Spears have been used throughout history as a hunting tool and as a weapon. They are lightweight
and span several feet long, which provides a deadly reach advantage. Spears are popular
choices among prisoners due to how easy they are to create as all that is required is a
handle which can be made from the metal post of a bunk bed and a sharp end which can be
made from a piece of sharpened steel. In 1985, several inmates at San Quentin prison in California
counted the number of steps prison guards would take to pass their cells for several
weeks and on one day, when an officer by the name of Sgt. Howell Burchfield walked by,
one of the inmates thrusted a handmade spear, made using rolled-up newspaper and a piece
of metal through the bars of his cell, hitting Burchfield straight through the heart, killing
him.
Shivs, also known as shanks, are improvised bladed weapons used commonly by inmates in
prisons across the world. Toothbrushes are usually the go to choice for inmates due to
their accessibility and they can be filed down to create a sharp point. Razor blades
can be added to the ends of toothbrushes to deal even more damage if it wasn’t already
bad enough. In a prison in Wolfenbüttel, Germany, a shiv was found concealed in a wooden
crucifix. Just look at the weapon, a great deal of infliction can be caused with it.
Stuff garlic, you can probably stab a vampire straight through the heart with this thing.
In the prison, lots of crucifixes were being made in the workshops but it was only a matter
of time until prison guards realised what they were truly being made for.
Zip Guns are crude homemade firearms. They are small, easy to conceal and can be disassembled
and reassembled in a matter of minutes, which makes them extremely dangerous, especially
in the hands of a prisoner. It’s that dangerous that new recruits working in Canada’s penitentiary
systems are given manuals detailing how zip guns can be manufactured and what dissembled
components may look like. There have been many cases of zip guns being found in prisons,
such as a double-barrelled pistol that was confiscated from the cell of two prisoners
in 1984. The pistol was made in a metal workshop of a prison and could be loaded with scrap
metal. In another case, a zip gun was found in Folsom State Prison in California, constructed
from a staple gun and it was capable of firing .22 calibre bullets.
Prisoners may go to great lengths in order to plan the perfect escape and in 1998, one
prisoner in Stony Mountain Institution in Manitoba, Canada did just that by creating
a fully functioning crossbow. Yes, a freakin’ crossbow! The crossbow was intricately built
using an assortment of parts including 10 toothbrushes, a cigarette lighter, a part
of a ballpoint pen, a wire coat hanger, a section of aluminium cafeteria tongs, pieces
of yellow rubber gloves, some toilet paper, string and a few screws. Even the darts themselves
were intricately made, using tightly rolled paper, cotton swabs, aluminium foil from cigarette
packets, pieces of wire and masking tape. Whether the crossbow was used is unclear,
however, what is clear is that the crossbow can inflict some serious damage. When prison
guards eventually discovered the crossbow, they decided to test it out and much to their
surprise, the crossbow fired a dart 40 feet away with accuracy.
A remarkable feat of engineering allowed two prisoners to escape from a prison in Celle,
Germany. The prisoners created a fully functioning handmade shotgun that was constructed out
of iron bedposts and lead. The gun used an electrical charge that was made of lead from
curtain tape and match-heads that were ignited by AA batteries and a broken light bulb. Pretty
impressive, right? On the 21st May 1984, the two prisoners were able to demonstrate the
effectiveness of their ingenious creation by firing at a pane of bullet-proof glass,
causing it to crack. That was not all, as the prisoners used the shotgun to take a prison
guard hostage before making an escape after stealing a car. Still to this day, it is unclear
whether the prisoners were ever caught.