a deadly shotgun expertly engineered
using bed posts and batteries a powerful
and complex crossbow that utilized
rubber gloves and toothbrushes or what
about a potentially life-taking bomb
that looked like an innocent magic
marker the ingenuity of prisoners is
sometimes nothing short of mind-boggling
as you'll now see in all its bloody
glory number 12. we're going to start
with something that sounds like fiction
dreamed up by a hollywood screenwriter
but we promise you every word of this
tale is true it's a story starring a
silent killer who got the nickname the
meanest man in america his real name was
donald henry gaskins and yes he was one
mean man indeed he was also pretty good
with his hands gaskins was a piece of
work if there ever was one but we won't
go into detail about all of his crimes
in short he lived a life of violent
crime and murdered 15 people although
it's possible he could have killed many
more he was sent to prison to serve nine
concurrent life sentences and that's
when he got creative with weapon
building the reason he did it was
because someone on the outside a man
named tony semo wanted another man dead
because this other man had murdered his
mother and stepfather during a robbery
this killer's name was rudolph tyner in
1982 simo managed to smuggle in
strychnine and cyanide to gaskins these
substances only made tyner ill not dead
so gaskins and semo were forced to get
more creative then during one visit
gaskins said to semo you get me a damn
stick of dynamite an electric blasting
cap and we'll put that damn thing in a
radio so when he turns it on it'll blow
him to hell and there won't be no coming
back on that later during a visit simo
secretly passed some c4 explosives to
gaskins gaskins proceeded to rig the
explosives into a cup and put that
inside a small radio he then connected
the radio to the lead so the thing
looked like part of a walkie-talkie when
he was done gaskins approached tyner and
said something along the lines of hey i
made this real cool walkie-talkie and if
you take one end into your cell we'll be
able to chat with each other he added
you're gonna need to put it really close
to your ear and that's what tyner was
doing when gaskins pulled the cord and
detonated the bomb with the media later
saying he pretty much blew tyner's head
off at the time gaskins was said to be
rolling around in his cell laughing his
own head off he wasn't laughing so much
in 1991 when he was fried in the
electric chair as for semo he got eight
years in prison himself for contracting
the killing but he thought it was worth
it later saying i don't feel the good
lord holds nothing against me for this
as you'll now see sometimes you don't
need high-tech tools to kill a person
number eleven you've all heard of shivs
regular types of knives made in prison
these things are too a penny and the
problem with shivs is you have to be up
close to someone to kill them or at
least wound them badly so why not make a
spear that's exactly what some prisoners
have done in the past it just takes a
bit more patience but hey prisoners
generally have a lot of time on their
hands what they do is use paper from
magazines or newspapers and wet it and
constantly roll it and they can make it
a tough handle that's sometimes a few
feet long they rip off bits of clothing
and wrap that around the handle to make
it even more sturdy the head of the
spear is often made from bits of steel
that have been taken from a bed
prisoners have been known to use dental
floss and binder clips to cut through
beds which takes a lot of time but can
be sped up by using certain powders it's
not hard to find instances when such
weapons were used but a standout case
was the murder of a prison officer named
howell birchfield on june 8 1985 he was
walking past cells at san quentin prison
in california when he was stabbed
through the heart with what the la times
described as a spear that same article
talked about a powerful cache of plastic
and powder explosives being smuggled
into another prison so we think now
we'll talk about bombs again this one
particular bomb being a very strange
device indeed number 10. on october 31st
1995 a court security officer came
across a package at the united states
courthouse in chicago addressed to judge
blanche manning the package was put
through an x-ray machine and what was
seen was described like this a d-sized
battery with two wires hooked to the
battery at one end and a cylindrical
tube at the other end and two wires
leading to a section of the package that
was not visible the courthouse was
immediately sealed off and explosive
experts were called in it was soon
discovered that the device was what
sometimes called a victim-actuated
device meaning it would only go off if
someone opened the package what's
amazing is what the bomb was made out of
the outside looked like a book but
inside the hollowed out book was a magic
marker full of match heads connected to
a battery and some cords as the battery
was live if someone had opened the
package the bomb would have exploded and
very likely caused a grievous injury the
bomb maker was a convicted murderer
named peter saunders a man who later
said he had hated the judge due to how
his appeal had been dealt with on top of
