SOVIET VAPOUR GUN?
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| SINGLE BARREL VAPOUR GUN |
In the last post on Soviet Assassins, we discussed the use of a close-range weapon that was developed by the Soviets sometime in the 1940s. Its first iteration was a single-barreled version, similar to the image shown above, we took the detail from their later developed double-barreled weapon.
The weapon was quite small when made ready for action, it measured around 160 mm in length, it was handheld. It was a very short range, about half a metre and it had to be fired directly into the face of the intended victim. Different poisons could be used including crushed cyanide or Atropine, a Digitalis variant. It was untraceable. A similar weapon was known to have been used in 2 assassinations in the 1950s and whilst poison was suspected in one of them, both events recorded death by heart failure. It was only later when the assassin defected that the truth was known.
The weapon was developed in the Soviets Poisons lab which was active from 1938 to 1953 and was tested on prisoners and defectors.
Further to the comments below, here is a copy of an autopsy carried out on a man who ended his life using a massive overdose of digitalis:
CYANIDE
In the comments below, you will see a reference to cyanide. My belief is that a gas gun similar to the one shown in this post may well have been used and it was loaded with a cyanide capsule, the assassin STASHINSKY, defected to the US and confirmed that he had used such a weapon in the assassinations of two opponents of the Soviets, Lev Rebet and Stepan Bandera in the late 1950s. Both men were initially thought to have died of a heart attack.
In 1954, KGB man Nikolai Khoklov was given the brief to assassinate Georgi Okolovich, the leader of a Russian anti-communist group. He was to have used a special pistol disguised as a packet of cigarettes, it fired cyanide rounds. The assassination was called off when Mikolai defected to the USA.
In 1954, KGB man Nikolai Khoklov was given the brief to assassinate Georgi Okolovich, the leader of a Russian anti-communist group. He was to have used a special pistol disguised as a packet of cigarettes, it fired cyanide rounds. The assassination was called off when Mikolai defected to the USA.
In 1994, The CJ PHILLIPS Brief made mention of the possibility of cyanide being used in the death of the Somerton Man, here's a clip from that document:
Note the way that Cyanide was discounted, no bottle was found and no smell of cyanide detected. If a weapon as described in this post had been used, there would be no bottle and the vapour would have been long gone along with any wetting of the face. This 'gun' was fired at a very close range, less than 1 metre and the victim died within seconds.
However, this weapon and cyanide alone would not have caused the heart to stop in Systole, that is the heart was contracted having squeezed the blood out from its chambers. Digitalis does that but it does not mean that Digitalis was used by itself. CIA documents specifically mention that KGB and NKVD operatives would and did use more than one poison simultaneously. It is quite possible that this is what happened in the case of the Somerton Man.
However, this weapon and cyanide alone would not have caused the heart to stop in Systole, that is the heart was contracted having squeezed the blood out from its chambers. Digitalis does that but it does not mean that Digitalis was used by itself. CIA documents specifically mention that KGB and NKVD operatives would and did use more than one poison simultaneously. It is quite possible that this is what happened in the case of the Somerton Man.
The timeline given by Dr. Dwyer was the food, (Potato) found in the mans stomach would have been there for 3 to 4 hours. The examining Doctor, Dr. Bennett, said at 9.40 am when pronouncing the man dead, that he had been dead for no more than 8 hours. That puts his death at around 2 am. Now subtract the 3 to 4 hours given by Dr Dwyer and we have the food being consumed between 10 pm and 11 pm on the 30th November. I think it possible that the dose of Digitalis may have been given along with the food. There is, however, as always an alternative.
Digitalis can be dissolved in a range of different liquids, and, as described in the Autopsy document earlier in this post, a massive dose of digitalis can kill in seconds as it did in the case of the Dr. on whom the autopsy was performed. In his case though, he had numerous tablets and traces were found in the stomach contents. There were no traces of tablets in SMs stomach contents. The alternative then, and as alluded to in the CIA documents, is that it was digitalis dissolved in a liquid form that could have been fired from a special weapon. Death would have occurred in seconds and the heart would have stopped in Systole as was the case with the Somerton Man. It is understood that Stashinsky used his vapour gun in the late 1950s and that could mean that it wasn't available in 1948. Stashinsky says that the model he used was based n a WW2 German vapour gun meaning that there was a weapon available.
There we have the means, we have the evidence of the body and the likely cause of death together with a strong case that Digitalis was used. All we need now are some names and they are on the way.
