10 Crazy, Improvised Prison Weapons 10. Shiv Hidden in Cross Shivs, which are handmade knives, are the
most common type of weapon made in prison and they are most commonly made from toothbrushes. Toothbrushes are easy to get and they are
either filed down to a point or something sharp, like a razor blade, is embedded in
it. However, this shiv hidden in a cross is a
whole different story. It was found in the city prison in Wolfenbüttel,
Germany, in 1994. At the time that it was found, making shivs
concealed in crosses in the workshops was a bit of a cottage industry for the inmates. Eventually, the guards caught on and the cross
weapons were confiscated. 9. Radio Bomb One of the most inventive ways that someone
thought of attacking a fellow inmate was dreamt up by South Carolinian serial killer Donald
Henry “Peewee” Gaskins. Between 1953 and 1982, Gaskins killed at least
eight people in South Carolina, but confessed to killing over 100 people. In May 1976, he was sentenced to death. However, later that year in November, the
Supreme Court ruled that the death penalty was unconstitutional, so Gaskins’ sentence
was commuted to life. However, Gaskins wouldn’t stay off death
row for very long. In 1982, a man named Tony Cimo contacted Gaskins
in prison. Cimo wanted Gaskins to kill another prisoner,
Rudolph Tyner. Tyner had been convicted of killing Cimo’s
mother and stepfather in a botched robbery. Over the next several weeks, Gaskins attempted
to kill Tyner in several different ways, like poisoning his food, but then he somehow got
hold of some C4. Gaskins put the C4 and a transmitter in a
radio, and then he gave the radio to Tyner. He told Tyner that he had rigged the radio
so that they could communicate through them, like Walkie-Talkies. Gaskins then told Tyner to put the radio close
to his head at a specific time to talk. Tyner believed him, and Gaskins detonated
the bomb from his cell, killing Tyner. Gaskins admitted to laughing so hard that
it would have been the last thing that Tyner heard; well, besides the C4 detonating. Gaskins was again found guilty of murder,
and by this time the death penalty in South Carolina had been reinstated. Gaskins was sentenced to death again and “the
Meanest Man in America,” as he was called in the press, was executed on September 6,
1991, at the age of 58 via the electric chair. 8. Razor Whip This nasty piece of work isn’t so much clever
as it is frightening. It was discovered in the Fuhlsbüttel Prison
in Hamburg, Germany in 1996, in the cell of a drug addict. It was found after the inmate got into some
trouble in the prison. He wanted more methadone and when he didn’t
get it, he grabbed a knife and threatened a nurse. After threatening the nurse, the inmate’s
cell was searched and inside they found the whip. We know, surprise, surprise, the drug addicted
prison inmate didn’t think things through. Had he threatened her with the whip, he might
have been able to get more methadone, gotten high and then lost the whip. Instead, he got nothing, except for a few
days in solitary confinement. 7. Nunchucks On September 19, 2011, Lorenzo Pollard, who
was doing time for theft and resisting arrest at a medium security prison in St. Louis,
Missouri, showed that sometimes the simplest weapons can be the most effective. We’re also guessing that if he had to pick
a favorite Ninja Turtle, he’d go with Michelangelo. In his cell, Pollard made a set of nunchucks
out of a bed sheet and a chair. Then, using his makeshift nunchucks, he managed
to fight off about a dozen guards, scaled a fence, and escaped. He lasted on the lam for two days before he
was arrested again. 6. Jolly Rancher Shiv Being able to eat candies is probably one
of the few small luxuries that people in prison get to experience. However, some inmates have jeopardized this
luxury by making candy into weapons. Amazingly, this is such a common route to
create a weapon that it was implemented into the plot of Orange is the New Black. One candy that has been used to make a weapon
is Jolly Ranchers, which are made into shivs. To make the shiv, inmates place the candies
in a single file on aluminum foil, and then wrap it up. Then they heat the tinfoil wrapped candies
and this melts them together into one long stick. Once it’s a single stick, then it’s just
a matter of sharpening one end of it. This leaves the inmate with a sharp and durable
weapon, and it is also easy to dispose of. An inmate can simply bite off the sharp end
and dissolve it in his or her mouth. So prisoners can either stab someone or get
some candy; talk about versatility! 5. Spear Long spears were one of the earliest weapons
used by humans and it’s also a popular choice in prison – if the inmates can hide them. The spears are several feet long and the handles
are made of rolled up newspaper or magazines, and it is held together with strips of clothing. This makes the spear both light weight and
