Faking Death

Orianna2000

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Ever have one of those times where an idea presents itself, all on its own, and you have no idea whether it can work, or if you should even try to make it work, but it won't leave you alone, so you resign yourself to researching whether or not it might work? Yeah. That's what this is. Only I can't Google it, for fear of the images that might come up. (I have PTSD and have to be careful about what I Google.)

For this reason, PLEASE do not post links to related info unless you're 100% sure there are no graphic photos at the site.

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* Trigger warning, just in case. Discussion of (faked) violent death. *
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Scenario: A woman and her best friend are doing a job for the government when they are abducted by extremists in a country known for political unrest. They're out in the desert, forced on their knees, facing each other, maybe nine or ten feet apart. One of the abductors appears to shoot the friend in the head, killing him. The gun is a pistol (of as-yet-undetermined make/model) and maybe 6-10 inches away from the head when fired. The thing is, while the woman is being pulled away from her friend's body, she thinks she sees a pulse at his throat.

Once she gets home, she asks a doctor about what she saw, trying to figure out whether her friend could be alive or not.

My plan is that the whole thing is a setup. The shooter is an undercover agent who's infiltrated the extremist group. The victim is faking his death. (I haven't quite figured out why, yet.) But he doesn't want to hurt his friend unnecessarily, so he makes certain she sees his pulse before she's dragged away. And eventually, he'll show up and not be dead.

So my questions are:


  • Is it possible for someone to be shot in the head at a distance of 6-10 inches, with a pistol, and survive?


  • Assuming not, how long does it take for the heart to stop beating once the brain is destroyed? (Could the doctor tell her that the heart continues to beat for X seconds beyond brain-death and that's why she saw a pulse, thereby making her doubt her belief that her friend is still alive?)


  • Assuming all this is even remotely possible, how do you pull off such a stunt? Could the shooter use a blank in the gun? (I know people have been killed by blanks, but I think they were fired at a closer distance?) Could he somehow fire the pistol right beside the man's head, so that, if you're standing at the right angle, it looks as though he's been shot through the head?


  • Is a copious amount of blood necessary? Is any amount of blood necessary? (My thought is that a gunshot at close proximity might result in cauterization of the wound, so it wouldn't necessarily bleed.)


  • I know, or rather I've heard, that gunshots which pass through the body typically produce an exit wound that's larger than the entry wound. For obvious reasons, there can't be an exit wound of that nature. So, is it plausible that there simply wouldn't be an exit wound, due to the angle of the gun, or something like that? Or could the lack of an exit wound be disguised by him being "shot" in one side of the head and then falling so the other side of his head is against the ground, thereby hiding the non-existent exit wound?


  • Going on the assumption that it would be impossible to quickly fabricate the appearance of a bullet wound to the head, is it possible that the man's hair (dark and longish) would hide the entry wound? I don't want the extremists to realize the murder was faked, but they aren't going to examine the body, they're too busy with the woman, who's gone a bit hysterical at thinking she's just seen her best friend murdered.


  • What angle does the "body" need to be at for the throat pulse to be clearly visible? Does it work if he's on his side, head against the ground? Or does he need to be lying on his back? (If necessary, I can have the shooter nudge the body after the woman sees the pulse, pushing him into another position to prevent anyone else from noticing.)

The simpler this can be, the better. I want the woman to have recurring nightmares about the incident, but at the same time, I don't want what she sees to be gory. Does that makes sense? I want to underscore the fragility of life. How quickly someone can be taken from you, without warning. Granted, she has some warning, since they've been abducted at gunpoint . . . but still, she isn't expecting it. (My god, the torture we put our poor characters through before granting HEAs.)
 

Al X.

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I don't have definitive answers to all of your questions, but I broached this subject in one of my books, where an antagonist faked his death to escape from prison. He used toad poison (bufotoxin) which has been used before historically to create a state of simulated death, as it slows heart rate and breathing to levels not detectable by casual observation. He obtained it from desert toads, gathered from his Southwestern United States prison garden.

