# Old Mob Trick **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [October 12, 2015, 2:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-mob-trick/734423 "2015-10-12T14:47:44Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 18\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![muldoonthief](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/muldoonthief/32/3188_2.png) [@muldoonthief](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/muldoonthief)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2015, 11:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-mob-trick/734423/21 "2015-10-13T11:52:34Z")
> [@Kropotkin](#): > > In the 1974 version of the movie The Longest Yard, the prisoner “Caretaker,” played by James Hampton, was killed this way. YMMV. True, but in the movie, it wasn’t the explosion that killed him - Unger closed & locked the cell door afterwards, so Caretaker burned to death. Had they been able to get a fire extinguisher in there (do prisons have fire extinguishers?) he could have survived. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2015, 6:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-mob-trick/734423/22 "2015-10-13T18:10:46Z")
Could it have worked with the old style Coal gas? ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2015, 6:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-mob-trick/734423/23 "2015-10-13T18:24:09Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > Could it have worked with the old style Coal gas? That would have been delivered at lower pressure so it would take a longer time to get to that brief moment where the fuel/air mix would support combustion. Some of the systems needed the open flame to draw the gas through the line so might have never been able to fill a house with a sufficient amount of gas. Interesting thing in the Wiki, looks like [hydrogen was most of the gas](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coal_gas). I thought it was mostly methane. ---
**Author:** ![Blue\_Blistering\_Barnacle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/blue_blistering_barnacle/32/3386_2.png) [@Blue\_Blistering\_Barnacle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Blue_Blistering_Barnacle)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2015, 9:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-mob-trick/734423/24 "2015-10-13T21:32:41Z")
I’ve read an account (in an article warning of the dangers of gasoline) about gasoline vapors in a garage igniting explosively when the person who smelt the gas switched on a fan to clear the garage. Was this bad luck or is gasoline more likely to reach correct stoichiometry? ---
**Author:** ![TXCowboy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/76d3ee/32.png) [@TXCowboy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TXCowboy)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2015, 9:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-mob-trick/734423/25 "2015-10-13T21:38:44Z")
What if it was oxygen? I remember hearing (reading) of a shop explosion where the oxygen tank on a cutting torch was leaking. Filled the closed up room with oxygen and when someone flipped on the lights it exploded. I think I heard this many years ago in shop class when we first started metal work. ---
**Author:** ![Blue\_Blistering\_Barnacle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/blue_blistering_barnacle/32/3386_2.png) [@Blue\_Blistering\_Barnacle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Blue_Blistering_Barnacle)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2015, 10:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-mob-trick/734423/26 "2015-10-13T22:01:29Z")
> [@TXCowboy](#): > > What if it was oxygen? > I remember hearing (reading) of a shop explosion where the oxygen tank on a cutting torch was leaking. Filled the closed up room with oxygen and when someone flipped on the lights it exploded. > I think I heard this many years ago in shop class when we first started metal work. Won’t it look suspicious if I leave an oxygen tank in your house? ---
**Author:** ![Kobal2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kobal2/32/20_2.png) [@Kobal2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kobal2)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2015, 10:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-mob-trick/734423/27 "2015-10-13T22:28:40Z")
Nah, I’d just assume you’re aware oxygen gets you quite high and are being very neighbourly 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2015, 10:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-mob-trick/734423/28 "2015-10-13T22:32:55Z")
> [@TriPolar](#): > > That would have been delivered at lower pressure so it would take a longer time to get to that brief moment where the fuel/air mix would support combustion. Some of the systems needed the open flame to draw the gas through the line so might have never been able to fill a house with a sufficient amount of gas. > > Interesting thing in the Wiki, looks like [hydrogen was most of the gas](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coal_gas). I thought it was mostly methane. But you see, Natural gas wasnt all that common back in Mob days, coal gas was. ---
