Gas chamber

For other uses, see Gas chamber (disambiguation).

The gas chamber once used at San Quentin State Prison in California for the purpose of capital punishment. The chamber has since been converted to an execution chamber for execution by lethal injection. Two chairs once sat where the restraining table is now located.

A gas chamber story

“G’DAY. My name is Dooly Tilly and I am the FOUNTAINHEAD of TRUTH, the Dracula equivalent so to speak....and my TRUTHS are devastating to weak minds. People who love wrestling are particularly vulnerable to my TRUTHS{real and full TRUTH}. Obviously any dickhead can function in society, but only a handful ever accept TRUTH, and I have the TRUTH{real, full absolute TRUTH}. TRUTH TRUTH TRUTH.”

- Dooly Tilly FULL TRUTH Philosophy #1

TRUTH . . . REAL, FULL . . . ABSOLUTE TRUTH . . .

Dooly Tilly found himself standing in a grey, darkly lit, room with a couple of rows of chairs facing a plate glass window: an observation room. On the other side of the viewing area was another room, brightly lit and sparkling white: clearly a laboratory of some kind.

The door to the observation room open and two men walked in. Dooly was surprisingly calm as the two men, one dressed in a Nazi SS uniform and the other wearing a white lab coat, approached.

Dooly thought he recognised the SS fag but couldn’t decide on who HE actually was specially. The Kraut was either Heinrich Himmler himself or Father Mulcahy from the MASH TV series. Dooly was not a fanboy of either and they look so damn similar that it was hard to tell either way.

The Doctor however was someone Dooly knew all too well because he WAS fanboy… not of the person really but of the series he participated in. The guy in the lab coat was Formula 1’s Gilles Villeneuve himself…

Himmler/Mulcahy smiled at Dooly and presented him with an object. ‘Go ahead take it,’ he said. ‘The Fuehrer says its alright. He says it’s your reward for eradicating the Jewish vermin.’

Dooly looked down at the cucumber and slowly took it in one hand. He spun it around and spied that one end had been chopped off and the inside hollowed out.

‘Protection,’ Himmler/Mulcahy announced gleefully. ‘You don’t want to catch anything do you?’

Gilles V indicated with one finger through the viewing window and at the laboratory beyond. ‘Its time to begin the experiment. Follow me please,’ he said.

Dr. Gilles opened the other door leading to the white lab and walked through with Dooly in tow. Inside Dooly saw a sliver metal table he had not noticed before… and a naked man tied to it, laying face first on top.

‘Attach the apparatus to your anatomy and then proceed,’ the doctor said to Dooly.

The doctor then grabbed a cassette recorder {Cassette recorder in the 1930/40s???} and recited into it. ‘Experiment number 05102004, testing sexual stimulus interaction with natural device on subject…’ Gilles grabbed the unconscious man’s forearm and read aloud. ‘A499965214, middle-aged Jewish man in his forties, bespectacled and balding, well known homosexual/paedophile and failed businessman. Predicted outcome: Who cares?’

The doctor let go of the Jew’s arm and glanced at Dooly. ‘I’ll leave you to it,’ he said grinning, and then left the room, closing the door behind him.

Dooly stood still inside the now silent room and observed the hollowed out cucumber once more, noting how fresh it looked inside. Clearly it had been cut out recently.

He glanced at the seemingly tied up, motionless man on the table, noting the markings on his skin, the red and white rash that looked like he caught something contagious … but Dooly did not seem to care at this point in time. Not one bit.

He was getting hard… really fucken hard in the crotch area, he could feel his pants tightening up. He didn’t know what it was about this helpless but hideous man on the table, but Dooly felt very drawn to him. He knew what had to be done…

Dooly got undressed and then proceeded to stick the hollowed out cucumber onto his penis, like a tight fitting glove.

Dooly shivered at the sensation. He tried to limit his movement, fearing that too much will result in the inevitable ejaculation that would occur.

He took one more glance at the glass observation window seeing the watching eyes of the two Nazi’s looking back at him. Now serious and concentrating at the task at hand, not missing a moment of what was about to ensure.

Dooly didn’t wait a moment longer, he slowly climbed onto the steel table, over the bare-arse man and guided himself inside the man’s ‘pleasure pipe’.

The reaction was instant. The Jew initially started to squirm at the sudden violation but eventually circum to his fate. He relaxed and let Dooly ride him like a dog in heat.

Dooly was in a world of his own. He moaned along with the Jew as he pounded away his makeshift dildo into the fag’s rectal area. The cucumber’s wet interior was doing wonders to enhance Dooly’s pleasure and after a few minutes he reciprocated. He yelled out and bit into one of the scabby red splotches on Jew’s back as he came. Once he had unloaded his cottage cheese into the cucumber, he then slumped on top of the Jew, who did not seem to mind in the least.

Dooly was panting heavily for a few moments before lifting his head to focus on the two observers on the other side of the plate glass.