As far as shooting someone in the head with a pistol, do your own math, but in the best case you're looking at a lobotomy, and the worst case is obvious. I suppose you could create some superficial wound to the head as a cover.
 

Bolero

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Not being funny, but why shooting? If you are talking live bullet shooting, not blank plus fake blood, it would be tricky.
Hanging might be easier to fake with a secondary supporting harness.
Also, the friend seeing the pulse - maybe it could happen, but I am not aware of ever having noticed anybody's pulse - even when I was calm and relaxed......:)

And if you are faking a death, you don't want everyone else to work out it is fake, so
1) You have to trust the freaked out friend not to be suddenly screaming "he's alive"
2) You have to be sure no-one else sees the pulse - its a very selective noticing for something that is on public display.....
 

Orianna2000

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Al X.: Interesting about the toad toxin! I heard someone can use morphine to the same effect, although I'm not sure where I learned that. It was a long time ago, so I might be remembering wrong.

I don't think it's necessary for the character to physically fake his death, as in slowing his heart and breathing so he appears dead. I doubt the extremists will check all that closely, they'll likely just dump the body in the desert and keep driving.

Bolero: "Why shooting?" Because it's sort of a hostage situation. A group of extremists have taken two prisoners into the desert and are torturing one in order to get the other to talk. Since they're in the middle of nowhere, hanging isn't really practical. And it would be harder for the undercover agent to set up a fake hanging, even with advance notice. I suppose they could use a sword to chop the guy's head off, but that'd be even harder to fake.

The woman is smart enough to not shout, "He's alive," because even panic-stricken, she knows they would simply shoot him again to ensure his death.

I have seen people's pulses at times, especially if their heart is beating hard and/or fast. (For example, I often notice a pulse when someone has just been killed in a movie or TV show. Seeing the actor's pulse at their throat sort of ruins the death scene!) I doubt anyone else would notice the guy is still alive, partly because most of the extremists are farther away, partly because it's mostly dark, and partly because the undercover agent will kick or nudge the "body" into a different position as soon as he knows the woman saw the guy's pulse. I could possibly alter it so she feels his pulse instead, but I'm not sure they would let her get that close to the body.

Questions still to be answered: How long might the heart beat after the brain is destroyed? (I'm guessing it stops pretty quickly, but I could be wrong.) And is blood necessary for the scene? Can someone be shot in the head and not bleed all over the place? (I know Hollywood usually shows a lot of blood, but they also show people being thrown backwards by a bullet's impact, which isn't at all accurate.)
 

cornflake

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Ever have one of those times where an idea presents itself, all on its own, and you have no idea whether it can work, or if you should even try to make it work, but it won't leave you alone, so you resign yourself to researching whether or not it might work? Yeah. That's what this is. Only I can't Google it, for fear of the images that might come up. (I have PTSD and have to be careful about what I Google.)

For this reason, PLEASE do not post links to related info unless you're 100% sure there are no graphic photos at the site.

*
*
*
* Trigger warning, just in case. Discussion of (faked) violent death. *
*
*
*
*

Scenario: A woman and her best friend are doing a job for the government when they are abducted by extremists in a country known for political unrest. They're out in the desert, forced on their knees, facing each other, maybe nine or ten feet apart. One of the abductors appears to shoot the friend in the head, killing him. The gun is a pistol (of as-yet-undetermined make/model) and maybe 6-10 inches away from the head when fired. The thing is, while the woman is being pulled away from her friend's body, she thinks she sees a pulse at his throat.

That's the oddest thing about this to me -- that's hard to see.

Once she gets home, she asks a doctor about what she saw, trying to figure out whether her friend could be alive or not.

My plan is that the whole thing is a setup. The shooter is an undercover agent who's infiltrated the extremist group. The victim is faking his death. (I haven't quite figured out why, yet.) But he doesn't want to hurt his friend unnecessarily, so he makes certain she sees his pulse before she's dragged away. And eventually, he'll show up and not be dead.

