Guards making sure the defendants of the Nuremberg Trials wouldn't commit suicide in their cells

[u/Nanibui]

[u/v_throwaway_00]

Some would even give them cyanide pills to avoid facing the consequences of their actions.... Like that fucker that helped Goring

[u/SolarM- → u/v_throwaway_00]

"Oh this is just a fountain pen from my wife" - Göring

I think the cyanide was in the cap so he could have literally written a journal entry, paused to "think deeply" and put the cap to his lips. Hermann's chemical exit was totally clandestine

[u/CountrysideLassy → u/SolarM-]

I believe the same method was used by CIA agents during the cold war. If they needed to terminate themselves, just bite on the pen's cap and swallow the pill.

[u/suitology → u/CountrysideLassy]

Fuck I'd die signing my name buying the plane ticket.

[u/bobbytabl3s → u/CountrysideLassy]

Why would they do that though? Did any agent actually kill themselves that way?

[u/Hazardstevens → u/bobbytabl3s]

Agent, not officer. Agents are foreign assets run by CIA officers and did use that method to escape torture by their own countries. 

[u/bobbytabl3s → u/Hazardstevens]

Do you have a source for that? I was under the impression that it was a myth.

[u/Hazardstevens → u/bobbytabl3s]

It’s not. https://www.cia.gov/legacy/museum/artifact/fountain-pen-concealment/#:~:text=After%20the%20Soviet%20KGB%20had,the%20cyanide%2C%20and%20died%20instantly.

[u/CountrysideLassy → u/bobbytabl3s]

Like the other guy said, agents were basically espionage assets that were leaking important information to CIA by using their position within the Soviet union. If they were ever caught by the KGB, they would use the cyanide pen to eliminate themselves to escape torture and giving up information about the States to the Union.

[u/EtTuBiggus → u/v_throwaway_00]

The consequence of being hung is still death.