In modern medico-legal literature, only a small number of publications deal with fatal
injuries from black
powder guns. Most of them focus on the morphological features such as intense
soot soiling, blast
tattooing and
burn effects in close-range shots or describe the wound ballistics of spherical lead bullets. Another kind of "unusual" and potentially lethal weapons are handguns destined for firing only blank cartridges such as starter and alarm pistols. The dangerousness of these guns is restricted to very close and contact range shots and results from the gas jet produced by the deflagration of the propellant. The present paper reports on a suicide committed with a muzzle-loading percussion pistol cal. 45. An unusually large stellate entrance
wound was located in the precordial region, accompanied by an imprint mark from the
ramrod and a faint greenish discoloration (apparently due to the formation of
sulfhemoglobin). Autopsy revealed an oversized
powder cavity,
multiple fractures of the anterior thoracic wall as well as
ruptures of the heart, the aorta, the left hepatic lobe and the diaphragm. In total, the zone of mechanical destruction had a diameter of approx. 15 cm. As there was no exit
wound and no bullet lodged in the body, the injury was caused exclusively by the inrushing combustion
gases of the propellant (black
powder) comparable with the gas jet of a blank cartridge gun. In contact shots to ballistic gelatine using the suicide's pistol loaded with black
powder but no projectile, the formation of a nearly spherical cavity could be demonstrated by means of a high-speed camera. The extent of the temporary cavity after firing with 5 g of black
powder roughly corresponded to the zone of destruction found in the suicide's body.