So my questions are:


  • Is it possible for someone to be shot in the head at a distance of 6-10 inches, with a pistol, and survive?

Sure.

  • Assuming not, how long does it take for the heart to stop beating once the brain is destroyed? (Could the doctor tell her that the heart continues to beat for X seconds beyond brain-death and that's why she saw a pulse, thereby making her doubt her belief that her friend is still alive?)

Depends, and yeah, sure.

  • Assuming all this is even remotely possible, how do you pull off such a stunt? Could the shooter use a blank in the gun? (I know people have been killed by blanks, but I think they were fired at a closer distance?) Could he somehow fire the pistol right beside the man's head, so that, if you're standing at the right angle, it looks as though he's been shot through the head?

Yes, and yes, and yes, though I dunno why the drama, just shoot by him (he needs ear protection) and have him fall and drag her off at the same time. Most people are going to be traumatized, not checking out their friend's corpse, especially if they're afraid they're about to be shot. It's not a calm, analytic situation, in general.


  • Is a copious amount of blood necessary? Is any amount of blood necessary? (My thought is that a gunshot at close proximity might result in cauterization of the wound, so it wouldn't necessarily bleed.)

See above, but no, there'd be blood if someone was really doing it.

  • I know, or rather I've heard, that gunshots which pass through the body typically produce an exit wound that's larger than the entry wound. For obvious reasons, there can't be an exit wound of that nature. So, is it plausible that there simply wouldn't be an exit wound, due to the angle of the gun, or something like that? Or could the lack of an exit wound be disguised by him being "shot" in one side of the head and then falling so the other side of his head is against the ground, thereby hiding the non-existent exit wound?

True, and yeah, sometimes there is no exit wound, but generally, if someone falls like that there'd be an immediate, spreading pool of blood. However, see a couple of answers above.

  • Going on the assumption that it would be impossible to quickly fabricate the appearance of a bullet wound to the head, is it possible that the man's hair (dark and longish) would hide the entry wound? I don't want the extremists to realize the murder was faked, but they aren't going to examine the body, they're too busy with the woman, who's gone a bit hysterical at thinking she's just seen her best friend murdered.

Yes.

  • What angle does the "body" need to be at for the throat pulse to be clearly visible? Does it work if he's on his side, head against the ground? Or does he need to be lying on his back? (If necessary, I can have the shooter nudge the body after the woman sees the pulse, pushing him into another position to prevent anyone else from noticing.)

Again, this is the weirdest part you've got going on, imo. To see a pulse in a throat you've got a thin person with prominent veins, which isn't unheard of, but the heck is hard to see... it also depends on skin tone and other things. Mostly people see a pulse if someone is really riled and has a particularly noticeable vein in a forehead or something. That's when they're looking at the person, head on, not at a prone body on the ground from five or six feet up.

The simpler this can be, the better. I want the woman to have recurring nightmares about the incident, but at the same time, I don't want what she sees to be gory. Does that makes sense? I want to underscore the fragility of life. How quickly someone can be taken from you, without warning. Granted, she has some warning, since they've been abducted at gunpoint . . . but still, she isn't expecting it. (My god, the torture we put our poor characters through before granting HEAs.)

I think you'd be better off if she sees his chest move or his nostrils flare or something as she looks at him in horror.
 

GeorgeK

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Is it possible for someone to be shot in the head at a distance of 6-10 inches, with a pistol, and survive?


Yes, if it's a low velocity round it would be more likely but certainly not a guarantee






Assuming not, how long does it take for the heart to stop beating once the brain is destroyed? (Could the doctor tell her that the heart continues to beat for X seconds beyond brain-death and that's why she saw a pulse, thereby making her doubt her belief that her friend is still alive?)


a few minutes




Assuming all this is even remotely possible, how do you pull off such a stunt? Could the shooter use a blank in the gun? (I know people have been killed by blanks, but I think they were fired at a closer distance?) Could he somehow fire the pistol right beside the man's head, so that, if you're standing at the right angle, it looks as though he's been shot through the head?


