Dear Cecil,
(or SDSAB),
(or anybody who can answer),
I’m terribly concerned about what might happen if I were to fall into enemy hands. While I like to think that I’m a strong-willed person, we all know that even the fiercest resistance can be broken by brutal torture, powerful drugs, or apparently having one’s head dunked in a bucket of water. I don’t want to be compelled to surrender any critical state secrets, so I think it’s best that I carry with me at all times a means of sealing my lips forever. I’ve heard of hollow false teeth filled with poisonous gel, and Francis Gary Powers was reputedly captured in possession of a poison-coated pin. So my questions are: were such “final escapes” really a staple part of spycraft, and are they still? What are the options, and what are the advantages and disadvantages of each? Poison seems to be a common device, but surely there are other, more creative and perhaps more spectacular choices?
At the end of World War II, Hermann Göring was captured by the Allies, and later, when it became clear that he would be executed, committed suicide with a cyanide pill he had secreted in his prison cell. However, it’s likely the pill was delivered to him during his confinement, as opposed to him having it on his person when he was captured.
I think I read that the best theory was an American guard who Goring had “befriended” was bribed into give Goring access to small luxuries (candy, tobacco, matzoh ball soup) and the poison pill was probably hidden in one of the goodie bags…
When I was serving in the US Army ('63-'69), firstly, I didn’t know anything worth knowing and secondly, I determined that I would tell everything I knew rather than undergo torture. I guess I’m not much of a patriot. In fact, I migrated to Australia immediately I was discharged.
I was somewhat surprised to see Eddie Stone state in the recent BBC series “SAS Survival Secrets” you would basicly tell then everything one your ovedue date pased and where threatend with real torture. Most military objectives would be fairly obvious wouldn’t they.
What you really do is take plenty of really really hard chewy toffees and then you cant give anything away even if you wanted to.
Realisticly try not to get captured alive in the first place but if you are, play the “Grey Man” ie.dont stand out from the crowd and hopefully dont get selected for further interrogation after the initial screening.
If you do get selected for further treatment including torture you will eventually tell them everything that they want to know and more,your G/Fs favourite turn ons,the hobbys you enjoyed when you were six,every single thing you think that they want to hear.
And yes they can cross reference information extracted by torture to find out if it is authentic or not.
We were told to just hold out for as long as we humanly could so that what they learned would be of as little use as possible to them.
We were also told if caught by Irish Republicans to try and get ourselves killed as quickly as possible as they had a particulary sickening history of torture of their own community as well as security forces prisoners and you were definitely going to die anyway.
We were also told that if the Big Bear came over the hill and we were captured that we would be killed after three days because by then the info of our particular speciality would be out of date and we were considered too dangerous to keep alive.(Or in my case far too good looking)
Now if any internet nerd Googles interrogation or Special Forces or something,or they had an uncle who knew someones nextdoor neighbour who talked to someone in SF and disagrees with me as always seems to happen in threads like this,then they can go and play with the
traffic cos I’m not playing.
This is from the horses mouth not dredged up from some third hand,censored and edited Wikipedia item as heard by someone who didn’t have a clue about it in the first place.
This is a link to an article in PDF form from the International Spy Museum. The article is about Gary Powers, who famously crash-landed in the Soviet Union. It mentions that such pilots were given a “poison pin”.
I read Powers autobiography, and he confirmed having a poison pin, IIRC hidden in a silver dollar or maybe some other kind of coin. Anyway, he told his Russian captors about it because he was afraid someone would grab it as a souvenir and mess with it and kill himself accidentally.
Well, I gotta admit… you got me. That was a bit of a fib, as it happens… I’m not really concerned that I will be captured and tortured by anybody. At first, I was just curious to know about the history of such devices, whether they were (or are) really standard issue, whether or not they’re ever used.
But the more I think about it, the more I think that the notion of having a built-in “kill switch” is not a bad idea, so long as it is properly failsafed against accidental or malicious activation. It’s always better to have more options than fewer, right? Given that, it would seem that the best options would be a) not likely to be found and removed during a thorough search, and b) able to be activated even when restrained. So the poison-inside-hollowed-out-faked-tooth thing seems like a really good option. Anyone know of a dentist who’d be willing to install it?
The best option of all, though, would be one that would be incapable (or at least very difficult) to defeat even if the antagonist knows about it… that way, its existence can be disclosed and it becomes valuable as a deterrent. Seems like a great way to deter coercion… push me too hard, and you’ll lose me permanently. Can anyone think of anything that would fit the bill?
You could have some breakable capsule inserted under your skin. The problem would be how you could be certain it wouldn’t break by accident. Like a car accident, say. Even an air bag exploding against your face might cause you to bite down wrong and kill yourself – or if your body is thrown forward against the seat belt, etc.
Pretty much anywhere on your body that you could reach and break the poison capsule, some unexpected blow could also reach and break the capsule. It’s not a bet I’d want to take.
What about something super high-tech? The capsule is buried too deeply to be damaged by an external blow, but contains an internal mechanism to break it or open it or whatever, powered by a long-lived battery, activated by, say, tapping a very specific pattern on your upper palate with your tongue. Too fancy?
Edit: is there general consensus that poison would be the way to go, and cyanide would be the poison of choice? Potassium or hydrogen cyanide? Do these compounds have a shelf life close enough to indefinite to work?
If not poison, the only other thing I can think of would be some kind of explosive with a detonator and a battery. I would imagine explosives would have a shorted shelf life than some lethal chemical, but I’m not a chemist. And the more high-tech you get, the more failure possibilities there are.
If you absolutely, positively have to kill yourself to avoid capture followed by interrogation, the only certain time is to do it now.
Several people have mentioned Goring. He wasn’t the only Nazi with a cyanide pill.
“He had equipped himself with a set of false documents, but someone whose papers were wholly in order was so unusual that it aroused the suspicions of a British Army unit in Bremen. Himmler was arrested on 22 May by Major Sidney Excell, and in captivity, was soon recognized. Himmler was scheduled to stand trial with other German leaders as a war criminal at Nuremberg, but committed suicide in Lüneburg by potassium cyanide capsule before interrogation could begin.”
In fact, I migrated to Australia immediately I was discharged.