him not being given what he said was
enough medical care he admitted that he
wanted the judge dead but said he did
worry that someone else might open the
package and get hurt while an
investigation later revealed that the
device would have likely not killed
anyone it certainly might have taken a
handoff as for where saunders got his
bomb making skills well as you'll now
see there's a good reason one name for
prison is crime school number nine we
can only find one instance of inmates
making a flamethrower but we think it's
worth a mention the story comes from a
1995 newspaper story that involved an
interview with ct o'reilly who at the
time was the assistant warden of
darington prison in texas he said
there'd been a problem in the prison
which at first just looked like the
prisoners had been drinking a lot of
coffee that's because all that coffee
mate was being brought up at an
astonishing speed not for drinking
though o'reilly explained in an
interview the inmates would roll up a
piece of paper put coffee mate in it put
a cigarette lighter in front of it blow
it out and it's just like a flame
thrower if you think that coffee mate
wouldn't work in this regard think again
it was proven in an episode of
mythbusters that this powder could cause
a fair bit of damage once ignited and so
can homemade guns as you'll now see
number eight one of the most simple
kinds of homemade guns you can make is
called a zip gun which combines a metal
tube and some kind of crude firing
mechanism an expert at making these was
mark defreest a u.s man who was sent to
prison on a minor charge but after
trying to escape 13 times with seven
successes he stayed in prison for 39
years this houdini of a man likely
suffered from autism spectrum disorder
and it made his life hard in prison
which is the reason he so badly wanted
to get out in one escape attempt he sent
a number of officers round the bend
after spiking their drinks with lsd in
another attempt he managed to get his
hands on some copper sheets while he was
in the prison workshop his first thought
was man these guys must really want me
to escape he used the copper top to make
a barrel connected to a handle he
fashioned out of wood when the day of
the escape came he sneaked an ice pick
into a cell and ripped out one of his
teeth that's how he was able to go see
the prison nurse when no one was looking
he picked off his handcuffs and pulled
out his homemade gun shouting anybody
move and i'll blow your brains out he
fired a shot at the wall just to show
how the gun wants the real deal and
after that took off into the nearby
woods alas his escape didn't last long
but he decided it was time to make
another gun when he was back inside he
later said in an interview i was in my
gunsmith phase i could make a gun on
anything this time he used an empty tube
of toothpaste although exactly how has
not been made clear into freeze's own
words he said there's an arc to
everything this time again he shot at
the wall to show how the gun worked but
even though that shot wasn't even close
to any officers he was later charged
with attempted murder and spent a long
long time in what's been described as
torturous solitary confinement the
priest was so good at making things that
they kept him naked in a dark cell for a
long time not even giving him toiletries
or eating utensils now let's talk about
shotguns and a bit of prison engineering
that's frankly outstanding number seven
even bark defreest would have been
impressed that he heard the story about
an inmate making a powerful shotgun from
simple things he'd found in prison it
happened at justice vol san starzela in
germany a prison that's been around
since 1710. on may 21 1984 two inmates
there took a guard hostage with one of
them brandishing what was and still is
arguably the most advanced prison-made
gun of all time suffice to say no one
does it like the germans when it comes
to engineering to make the gun the
inmates had utilized two steel bed posts
the charge was made with lead from some
curtains and the explosive came from
match heads to ignite that double-a
batteries and a broken light bulb were
used okay so that sounds impressive but
did it work yes it did and we know that
because the prisoners fired the gun
after that they were allowed to leave
the prison yard from where they made
their getaway in a car if this story
can't get any crazier the media reported
that the guy driving the car was a
policeman and he had bombs tied to his
neck the inmate with the skills was
named peter struttinger who was in
prison for attempted manslaughter he and
the other guy were picked up the next
day and sent back although around one
decade later news reports detailed how
strudinger had escaped again and this
time was driving around germany in a
stolen porsche with a hostage at his
side again he'd used a homemade gun to
get out we're gonna stick with germany
for a minute and talk about what has to
be the coolest weapon ever created
number six if a vampire hunter had a
weapon in his pocket other than his
faithful stake we'd reckon he'd have a
crucifix dagger like the one found in
germany's wolfenbuttel prison we don't
know much about this story other than
the instrument was photographed among a
collection of other weapons found in
