# Icicle as perfect murder weapon **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [February 27, 2004, 3:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/icicle-as-perfect-murder-weapon/231406 "2004-02-27T03:28:23Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![VernWinterbottom](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/c67d28/32.png) [@VernWinterbottom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VernWinterbottom)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2004, 1:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/icicle-as-perfect-murder-weapon/231406/21 "2004-02-27T13:57:21Z")
> [@cankerist](#): > > And you could cook it up and serve it to the investigating officers. (What movie/book was that from??) 😃 I think it was **Third From the Top** by **CalMeacham**. There may have been lamb involved. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2004, 2:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/icicle-as-perfect-murder-weapon/231406/22 "2004-02-27T14:04:54Z")
> [@](#): > > think it wasThird From the Top by CalMeacham. There may have been lamb involved. Damn! I’m going to have to write that, now. I’ll get to it as soon as I finish **The Haiblum are Among Us**. ---
**Author:** ![Desmostylus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/c57346/32.png) [@Desmostylus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Desmostylus)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2004, 2:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/icicle-as-perfect-murder-weapon/231406/23 "2004-02-27T14:29:28Z")
> [@WeRSauron](#): > > Now, coming into reality, is this (killing a person using an icicle) even possible? I’m not sure, but I think there was a book about someone using a frozen sheep as a weapon. I think the sheep got eaten at the end. ---
**Author:** ![conczepts](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/8e7dd6/32.png) [@conczepts](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/conczepts)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2004, 2:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/icicle-as-perfect-murder-weapon/231406/24 "2004-02-27T14:38:47Z")
> [@MMI](#): > > Could one juice up the icicle/ice bullet a bit? IIRC during WWII there was a British proposal to make iceberg aircraft carriers out of a frozen sawdust/water mixture - a block of it was bulletproof. If you had sawdust though, it would leave tell-tale signs of the cause of death, and would have no advantage over regular lead cartridges-which is inconvenient to conspiracy theorists everywhere. ---
**Author:** ![lieu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c2a13f/32.png) [@lieu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lieu)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2004, 2:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/icicle-as-perfect-murder-weapon/231406/25 "2004-02-27T14:49:04Z")
> [@Desmostylus](#): > > I’m not sure, but I think there was a book about someone using a frozen sheep as a weapon. I think the sheep got eaten at the end. Yes, in the haunch. ---
**Author:** ![SkipMagic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skipmagic/32/20706_2.png) [@SkipMagic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SkipMagic)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2004, 3:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/icicle-as-perfect-murder-weapon/231406/26 "2004-02-27T15:01:45Z")
> [@Desmostylus](#): > > I’m not sure, but I think there was a book about someone using a frozen sheep as a weapon. I think the sheep got eaten at the end. Yes. It was the precursor of Dahl’s famous book, _Charlie and the Sheep Factory_. The detectives who read the book just ate it up. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2004, 3:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/icicle-as-perfect-murder-weapon/231406/27 "2004-02-27T15:05:37Z")
> [@](#): > > Could one juice up the icicle/ice bullet a bit? IIRC during WWII there was a British proposal to make iceberg aircraft carriers out of a frozen sawdust/water mixture - a block of it was bulletproof. I read about this, ages ago, in Science Digest. The Iceberg Aircraft Carrier was supposed to be unsinkable, but it also had a lot of problems, which is the reason you don’t see any of them around. The sawdust-and-water mixture was called “Pykrete” (Pyke was the inventor, and it was like concrete). But I don’t think it changed the melting point or anything. I think your Pykrete bullet would end up melting. No sheep were harmed in the writing of this post. ---
**Author:** ![Otto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Otto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Otto)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2004, 3:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/icicle-as-perfect-murder-weapon/231406/28 "2004-02-27T15:21:14Z")
> [@RealityChuck](#): > > Predating Dahl, the mystery short story “The Tea Leaf” by Edgar Jepson & Robert Eustace (1925) had an icicle as the murder weapon – in a steam room, no less. > > IIRC, it was kept in a thermos of dry ice. That could have kept it cold enough to have the hardness of quartz. I have some vague memory of this having been adapted for an episode of CBS Radio Mystery Theatre. The investigators figured it out because the tissue around the stab wound showed signs of having been frozen. The at the end they cooked the guy’s haunch and ate it. ---
**Author:** ![Otto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Otto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Otto)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2004, 3:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/icicle-as-perfect-murder-weapon/231406/29 "2004-02-27T15:23:34Z")
> [@conczepts](#): > > If you had sawdust though, it would leave tell-tale signs of the cause of death, and would have no advantage over regular lead cartridges-which is inconvenient to conspiracy theorists everywhere. It’s a technique best reserved for killing a carpenter. ---
**Author:** ![BlackPheonix](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/dfb087/32.png) [@BlackPheonix](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BlackPheonix)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2004, 3:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/icicle-as-perfect-murder-weapon/231406/30 "2004-02-27T15:24:30Z")
Just did some real-world testing: Ok, I got a couple of fairly long (1 foot and smaller) stick of ice, roughly 3 to 4 inches thick. Its about -1c here. After whacking the sticks of ice against several objects (concrete, stucco, etc) I believe they would indeed be a great murder weapon. They could quite easily bash in someone’s skull with no problem… hell, they stood up to the concrete very well. ---
**Author:** ![Max\_Carnage](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/max_carnage/32/12775_2.png) [@Max\_Carnage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Max_Carnage)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2004, 4:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/icicle-as-perfect-murder-weapon/231406/31 "2004-02-27T16:39:42Z")
> [@Achernar](#): > > I think I read somewhere that she later thawed it, cooked it, and served it to the detectives investgatin the case. Ah, it’s a frozen 1920’s style death leg of lamb. ---
**Author:** ![Running\_with\_Scissors](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/a183cd/32.png) [@Running\_with\_Scissors](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Running_with_Scissors)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2004, 4:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/icicle-as-perfect-murder-weapon/231406/32 "2004-02-27T16:59:59Z")
> [@Max Carnage](#): > > Ah, it’s a frozen 1920’s style death leg of lamb. I had a haunch you’d say that… On a just as not-so-serious note, a frozen lizard was used as a weapon (albeit in self-defense) in Carl Hiaasen’s book [Basket Case](http://www.usatoday.com/community/chat/2002-01-07-hiaasen.htm). [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/icicle-as-perfect-murder-weapon/231406.md?page=1)