They also looked at him with serious expressions on their faces, clearly something was going down.

The speakers within the lab blared into life. ‘Your task is complete, Dooly.’

Dooly smiled in satisfaction.

‘However,’ Himmler/Mulcahey said, ‘we feel you enjoyed that a little TOO much. So I’m afraid to inform you that your execution will be effective immediately. Bye-bye.’

Dooly bolted upright from his rest and quickly stepped over to the window. ‘NO, DON’T KILL ME,’ he pleaded to the two on the other side. ‘I DIDN’T ENJOY IT. HONEST. SCOUT’S HONOUR… NO WAIT!!! I DIDN’T MEAN IT LIKE THAT!!!’

‘It matters little now, Dooly.’ Gilles said through the speaker. ‘You have been tainted by the Yiddish scum. That alone deserves the death penalty. Auf Wiedersehen!’

He flicked a button and the next thing Dooly could hear was the hissing coming from the showerheads he did not notice before.

Dooly screamed aloud and banged frantically on the door, trying to find a way out but to no avail. Suddenly, his screaming stopped and became coughing, and finally he was throwing up all over the white clean floor. He couldn’t stop but it become worse when he started defecating uncontrollably.

The Jew on the table joined in, spewing and shitting all over the place, unable to stop the torture that had befallen them both.

The gas that had polluted the room did not kill them both straight away. Oh no. That would be too easy. Dooly and the Jew continued to wail in agony as the torture continued for another few hours. And in this time, the doctor and the SS officer were grinning through the window at their two victims and even laughing at their antics, like a skit from Funniest Home Video.

Finally, the Yid and the cabbie’s bodies could not take it anymore and both circum to the sweet, sweet, release of death.

Even a quick and painless demise has its merits.

General

A gas chamber is an apparatus for killing consisting of a sealed chamber into which a poisonous or asphyxiant gas is introduced. The most commonly used poisonous agent is hydrogen cyanide; carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide have also been used.

Gas chambers were used as a method of execution for condemned prisoners in the United States beginning in the 1920s. Their use has also been reported in North Korea. Gas chambers have also been used for animal euthanasia, using carbon dioxide as the lethal agent.

During the Holocaust, large-scale gas chambers designed for mass killing were used by Nazi Germany as part of their genocide program: see below.

Sometimes a box filled with anaesthetic gas is used to anaesthetize small animals for surgery or euthanasia.

Method, when using cyanide

Generally speaking, in the United States the execution protocol is as follows: First, the execution technician will place a quantity of potassium cyanide (KCN) pellets into a compartment directly below the chair in the chamber. The condemned person is then brought into the chamber and strapped into the chair, and the airtight chamber is sealed. At this point the execution technician will pour a quantity of concentrated sulfuric acid (H₂SO₄) down a tube that leads to a small holding tank directly below the compartment containing the cyanide pellets. The curtain is then opened, allowing the witnesses to observe the inside of the chamber. The prison warden will then ask the condemned individual if he or she wishes to make a final statement. Following this, the executioner(s) will throw a switch/lever to cause the cyanide pellets to drop into the sulfuric acid, initiating a chemical reaction that generates hydrogen cyanide (HCN) gas:

2KCN (s) + H₂SO₄ (aq) → 2HCN (g) + K₂SO₄

The condemned individual can see the visible gas, and is advised to take several deep breaths to speed unconsciousness in order to prevent unnecessary suffering. Most prisoners, however, try to hold their breath. Death from hydrogen cyanide is usually painful and unpleasant, although theoretically the condemned individual should lose consciousness before dying. The chamber is then purged of the gas through special scrubbers, and must be neutralized with anhydrous ammonia (NH₃) before it can be opened. Guards wearing oxygen masks remove the body from the chamber. Finally, the prison doctor examines the individual in order to officially declare that he or she is dead and release the body to the next of kin.

One of the problems with the gas chamber is the inherent danger of dealing with such a toxic gas. Anhydrous ammonia is used to cleanse the chamber afterwards if cyanide gas has been used:

HCN + NH₃ → NH₄⁺ + CN^-. The anhydrous ammonia used to cleanse the chamber afterwards, and the contaminated acid that must be drained and disposed of, are both very poisonous.

Nitrogen gas or oxygen-depleted air has been considered for human execution, as it can induce Nitrogen asphyxiation. It has not been used to date.

United States

U.S. states that have used the gas chamber

Gas chambers have been used for capital punishment in the United States in the past to execute criminals, especially convicted murderers. Five states (Wyoming, California, Maryland, Missouri, and Arizona) technically retain this method, but all allow lethal injection as an alternative. Following the videotaped execution of Robert Alton Harris a federal court in California declared this method of execution as "cruel and unusual punishment". In fact, it is highly unlikely that any of these states will ever again utilize the gas chamber, unless an inmate specifically requests to die by this method. In Arizona and Maryland, there are some inmates who were convicted before the gas chamber was replaced by lethal injection. In those states, it is possible for a gas chamber execution, but when those inmates are "removed" from death row (one way or another), the Gas Chamber will no longer have the realistic possibility of being used again. The use of the gas chamber was also controversial because of the use of large chambers to kill millions in Nazi concentration camps. Most states have now switched to methods considered less inhumane by officials, such as lethal injection.