german prisons this time no one got out
or hurt anyone we don't know how it was
made we do know that since the dagger
partly was hidden within the wood the
potential killer in this case would have
looked more pious than dangerous number
five we'll give one last mention to a
german-made weapon just because we
haven't seen anything like it before it
can only be described as a whip made
from razor blades something that was
confiscated in 1996 at fullsbutter jail
in hamburg the inmate had apparently
made it to use on a nurse who refused to
give him any more methadone the next
kind of weapon would be funny if it
wasn't deadly number four if you were in
prison and you really wanted to hurt
someone but you weren't very good with
your hands what do you think you'd do
perhaps put some batteries or bars of
soap in a sock what about whacking
someone in the face with the edge of
your food tray these two things are
often the go-to weapons when one doesn't
have the know-how to build something
better but we found another kind of
weapon that anyone can make that is a
good old-fashioned water bomb aka water
balloon but before you start laughing
just think how much a large bag filled
to the brim with water could weigh it
could weigh as much as 20 kilos and if
you drop that kind of weight on
someone's head from a decent height
there would be a good chance you could
kill someone if not hurt them very badly
we could find one instance of this
happening at san quentin prison in 2011
the water balloon in question was
dropped from the fifth floor and hit a
guy who was way down on another floor on
the top of his head the article said the
victim was taken away in an ambulance
with serious injuries and was lucky to
be alive let's stick with almost amusing
stories just for now and soon we'll get
to the most fascinating prison weapon
we've seen number three this is another
kind of weapon that anyone could create
and one that would afford a fair bit of
enjoyment in the making since it's made
out of candy the candies in question are
the notorious jolly rancher tablets word
on the street is prisoners sometimes
line up all the candies in a row then
wrap them in aluminum foil the foil can
then be heated and fashioned into a
spike and hey presto you have a knife
straight out of a brother's grim fairy
tale not only that once you've done the
deed you get to slowly enjoy making the
hard evidence disappear it sounds like
make-believe but there's some evidence
of it happening from msnbc's tv show
lockup in the episode new mexico
extended stay one prisoner had his candy
privileges taken away because he made
those jolly ranchers into a shiv and yes
it's been proven that you could really
hurt someone with a jolly rancher weapon
if you think you heard about this before
the jolly rancher shiv was featured in
an episode of the tv prison drama orange
is the new black after hearing that you
won't be surprised to hear that
prisoners have made nunchucks before
number two in 2011 a guy named lorenzo
pauler did just that he was imprisoned
at a medium security institution in st
louis when he decided it was time to get
out all he needed was a weapon and what
better way to break out in style than
fighting off a number of prison officers
by swinging around a pair of homemade
nunchucks in terms of the creativity and
the labor that goes into making a prison
weapon this one's pretty simple pauler
just broke some bits of wood off a chair
and connected them with a part of a bed
sheet he produced the weapon while being
taken by officers to the shower block
after which he broke through a window
and jumped two stories down to the
outside he got up outran more guards and
proceeded to scale two razor wire fences
you'd think this guy was a serious
criminal on some major charges but he
was actually only in for trespassing
theft a bit of property damage and
resisting arrest he should have done his
time because he was picked up and sent
back to prison after a few days now with
added charges now for the ps there is a
stalls the inmate who made a complex
crossbow number one the year was 1998
and one inmate at canada's stony
mountain prison found himself with a lot
of time on his hands in a dissociation
cell it seems he did at least have the
basic necessities for prison life out of
which he made one of the most brilliant
prison weapons in history that was a
powerful crossbow made out of what the
prison described as follows 10
toothbrushes a cigarette lighter a
section of ballpoint pen casing a piece
of wire coat hanger a section of a pair
of aluminum cafeteria tongs assorted
electrical components pieces of yellow
rubber gloves some kleenex a piece of
string and a few screws the guy who made
it wasn't named and he never actually
got to use it which is probably a good
thing since when the staff of the prison
tested the device they watched in shock
as it fired homemade arrows 40 feet the
prisoner had made them from tightly
packed toilet paper and aluminum foil
and with that excellent crossbow they
could have easily killed someone the
crossbow is now on display with many
other inferior weapons at canada's
penitentiary museum now you need to
learn a lot more disturbing things about
prison with 50 things nobody tells you
about being in prison