Generally death by blanks were pressed against the temple the weakest point of the skull. There are different types of rounds. For example a 38 Police special revolver (generally not used by police anymore but a nice reliable revolver that is relatively inexpensive) can be loaded with 357 magnum rounds or 38 P or 38 target rounds each less powerful than the previous with smaller and smaller amounts of gunpowder. A target round can still penetrate the back of a sheep skull and reliably not have an exit wound. Hollowpoint rounds also generally will not have an exit wound. The initial head wound although will by itself be fatal takes a while and the reall reason to do when butchering is so you can use a knife to cut the carotids or the aorta or the heart itself. Unless there's an exit wound the head wound usually has little in the way of blood. Now it might be reasonable with the above weapon that the fake killer could have made a blank by pulling out the bullet from the casing of a target round and replaced it with somthing very fragile with very little mass, maybe toilet paper and just enough wax to make a seal. He has his special blank in but makes a point to show the other assailants his police special rounds. That's the nice thing about revolvers. If you know what you're doing you can have different rounds arranged in a particular order. I wouldn't guarantee that that wouldn't cause some damage, particularly powder burns and a risk of deafness but I would find it plausible for literary purposes that there would be no brain damage.






Is a copious amount of blood necessary? Is any amount of blood necessary? (My thought is that a gunshot at close proximity might result in cauterization of the wound, so it wouldn't necessarily bleed.)


Little to none is reasonable. It does not have to do with cautery. It has to do with tissue trauma releasing all sorts of proteins that activate the clotting cascade.






I know, or rather I've heard, that gunshots which pass through the body typically produce an exit wound that's larger than the entry wound. For obvious reasons, there can't be an exit wound of that nature. So, is it plausible that there simply wouldn't be an exit wound, due to the angle of the gun, or something like that? Or could the lack of an exit wound be disguised by him being "shot" in one side of the head and then falling so the other side of his head is against the ground, thereby hiding the non-existent exit wound?


Hollowpoint bullets and low velocity rounds generally won't have an exit wound. Generally unless one were using a magnum round it's not likely.






Going on the assumption that it would be impossible to quickly fabricate the appearance of a bullet wound to the head, is it possible that the man's hair (dark and longish) would hide the entry wound? I don't want the extremists to realize the murder was faked, but they aren't going to examine the body, they're too busy with the woman, who's gone a bit hysterical at thinking she's just seen her best friend murdered.


Yes, matted hair, maybe a hat probably would suffice and you could consider the guy getting shot in the ear so that only the pinna of the ear is hit. That'd provide som blood, but may or may not result in deafness in that ear






What angle does the "body" need to be at for the throat pulse to be clearly visible? Does it work if he's on his side, head against the ground? Or does he need to be lying on his back? (If necessary, I can have the shooter nudge the body after the woman sees the pulse, pushing him into another position to prevent anyone else from noticing.)


It's mostly an issue of lighting but having the neck slightly extended would help
 

Orianna2000

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Thanks Cornflake and George! You've given me enough information to be going on, I think.

Regarding the pulse, I'm hyper-vigilant, so I often notice things the average person might not. No one else seems to be bothered by visible pulses on corpses in films, so I assume it's just me being hyper-aware. The opposite happens when I'm stressed, though. I tend to withdraw into myself, not noticing anything. I was thinking of making the woman always notice little details, so it would be more plausible that she sees his pulse, but I'll need to do more research to see if a reversal under stress is common. If so, that won't work for the story. Also, I just realized it's supposed to be dark, as their abduction happens at night, so I'm not sure it's feasible for her to see his pulse. Hmmm. I'll figure something out.
 

DrDoc

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Pulses in the neck in the situation you describe can be seen. Only the most wary onlookers to a head shot will not assume the victim is dead. For no exit wound with minimum brain damage you need a small caliber, low power, solid bullet made of hard materials, or a blank. Lead bullets will usually mushroom on impact and create more tissue damage. Or, the bullet could ricochet off the skull; this could create a bleeding scalp wound and knock the victim unconscious. Everyone would see some blood, but where did the bullet go? If everyone is distracted then they won't see the victim breathe either.

