When we see a movie character bite into a cyanide pill, he usually dies within seconds.
The poison causes almost instantaneous and, apparently, painless death.
In reality, however, it’s not the same thing at all.
The poison contained in these pills — which really exist — does not act nearly as quickly and is not at all painless…
Sodium cyanide or potassium cyanide is usually used to make these kinds of pills.
The problem is that death isn’t immediate and it’s very painful. At best, it takes 4-5 minutes, at worst, up to ten-fifteen minutes. And these are minutes of agony.
There is an example of someone being filmed after swallowing a cyanide pill. Michael Marin, an American banker, swallowed a cyanide pill during his fraud trial after hearing the verdict. He is seen convulsing and being taken to the hospital, where he died after a long agony.
The idea that immediate death from ingesting a cyanide pill is therefore a myth.
In fact, American U-2 pilots after the war generally didn’t want to carry these pills with them in case they were captured by the Russians during reconnaissance missions. They may have heard about the effects of their use during the war…
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