There we have the means, we have the evidence of the body and the likely cause of death together with a strong case that Digitalis was used. All we need now are some names and they are on the way.
I will finish this post with a link to a 1975 video of the proceedings of the Church Committee in the USA. They discuss the use of a special weapon developed we think by the CIA, this weapon fired a tiny poison dart, the dart was smothered in a special poison that was undetectable, the dart itself dissolved in the body and there was no trace apart from a tiny red dot on the body which may not have been visible or seen. To all appearances, the victim died of a heart attack.
https://www.military.com/video/guns/pistols/cias-secret-heart-attack-gun/2555371072001
https://www.military.com/video/guns/pistols/cias-secret-heart-attack-gun/2555371072001
Gordon,
ReplyDeletethe gas gun left traces of glass shards on the victims skin and eyes. The glass came from the broken glass ampoule that contained the hydrocyanic acid. When the gun was fired the ampoule was ruptured. I assume that some sort of gas was used to pressurise the amoule so the the hydrocyanic acid was efficiently sprayed in the victims face.
Hi Byron, Have just edited and added to this having re read some source material. When the gun was used with cyanide ampules then you could be correct, however in the source document, they also mention the use of Atropine which, though often used as an antidote, in a full strength it was a powerful poison. I will dig it out and publish it. Bear in mind this is a vapour gun, it shoots the poison through a tiny, vapourising nozzle, and, I think, there would have been a filter prior to the nozzle. Any glass particles that got through would be minute and very hard to detect. How likely would it be that those that washed the body down would have noticed? In the next post, there will be a similar case discussed.
ReplyDeleteHi Byron, A follow up. The vapour g described in CIA documents state that the poison container was a 'plastic type' and that the weapon was fitted with a fine steel screen, that would eliminate any possibility of glass shards from this weapon. I can only think that you have another source document that shows a different specification? Can you link to it?
ReplyDeleteHi Gordon, 30-40 years ago I saw a description of the Bandera (spelling?) assassination where details of the gas gun were given. The only surviving evidene was microscopic glass shards from the broken ampoule. I will see if I can find it.
ReplyDeleteI very much doubt that atropine would work in the gas gun. I think the facts have been supressed to stop giving people (organised crime for example) ideas.
Hi Gordon. “According to the account of the Bandera assassination in the book “KGB the Secret work of Soviet secret agents” by John Barron, German authorities detected flakes of glass on Bandera's face from the crushed poison ampule. There was no mention of this in the police reports of the Stashinsky and/or Bandera files.”
ReplyDeleteSource: Secret CIA memorandum dated 22nd April 1976.
https://www.cia.gov/library/readingroom/docs/BANDERA%2C%20STEFAN_0081.pdf
Hi Byron, That's interesting, the description of the vapour gun was from the CIA vault, it was quite specific, as was the use of Atropine. Atropine in sufficient dosage is a powerful poison and undetectable after a short period of time. They mentioned the use of cyanide but it was a different device, a cigarette packet with glass ampules which was crushed.
ReplyDeleteChased down a little more and found that the KGB vapour gun was based on a WW2 German poison gun, single barrel. That would make sense because the reason why Stashinsky was caught was that in the assassination of Bandera, he used a double barrelled gas gun and released both barrels at once. The huge dose left a residue of cyanide in Bandera's lungs and hence the cause of death was changed from heart attack to poisoning.
Gordon, I suspect that the glass shards were found in the airways/lungs of Bandera on a second autopsy, even years later. I also think that the gas gun would not work with things such as atropine, digitalis etc. because these would have had to be used in a solution form and traces of the solution would have remained splattered all over the victim and the surrounds. Also, the absorption of these solutions of poisons would be quite slow (unlike hydrocyanic acid and it's derivatives) and the victim would have had time to put up a fight. The unique advantage of hydrocyanic acid is that it is quite volatile and it would quickly evaporate, removing all traces of the poison. Also, all traces of the inhaled hydrocyanic acid would disappear very quickly leaving no trace (except for the glass shards. A metal screen would remove the coarse shards but a chap I worked with did a study of glass shard contamination in pharmaceutical liquids presented in glass ampules. When the glass ampules are broken open some glass shards fall back into the ampule and some very small shards can be sucked up by a syringe.
DeleteThe absorption of hydrocyanic acid vapour/gas is very fast (a few seconds). Poison liquids delivered as an aerosol to the lungs would take upwards of a minute under ideal conditions. And leave abundant traces.
