Russian roulette

For other uses, see Russian roulette (disambiguation).

A revolver, as used in Russian roulette

Russian roulette is a potentially lethal game of chance in which a player places a single round in a revolver, spins the cylinder, places the muzzle against his head, and pulls the trigger. "Russian" refers to the supposed country of origin, and roulette to the element of risk-taking and the spinning of the revolver's cylinder being reminiscent of spinning a roulette wheel. Because only one chamber is loaded, the player has only one in n chance of hitting the loaded chamber, where n is the total number of chambers in the cylinder. So, for instance, in a revolver that holds six rounds, the chance is one in six; for a revolver that holds five, the chance - or risk - is one in five. Whilst the above calculation of the odds is correct in a purely mathematical sense, it doesn't take physics into account: A properly maintained and lubricated weapon with a single round in the cylinder will still be subject to the laws of gravity, meaning the full chamber which weighs more will usually end up near the bottom of the cylinder, altering the odds further in the player's favour - but only if the cylinder is allowed to come to a complete stop before the cylinder is relatched.

History

The term "Russian Roulette" originated in an eponymous 1937 short story by Georges Surdez:

‘Did you ever hear of Russian Roulette?’ [...] With the Russian army in Romania, around 1917, some officer would suddenly pull out his revolver, put a single cartridge in the cylinder, spin the cylinder, snap it back in place, put it to his head and pull the trigger.

Clarence Brandley is in first plaaaaace 😂😂😭 @Clarencenavy

Notable incidents

Numerous incidents have been reported regarding Russian roulette.

• Dion Mays, famous Slamball player died from Russian roulette September 2012 in San Bernardino, CA. His team was the Slashers.
• In his autobiography, Malcolm X says that during his burglary career he once played Russian roulette, pulling the trigger three times in a row to convince his partners in crime that he was not afraid to die. In the epilogue to the book, Alex Haley states that Malcolm X revealed to him that he palmed the round.
• On December 24, 1954, the American blues musician Johnny Ace killed himself in Texas after a gun he pointed at his own head discharged. Many sources, including the Washington Post, attribute this to Russian roulette.
• Graham Greene relates in his first autobiography A Sort Of Life (1971) that he played Russian roulette, alone, a few times as a teenager.
• In 1976 Finnish magician Aimo Leikas killed himself in front of a crowd while performing his Russian roulette act. He had been performing the act for about a year, selecting six bullets from a box of assorted live and dummy ammunition.
• John Hinckley, Jr., the man who attempted to murder President Ronald Reagan in 1981, was known to play Russian roulette, alone, on two occasions. Hinckley also took a picture of himself in 1980 pointing a gun at his head.
• PBS claims that William Shockley, co-inventor of the transistor and winner of the Nobel Prize for Physics, had attempted suicide by playing a solo game of Russian roulette.
• On October 12, 1984, American actor Jon-Erik Hexum suffered severe brain damage as a result of a Russian roulette stunt. The revolver that Hexum used was loaded with blanks and he apparently believed that the stunt was a harmless prank. However, the overpressure wave from the discharge of the blank propelled the round's wadding into his temple. The impact shattered his skull and caused massive brain trauma. Six days later he was declared brain dead and was taken off life support.
• On October 5, 2003, psychological illusionist Derren Brown appeared to take part in a game of Russian roulette on British television Channel 4. The stunt was broadcast with a slight delay allowing the program to cut to a black screen if anything were to go wrong. Also, the final firing of the gun was not shown, as the gun had gone out of camera shot. A statement by the police said that they had been informed of the arrangements in advance, and were satisfied that "at no time was anyone at risk".
• The BBC programme Who Do You Think You Are? on 13 September 2010 featured the actor Alan Cumming investigating his grandfather Tommy Darling, who he discovered had died playing Russian roulette while serving as a police officer in Malaya. The family had previously believed that he had died accidentally while cleaning his gun.
• In the Discovery Channel reality series Bering Sea Gold, cast member John Bunce loaded a bullet into a .44 Magnum spun the chamber, pulled the trigger, but the gun did not fire. He pulled the trigger a second time, which fired the chamber with the bullet in it, killing him. This incident occurred off camera at night between while John, an alcoholic, was "blackout drunk."

In magic and mentalism

Variants on the plot have popularly, but only occasionally, been demonstrated by a handful of famed stage illusionists and mentalists. They include:

• Derren Brown
• Matt the Knife
• Bob Cassidy
• Simon Drake

See also

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