I recently chanced upon the strange and possibly true story of William Kogut, a prisoner at San Quentin who came up with a cunning plan to avoid the executioner’s chair.
Built in 1852 by the prisoners who would eventually go on to be incarcerated in it, San Quentin is California’s oldest prison. It has a long list of notable visitors, including Johnny Cash, who famously played to prisoners there in 1969. It featured a gallows and later a gas chamber, where hydrogen cyanide was used to execute inmates on Death Row.
Death Card: Not to be taken internally
Kogut had been sentenced to death for the murder of Mayme Guthrie, but had no intention of allowing the state to decide the time and circumstances of his death. On October 20, 1930, prison guards found Kogut’s body in his cell, a note found near the body read:
“Do not blame my death on any one because I fixed everything myself. I never give up so long as I am living and have a chance, but this is the end.”
San Quentin’s Death Row prisoners were not easily afforded the luxury of suicide. Inmates were kept under close watch and not permitted any materials that could conceivably used to hasten their end. Yet somehow Kogut had managed it. He simply used an inconceivable weapon – inconceivable to anyone except Kogut, of course.
First of all, Kogut procured several packs of playing cards – a fairly innocuous possession, even in a prison. Once in his cell, he tore the cards into small pieces and stuffed them into the hollow metal leg of his bunk. He then poured water into the leg and sealed it with a wooden broom handle. Placing the leg on top of a paraffin heater, Kogut lay his head on top of the device and waited for his end.
In the 1930s, a substance called nitrocellulose was cropping up in all sorts of places, and still does now – it appears in film reels, nail polish, hair dye, guitar laminate, aircraft dope, car body work, cryptography pads, wound dressing, wart remover, and DNA blots. Oh, and playing cards.
Nitrocellulose is unstable, and decomposes easily, releasing nitric acid. This nitric acid further decomposes nitrocellulose, leading to a self-catalysing reaction. Nitrocellulose is also quite flammable, and when wet forms an explosive mixture. As Kogut lay his head down to rest, the warmth from the heater accelerated the reactions taking place within his improvised pipe bomb. Soon the concoction reached a critical state and exploded, killing Kogut instantly. History doesn’t record whether playing cards were subsequently contraband in San Quentin prison, but we can only wonder what William Kogut ’s intellect could have offered the world had his life taken a different path.
Many thanks to www.sciencepunk.com for doing all the heavy lifting for this piece. Make sure to visit their website.
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