The source of the information was here:
ReplyDeletehttps://www.huri.harvard.edu/news/news-from-huri/292-the-man-with-the-poison-gun-q-a.html
Thanks Byron, Some thoughts:
ReplyDelete1. The CIA documents described the splatter of liquids on the face and perhaps clothing of the target and stated that it would dry within minutes
2. The half life of Atropine is 2 hours in the body, after that its gone and no trace remains.
3. The CIA document states that 90 seconds would be the kill time but the victim would be unconscious before then I think
Back to point 2. An option was mentioned in the docs, KGB etc would sometimes use two or even more poisons simultaneously. Which two I don't know but it was done. It would therefore seem possible when taking into account the 2 hour half life, that SM may have ingested a dose of atropine or its related poison, digitalis, 2 hours prior to the final act. That's about the time he had the potato.
In either case, would it not be that any trace of atropine/digitalis would have dissipated long before SM died, 2 am or thereabouts.
Last thought for now: It was at the second autopsy that the glass may have been discovered, the first autopsy, as you state thought he had died of a heart attack. That was in the late 50s and I think after the defection of the assassin?
SM was killed in 1948, they were not aware at that time of the use of this kind of weapon, it was never mentioned in any of the docs and I don't think much was mentioned about the lungs?
Hi Gordon, as we know the CIA can be rather inept and can get things wrong at times. Atropine has a half life of about 2 hours (average, it varies significantly from person to person from memory) and detectable amount of atropine and it's metabolic products would still be detectable in a body days after death. Detectable even with the methods available in 1948. Sixty percent of the absorbed dose of atropine ends up in the urine. Urine is the easiest body sample to test (other than breath) because it contains limited amounts of other stuff to get in the way. The same with most drugs. Detecting digitalis drugs was tricky in 1948 but even so a gas gun wasn't the best way of administering it. In fact a gas gun would not work effectively (kill) with digitalis or atropine and SM would have punched the lights out of anyone rash enough to spray stuff in his face.
DeleteWikipedia correctly says this about atropine:
“It is an antimuscarinic agent. Significant levels are achieved in the CNS within 30 minutes to 1 hour and disappears rapidly from the blood with a half-life of 2 hours. About 60% is excreted unchanged in the urine, most of the rest appears in urine as hydrolysis and conjugation products.”
Most drugs do not disappear (hydrogen cyanide is the exception and that's why it was used) and even though the drug may be completely metabolised it is just transformed into different substances that can be detected. Hydrogen cyanide is different in that it is volatile so any splatter on the victims face simply evaporates away and the small amount that entered the body would be too dilute and too difficult to detect in the recent past. Today it would be possible to detect the traces of hydrogen cyanide but this would only happen if such poisoning was suspected and only fairly soon after death.
Wikipedia correctly says this about hydrogen cyanide:
“Inhalation of 2,000 parts per million hydrogen cyanide causes death within one minute. The LD50 for ingestion is 50-200 milligrams, or 1-3 milligrams per kilogram of body weight, calculated as hydrogen cyanide.” The LD50 of hydrogen cyanide (as used in the gas gun) would be considerably less than the 50 to 200 mg mentioned above because of the inefficiencies of oral absorption and the first pass effect where the gut and the liver absorb and chemically alter some (variable but up to 100%) of the drug in question. In the case of cyanide by mouth the only people who are likely to know the exact efficiency of the deliver by the oral route are the KGB. Much to general shame Scientific/medical Journals would happily accept articles dealing with human LD50s from USSR sources even up until the 1980s even though the only way to obtain such data was by killing people.
Still, we seem to collectively turn a blind eye to organ harvesting by the Chinese Government.
So, if breathing 2,000 parts per million (0.2%) is fatal within one minute you can see that even a small breath of 100% hydrogen cyanide is likely to be fatal in a perhaps five seconds. I should explain that the hydrogen cyanide used in the gas gun would have been pure HCN rather than an aqueous solution (Prussic acid). Pure hydrogen cyanide has a boiling point (25.6 degrees C) slightly above room temperature and I expect the ampules were probably pressurised so that the hydrogen cyanide was released as a gas. Maybe the assassin was instructed to keep the ampules warm by body heat so that the hydrogen cyanide was sprayed as a gas rather than as a liquid.
I suspect that the mention of “plastic” by the CIA was a mistake because there is a mention of “traces of plastic” detected in the stomach contents where it is obvious that the remains of medicine capsule shells was meant. Translation difficulties (German to English) were probably to blame. The CIA documents were clearly not written by anyone with more than a rough general knowledge of the subject and were compiled from other sources (such as German Police reports which were probably not compiled by an expert).
