Definition from Wiktionary, the free dictionary Jump to:
navigation, search   Alternative forms[edit]   cackle-bladder
(plural cackle-bladders)    1. A bladder containing chicken
blood, used by a con man to fake someone's death or injury.
• 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 [] .   2. (uncountable) A method of
making the mark think that he is an accessory to murder by
faking someone's death in this manner.     • 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.     •
1981, James Sherburne, Death