The first person to be executed in the United States via gas chamber was Gee Jon, on February 8, 1924 in Nevada. As of 2006, the last person to be executed in the gas chamber was German national Walter LaGrand, whom Arizona executed on March 4, 1999.

As with all judicially mandated executions in the United States, witnesses are present during the procedure. These include members of the media, citizen witnesses, prison/legal/spiritual staff, and certain family members.

Controversy

Reports of gas chamber executions include:

• September 2, 1983: Jimmy Lee Gray, Mississippi. Officials had to clear the room eight minutes after the gas was released when Gray’s desperate gasps for air repulsed witnesses. His attorney criticized state officials for clearing the room when the inmate was still alive. Says David Bruck, an attorney specializing in death penalty cases, "Jimmy Lee Gray died banging his head against a steel pole in the gas chamber while reporters counted his moans."

• April 6, 1992: Donald Eugene Harding, Arizona Gas Chamber. At 12:18 a.m. one pound of sodium cyanide pellets dropped into a vat beneath Harding’s chair containing six quarts of distilled water and six pints of sulfuric acid. Cameron Harper, a reporter for KTVK-TV, said, "I watched Harding go into violent spasms for 57 seconds." Harper continued, "Then he began to convulse less frequently. His back muscles rippled. The spasms grew less violent. I timed them as ending 6 minutes and 37 seconds after they began. His head went down in little jerking motions. Obviously the gentleman was suffering. This was a violent death, make no mistake about it. [...] It was an ugly event. We put animals to death more humanely. This was not a clean and simple death." Carla McClain, another witness and a reporter for the Tucson Citizen, said, "Harding’s death was extremely violent. He was in great pain. I heard him gasp and moan. I saw his body turn from red to purple."

Nazi Germany

A Soviet soldier posed at Majdanek holding the cover of the vents through which Zyklon B was inserted. The picture was published in the London press in October 1944.

Gas chambers were used in the Nazi Third Reich during the 1930s and 1940s as part of the so-called "public euthanasia program" aimed at eliminating physically and intellectually disabled people, and later the mentally ill. At that time, the preferred gas was carbon monoxide, often provided by the exhaust gas of cars or trucks or army tanks.

Later, during the Holocaust, gas chambers were modified and enhanced to accept even larger groups as part of the Nazi policy of genocide against Jews, and others. In January or February, 1940, 250 Roma children from Brno in the Buchenwald concentration camp were used as guinea pigs for testing the Zyklon B (hydrogen cyanide absorbed into various solid substrates). On September 3, 1941, 600 Soviet POWs were gassed with Zyklon B at Auschwitz camp I; this was the first experiment with the gas at Auschwitz.

Carbon monoxide was also used in large purpose-built gas chambers. The gas was provided by petrol engines (detailed in the Gerstein Report). Nazi gas chambers in mobile vans and at least eight concentration camps (see also extermination camp) were used to kill several million people between 1941 and 1945. Some stationary gas chambers could kill 2,500 people at once. Numerous sources record the use of gas chambers in the Holocaust, including the direct testimony of Rudolf Höß, Commandant of the Auschwitz concentration camp.

This link explains where stories arose that diesel exhaust was used.

The gas chambers were dismantled when Soviet troops got close, except at Dachau, Sachsenhausen, and Majdanek. The gas chamber at Auschwitz I was reconstructed after the war as a memorial, but without a door in its doorway and without the wall that originally separated the gas chamber from a washroom. The door that had been added when the gas chamber was converted into an air raid shelter was left intact.

Napoleonic France

Main article: The Crime of Napoleon

In his book, Le Crime de Napoléon, French historian Claude Ribbe has claimed that in the early 19th century, Napoleon used poison gas to put down slave rebellions in Haiti and Guadeloupe. Based on accounts left by French officers, he alleges that enclosed spaces including the holds of ships were used as makeshift gas chambers where sulphur dioxide gas (probably generated by burning sulphur) was used to execute up to 100,000 rebellious slaves. These claims remain controversial.

Other nations

Recent reports indicate that gas chambers are used by North Korea both as punishment and for testing of lethal agents on humans: from Guardian newspaper (UK): "Revealed: the gas chamber horror of North Korea's gulag " (Feb. 1, 2004).

External links

• Rotten Library Article on Gas Chamber
• Gas chamber in US
• Nazi Gas Chambers
• Report on the Mississippi gas chamber (by Fred Leuchter)