Sound suppressors for guns are nothing new, but the CIA’s “heart attack gun” from the 1970s takes covertness to a whole new level. Think of it as a poison dart gun, one which can cause a heart attack once it enters the bloodstream. It can reportedly pierce through clothing and leave no signs of impact on the skin other than a small red dot. The weapon is basically a modified Colt 1911 and was shown during the Church Committee probe into the CIA in 1975.
The gun allegedly has a maximum effective range of 100 meters (328 feet) and is nearly silent. For long range shots, a scope could also be attached to the gun. After Nixon’s presidency, there was mounting pressure to investigate the CIA for unscrupulous activity. So, in 1975 the agency’s director, William Colby, was brought before Congress to testify. Colby mentioned that the shellfish toxin would not appear in an autopsy, therefore no way of perceiving that it entered the target.
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The poison was frozen into some sort of dart and then it was shot at very high speed into the person. When it reached the person it would melt inside them, and there would be a tiny red dot on their body, which was hard to detect. There wouldn’t be a needle or anything like that left in the person,” said whistleblower Mary Embree.
