What's the point of commiting suicide if your going to be executed? I don't get it........
The only thing I can think of is being the one to have the control over one's own death.
cheating the executioner of his fee, perhaps.
Ask Goering.
His last chance to beat the system.
I get it. Sounds like something I would do.
"What's the point of commiting suicide if your going to be executed? I don't get it........"
It's a control thing. The day this inmate went to prison he lost all control over his life. In committing suicide, for one brief minute, he regained control.
Either way, a murderer is dead so justice was served.
BTB, forget the red ink. Whether it was steam pressure or exploding
cellulose acetate hasn't been determined, so far as I am aware.
Probably a MythBusters candidate, but I'm going with steam, myself.
On 20 October 1930, William Kogut, an inmate on San Quentin's death row, fashioned ordinary decks of pasteboards into a pipe bomb, which he used to take his own life. Kogut was awaiting execution for the throat-slash murder of Mayme Guthrie, who ran a rooming house (which may have doubled as a gaming house and brothel) in Oroville, California.Kogut removed a hollow steel leg from his cot, tore several packs of playing cards into tiny pieces, and stuffed these bits into the pipe. (At the time, red playing cards were reportedly made using a rather volatile ink.) He plugged one end tightly with a broom handle, and poured water into the other end to soak the torn cards. He then placed this device on top of the kerosene heater next to his bed, laid down, and put his head up against the open end of the pipe.
The heater turned the water into steam, and when the pressure built up to a high enough level, the resulting explosion shot the bits of playing cards out of the pipe with enough force to penetrate Kogut's skull.
Kogut felt he should punish himself for having taken Guthrie's life rather than let the State carry out its mandate. His suicide note, addressed to the warden, read: "Do not blame my death on any one because I fixed everything myself. I never give up as long as I am living and have a chance, but this is the end."
Well, maybe he was afraid of going to Heaven!