The Tale of William Kogut

Ladies and Gentlemen please take into consideration the tale of William kogut. A man who shows us what true determination in the face of adversity looks like. Where most normal people would have given up and accepted fates cruel machinations, he chose to rally against it and triumphed (in a fashion).

In the year 1930 William Kogut found himself a guest of the oldest prison in the state of California; San Quentin. Waiting to be executed for the throat-slash murder of Mayme Guthrie, The landlady of a possibly disreputable rooming house in Oroville California. I say possibly disreputable because rumour has it that it also doubled as a gaming house, as well as being what we British refer to as a knocking shop.

As Kogut sat in his cell, it dawned upon him that he should be the one to carry out his sentence, as it had been his decision to carry out the crime in the first place. Stating in his suicide note ‘don’t blame my death on anyone because I fixed everything myself’. Now this was not as easy a task as you would think. As he found himself in a situation in which the required apparatus to orchestrate his self termination were not overly available to him. The guards at san Quentin being particularly zealous in their duties, especially in disposing of contraband. This did not deter him however, and in a moment of pure inventive genius William Kogut set out to end his life.

It seems that one of the items that were not considered to be contraband were playing cards, plain old boring playing cards. Now it just so happened that one of the ingredients used in a variety of dye’s at the time, particularly the red dye used in playing cards was Nitrocellulose. Mr Kogut collected several packs of pasteboard cards and proceeded to rip the red suites into pieces. He removed one of the hollow legs from his bunk and placed the torn cards inside. He then poured water into the tube and sealed the end with a piece of broom handle. Having done this Mr Kogut placed the tube or as it should now be called pipe bomb upon a small paraffin heater, and then placed his head upon the pipe.

Now Nitrocellulose is an interesting and quite unstable substance. It decomposes quite easily and in the process of doing so releases Nitric acid, this nitric acid in turn helps to speed up the decomposition of Nitrocellulose, creating a self catalysing reaction. Another interesting property of Nitrocellulose is that it is flammable and when mixed with water it creates an explosive mixture. All this sealed in an air tight container, and placed upon a steady heat source soon helped the contents to reach critical mass, exploding and thus killing William Kogut who had taken to using the device as a pillow.

William Kogut died on the 20th of October 1930, his suicide note read in full. Do not blame my death on anyone because I fixed everything myself. I never give up so long as I’m living and have a chance, but this is the end.

No one can accuse him of not telling the truth; he decided to take his own life in an institution where such an activity is made as hard as possible for an individual to carry out, and he found possibly the most creative and surprising way to achieve his goal he definitely proved that he never gives up as long as he’s living.