Good luck!

DrDoc
 
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Alsikepike

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Faking a death in such a situation would be very tricky, as the extremists are relying on your main character to spread the word that her best friend is dead.
Because of this, the extremists wouldn’t want her to look too close. A lot of executioners don’t usually execute somebody in direct sight of other prisoners, because it might scare prisoners into attacking if they think they’ve got nothing to lose.
An easier way to fake his death would be to blindfold the main character, or take the main character or the best friend into a separate area. The main character hears a gunshot, and she sees the body being carried away a few minutes later. Maybe as she’s being pulled away she notices that the body is still bleeding (Maybe from a wound that was received before he was, “shot”, such as a cut on his head from getting pistol-whipped.
It’d be way easier to see than a pulse, especially in the dark, as it’ll shine a bit. So distance wouldn’t be as much of a factor. Plus, it might be something that she didn’t notice initially, but could jump out in hindsight. I know it doesn’t quite match your situation, but it might better fit the outcome.
I hope that helps.
 
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Orianna2000

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I haven't figured out why this guy needs to fake his death, so I'm not sure of the extremists' motives. They might not care whether the MC spreads the tale of her friend's death. All I know is that the executioner is an undercover operative, and the death-faker was pulled into things against his will. (Espionage and intrigue are part of the family business.)

You know, as terrible as I am with politics and military-type things, you'd think I'd stop coming up with plots that require a thorough knowledge of political and military tactics!

I will keep in mind the "still bleeding" detail. That might come in handy as proof, later on. Thanks!
 

James D. Macdonald

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Questions still to be answered: How long might the heart beat after the brain is destroyed? (I'm guessing it stops pretty quickly, but I could be wrong.) And is blood necessary for the scene? Can someone be shot in the head and not bleed all over the place? (I know Hollywood usually shows a lot of blood, but they also show people being thrown backwards by a bullet's impact, which isn't at all accurate.)

I have personally seen a person's heart continue to beat for 45+ minutes after the individual did one of the classic pistol-in-the-mouth suicides, so duration isn't a problem.

A bigger problem is getting the guy back at all. There is just no way to safely shoot someone in the head with a live round.

So why not go all Hollywood and put a blood-bag with a squib under a wig, and fire it off?

I also recall one real-life true crime in which one of the victims was a woman whose wig was dislodged as she fell, so when the perp came back to make sure everyone was dead, he thought she had massive head trauma and so didn't waste a second bullet on her.

The amount of blood can be as great or as little as you need it to be if someone is genuinely shot in the head.

Rather than notice a neck pulse, why not just wink at the lady, at an angle the other folks can't see?
 

DarienW

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I agree with James and was thinking that, only what if there was a hood over the head and the agent hid the squib under it. Can she touch him in grief and feel his pulse instead? Just a few thoughts I had.

Good luck with your story--I totally get being hyper-vigilant. How funny that you come up with challenging ideas.

:)
 

Orianna2000

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James, 45 minutes?! Really? Wow. That's unexpected. I figured the heart might continue to beat for a minute or two, tops. I'd love to know more about how/why that happened!

Regarding the fake blood, the thing is, they're abducted from a diplomatic gala, so there wouldn't really be an opportunity for the guy to put on a wig with a bag of fake blood underneath. And if he did, the woman would definitely notice. I don't want him hooded, because I'm planning some intense eye-contact between them, just before he's "killed."

Touching him and feeling a pulse might work. . . . I don't think they would allow her to linger over the body, but they might let her touch him briefly, before dragging her off. Hmm. I'll give that some thought.

Oh my gosh, having him wink at her would be utterly terrifying! As much as I enjoy torturing my characters, there are limits to my masochism, LOL! I don't know why that idea scares me so much, but if it happened to me, I'd probably have a heart attack on the spot.