'Heart attack' gun invented by CIA has people saying the same thing

The Cold War is known for its weird and whacky weapons and devices as the US and USSR tried to outwit and outmanoeuvre each other.

But one weapon which was developed by the CIA has people all saying the same thing.

Among the many devices that the CIA developed in this period were weapons which could be used to kill someone without the cause of their death being known.

If you could somehow make it look like the person had not been killed, but had instead died of natural causes, then no-one would be the wiser.

And so, with that in mind, I give you the 'heart attack' gun.

If you are wondering what's wrong with a good old-fashioned regular gun, well, it's pretty obvious when someone has been shot.

But if someone just 'had a heart attack', then who's ever going to know any different?

This is especially true if you're trying to kill a high profile target, such as Fidel Castro, which the CIA did try many times including with an exploding cigar, though unsuccessfully.

The 'heart attack' gun was first unveiled in 1975, and worked by using a dart which was made from a frozen mixture of water and a toxin.

X/@morbidful

It had an effective range of up to around 100 meters, and the 'dart' would melt after being used.

The only indicator that the gun had been used was a small red dot at the point of entry, and what with moles, spots, and freckles, people are covered in a lot of small red dots.

Which begs the question everyone is asking, was the gun ever actually used?

Well, the short answer is we don't know for sure. However, a similar weapon was used by a KGB hitman some years earlier.

But as for the US weapon, well, even if it was used how would we know for certain?

Peter Dazeley / Getty

It makes you think as well, what other horrendous weapons do the CIA have lurking around that it's developed over the years?

After finding out about the 'heart attack' gun, one person wrote on X: "If they produced this and concealed it from the public, who knows whatever weapon they've been hiding all this while."

Another replied: "And they only told us about it because they got busted. Now, imagine what they had back then that we didn't find about..."

A third said: "You can only imagine what sort of weaponry they have now."

But the CIA isn't always the terrifying all-knowing agency it's considered to be. Another project called 'Operation Acoustic Kitty' saw the agency attempting to bug a cat to listen in on conversations.

After spending thousands on the project the cat was released, only to be run over by a car.