Franklin 1 Caleb Franklin Professor Alicia Bolton English 101 11/7/13 An Almost Clean Getaway

(An Inspiring True Story of Attempted Assassination)

In the story, The Peppermint Twist, a woman named Cindia Cott and her father decide to visit a bar in Topeka, Kansas. They order the specialty drink of the bar, known only as watermelon shots. However, the two are unaware that disaster is only a swallow away. A week or so before their visit to the bar, a chain of events unfolds that seals Cindia and her fathers fate. The bar had recently gotten a new form of soap for their industrial dishwasher, but unbeknownst to the bar staff, the soap was highly corrosive. Part of the reason for this was the company behind the soap, Eco-Klene. The company had failed to put any form of advisory symbol or easy-to-spot warning on the bottle anywhere. In addition to this, the company employees sent to orienteer the bar staff were very lazy in their performance, and did not inform the bar staff of the corrosive nature of the soap. The other reason for the lack of knowledge was the bar staffs own laziness. Not a single employee took the time to read the instructions on the bottle or look for any warnings, nor did they read the manual which came with the soap. After purchasing this soap, the bar had a particularly busy night, in which they ran out of standard dish soap. They replaced the soap with the corrosive Eco-Klene in a bottle that is normally used for pouring shots. Several days later, upon Cindia and her fathers visit, the bar has yet to purchase more standard dish soap, and has continued to use the Eco-Klene. When Cindia and her father order the drinks, the bartender gets the mixer confused with the corrosive soap, and ends up putting Eco-Klene in their watermelon shots. When the two drink their shots, the acid burns their throats and stomachs, causing permanent damage and leading to a very extensive lawsuit. Now while this may seem like an

Franklin 2 accident lending itself to negligence to the common man, to the observant reader it is much more than that. This seems to be far more than simple coincidence that all of the different variables in this accident worked together so perfectly to attack the Cotts. I believe this was an assassination attempt by the United States government against Cindia Cott and her father, John, due to the fact there is an abundant amount of coincidence and chance elements, the fact that Eco-Klene has dealt with this issue and before and yet still the bottle has no clear warning label, and the fact that the government had recently declared its intention to put American citizens on its assassination list if they are suspected of being terrorists. To start, the reasons why the government may or may not have wanted Cindia Cott and her father dead are unknown. They could have easily been suspected terrorists, or they have may have possessed knowledge of the governments inner workings that posed a threat to national security. If this is the case, the government does have the right to pre-emptively assassinate them before they threaten national security. According to a recent interview with the United States Chief of Intelligence, the United States now has the authority to take out American citizens suspected of being terrorists. The United States must have probable cause and proof before ordering their assassination, however. According to the Intelligence Chief, these reasons include whether that American is involved in a group that is trying to attack us, whether that American hasis a threat to other Americans. Those are the factors involved (Ryan par. 6). The United States government has already used this right to assassinate several fugitives and suspected terrorists who were legal American citizens. This same action could have easily been used in this case against the Cotts. In regards to the method used, the government most likely chose to use the corrosive Eco-Klene soap hoping that it would kill the Cotts in a manner that looked like a negligent accident. It was less suspicious to have been done with malicious intent, as more than one person has been accidentally poisoned with Eko-Klene before. In one instance, one of the witnesses for the trial after the incident

Franklin 3 was a bartender who had accidentally taken a gulp of the soap mistaking it for his drink: One witness for the nightclub was a former bartender from Seattle who had taken a gulp of Eco-Klene, mistaking it for a cup of his regular drink of cranberry juiceHis injuries were extensive and permanently debilitating (Casey 218). In addition to this, a study recently done by the American Association of Poison Control Centers shows that an overwhelming amount of accidental poisonings come from exposure to detergents and bleach. They go on to explain the effects of corrosive detergent poisoning as corrosive injury to the gastrointestinal, respiratory, and corneal mucosa; cardiac dysfunction; acute renal failure with rhabdomyolysis (Bhalla par. 2). Effects such as these could easily cause death if gone untreated. With the severe number of similar incidents which truly were accidents, the malicious intent of this assassination attempt could have easily slipped among the numbers as just another accident. Continuing with the subject of methodology, the government most likely chose to perform this failed assassination in such a covert way so as to avoid the publicity caused with other, more high profile assassinations. For example, take the John F. Kennedy assassination, which remains one of the most infamous assassinations in American history. The event received an immeasurable amount of publicity and investigation, and is still debated to this day. However, it is unclear whether or not this was a government sanctioned assassination. The debate continues to this day as to whether or not Lee Harvey Oswald, the assassin, acted alone or was part of a conspiracy. At one point, analysts and historians discovered that there was an overwhelming amount of evidence that there was more than one assassin, however the government covered it up and rewrote history and important medical documents were altered or lost. (Newton 189) The governments hand in this assassination is irrelevant, however. The relevance is in the publicity of the assassination itself. If the government had simply used a sniper and killed the Cotts in public, even if they were terrorists, there would have been a massive press and political uproar over the ramifications of such an act. The people of America would be in a constant state of unnecessary fear that hasnt been known since the Red Scare of the early 1900s.