**Author:** ![Valgard](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/7feea3/32.png) [@Valgard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Valgard)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2015, 10:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-mob-trick/734423/29 "2015-10-13T22:33:34Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > John Gardner used a variation of this in his James Bond novel, _No Deals, Mr. Bond_. Bond is imprisoned in a cellar. He takes the sole light bulb in the room and carefully twists the glass envelope off, puts gunpowder in the envelope, and replaces it, screwing the doctored bulb back in. When his captors open the door and switch on the light, the momentary spark ignites the gunpowder, producing a makeshift Flash-Bang grenade that disorients them. Also used in a cheesy 1982 action film called “The Soldier”. Booby-trapped light bulb put in somebody’s desk lamp. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2015, 11:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-mob-trick/734423/30 "2015-10-13T23:37:57Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > But you see, Natural gas wasnt all that common back in Mob days, coal gas was. Depends how far you go back. Natural Gas usage would have began to grow in the 30s with the construction of pipelines, but it probably didn’t reach the big cities in the northeast until the 1940s. So maybe it would have been coal gas, except I don’t think it was ever done at all. It’s unreliable, and the mob likes people to know when they’ve killed someone. And if it was that simple there should be many more accidental gas explosions since there are numerous open sparks in switches throughout homes. The light switch could have been just as capable of igniting the gas as a broken light bulb. ---
**Author:** ![Saint\_Cad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saint_cad/32/18907_2.png) [@Saint\_Cad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saint_Cad)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2015, 1:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-mob-trick/734423/31 "2015-10-14T01:00:16Z")
> [@Kobal2](#): > > The variant of that one I heard of was drilling a small hole in the light bulb near the screw part, filling it with the right amount of gasoline - not enough to drown the filament ; then screwing it back in. If all goes to plan, the bulb is supposed to become a grenade when turned on. Someone was watching the original “The Longest Yard”. ---
**Author:** ![mmmiiikkkeee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/edb3f5/32.png) [@mmmiiikkkeee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mmmiiikkkeee)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2015, 3:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-mob-trick/734423/32 "2015-10-14T03:17:09Z")
> [@TXCowboy](#): > > What if it was oxygen? > I remember hearing (reading) of a shop explosion where the oxygen tank on a cutting torch was leaking. Filled the closed up room with oxygen and when someone flipped on the lights it exploded. > I think I heard this many years ago in shop class when we first started metal work. Oxygen is an accelerant, not a fuel. You won’t get an explosion trying to light oxygen its self on fire. If the story actually happened something else ignited and it’s pretty rare for the ignition source to be overhead lighting. ---
**Author:** ![Nametag](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nametag/32/406_2.png) [@Nametag](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nametag)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2015, 7:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-mob-trick/734423/33 "2015-10-14T07:26:28Z")
Hit men weren’t and aren’t Hollywood assassins, they’re just reliable guys who are bothered by killing even less than their unbuttoned brethren. ---
**Author:** ![Clark\_Cello](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/58f4c7/32.png) [@Clark\_Cello](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Clark_Cello)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2015, 11:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-mob-trick/734423/34 "2015-10-14T11:46:13Z")
And, famously, a similar method was used in the attempted murder of Selma Bouvier by Bob Terwilliger, foiled only by Selma’s young nephew. 33 posts in and no mention of this yet? What has happened to the SDMB? ---
**Author:** ![skdo23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a5b964/32.png) [@skdo23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/skdo23)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2015, 4:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-mob-trick/734423/35 "2015-10-14T16:45:40Z")
> [@Clark\_Cello](#): > > And, famously, a similar method was used in the attempted murder of Selma Bouvier by Bob Terwilliger, foiled only by Selma’s young nephew. > > 33 posts in and no mention of this yet? What has happened to the SDMB? Where in the OP is there any mention of the target having lost his ability to taste or smell due to a bottle rocket flying up his nose and exploding?😃 ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2015, 5:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-mob-trick/734423/36 "2015-10-14T17:10:02Z")
> [@skdo23](#): > > Where in the OP is there any mention of the target having lost his ability to taste or smell due to a bottle rocket flying up his nose and exploding?😃 However, that young man and his father have both worked for a well known mobster, and the father was once targeted for a hit by that same mobster. ---
**Author:** ![skdo23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a5b964/32.png) [@skdo23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/skdo23)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2015, 5:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-mob-trick/734423/37 "2015-10-14T17:20:46Z")
> [@TriPolar](#): > > However, that young man and his father have both worked for a well known mobster, and the father was once targeted for a hit by that same mobster. True, but the attempted murder of Selma Bouvier occurred back in 1992 when Bart was only ten years old, whereas the events you mention did not occur until another decade or so later when Bart was, um, ten years old. ---
**Author:** ![bob\_2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bob_2/32/3341_2.png) [@bob\_2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bob_2)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2015, 6:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-mob-trick/734423/38 "2015-10-14T18:44:28Z")
You don’t even need gas - dust would do if the ratio is right. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-mob-trick/734423.md?page=1)