Russian Roulette � the Other Side of the Roulette Game

Real Russian Roulette Stories

• PBS, the Public Broadcasting System, claimed that the inventor of the transistor and a Nobel Prize Winner for Physics, William Shockley, attempted suicide by playing a solo game of Russian roulette. However, since he was an amateur magician and well-known for his practical jokes, this may not really be a "true" story. At any rate, he died of prostate cancer and not from Russian roulette.
• The British author, Graham Greene, said that he often played Russian roulette in his youth to "provide excitement and prevent boredom". But, not having killed himself, he decided that "it was no more exciting than taking aspirin for a headache".
• In his autobiography, Malcolm X writes that, during his burglary career, he played Russian roulette to show his partners that he wasn't afraid to die. He pulled the trigger three times consecutively. However, his good friend Alex Haley claims that Malcolm confided to him that he had palmed the bullet.
• The Russian poet, Vladimir Mayakovsky, played a solo game of Russian roulette and died on April 14th, 1930. He undoubtedly wanted to commit suicide.
• A strange game of Russian roulette was played in 1999 by three Cambodian men. They were drunk and decided to play the game with a land mine. They took turns jumping on the mine and were killed in a huge explosion. The Darwin Award was granted to them posthumously. In case you are wondering, the Darwin Award honors people "who ensure the long-term survival of the human race by removing themselves from the gene pool in a sublimely idiotic fashion".
• The best, or worst, real Russian roulette story occurred in October, 2003, when the psychological illusionist, Derren Brown, played Russian roulette on British television. It was broadcast live, with a slight delay in transmission, allowing the channel to cut to a black screen if anything went wrong. Of course this was a stunt using a blank bullet, but there was some public outcry that it was irresponsible. The police issued a statement saying that they had been advised in advance and there was no risk. However, at point blank range, even a blank cartridge can cause problems: concussion, deafness or burns. How Derren Brown avoided all that is not known.