Franklin 4 It is entirely possible that the Cotts could have been conspiring against the government, or even so far as the presidents life. While it seems unlikely to the average person, keep in mind that ordinary citizens have done far worse. For example, take the Lincoln assassination, and the conspirators who killed him. The ring leader of the conspirators, and the assassin himself, John Wilkes Booth was the last person anyone suspected of wanting to kill Lincoln. He was a celebrity across the nation, a toasted actor, an ordinary citizen and nothing more. Not even Booths fiance was aware of his dastardly intentions: Yet not even she knows that Booth is a Confederate sympathizer, one who nurses a pathological hatred for Lincoln and the North. Lucy has no idea that her lover has assembled a crack team of conspirators to help him bring down the president. (OReilly 4) Yet this is the same man that took the life of one Americas greatest historical figures. If a man like this is capable of murdering the president, then the Cotts may be capable of just as much, if not more. Now some would argue that the government wasnt responsible for this incident, for if they were, they would have chosen an effective poison that would have killed the Cotts. Supposedly the government has hundreds, if not, thousands of different poisons and bacterial agents which could have been used to kill the Cotts. As an extreme example, take the botulinum bacterial strain which the Iraqi soldiers planned for use in the Gulf War. A recent documentary entitled Poison detailed the United Nations finding several armed missiles filled with the bacteria, which could have been devastating, had they been released upon the population: After the Gulf War, United Nations discovered that the Iraqis had armed missiles and bombs with Botulinum toxin. A single gram can kill more than a million people. The Iraqis had brewed enough to eradicate the worlds population three times over (Poison!). However, this argument has several fallacious points. Had the government used a high profile poison such as this, it would have been an immediate red flag to any mortician or doctor present during the autopsy. This would have alerted them to foul play, and word would have gotten out that it was a murder, rather than an accident. Doctors today are aware of the effects and signs of most every poison,

Franklin 5 which is why the government chose to use such a low-profile method in selecting the Eco-Klene corrosive soap. As mentioned before, this would have gone undetected as just another statistic of household detergent poisonings, rather than a murder. Even though it failed, the government still could have easily attempted to kill them using this poison. Or there could be a much more grim reality. Perhaps the government wasnt trying to kill them, but rather to silence them or send their superiors a message. The truth may never be known. These are the reasons why I believe the United States Federal Government attempted to assassinate Cindia and John Cott at a bar in Topeka, Kansas using corrosive soap. There were far too many coincidences for this incident to have not held some form of malicious intent. The government is clearly within its rights to do so if the Cotts were suspected terrorists, and had it worked, the story would have covered up completely unnoticed as a murder. The true nature of the incident, however, may never be known.

Franklin 6

Works Cited Bhalla, A., S. Mahi, N. Sharma, V. Suri, & S. Varma. Detergents-uncommon household poisons Indian Journal of Medical Science (2009): 1. AcademicOneFile. Web. 29 October 2013. Newton, Michael. JFK Assassination. The Encyclopedia of Conspiracies and Conspiracy Theories. Facts on File Publishing, 2006. Ebsco eBook Collection. 4 November 2013. O Reilly, Bill. Killing Lincoln: The Shocking Assassination That Changed America Forever. New York: Henry Holt and Company, 2011. Print. Poison! Films Media Group, 2002. Films On Demand. Web. 4 Nov. 2013. <http://digital.films.com/PortalViewVideo.aspx?xtid=40811&psid=0&sid=0&State=&title=Poison !&IsSearch=Y&parentSeriesID=&tScript=0> . Ryan, Jason. License to Kill? Intelligence Chief Says U.S. Can Take Out American Terrorists. AbcNews.com. 3 Feb 2010. Web. 4 November 2013.