story out during your
next Halloween party -- it works especially well if you have a deck
of cards to shuffle while telling it.
Many people don't realize that playing cards can be lethal. They
certainly seem harmless enough, don't they? The guards on death
row at San Quentin State Prison must have thought so, because they
allowed the prisoners to have decks of playing cards in their cells.
What they hadn't counted on was the creativity of one desperate
man.
That man, William Kogut, had been convicted of the throat-slashing
murder of Mayme Guthrie, a woman who ran a boarding house in Oroville,
California. It's possible that Ms. Guthrie's establishment also
doubled as a gaming hall and brothel. If so, it may explain why
Mr. Kogut was there, and offer some possible motives for his attack
on Ms. Guthrie.
Whatever the reason, William Kogut found himself awaiting execution
for murder in October of 1930. Not content to let the state carry
out his sentence, Mr. Kogut decided to take matters into his own
hands. He devised a plan to commit suicide, in his cell, using a
hollow bedpost, several decks of cards and a length of broomstick.
A bit of history here around this time, playing-card manufacturers
used a rather volatile ink to mark the red cards (the hearts and
diamonds). While it's not certain what compound went into that ink,
nitrocellulose is certainly one possibility. Nitrocellulose is found
in many common products including inks, plastics, smokeless gun
powder and flash paper.
Mr. Kogut removed one of the hollow bedposts from his cot. He then
tore up the decks of playing cards and stuffed them into the post.
Plugging one end of the post with the broomstick, he filled the
other end with water, which would have made the card pieces expand
and, possibly, released the nitrocellulose from the red ink. He
then wrote a brief note to the warden.
"Do not blame my death on anyone," he wrote, "because
I fixed everything myself. I never give up as long as I am living
and have a chance, but this is the end."
With that, he placed the crude pipe bomb he had made on the heater
next to his bed. He then lay down with his head against the open
end of the pipe, and waited for the end to come. Whether from the
pressure of steam building up inside the pipe, ingnition of the
nitrocellulose in the red ink, or some combination thereof, the
bomb eventually exploded with enough force to send bits of playing
card through Mr. Kogut's skull, killing him.
As you may have guessed, playing card manufacturers no longer use
such volatile compounds in their inks. While I'm not positive, I
would imagine that the prisoners at San Quentin still have access
to playing cards. William Kogut, as far as I can determine, is the
only person ever to have commited suicide in this grisly, yet highly
inventive fashion.
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