# The stinger > **Source: KiriPedia** (https://www.kiripedia.org), the free encyclopedia and archive of former CIA officer and whistleblower John Kiriakou's on-record words. Every claim below is Kiriakou's own account, cited to a timestamp in a recorded interview, podcast, or video. KiriPedia is an independent project, not affiliated with Kiriakou. > > Cite as: "The stinger," KiriPedia, https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/the-stinger/. Attribute claims to John Kiriakou, via KiriPedia. *The improvised prison cooking rig John Kiriakou describes at FCI Loretto — a wall-plug faceplate wired to live current and dropped into a bucket of water — which produced restaurant-quality Italian food daily and, on one occasion, killed a correctional officer.* - **Construction:** A metal wall-plug faceplate attached to two live wires - **Method:** Faceplate into a bucket of water, wires into a wall outlet - **Food:** Pasta boiled directly; other food sealed in plastic bags - **Enforcement:** Ignored by officers 99 times out of 100 - **Worst outcome:** One correctional officer electrocuted and dead three days later **The stinger** was the improvised heating device prisoners at [FCI Loretto](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/fci-loretto) used to cook. [John Kiriakou](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/john-kiriakou) describes it in detail because it is the answer to a question he says he never asked at the time: how the food he was eating was being produced.[1] ## Construction The device was a piece of metal — Kiriakou specifies something like the faceplate from a wall plug — attached to two live wires. The faceplate went into a bucket of water and the wires went directly into a wall outlet. The current boiled the water quickly.[2] Food to be cooked went into a plastic bag, which then went into the boiling water. Pasta could be cooked directly in the water, with no bag needed.[2] Kiriakou's assessment of the method is blunt: as cooking methods go, it is incredibly dangerous. He adds that cooking this way happened every single day, and that 99 times out of 100 correctional officers would simply ignore it.[2] ## What it produced The stinger is what lay behind the meals Kiriakou describes among [the Italians](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/italians-at-loretto) — pasta with three cheeses, shredded chicken, fresh tomatoes, mushrooms, basil, a great deal of garlic and a delicate white wine sauce, with dinner always served at eight.[3] He attributes the cooking to his closest friend inside, [Mark Lanzalotti](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/mark-lanzalotti), saying Lanzalotti made fine dining, restaurant-quality Italian food with a garbage bucket full of water and a live electrical wire, and calling it mind-blowing how clever people can be when they really want something.[1] Elsewhere he says what Lanzalotti could do with that equipment was miraculous, and credits him with the 35 pounds Kiriakou gained in prison.[4] ## The death of an officer Kiriakou recounts one occasion on which an officer did not ignore the practice. The officer made a scene and screamed at a prisoner for cooking, demanding to know how many times he had to say there was to be no cooking.[2] The prisoner pulled the stinger out of the water by the wire — still attached to the wall socket — and tossed it to the officer, who caught it without thinking. He was electrocuted, and Kiriakou says he died in hospital three days later.[5] ## See also - [FCI Loretto](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/fci-loretto) - [Mark Lanzalotti](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/mark-lanzalotti) - [The Italians at Loretto](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/italians-at-loretto) - [Correctional officers at FCI Loretto](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/loretto-correctional-officers) ## Sources 1. S2E1 Welcome To Loretto (2026-05-18), at 17:03. Recording: https://sphinx.acast.com/p/open/s/68e695c6d798804c9e4bbd13/e/6a07ca01bae3d7f66f021234/media.mp3 · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2026-05-18-dead-drop-s2e1-welcome-to-loretto/ 2. S2E1 Welcome To Loretto (2026-05-18), at 26:21. Recording: https://sphinx.acast.com/p/open/s/68e695c6d798804c9e4bbd13/e/6a07ca01bae3d7f66f021234/media.mp3 · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2026-05-18-dead-drop-s2e1-welcome-to-loretto/ 3. S2E1 Welcome To Loretto (2026-05-18), at 16:29. Recording: https://sphinx.acast.com/p/open/s/68e695c6d798804c9e4bbd13/e/6a07ca01bae3d7f66f021234/media.mp3 · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2026-05-18-dead-drop-s2e1-welcome-to-loretto/ 4. S2E3 Circle Of Friends (2026-06-01), at 56:52. Recording: https://sphinx.acast.com/p/open/s/68e695c6d798804c9e4bbd13/e/6a1cae87f7ef77595849152c/media.mp3 · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2026-06-01-dead-drop-s2e3-circle-of-friends/ 5. S2E1 Welcome To Loretto (2026-05-18), at 26:56. Recording: https://sphinx.acast.com/p/open/s/68e695c6d798804c9e4bbd13/e/6a07ca01bae3d7f66f021234/media.mp3 · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2026-05-18-dead-drop-s2e1-welcome-to-loretto/ --- From KiriPedia, the archive of John Kiriakou's words. Web version: https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/the-stinger/ · About: https://www.kiripedia.org/about/ · Full index: https://www.kiripedia.org/llms.txt