sturdy. As for the tip of the spear, it is a sharp
piece of steel cut out of the bunk. Getting this piece of steel, which can also
be used as a shiv, is a fairly time consuming process. If the prisoner is lucky and has a binder
clip, they break the clip in half and this gives them a sharp edge. Then they just keep running the edge over
the same track of steel bed posts. After a while, they eventually cut through
the steel. If they don’t have a binder clip, then they
can use dental floss and toothpaste to increase the friction. Of course, this takes a lot more time. But, if you’re doing life in prison, free
time isn’t exactly something you’re lacking. The spear has ultimately proved itself to
be useful in at least one prison murder. For a few weeks in in 1985, several inmates
at San Quentin counted how many steps it could take for a correctional officer to walk through
the door and down the hallway. By counting the steps, they were able to figure
out where the correctional officer was without even seeing him. Then, on June 8th, 1985, Sgt. Howell Burchfield was walking down the hallway,
and the prisoners counted his steps. As soon as he got near, they stabbed him through
the heart with the spear. Three men were convicted of the murder; Andre
Johnson for the stabbing, Lawrence Woodard for ordering the murder, and Jarvis Jay Masters
for making the weapon. Johnson and Woodard were given life in prison
while Masters was sentenced to death. 4. Zip Gun Prison-made guns, known as zip guns, are one
of the most dangerous weapons behind bars. In fact, they are so dangerous that the Correctional
Services of Canada has a chapter about them in their manuals for new hires. Zip guns are popular in prison because they
are easy to hide, small, and they are deadly. When prisoners aren’t using the gun, they
keep it disassembled and when it’s taken apart, the pieces look pretty innocuous. This makes it easy to hide the pieces around
the cell in plain sight. Then, within minutes, the gun can be assembled. As for their size, sometimes they are just
the size of a pen. This makes the gun easy to move around and
hide, even when it is assembled. Finally, they are popular because they are
effective. For example, a zip gun that was found in a
penitentiary in Canada that was hidden among leather hobby-craft tools could fire .22 caliber
bullets. Another .22 caliber handgun was found in Folsom
State Prison, made from a staple gun. 3. Water Bombs Unless you’re drowning, water doesn’t
seem to be that dangerous. However, materials that “don’t seem to
be that dangerous” are exactly what inmates make weapons out of. What some inmates do is fill up plastic bags
with water and this makes the bags really heavy. For example, one grocery bag can hold 10 to
20 liters of water, which is about 22 to 44 pounds. Just for some perspective, the heaviest regulation
bowling ball is about 16 pounds. Then they drop them from high levels on to
unsuspecting people below. If they were to drop a bag with 20 liters
of water, which weighs as much as 2.75 bowling balls, from the fifth tier of the prison,
it would hit someone at 77 miles per hour. This very thing actually happened to an inmate
in October 2011. The man was hospitalized and he was lucky
to be alive. 2. Bed Post Shotgun This impressive feat of prison engineering
was made by two inmates at a prison in Celle, Germany. The shotgun was made from iron bedposts and
then the cocking handle is made using pieces of lead from curtain tape. Also, instead of gunpowder, they used match
heads that were sparked by a broken light bulb and AA batteries. Luckily for the prisoners, who clearly put
a lot of time and effort in constructing it, this prison weapon was actually used. On May 21, 1984, two inmates used it to take
a correction officer hostage. To show the power of the shotgun, they fired
it at some bulletproof glass causing it to crack. The crack is on the bottom right hand corner
of the picture. In the end, the shotgun worked and the two
inmates escaped in a car. There was no information if they were ever
apprehended again. 1. Crossbow Stony Mountain Institution is a medium security
prison in Manitoba, Canada. In 1998, in the segregation area where inmates
are held for being punished, correctional officers found this rather ingenious crossbow. Altogether, this contraption used 10 different
types of materials. This included 10 toothbrushes, parts of a
cigarette lighter, aluminum cafeteria tongs, and a piece of wire coat hanger. The arrows were made from tightly rolled paper,
Q-tips, rolled up masking tape, aluminum foil used in cigarette packs, and pieces of wire. After the guards confiscated the crossbow,
they tested it and found that it accurately shot up to 40 feet. The crossbow was so impressive that it was
housed in a museum at one of Canada’s maximum security prisons in Kingston, Ontario.
