cackle-bladder

See also: cackle bladder

English

WOTD – 08 November 2011

Alternative forms

• cackle bladder

Etymology

cackle +‎ bladder, because originally chicken blood was used.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈkækəlˌblædə(ɹ)/

• Audio (AU)

  (file)

Noun

cackle-bladder (plural cackle-bladders)

1. A bladder containing (real or fake) blood, used to fake someone's death or injury, as in espionage or confidence tricks where a person is made to think that he is an accessory to murder.
   • 1951 June 16, Racket Squad (television review), in The Billboard, page 8,

     It tells you how they work on the mark's own larcenous cravings for a killing, how they build him up to betting his entire stake — and then "put the chill on" via the "cackle bladder" routine, a prop murder, so named because originally the "corpse" bit on a chicken bladder and drenched himself in chicken blood.

   • 1975, Anthony Greenbank, Survival in the City, page 198:

     Use a cackle bladder to bite on and spit blood whether faced with a gang or a single assailant. This is often enough to dissuade would-be aggressors […] .

   • 1981, James Sherburne, Death's Gray Angel: A Paddy Moretti Mystery, page 39:

     It's a trick con men call the cackle-bladder. You take a little bag made from a pig's bladder and fill it up with chicken blood, and keep it inside your mouth until it's time to play dead.

   • 2002, Judith Ivory, Untie My Heart, page 141:

     "A cackle-bladder," she murmured.
     "A what?"
     "It's a way to deal with the violent ones. You make them party to the consequences of violence, make them believe they've murdered someone."