Thanks Byron, We are in agreement that a fast acting poison, non traceable poison was used for the final killing and that was likely cyanide in a gas form. The earlier comment that the other substance, Digitalis, could have been delivered along with the potato some two to three hours prior to his death which Cleland says happened on the 1st December and on the foreshore at Somerton. That strongly suggests that he accepted Dr Bennett's evidence that death took place no more than 8 hours prior to his examination at 9.40 am on 1st December. Thus putting the time of death around 2 am. Our assassin would have been there waiting perhaps for an ideal moment, when the cigarette fell from SMs lips onto his collar perhaps? Realistically, the extraordinarily fast acting poison would have killed him almost instantly anyway so there would be no time to put up a fight. No trace no sign of a struggle and the only indication of a poison was the conclusion that Digitalis was involved. But cyanide can't be ruled out.
ReplyDeleteThe learned gentlemen came to the conclusion that Digitalis was involved because?
Ahh! Gordon, you have put your finger on a crucial point there.
ReplyDeleteSM's heart stopped in systole and this is quite unusual because very few drugs/poisons, or diseases will do this. Digitalis drugs are probably the commonest cause and this is why digitalis poisoning was suspected.
Poisoning by cyanides will have the opposite effect so we can safely rule out poisoning by cyanides.
Hi Byron, You might have to go back and revisit the vapour/inhalation issue for Digoxins. According to Pubchem:
ReplyDeletehttps://pubchem.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/compound/Digoxin#section=GHS-Classification
H300+H330 (27.38%): Fatal if swallowed or if inhaled
H330 (77.38%): Fatal if inhaled
H331 (13.1%): Toxic if inhaled
In the right strength it is fatal if inhaled. That indicates that a vapour could have been used in sufficient strength. Digitalis is soluble in a range of compounds and liquids.
Separately I have an autopsy report for a case where a massive overdose of digitalis was taken, the man died almost instantly.
From these two instances it seems that a massive overdose can be administered in a liquid form or it can be inhaled.
I will publish the suicide case study inside this post
Any thoughts?
Byron, The documents that describe Cyanide point to the immediate stopping of the heart and can be within seconds as per the CIA description of the KGB Vapour gun and its effects. If we add to that, point 2 in one of my earlier comments, which discusses the use of two or more poisons simultaneously to further cloud the real cause of death, then I think that it would be wrong to dismiss cyanide as a possible contributor in this case.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5303192/
Back yet another step, it does seem to be common in the SM case to make assumptions about the professionalism or otherwise of various people who were involved in the case. From Cleland and the inquest documents to the various Police officers and witnesses except those that support specific stories, all have and still are being accused of making mistakes, lacking in knowledge or even involved in a conspiracy. There is no evidence for that, just assumptions. And so it is with the reference to the CIA, sure they made mistakes on occasions but in this case there is no direct evidence that they did. We have them saying that the ampules or capsules were plastic-like, we have two books on the subject that state the same and that may be the case, there is no evidence to the contrary just an assumption because we all know that etc. It really doesn't do to resort to generalities. It behoves us all to be as specific and objective as we can.
I mean no offence with these comments, it is just a matter of saying what I think is right without fear or favour.
Hi Gordon, The video on CIA and 'Heart Attacks' shows to what lengths that agency and, no doubt many others around the world, get up to. In the case of the SM and the vexed question regarding the poison used, what if, behind the scenes, Dwyer and Cowan etc knew exactly which poison had been used? And, who was responsible, because of the possible implications going beyond Australian borders, it was decided that the 'official' verdict would be unknown. Clive
ReplyDeleteIt's all part of the Modus Operandi, that is what ties the SM case to other similar ones. We know the KGB carried out the two assassinations using this kind of weapon, we now also know that the CIA had a similar weapon but not sure yet as to the exact date of that. We also have a reference to the German Abwher having a vapour gun in WW2. The technology was available and was used. Amongst the 'hallmarks' of such killings was the uncertainty of the cause of death but in one case the cause was proven thanks to the defection of an assassin. I suspect that there were many more such assassinations that went undetected or were covered up for whatever reason as you suggest.
ReplyDeleteByron, Are you absolutely positive that cyanide cannot stop a hear in Systole even if the cyanide is inhaled as a vapour? If Digitalis is one of a few drugs that can do that and we now know that that drug is soluble and could be inhaled, what other drugs have the same profile?
ReplyDelete